Building a Dam

A morning view from our balcony

My experience in Soppong at the Lisu Hill Tribe Home Stay was lovely!  Building the dam in exchange for a room and three delicious meals a day was a wonderful experience!

The river

The monk's cave

We were lent a motorbike to take the 15 minute ride each day to the river where we were to reconstruct the dam that had been destroyed by heavy rainfall and high/strong currents in the river last rainy season.  Our work basically consisted of 4 hours a day of moving sand bags back into place and once we accomplished that we then filled new sand bags and laid them out.  I liked the fact that there was an instant change in the water levels with each tier of sand bags and it made the fish quite happy as well.  As soon as the water level rose the fish ventured out further and further and kept us company (along with the little spiders) as we worked.

the river before the start of rebuilding the dam

The highlight of working on the river was the story behind this beautiful spot.  According to what we were told there was a Buddhist monk that lived in the small cave along the river bank for many many years.  He was considered a pretty important monk but has now passed away.  Currently there are three monks living there but their living standards have improved a bit since the first monk to live and practice there.  They are living in bamboo huts now and are using the cave and it's entrance more as a place of meditation.  The youngest monk would help us work on the dam as well.  They were always very friendly and greeted us each day with a warm smile and a pleasant goodbye.  Some of the days when we returned after lunch or the next morning they had done more work on the dam and each time it gave us inspiration to push through the stiff and sore muscles to reach our goal.  Lots of times while we were working there would be one of the monks meditating outside the cave or another one washing the robes in the river or starting a fire to prepare for their meal.  It really had a cool vibe!

progress after day one

finished product

Another one of my favorite things about this spot is it seemed that no one else knew about it, it was just us and the monks!  It was very quiet and solitude, like our own little secret spot.  There were the little river fishies, the different colored butterflies, striking emerald green dragonflies and lots of little bug-zies.  The nature there and scenic jungle like terrain was simply gorgeous!!

dirty yet accomplished workers! :-)

That's all for now...