Last Tuesday it was time to travel into the hills of Northern Thailand for my Lahu Hilltribe Homestay. After a hot and sweaty uphill trek we arrived at the little village. All the houses were made out of bamboo elevated above the red soil and had the most amazing views of the hills. The animals - pigs, piglets, dogs, puppies and chickens - all roamed about freely, but not always harmoniously! We split up into three groups of five and were shown to the house that we would sleep and eat in. My host family consisted of a husband and wife and their two children who found much amusement in constantly repeating 'hello, thank you, goodbye' to us. Unfortunately though that was the only English my host family did know. The tribe speak their own language which differs from Thai and we learnt the phrase 'Aboojar' which means both hello, thank you and goodbye! The food they made for us - the men in the Lahu tribe do the cooking! - was delicious. However, the squat toilet and bucket shower took some getting used to! Along with being woken up at 4.30 in the morning by the pigs squealing their hearts out underneath the house!

We were all in the village to help complete building the school. We mixed plaster to coat the indoor and outdoor walls and made cement to surround the building. Once the plaster had dried we painted the walls. It was very satisfying to see the result of our work. On our last night staying in the village we saw and joined in with Lahu traditional dancing. Our host family gave us their traditional costumes to wear for the occasion. We wore long wrap aroung black skirts with little jackets, both had embroidary and sliver embellishment - very fetching! The dance took place around a bonfire and the men played their homemade instruments.

Once we had left the village we headed to a nearby waterfall and swam in the river. This was so refreshing after working outdoors all week! We returned to Mirror and on saturday we went on an elephant ride. The elephants were such lovely creatures and they would reach out their trunks to touch you and be patted.

This weekend I've been relaxing in Chiang Rai with some other volunteers and we return to volunteering tomorrow.