Melaki

I found the village I'll be moving to! A friend, Ehknyaw, did some searching for me and came up with a beautiful village up in the mountains that's very ideal for what I'd hoped to be able to do. We went up and visited Manikee last Friday. It's approximately a 1 1/2 - 2 hour drive from my family's house near Mae Solite, although not so far in distance. To get up there you have to climb up a windy road full of tight almost spiral staircase style curves. Finally it turns off onto a dirt path. I'm told you can get a truck up there, but I kinda find that hard to believe - at least without a fight. It was rather exciting just trying to get up there on my motorbike. Honestly, I was wondering if I would make it or not part of the way. But we did! It'll be a fun drive.:) Not sure I'll be transversing it too often in the rainy season though.
The village setting's gorgeous, although also extremely poor, as are most. It's on a hillside. The huts have thatch rather than leaf roofs and there's more palm trees than many places. There's no religious presence in the village that we're aware of besides an old Catholic church and monastery and Buddhism of course. There's an empty wood/tin structure up on posts that will act as residence for me, the water buffalo that resides underneath, and also the clinic.
I'm informed that nobody in the village speaks any English. I think it will be a daunting, but good stretch for me. Thankfully I do have phone service within a short walking distance! Asides from the medical work, they would like for me to teach English at the school one day a week.
Next Sunday is the move-in date! I'm very excited and feel like this is where I'm supposed to be.