This trip was organized by Dr Otome, the Ethnicity lecturer for an elective course offered for the Thai studies group. Since this course is designed to look into the culture and heritage of Thailand's minority people especially those in the North ,it was quite timely in enabling us experience first hand the culture, lifestyle and even features (including traditional outfits), of this rather interesting tribe the "Hmong". Before embarking on this trip we watched a Video related to the Plight of this ethnic group and it was a rather touching and sad movie and right then, i made a mental note of these challenges and difficulties almost involuntarily in preparation for the Home stay. This was complimented by articles sent to us by one of our Ajan's, Ajan Adam to prepare and give us a contextualized insight regarding the Hmong people and some of the challenges they face. It was almost as if i had all the information regarding the Hmong tribe before the trip as the video was very explicit about the varied obstacles they encounter, but my experience later served as an add on to my initial concept and views.
In Thailand there are approximately 60000 Hmong people settled in villages throughout a wide area of the north.Hmong women in particular traditionally make clothing for their families from cotton or hemp, they partake in weaving, sewing (either handmade or by machine). Their clothing is richly decorated with magnificent embroidery and silver jewelry. The religion practiced is predominantly animist (Shaman) belief. But aside from the textual facts here is my personal experience.
The trip to the Nan village was a 5 hour ride from PIH (the dorm), so we set out early in order to make it before nightfall.We later watched a movie "she’s all that" on our way to keep us busy and active. After making a few stops for lunch and other needs we had a brief Hmong language 101 by Seashia and Dao who were both a Hmong American’s, so we scribbled a few phrases that came in handy later in the stay.The group arrived at about 5pm.Upon arrival we unloaded our belongings and proceeded to the village hall were we met Bpee Jacob widely known as Chii nooh who happens to be a PhD candidate writing his dissertation on the Hmong American Families in comparison with Thai Hmong families , and was surprisingly quite fluent in Hmong and so he helped us communicate with the host families who were yet to arrive. So as Ajan Marcus and Jacob went over the logistics i was getting anxious about meeting my family because I couldn't speak Hmong and was nervous about the language barrier. Just then the families arrived and we were assorted to the different households, some however lived with the luah families (a different ethnic group). This took about ten minutes, I was particularly received by a 15 year old girl called Mai, whose aunt was my host but couldn't make it because she was handicapped but was a great cook! and was said to be able to cater for my vegetarian needs.
My host mother was a nice woman in approximately her early forty’s so we did the introduction and she helped me settle in. I lived in a Bamboo hut which was quite spacious and similar to the hut structures back in my country the Gambia and so again I noticed the similarity between both cultures. About twenty minutes later, I noticed my host mum was a little skilled in English writing so i brought my book out and taught here a few words like the difference between bed and bathroom which is pronounced the same in Hmong (Hong nam), after explaining the difference we retired for the night.
As I went to sleep that night I looked up my bamboo roof sleepily smiling, knowing i got off on the right foot and looked forward to a bright morning promising a delightful and memorable experience.
