Bananas

We spent this morning pruning banana trees. They are quite different from what I expected. The trees hold a lot of liquid. Sticky water splashes (or sometimes pours) out when the tree is cut. Banana trees are very soft; they are not woody at all. They cut more like flowers than like other trees. Pruning the banana trees was a fun way to spend a few hours. We were working mostly in the shade and cool liquid frequently splashed us. The only thing that was not so great was the ants. Ants apparently like to live in banana trees. Sometimes I would cut a branch and hundreds of ants would swarm out of it. Once ants ran off the leaf and all over me. They bit me. A few ran inside my clothes to bite me later when I was no longer expecting it.

The afternoon was not nearly as much fun as the morning. We carried both the leaves that we had cut and all the dead fall from the banana trees and put them into a big pile. The freshly cut leaves weren't too bad. They were sometimes heavy. Some of the dead fall had begun to rot. The branches and tree trunks were wet, heavy, and slimy. Sometimes I would pick some up and slimy goo would run down my arm and soak into my clothing. The slime was also very stinky.

We do get to eat bananas straight from the trees. They are delicious. I think that the bananas we have here are different than the ones that we get at home. They are shorter, wider, and a firmer texture. At the end of the day one of the Lisu people that works here at the farm knocked some coconuts from a tree and cut them open so we could drink the juice. It was very refreshing.

The owner of this farm is from Quebec and his wife is a Lisu woman originally from Burma. Her brother and his family is hired to work here on the farm. They are very sweet people. A little mischievous. They do not speak much English. On Sunday one of their relatives came to the farm to sell her handicrafts. She made some very lovely things. Mostly very complex quilted bags and hats and weaving that reminded me of the bags that Jill gets from her Karen friends. The Karen are another group of people who have been displaced from Burma.

After work today the owner of the farm piled us all into the back of his truck and drove us to a nearby hot spring. We must have looked ridiculous. Twelve Farang (foreigners) and 2 Lisu children packed into the back of a pickup truck. The hot springs were wonderful. We had our first hot showers since arriving here (the showers at the farm have only cold water) then we soaked in beautiful outdoor hot springs. I feel very clean and relaxed right now.