Anita Ruthling Klaussen

The two villages we passed through were of the Black Lahu tribe. In Ban No Lae we walked through the village watching kids play, women cooking, men smoking.  In Kob Dong, we visited a house on stilts with animals underneath. The house was basically one room, a small storage area, and a “deck,” all straw.  There was a fire burning in the middle of the room with a large black pot of rice cooking over the wood fire.  The pot was clay, the cover, straw! Ten people lived in the 24’-28’ room, four families. Their food consisted of rice at every meal and small bits of marinated pork, or pork rind with a lot of fat. Nahe sold us some straw bracelets that she and other women made to sell to tourists.  Babies are born there and the people die there, all in the one room.  A battery operated radio was playing Thai music.