Khmu village

WOW I’ve got SO much to blog about today. Mum just downloaded both our cameras and there were 350 photos, don’t worry I won’t post them all (but even if I wanted, I couldn’t because there has been continuous Internet outage. I don’t even know when this will be posted.

I experienced the storm of my life last night, there were booming thunder claps and more lights in the sky than New Year in Sydney. I had my sandals and shorts ready to wear today because it’s so hot, but the wet season started today!!!! Of course it doesn’t start with one storm, but there was low cloud and big rain this morning – so on went my new waterproof, hiking boots. They certainly got a baptism at the Khmu ethnic village!

We went to a Khmu village, a Hmong village and a typical Lao village. It was interesting to see the contrast. I’m going to break up the day into different posts – this  one is for the Khmu village.

Khmu village

Location:   high altitude, up in the mountains.

Weather:   cooler, and rain

Landform:  Mountain slopes, steep-ish! We saw some small landslides

Soils:        reddish-ochre clay soils.

People:      Khmu people were originally Khmer!! There are a lot of Khmu in the south of Laos, just north of Cambodia.

                  I could actually see the resemblance to Cambodians in their rounder faces.

Animist – they believe in spirits. They have a spirit house at the top of their hill.

              They believe the spirits live in the land and in the house, and sometimes in them. They are similar to Australian Aboriginals.

Houses:      Their houses are made of wood, with thatch sloping roofs. The thatch only lasts about one year because of the rains (it’s not very strong) so the people have to continuously make roofs.

                  The houses are built on stilts, but not like in places which are very hot (like Cambodia) and need the air to cool the house and to have shelter from the sun. They are shorter and are for the animals and keeping wood for fires.

washing line!

the shadows

Although the Khmu are poor, like most Laotians, they have a satellite dish in the village for TV. So although they might not be able to read they can watch television.

As Mum and I wandered through the Khmu houses (with an umbrella protecting us from the rain) we noticed that something was shadowing us, well actually people, children . . . huddled under an umbrella. What a coincidence! Mum communicated with them in a strange and un-natural way, by demonstrating that she could stand on one foot while holding an umbrella and applauded them when they attempted to do it!   

 The Khmu have big families, usually about 6 children. They can’t send them to all to school.

 Schools are not free. The people do not pay taxes, so schools are not free and they have to pay for medical care.

More than $1000 !

They are subsistence farmers but are very poor. They have animals for food, and for selling.

                  A pig sale is a huge celebration because a pork gets about 16000 kip for 1 kg (a bit more than USD2). A big fat pig can weigh about 90 kilos. So the village would get 1,440,000 kip! So 1.4 million kip is USD205.71! (don’t worry, I’m not THAT smart. My maths hasn’t increased very much . . . I used the calculator!).

                 

                  This pig has 5 piglets trailing her. So the village could get $1028.15 for her family!