Today was what hoped this trip would show us. The theme was a day in the life of the Laotian people. The day started at 5:45 am when we fed the monks from the nearby temple. People fill the streets with baskets of sticky rice to give the monks as they walk by single file with their bowls out. Before the procession you hold the sticky rice basket over your head and make a wish. The monks are fed by what the villagers provide. Many boys spend time as monks to get an education. Anyway it was very special to be a part of this ritual. The Chinese tourists even took our pictures. From there we walked through the market as the village people do. We were given some kind of food to buy (from our guides) in preparation for today's lunch in the village. So we had to ask various vendors for our food. Everyone just kept pointing to the left. Finally toward the end of the market we asked someone ands she pointed to a girl on a motorcycle who gave us some white noodles. It was very cool walking through there and trying to converse in the Lao language. Once the food was purchased, after breakfast we rode the tuk tuk to the bus which took us to the village. The company we are traveling with has a foundation which supports this village, specifically the school. We were greeted by the village chief and then taken to the school. This was the best part!!! These kids were so cute. They lined up outside with flower necklaces and when the teacher said go, they ran to us to place the flowers on our necks and take your hand to lead you into the school. I told the girl my name and she repeated it perfectly. Then she told me her name. I showed her some pictures of Wyatt and Owen on my iPhone. She smiled and repeated their names. When I showed her a picture of Wyatt getting his cut, she giggled. The classroom was made up of 4-6 year olds. They were doing addition with tens. They came to the board, did the problem, and explained the answer. Really impressive! Jodi you would have lived this. Then they all sang us a welcome song and taught us how to count in Laotian. We then did head, shoulders, knees and toes in English with them. Robert taught them body parts in English. We gave the teacher the gifts we brought and left the school. From there we taken the Hmong shamin's house for an information sharing. He has 2 wife's, 11 children with one wife and 19 children with the other. The practice black magic complete with animal sacrifices. They also sell crafts such as quilts, aprons, purses, etc. there was too much I do shared to repeat it here but it was very entertaining and informative about how these people live. At the end the shamin played the hmong flute and danced a dance to wish us all good luck and health. We then went back to the chiefs house where we prepared the food we had bought at the market. This included buffalo skins which were fried. The rest of the meal was prepared by our shot family, all good. LThe end of the meal included first an herbal liquor and then a snake liquor. There was literally a green snake in it. Robert and I tried both of those but turned down the scorpion one. Very strong, burned all the way down! We then gave the host family or gift, Texas hot sauce and tried to explain it was hot. After our day in the village we then took the bus to a waterfall. There were tiered pools of green water, some fr swimming until the final waterfalls. It was like something from that Leonardo decaprio movie. Tonight's dinner is again in a local restaurant. So far this day was great. Tremendous effort was made to give us a sense of every day life. The people were so gracious and friendly. This will be hard to top! Last nights dinner was the best so far. Did a walk through the night market which was huge.