Here I met my Black Hmong sister Kerr, our guide. Same age same positive disposition we giggled through the mountains, looking at plants, comparing love traditions, and admiring beauty. As she led us through her scenic mountains gorgeous rice patty under looming mountains opened upon each other.
It is a place of simplicity, recognized from some of my previous travels where traditions are honored and people live close to the land and each other and far away from everything else. The floor of your house is compacted dirt, you cook on a fire, and the jungle a bit up from your rice patty serves as a place to collect food (adam ate skinned bees that the 14 year old boy collected for dinner), where to get wood and fronds for building your house, the medicine cabinet and a bathroom. Each piece of clothing takes almost a year to make so the value of your five piece wardrobe is completely different.
We leave our three day track soar, muddy and a bit soggy but with the insight of having walked through a world so different from ours, but also in many ways the same.
Elisa
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