As the day progressed, our tour guide and all time favorite guy, Phon, led us to his village. There we were ushered into a house and asked to sit interspersed between the village elders and head shaman. As we sat on the floor we were placed around an alter laden with homemade foods made from the local women and a boiled chicken with little bowls filled with rice. Before we could even think about the chicken lying there, the shaman started singing and chanting a blessing for us. The other elders joined in creating a quite the choir experience. I was seated in between the shaman and the elder who was to be doling out the Blessing Food. As the chanting came to an end each elder was given a stick holding white little ropes and they proceeded to tie a string onto as many of us that they could, while chanting a blessing. By the end, I think I had enough ties on to make a mop head. While they were chanting the elder sitting by me started to tear apart the chicken and placing pieces of its meat into the bowls and handing them out to all of us. Being that I was seated right next to him, I had to be really sneaky as to not offend or let on that I wasn't about to eat the offering. Thank goodness for all the other food except that we were all stuffed from lunch and it was painful to haw to try to eat all the food they kept piling on our bowls. The elders kept opening packages and offering me the food. One elder even peeled a banana for me. Haha. As the ceremony came to a close I was filled with amazement of all the graciousness and kindness these people bestowed upon us. We all walked away feeling humbled for all the blessings that they wished upon each one of us. As we left the village we strolled back to the boats and made our way back to our rooms to relax and freshen up.
