Village Stays and Village Life

Visiting a traditional village can be a great way to get to meet with a local community and immerse yourself in traditional life. There are thousands of villages across the world that you can visit, although it's important to be respectful and remember that if you're stepping into someone's village, you need to adhere to their culture. It's hard to generalise villages across the Pacific, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Americas (for example), but here are some of the big things I notice people are surprised by (or get upset by) during their first village stay: 1) Time & punctuality 2) Food 3) Sleeping arrangements 4) Waking up

1. Time & Punctuality - traditional villages often don't place the strong emphasis on time that the West does. Meeting at 2pm could mean anywhere between 1:30pm and sunset. Time is fluid, so don't stress and don't get angry if you're waiting around. Just enjoy the experience. Expect that delays may occur on the way to the village, as it may be very remote, require a difficult drive or a difficult passage on banana boat. Bring a good book, and if your host tells you they'll meet you at 10am, be there at 10am but be prepared to wait a few hours! 

2. Food in the villages is usually very simple, and depending which region you're in, there may be no fresh vegetables or a limited range. Canned meats may common. When travelling to villages, if i'm passing through a bigger city or a market on the way I'll usually stop and do a shop. If you have a contact person in the village, ask them if they want you to pick up food along the way for them and their family. I've been asked to bring "as much meat as I can carry", and other times I've ended up with three or four bags full of vegetables. This can be really helpful for them if the village is remote or they have limited transport options. When I'm travelling to villages, I also recommend bringing some sauces (even just soy sauce) that can last well in your bag. Depending on the region, spices and sauces may not be very common, and a bit of sauce can make your plain rice and potato taste a lot better!

3. Sleeping Arrangements - Again, it's hard to generalise villages from across the world, but generally most people will sleep on woven mats on the floor. This often shocks Westerners who aren't used to sleeping on the floor, but I assure you it's normal and comfortable once you get used to it. The big challenge I find when I'm staying in a village is that the people will always offer me one of their beds, which can mean that a couple and their four children may all relocate and sleep in a friends hut instead, or even just sleep outside, so that I can sleep in their house. If I'm planning on staying in a village I always bring my camping gear - either my hammock and tarp or a tent. That way I'm not taking up anyone's space, and the village kids always love playing in the tent when I'm not sleeping in it, and especially love swinging in the hammock (although you need to watch that they don't tear it). 

4. Wake Up Times - In villages, people wake up early - either with the sunrise or just before. This is often so that any gardening and labour-intensive work can be completed before the heat of the day sets in. When staying in villages, I like to go to sleep with the sunset (unless we're sitting up sharing drinks and cigarettes with the men in the village), and get up with the sunrise. People will be genuinely confused if you wake up at midday, as you've missed the best part of the day! 

Are You Monolingual? Here's Some Advice

If you're monolingual (only speak one language), fear not! You can still visit villages, and someone may speak your language (i.e., a bit of English, or French, or Spanish), but you will need to be careful with your questions. Once you've learnt a second language yourself, you'll realise that if you don't understand what someone says, it's very natural to reply "yes". If you want to have a meaningful conversation when there is a language barrier, you should avoid complex words or phrases, and as much as possible avoid leading questions. If someone answers yes, but does not eloborate, they often don't understand. If you're asking a leading question - i.e., is this artwork symbolising the deep connection that the Buddha had with his father, and showing that his love for his family was the most valuable thing in the Buddha's life - a guide may not understand all you've said and just answer "yes", either because of your accent, the length of the question, the complexity of the grammar, the specificity of the vocabulary, or because he zoned out. The above example is something I heard a guide telling a tourist at Borobodur in Indonesia, and sure enough the guide didn't understand and simply said "yes". If you ask leading questions, you're more likely to get self-confirming misinformation that new and insightful information. 

Here's another interaction I've seen many times before, as well as even recently on a travel influencers' reels:

Foreigner: "What was your village like a hundred years ago?"
Villager: "Very different, we lived in peace alone. We had many different practices, like headhunting"
Foreigner: "I have heard of headhunting. I also read that your village practised cannibalism and glorified it, is that true?"
Villager: "Yes"
Foreigner: "Is that still true now? Have people in your village eaten other people? What about you, would you eat human meat?"
Villager: "Yes"
Foreigner: "What do you think about cannibalism?"
Villager: "It is a very old practice but it has not happened in over a hundred years. We respect our ancestors' ways but now we are catholic people, so culture has changed."

In the above example, the first question from the foreigner is open ended, can't be answered with yes, and has given the villager the tools to respond within their own vocabulary. 

In the second and third question, the underlined words are more complex words or grammar. You very rarely learn how to say "practised cannibalism" in school, and even the word "glorified" isn't very common. These confusing words may make it hard to understand if English isn't your first language. These are also leading questions, or questions that are likely to receive a self-affirming response. It's not a good way to ask for information if there's even a slight language barrier.

In the fourth question, the foreigner has asked something open ended. The question is short, not confusing, and the villager gives a better answer. 

Now that you've seen this, keep an eye on influencers travelling to the Pacific. Their instagram hooks are usually "I survived a cannibal village". Watch their videos and see how many of the questions and answers are meaningful - how often does the villager just reply "yes", and the influencer to run with it? You don't need to speak the local language to have a meaningful conversation, you just need to know how to ask the right questions!

Bringing Gifts to Villages

I love to bring sharp kitchen knives when travelling to village - these are my favourite gifts. Sometimes the women already have good knives, but more often than not, these villages are remote and cash income is hard to come by. You can buy sharp kitchen knives from any of the large stores in downtown Honiara, especially opposite the Yacht Club, generally only for a few dollars. Sharp knives make for great gifts to the women, can be an excellent conversation starter, and can really help these beautiful ladies for months/years to come as they are responsible for preparing meals for their families even after you've departed! 

If you're looking for extra kitchenware, please keep in mind that kitchens are usually a fire on the ground in a wooden house made for a kitchen - so no electricity, and no gas. Chopping boards can be good, and fresh pots and pans with intact handles can be helpful, but knives are usually the big winner. 

If you want to bring gifts for the children, soccer balls are immensely popular, or skipping ropes. Any toy that's hard to break and can last a long time is preferable. I'm not a big fan of cricket/tennis bats as I've seen a village of kids beat a whole twelve pack of tennis balls out to sea in a single afternoon. 

If you're bringing educational materials, stick to wooden ones that are cyclone proof. AVOID STICKERS, PLASTIC, AND ANYTHING THAT ISN'T WATERPROOF. I once met a group of very well-meaning foreigners who brought massive boxes full of stickers, colouring books, and loose leaf sheets for village kids to learn with, but a cyclone hit less than a week later and all of this ended up strewn across the village, destroyed and unusable, and creating pollution. In many parts of the Pacific - especially in Vanuatu - entire villages have no books or paper because of the frequency of storms destroying the materials. Children's books and reading materials are always appreciated, especially as books can be hard to come by, but consider bringing some waterproof book sleeves to go with them. 

Other amazing options are instruments. If you're travelling to the Pacific from Australia, for example, stop off in some "op shops" (such as Vinnies, Salvation Army, Red Cross, or simply search "op shop" in your Google Maps) and go to their instrument section. I often find xylophones, ukuleles, drums, egg shakers, tambourins, and all sorts of fun instruments. The kids will go crazy for musical instruments, and the parents love it too. I've brought ukuleles for children before, and then later found myself sitting around a fire with a man strumming the ukulele during the night only for the kids to pick it back up in the morning. Music brings people together, truly. 

Organising a Village Visits and Stays

If you're planning to do a visit stay, you usually want to stay for at least 3 nights, to make the trek out to the village worth your time and to account for any delays that may slow down your arrival.

Do your research and get in contact someone who can help you find the village before arriving, if possible. Facebook and WhatsApp tend to be great ways of communicating, as you can get in touch with people from around the world using just internet. There are four ways I usually go about finding villages: 

1. Facebook Groups

Before you even arrive in the destination country, you can usually find connections, guides, and new friends through Facebook groups. In Ethiopia for example, I would look up "Ethiopia Facebook Groups" and post in one like this one: Ethiopia ኢትዮጵያ that I am travelling from Addis Ababa to Jinko and am looking for someone with a motorbike to meet me in Jinko and help me visit some of the Omo Valley Tribes. 

2. Tourism Offices

Depending on the country, there may be a "Tourism Office", "Ministry for Tourism" or "Visitors Bureau" that can help get you in touch with remote and off-grid villages. For example, in the Solomon Islands, I will use the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau in Honiara to get them to radio in a village. 

3. Family Ties and Word of Mouth

In countries with large remote populations, you may be able to simply ask someone if they know of a village you can go visit In Papua New Guinea, I would start by asking someone in Port Moresby if they have any wantok (family who speak the same language) in a the region I want to visit. They may then put me in touch with their wantok through WhatsApp or Facebook, and I'll organise to meet them and travel to their village. 

4. Hitchhiking

I absolutely love hitchhiking and all the people you meet. While you do need to be careful as a woman hitchhiking alone, if it feels safe to do so, I prefer to travel this way. If you're sociable and chatting with your hitchhiking driver, they'll often invite you back to their village, and you may end up spending a couple of days somewhere unexpected. This is a great way to get a truly authentic experience, as you're not a paying guest, but just a surprise traveller (and boy are villagers usually surprised when a foreigner is excited to visit their humble home!).