Hmong villages in Nan

Time is flying, I can't believe I've been here almost a month and a half! The longer I'm here, the harder it becomes to describe what I am feeling and experiencing.

We spent this past weekend in a little Hmong village in the Nan province, 6 hours east of Chiang Mai, near the Laos border. This first picture is the little 'neighborhood' a few others and I stayed in, each with host families. Sleeping on an old mattress on the floor with two other girls really puts things into perspective. These people have so little, materially, but are so happy. To me, they have more than I could ever realize because of their genuine happiness. I have always heard of people in poverty generally being much happier and more humble people, but living among it is a different experience entirely.  

The weekend was filled with exciting waterfall trips, getting caught in the rain countless times (welcome, monsoon season), consuming more ice cream than I want to admit to, and making wonderful new Hmong friends that I hated to leave.

You think after already seeing so many wats that I'd be sick of them, but each is so uniquely beautiful that it blows my mind. The craftmanship, detail, gold leaf, and devout worshiping Buddhists really provide a spiritual experience that I was previously blind to. My professor mentioned before coming here that we really ought to try to have spiritual experiences in these wats. Just because we are Mormon doesn't mean we can't feel the spirit in other temples. I've really loved sensing that respect for other cultures and religions grow.