We are back

We had an exceptional road trip. The scenes in the mountains were breathtaking with steep mountainsides covered with a patchwork of greens of gardens-beans, corn, broccoli, onions, potatoes in all stages of production, with angles so steep there was no way any tractor was turning over the soil... Maybe those cows that I saw one farmer wrestling through his field with a plow but most likely the large grub hoe used by men and women.

The knots of yarn in the quilts were the women in their bright red shawls and black skirts herding the sheep and cows and goats. A days labour would for me being the climb to the gardens-a nap would be required before the backbreaking labour. A woman scurried to get her sheep off the tracks before the train we road along the edge of the mountains came dangerously close. The 6 month old slept stretched out on her mothers back held snugly in its mothers shawl while the mother weeded. Women leaving the pasture fields with a huge pile of sticks or fodder on her back for the long walk home with those sheep or cows.. How do those families that live in the small bamboo houses on stilts on the edge of the rice fields get fresh water to drink or to bathe? Wouldn't the mosquitoes come in those open grates over the windows? I feel gratitude for the opportunity to travel amongst these people but especially so for the comfortable to come home to. On the other hand many times I felt the call of the land and drank in the beauty of the scene and felt that I could live there. Except the women looked old and worn except for the very young. Be grateful for your comfortable lives. Love mom