hanging out in the country side

I was invited by one of my good friends to visit her family and see her hometown.  We left Friday afternoon and traveled about two hours west to the city nearby her village.  In the city, she took me to see the #1 Senior Middle (High) School and the cultural park.  The school was really impressive and apparently it is well known across the country.  We overheard some of the students discussing where I am from and their consensus is that I am French.  Ha!  After that, we headed over to the cultural park and though it had the appearance of being old was built in the late 90s.  I was a little disappointed to find this out, but it was still pretty cool to walk around and see some of the sights.

Dragon flag and dragon corbels beneath the
roof eave.

Large square with yin-yang symbol.

After exploring the city a little, her dad picked us up and drove us out to her family's house.  They lived not to far outside the city on a street lined with rectangular family compounds (for lack of a better word).  Their home consisted of two buildings, on one side of the courtyard was the kitchen and storage area and on the other side was the living area.  It had two rooms, altogether about 10' wide by 20-25' long, that consist of the bedroom, dining room, and family room all sort of blended together.  Her parents only speak a local dialect so with my limited language skills, I really had trouble understanding any of the conversation, but I did enjoy watching her mom's facial expressions, especially when she was teasing about something.

That night was my first night to sleep on a kong, a very hard bed made of brick so that it can be heated from underneath.  I also got to enjoy using their out house, emphasis on out.  It had two walls and a roof with boards over a hole in the ground.  We got up the next morning and ate a quick breakfast then headed out to her husband's village.  Her father drove us further out from the city and dropped us off by a dam and then we started our hike into the boonies.

View of the reservoir from the road.  It was a bad sign when
my friend told me that the water level was higher than normal.

The dirt road.

Looking down over a family compound.

Where we were supposed to cross the valley.  One hour.

Terraced fields with plastic to keep in the moisture.

The path that lead down to the valley.
Hour and a half.

The friendly man who helped us cross the valley.  He yelled
across from the other side and then when we got down, he
was there too.  He then started telling us which way to go and
pulling up clods of weeds and dirt, throwing them across the
streams to keep from getting wet. 

He then offered to drive us up the other side of the valley to
the main road and then again offered to drive us further down
the road.  I gave my friend a questioning look and she assured
me he would be very careful.  I later found out this is her
father-in-law.  Two hours.

More of the valley we had to walk along after getting dropped
off because her father-in-law had to get back to the fields.  We
then had to climb back up out of the valley again and finally
arrived at their house after about three hours.

Mama happy to see her son!

Hanging out on the kong.

Chicks enjoying their freedom.

Looking out the courtyard door.

The buildings and courtyard of her in-laws' place was similar to her parent's.  Her in-laws room was on the left side and her and her husband's is on the right side, the major difference was that the out house was even more out.  This one had three walls and no roof.  I felt like a little kid having to ask permission to use the bathroom because to get to it you had to pass the family guard dog and my friend had to chase it into it's house, then wait for me to finish so I could have safe passage back.

To get back to civilization, the last taxi from the mountain left at 6:45 am.  It was a small van with seats for 7 people.  On this particular trip, we managed to fit 11 people and their stuff for the very bumpy half hour ride down the mountain.  We then waited on the side of the road for at least another half hour to hour to flag down a bus heading back to our city.

I had a lot of fun hiking around the countryside and seeing all the amazing views and hanging out and talking with my friend.