The Hospitality of a Communist
Today our adventure was to officially begin by driving to the village of Dakdin and interviewing the people who live there. Our adventure began alright…but we never got to Dakdin.
The Market in Dakdin City. Yes, that's a rat for sale.
The village of Dakdin means “Water in the Forest” (Dak means water and Din means forest) and in this area there are a lot of villages starting with “Dak.” This is, technically, the dry season here in Laos. Technically. So, even though it was primarily sunny today, the rain still came down in droves while we were at a market to grab some lunch supplies in Dakdin City (not to be confused with the village we came to visit which is simply Dakdin – I know it’s confusing, but just think of how many “Peachtree” addresses are in Georgia). I’m told one good cloudburst per day is very normal during this time of year…but what I wasn’t told was how the result of the rain from the rainy season plus the daily cloudbursts of the dry season can add up to some very muddy road conditions in the mountains.
I now have two classifications of mud – there’s regular mud, and there’s Laotian mud. Laotian mud is red and soft and basically like a very soft clay – think watery red oatmeal but smooth. This kind of clay mixed with a lot of water means very slippery roads. I was told before leaving on this trip that Dakdin is very remote and sometimes you have to actually hike into the village a kilometer or two when the roads get bad. No problem, I brought my hiking boots and was prepared to hike if necessary. I was not expecting what happened.
The hill and mud that defeated us
After the cloudburst in Dakdin City we continued on our way hoping to arrive in Dakdin by midafternoon. But then the mud had its way with our truck. Our driver is a phenomenal artist when it comes to manipulating the truck through very muddy conditions – I was amazed we hadn’t gotten stuck before we actually did – but we did get stuck. The hill was too steep, the mud was too slick, and the ruts were just too deep to navigate. Three hours later we admitted defeat – the mud won. We weren’t going anywhere. It was also now getting late afternoon and we were still 20 kilometers from Dakdin so hiking in was not an option. I was needing my Gumby.
The truck was eventually freed from the mud by going backwards down the hill (thank you gravity) so we got back in the truck and headed back to Dakdin City. There is supposedly a Guest House in Dakdin City but we all doubted whether they could handle 10 guests on the spur of the moment. We were right. What were we going to do? The answer came from the Communist.
I have to explain the Communist. As I wrote about earlier, Laos is a Communist country and we were being monitored here on our visit. In fact, while in Dakdin City we picked up a government official who was going to accompany us to Dakdin and listen while we conducted our interviews. I was told I could ask any question in the interviews, just not any political questions – and I was fine with that because our purpose is humanitarian not political. It was our Communist friend who found the answer to our quandary of where we were going to stay. I’m still not certain of the connection, but the home of a Communist Party official was located that would take us in. Our two truck caravan drove over, unloaded our gear, and settled in.
Dinner in the home of a Communist
Every now and then I get to experience something where I say to myself “I can’t believe I’m getting to do this!” and this is one of those nights. We have all set up our camping gear in one communal room and this is our home for the night. For dinner they cooked us a traditional Laotian dinner with eggs, rice and vegetables and we sat around on the floor eating. I can’t understand a word being spoken but yet I feel surprisingly at peace in this place. God provided a dry place to stay…thanks to the hospitality of a Communist.
My Gumby reminder to be flexible is working…but it’s starting to rain again.
