Day 10

Again today the damn rooster woke us up at the crack of dawn. We learned that they only make noise for an hour and then they settle down, so we were able to catch some more ZzzZZz's. We ended up getting up at around 8am, and another morning in the Lahu village means another morning of Yakha's cooking. So much rice, I swear I never wanna see rice ever again. After breakfast we split off into groups. One group would finish mixing and building the water tank and the other group was in charge of cutting down bamboo to make the shower area. The guys wanted big knives so they took charge on that area and left all the ladies to mix cement and get dirty.

The actual building of the water tank took the whole first part of the day. It was some serious lifting, we all had to work together to lift the big cement wheels. We worked hard, but we played in the cement like children as well. We had a bit of a cement fight... mind you when cement dry's on the skin it actually burns the skin away. We didn't think this one through... lets just say it wasn't pleasant.

We finlly finished the water tank and the boys finished the shower area at the same time. We turned the water on to see if it would work and it was a success. Water was flowing. This was one of the greatest moment while at the Lahu village because everyone in the village dropped what they were doing and ran over to see the water flow. It was a magical moment in life to bring water to the Lahu tribe after all these years of no running water. Now that we were finished our project in 2 days we decided to really get to know the village people since we were so hard and finished early.

The rest of the day was spent hanging around getting cleaned up and observing the village people. Trying to get to know them even though we could not communicate through words. That night we hung out in one of the village people's house and she got out her traditional Lahu instrument and played for us. We danced and smoked more tribal cigs. They loved us even more when we smoked the tribal stuff. Finally the villagers went to bed so we figured that was a sign to get out of their hut and head over to our hut and try and amuse ourselves. We ended up playing cards and played truth or dare... that got interesting cause none of us really know anything about one another. We learned a lot.

The night finally came to an end, we all went to bed feeling like we accomplished something amazing. We all had big bright smiles on our faces, and we felt good to be alive. I wasn't even hating the rooster... and that's huge. All in all, the day was very eventfull and it was an experience of a lifetime.