{"id":528,"date":"2009-11-05T19:44:22","date_gmt":"2009-11-06T00:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=528"},"modified":"2014-04-05T19:52:13","modified_gmt":"2014-04-06T00:52:13","slug":"sho-our-spirited-black-hmong-guide-friend-and-confidante","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=528","title":{"rendered":"Sho: Our Spirited Black Hmong Guide, Friend, and Confidante"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sho: Our Spirited Black Hmong Guide, Friend, and Confidante<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Sho<\/a>

Sho in her trademark cowboy hat.<\/p><\/div>\n

Our family was most fortunate on our first trip to Vietnam in 2005 to be teamed up through a guesthouse with Sho Lythi as our guide for our first trek.\u00a0 It had been pouring rain for days, and the trails through the rugged steep hills around Sapa in Lao Cai Province were like pudding \u2013 thick and slippery. We considered canceling the day-long walk due to the weather, but Sho quickly arranged a batch of 50-cent disposable plastic rain jackets and bamboo walking sticks, and, with a smile larger than her umbrella, cheered us on our way out into the foggy wet.<\/p>\n

Starting on Sapa\u2019s ridge-top location, the route for the first half hour was almost straight down \u2013 hilltribe people don\u2019t seem to believe in switch-backs!\u00a0 The kids traveled as though they had skis on their feet, slipping and sliding, using the bamboo pole as a balance, and hooted and hollered as they disappeared over the the lip of the hill.\u00a0 Maren and I, being both heavier and more fragile, carefully chose our steps.\u00a0 Sho, walking patiently with us, chatted cheerily and seemed to almost dance her 80 pound frame down the slope.\u00a0 We arrived at the bottom of the hill at her home, where we dried off, scraped the largest clumps of muck off our shoes, and were introduced to Sho\u2019s parents and many sisters.<\/p>\n

\"Maren<\/a>

Maren and Sho slipping and sliding.<\/p><\/div>\n

From the outside, Sho\u2019s family\u2019s house looks a bit ramshackle, with boards and shingles nailed at odd angles.\u00a0 Pigs, water buffalo, ducks and dogs amble on the front \u201cyard\u201d at the edge of the harvested rice fields.\u00a0 Inside, the floors are dirt; large baskets (triple-walled for rodent protection), both on the floor and up in the wood-planked loft, hold clothing and other textiles, as well as bags of processed rice and corn.\u00a0 Corn also hangs from the ceiling, drying in the smoky, wood-warmed cottage.\u00a0 On the one piece of wooden furniture, a large dresser, sits the color TV; the satellite dish is out back.\u00a0 Sho\u2019s and her mom\u2019s cell phones seem to ring every couple of minutes.\u00a0 An electric iron sits on the ironing board.\u00a0 The house has a single fluorescent light-bulb to illuminate everyone\u2019s sewing and dyeing efforts.<\/p>\n

\"Sho\u2019s<\/a>

Sho\u2019s mom, sisters, Sho, and Josh in front of Sho\u2019s mom\u2019s house. Note the satellite dish!<\/p><\/div>\n

It was dyeing season, and a huge vat of liquid indigo stewed on its own off of the main room.\u00a0 Sho proceeded to educate us all about how her ethnic group, the Black Hmong, dye, weave and sew their own outfits.\u00a0 Every woman makes a new outfit for each family member every year to be first worn on New Year\u2019s, and the old clothing, now faded from wear, is dismantled and made into blankets and other necessities.\u00a0 Dad made tea to share on a second small hearth to help us stave off the damp chill.<\/p>\n

Beyond her family\u2019s home, Sho has led us on multiple home-stay treks in Lao Cai Province, and she has helped us acquire some of our treasures at the colorful weekend markets in Bac Ha, Long Phinn and Sapa.\u00a0 Once, quite by accident, we ran into her in Hanoi where she was investing in some English writing classes for a few months.\u00a0 She has a wonderful radiating energy that makes her fun to be with.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The family and Sho, on the first trip when we met in December, 2005.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sho, age 18 when we met, is fluent in English, Vietnamese, and Hmong, and boasts a spattering of French and German.\u00a0\u00a0 She learned English on her own from the western visitors who often hire her as a guide.\u00a0 She is chatty, eager to learn about the world, and obviously very intelligent.\u00a0 When she is in her home province, she dresses in traditional Black Hmong clothing \u2013 indigo-dyed knee-length jacket with dyed leggings.\u00a0 Her outfit has bright green embroidered bands around her upper arms and on her collar.\u00a0 Like most Hmong women, she adorns herself with several large necklaces and earrings.\u00a0 When we have met her elsewhere, in Hanoi or in Bac Ha, she wears a western t-shirt, blue jeans, tennis shoes, and her trademark cowboy hat (and we did bring her a true Stetson this last summer).\u00a0 Did I mention she is knock-out beautiful and cute as can be?\u00a0 Ari can barely keep his eyeballs in his head when she\u2019s around!\u00a0 The unique lilt in her accent only adds to her charm.<\/p>\n

Sho\u2019s family has also become friends. Sho\u2019s mother, at out first meeting, pulled Maren out of a mucky rice patty with a strong arm and a huge smile.\u00a0 She also taught Maren how to turn twists of hemp into strong continuous rope.\u00a0\u00a0 Sho\u2019s sister\u2019s husband makes\u00a0 traditional metal Hmong jewelry, and Sho\u2019s sisters all sew handbags and other textiles from their year-old clothing (which we in turn have available at Above the Fray<\/b>).<\/p>\n

\"Sho\u2019s<\/a>

Sho\u2019s mom twisting hemp strands into one long string.<\/p><\/div>\n

In addition to her knowledge about dyeing and weaving, her delicious cooking when we have trekked, and her chatty knowledge about the cultures of the area, Sho is also, we discovered, a shrewd shopper.\u00a0 She has helped us bargain for better deals (where her Vietnamese and Hmong language skills come in handy), and she has a great eye for color, quality, and authenticity.\u00a0 She is eager to learn about western culture and tastes, and her efforts to understand what Above the Fray<\/b> is looking for spurs both her curiosity and her acumen at assisting us.<\/p>\n

What we also love about Sho is her willingness to tell us her opinion.\u00a0 So often the guides and translators we hire want to tell us only what they believe we want to hear.\u00a0 Sho, on the other hand, will openly comment on what she thinks, likes, and dislikes.\u00a0 She maintains a calm and overt confidence that both reveals who she is as a person and facilitates our goal of finding the best hilltribe art in Lao Cai Province.\u00a0 Once, in a small shop that had a collection of used Hmong knives, Sho unhesitatingly picked up each knife and whacked them repeatedly against a hard bamboo stick.\u00a0 After castigating the owner for having some knives with softer, and now slightly blemished, metals, she demanded he only show us the better-quality metal knives \u2013 the \u201creal<\/i> Hmong knives\u201d – and then proceeded to negotiate a better price for the better quality items.\u00a0 Sho has no pretense; she lets people know exactly what she thinks.<\/p>\n

Sho has become a trusted friend, someone we can count on to follow through and give us honest opinion and perspective.\u00a0 She knows her culture well, and unhesitatingly wants us to represent the very best of her people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sho: Our Spirited Black Hmong Guide, Friend, and Confidante Our family was most fortunate on our first trip to Vietnam in 2005 to be teamed up through a guesthouse with Sho Lythi as our guide for our first trek.\u00a0 It … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions\/541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}