Don’t worry too much about comfortability. Yes, living in a village can be challenging, but we at Dive into Asia do our best to make it as comfortable as possible. We provide all our guests with top-quality inflatable mattresses, sleeping bags, and pillows. You will most likely be sleeping on the floor, but we will make sure you have a comfortable mat to sleep on. As an aside, we advise people bring ear plugs and eye covers like you might get on an airplane. This will make your sleep so much more restful.

The homes we stay in will definitely not have the convenience of AC. However, there are 3 points to mention regarding the lack of this creature comfort. First, our tours in the mountains do not need ACs as it can get even a little chilly at night, especially during rainy season. Often at night people are snuggling into their sleeping bags and not looking to cool down. Second, we see this as an opportunity to connect with the village people and grow in our understanding (and thereby empathy) for their way of life. Finally, as all of life is used by our Lord to make us more like Jesus, learning to “sweat gracefully” is an opportunity to become like Jesus, a man who lived in a very hot place long before the invention of AC. 🙂 It can be hot, but we believe the benefits of living with the people outweigh any temporary discomfort you might experience.

We usually split up groups into 2 or more homes depending on the size of the group and the gender make-up (men in one house and women in another). If you come with a young child, then we can arrange for that child to stay with you, even if you are of opposite genders (mother with son or father with daughter). Also, we can often arrange for families to stay together in one homestay, as this only makes sense to the villagers with whom we are staying. However, if you are comfortable with your child being in another home, that is fine with us! We also have children and will usually bring one or more of our kids if there are other children on the trip about the same age as our kids. This way, they have a friend to hang out with, learn from, and laugh with. All our homestays are in the same village per trip and are almost always in walking distance from one another. Bottom line is we are very flexible with who sleeps in which homestay.

It can be a difficult thing being a guest, especially if you don’t know your host! However, be assured we know the people that are hosting us and have been building relationships with them. We have done our best to survey each homestay and make sure it meets our minimum criteria for cleanliness, location, space, friendliness, and even dietary requirements (able to provide well-balanced meals). Furthermore, to have a guest in their house is a VERY HIGH honor and you will be treated accordingly. On top of all that, these people are the very people we are hoping to reach with the Good News. By us living in their homes, we honor them and give value to them, their families, and their culture.

As mentioned above, when staying as a guest in the homes of these villagers, you are an honored guest. You can almost do no wrong! Sometimes people are worried at the safety of staying with villagers, especially those professing a faith that is often associated with terrorism. However, we can assure you that the safest thing we do is stay with these people in their homes. Your drive to the airport is 1000x more dangerous than staying in homes with villagers. 🙂

Breakfast and dinner will be prepared for us at our homestay. We work with each homestay family to make sure each meal includes rice, protein and some sort of vegetable. Often the food is different than you might be used to, as our hosts often excitedly prepare traditional dishes for us to try. We encourage everyone to take a little to start with and add more if you want. This way you won’t end up with a large, unfinished plate of something you really don’t like. During lunches, we are out of the village doing some sort of activity. We find most westerners who are not used to eating much rice appreciate a break during lunch, so we usually bring bread and different spreads (jams/jellies, peanut butter, chocolate spread) and make sandwiches for lunch, along with chips, cookies and snacks. For our guests (Asian or otherwise) that enjoy eating rice three times a day, we are happy to get a rice meal for lunch. Just let us know what you prefer and we’ll do our best to accommodate.

We are pretty flexible with what activity we do and can readjust quickly to the needs/desires of our guests, weather, or safety concerns. If we ever do an activity that you would rather not participate in, then that is completely ok with us. You know your limitations better than we do, so we will trust your judgment. However, we go to activities as a group, so even if there is a hike or other activity in which you do not participate, you will still need to accompany the group to the activity location. Fortunately, there are often other things to do besides just sit and wait, so you shouldn’t be bored.