The people of Isaan were very happy to share with us their culture, customs, and ways of living. Periodically our hosts planned for us to go and do different things with either the students or school officials. For our first outing, we loaded up into the back of our host's pickup and headed down the trail to find bamboo.
I thought the trail was pretty narrow starting off but it became more narrow as we traveled along. Of course I loved it when the driver had to put it into four wheel drive!
For all of us sitting in the back of the truck we had to be careful to duck and watch out for tree branches. That also included bushes with thorns and as we found out on the way back ants! I guess we stirred them up as we traveled to the place because on the way back Bryan and Dion had them all over their backs.
The woods thickened up nicely once we got out of the truck and started hiking. We had to cross over a small gully using a fallen tree as a bridge. Of course our host did it in dress shoes and her school uniform. I'm glad that I was dressed in our sports uniform.
We all enjoyed going out and looking for the bamboo. Our host found the perfect piece for us...green and young. It can't be too big, and it can't be too old.
After we finished teaching the next day we returned to the house to prepare the bamboo before having a small party. We had to cut the bamboo into the appropriate lengths...giving us a closed end and an open end.
Bryan and Kaimook worked on cleaning the banana leaves and cutting them into pieces to stuff in the ends of the bamboo pieces after they were filled.
Pawn and I stirred the sticky rice, coconut milk, and sugar together and then added the red beans.
Everyone filled a bamboo cylinder. I think they wanted to keep track of which one everyone filled at first, but there were soon too many to keep up with.
The students came over to help finish up the sticky rice in bamboo and prepare dinner for the party. They loved coming over and spending time with us. I'm sure we were an interesting site! But I also know that they liked the fact that we enjoyed doing stuff like this. Shared experiences build relationships.
As you can see we had quite a few pieces to fill and cook. The pieces sat cooking over a fire while we went inside to eat dinner and relax. When the rice finally finished cooking, we had good sticky rice but crunchy beans. Maybe they should have been partially cooked when they were put into the mixture, but the experience was good. Maybe we'll all have to experiment at our own homes as long as everyone has access to bamboo.
I thought the trail was pretty narrow starting off but it became more narrow as we traveled along. Of course I loved it when the driver had to put it into four wheel drive!
For all of us sitting in the back of the truck we had to be careful to duck and watch out for tree branches. That also included bushes with thorns and as we found out on the way back ants! I guess we stirred them up as we traveled to the place because on the way back Bryan and Dion had them all over their backs.
The woods thickened up nicely once we got out of the truck and started hiking. We had to cross over a small gully using a fallen tree as a bridge. Of course our host did it in dress shoes and her school uniform. I'm glad that I was dressed in our sports uniform.
We all enjoyed going out and looking for the bamboo. Our host found the perfect piece for us...green and young. It can't be too big, and it can't be too old.
After we finished teaching the next day we returned to the house to prepare the bamboo before having a small party. We had to cut the bamboo into the appropriate lengths...giving us a closed end and an open end.
Bryan and Kaimook worked on cleaning the banana leaves and cutting them into pieces to stuff in the ends of the bamboo pieces after they were filled.
Pawn and I stirred the sticky rice, coconut milk, and sugar together and then added the red beans.
Everyone filled a bamboo cylinder. I think they wanted to keep track of which one everyone filled at first, but there were soon too many to keep up with.
The students came over to help finish up the sticky rice in bamboo and prepare dinner for the party. They loved coming over and spending time with us. I'm sure we were an interesting site! But I also know that they liked the fact that we enjoyed doing stuff like this. Shared experiences build relationships.
As you can see we had quite a few pieces to fill and cook. The pieces sat cooking over a fire while we went inside to eat dinner and relax. When the rice finally finished cooking, we had good sticky rice but crunchy beans. Maybe they should have been partially cooked when they were put into the mixture, but the experience was good. Maybe we'll all have to experiment at our own homes as long as everyone has access to bamboo.
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