ZUZKA'S WORLD: Thakhek Loop...Day 3!...It's rainy!.

So, last night we stayed in a home-stay in a small village by Konglor cave...Oh it was eye opening. The kids were adorable.We spoke broken Lao with them, counting to ten, asked their names.They practiced their English, played a rubber band game with us and then we made paper hawks with them.We were invited to feast on a local Laos meal with the whole family. The grandmother cooked the whole meal over a fire as the gran-dad and kids conversed with us.Then, when the working father and mother of the children arrived we all sat around a low table on the flour and ate dinner out of the same plates. It consisted of spicy fish soup, fried bamboo shoots, lotus leaves and sticky rice. Dipping the sticky rice and spooning out the soup we ate as they watched us and we copied them. It was delicious. I wish I spoke more Laos as there was a bit of a language barrier between us all.

We then all watched TV and then retired to bed.I don't think i slept that night. The village was very loud. The trucks and bikes were coming and going most of the night, voices screaming, kids laughing and then about 3 am the rain kicked in. The tin ruff roared as we lay on a mat in the main room under a mosquito net, bugs jumping all over me as I itched. Gran-dad under a net next to us was snoring away. I tossed and turned waiting for morning to come. Then, about 5 am the village awoke. Families were up, cooking, cleaning and getting ready for work. Roosters crowing. I just lay there, amazed at this lifestyle. I'm sure if I lived here I wouldn't be wondering about the lack of sleep, it would just be part of my everyday. So 6:30 am came and we got up. Breakfast awaiting us. A omelette over fried rice. The mother and father of the kids were getting ready to go to work. We thanked them and gave them a offering and said our goodbyes. The rain was still persistent but we had to make tracks...so on our bikes we got.