Okay, so our grade is going to spend this next week in the Mae Hong Son province of Thailand, in northwest Thailand at its border with Burma. About 200 years ago, inhabitants of the Shan tribe of Burma came to this area along the Pai River to grow rice. Many of the Shans left this area after a while but some stayed. This was the beginning of the Mae Hong Son region that we are going to visit.  

'Mae' means river, 'Hong' is the narrow part of a river, and 'Son' means training. Mae Hong Son got this name because the former governor of Chiang Mai used to go to this area of Thailand to capture wild elephants for his army. When he got to this area he came across the village and left the elephants there to be trained.

Half of our grade is going to one village and the other half is going to another. The two villages are the Ja Bor Black Lahu Village and the Mae La Na Shan Village. Ja Bor is located on the mountain and has apparently has a beautiful mountain view of the area and Mae La is cradled in the valley of the mountains. Both villages have different lifestyles and traditions. I'm not quite sure what these differences are yet but will find out next week. I know that Ja Bor has a classic hill tribe feel and Mae La has a northern thai style village feel. 

While we are on the villages we home stay with the locals. I'm rooming with two of my good friends Kazi and Thomas. It should be a humbling and widening experience.