We call them our "Hmong family" and they sort-of are. My ex-husband (my Thai daughter's father) remarried a Hmong woman after our divorce 15 tears ago. Considered editorial decision to leave the descriptive typo! Who are the Hmong people? They're a unique indigenous ethnic-racial group found from Southern China, across to Nepal and down as far as Northern Thailand (where we live), mostly in the mountains.
This is Aranya, my Thai daughter's sort-of step-mother.
And last week this large extended Christianized family in the mountains behind Chom Thong on the way to Op Luang had the first BIG animist spirit gathering to "make merit" for Aranya (my ex's next wife) father, who died 20 years ago. Gotta say, we were thrilled to hear that the missionary effect is diminishing and the family are returning to their own traditions and culture!! It was a big Hmong-animist she-bang held over the remains that lasted 3 days and the Saewa clan gathered from far and wide.
For many of them, the cost of travel was high, as was missing work and losing pay; and the required offerings, food & fireworks needed actual cash money, which is often scarce among the mountain people, who have a different kind of wealth. Our contribution - apart from paid days off so my daughter's father could attend?
Buying loofahs!!
Grown by the Hmong grandma and yes, they arrived down from the mountain just like this! They remind me a bit of childhood music shakers, with the seeds rattling around inside the dried gourds.
I never cease to be fascinated by these gourds, which grown something like a cucumber but NEED the sudden hot-dry of the monsoonal seasons to die off quickly without rotting.
What do we DO with them?
My Thai herbal business, Pure Thai Natural Co Ltd, uses them in bath & body gift boxes and yes, we SELL them. For natural all-over exfoliation and skin care.
So the next few days we (me and my staff) will be peeling away the dried outer skins, cutting off the ends and gently shaking the seeds out. I will package the seeds up and post them in a local gardening group as a freebie giveaway to help with our brand awareness.
And this, folks, is how we enable sustainable livelihoods to grow and support indigenous cultures to continue their traditions - by buying and promoting what they grow, telling their story and refusing to buy other synthetic body scrubbing options.
Changing the world, slowly, and feeling connected.
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