Happy Halloween! I hope you are all celebrating since over here, there is a serious lack of pumpkins, masks, and candy corn. But there is still a festive mood here. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday is one of the biggest festivals of the year. It is dedicated to paying respect for the river. At school yesterday, we got to make little floats out of a piece banana trunk and intricately decorate them with banana leaves, lots and lots of flowers, and a candle. Thousands and thousands of these floats will be let go down the river. At the same time, thousands and thousands of paper bag lanterns will be let off into the sky. So it should be quite the sight. Unfortunately, we will only get to celebrate on Sunday because on Monday...we're off!
We are leaving for our second field course, the political ecology of forests. It takes place in the Northwest corner of Thailand in an area called Mae Hong Song. We will be backpacking through the forests in the mountains from village to village. At some villages we'll stay for only a day but at some we will be around for several days. And everywhere we go, we will be living with host families- which always makes for some unique experiences and good stories. I can't wait!
The past week has been spent in the city. We were back in the classroom everyday which was quite the change of pace. Last Sunday, my Chiang Mai host family picked me up at my apartment and took me out to...Pizza Hut. I didn't think I was craving American food but oh. my. god. Its not even good pizza but that cheese, that salad, and that salad dressing? It hit the spot. And it was so good to see my family again. They were excited to hear about my trip and were excited to test my Thai language skills. After we ate, we did some Barbie window shopping and played some air hockey before they dropped me back off. I also visited my host mom from Mae Ta, with the other student who lived with me there, on Wednesday morning before school at the market where she sells her produce. She was so cute, she just lit up when she saw us. We had printed off a couple of pictures of us with the family and of their fields to give to her. She showed them off to her friends and customers. And of course she showered us with delicious food and the infamous Mae Ta sticky rice.
Thats about all that I have. But I'll be back in about three weeks with another update. So until then, Sa Wat Dii Kha!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
I'm Baaack!
Where to start?? The last three weeks have been busy, exciting, eye-opening, amusing, and awesomely fun. I can only attempt to hit on some of the highlights.
The course started with a few hikes up into the mountains of Northern Thailand. So there we were, finally in the field. The scenery was extraordinary. Huge expanses of lush green land interspersed with some linear rows of crops whenever we neared a village. We spent two nights out in this area, each in a different village. And when I say village, we are talking legitimate hill tribe village. These people were ethnic Palong, a people who fled from Burma around 40 years ago. And they were learning how to use the difficult hillside land that they had been left in order to provide their livlihoods. A few pioneering villagers had started agroforests on their land, which essentially means they planted a forest that would produce food and other products. The theory behind this is that the more closely an agricultural field resembles a truely natural ecosystem, the more sustainable it will be-- by reducing erosion, eliminating the need for irrigation or chemicals, maximizing nutrient cycles, etc. So we got a tour of everything these villagers were doing to try to provide for the families in this sort of sustainable way. The homes in these villages are on stilts and made primarily of bamboo and thatched roofing. They would cook us meals and then at night, sit and talk with us about their lives. It was very humbling to hear one man talk about how happy he is because 1) his son has citizenship (he does not), 2) he has enough to food for his family to eat, and 3) he has "enough". It really doesn't take much.
After those couple of days, we moved to the Upland Hollistic Development Project (UHDP) which is the organization that taught and helped the previously mentioned villagers start up tehir agroforests. It is a research center that works on developing different methods that marginalized hill tribe people in Northern Thailand can utilize to better their lives. But it in itself is like a village since the staff live on the grounds surrounded by their experimental fields and agroforests. While we were there, we stayed in a relatively comfortable bunkhouse. They cooked us DELICIOUS Thai food for lunch and dinner but gave us an 'American' spread for breakfast. I was pretty sick of toast and peanut butter after about the second day. Our days were filled with all sorts of activities: plant identification, plot surveys, industrial tangerine farm visit, organic tanegrine farm visit, compost making, natural pesticide amking, plant propogation, and more. One day was dedicated to foraging for food from the forest and then cooking it so that our entire lunch came from UHDP's land. The final meal included a frog dish made from ground up whole frogs (bones and all), and wood fired crickets, among other more normal things. Another day was dedicated to...a pig slaughter. We spent the morning talking with staff of three different tribal backgrounds. They told us of the traditional significance of killing pigs within each of their cultures. And then after lunch, we killed a pig. I will save you the gory details, but I will say, tehey were gory. It was quite the experience and absolutely gave us all alot to think about. But it was a great opportunity because we were involved in every step of the process. After the pig was dead, we all helped to shave it, disect it, and then butcher it. There we were, a bunch of American students sitting outside of banana leaves, machetes in hand, hacking away at huge chunks of raw pork. They used the entire pig. In fact, while we were butchering the body, we were fed snacks of pig tail and ear. I also ended up trying the nose, intetsines, and liver. None of which I have much desire to eat again but the meat itself, which we feasted on a mere 4 hours after the pig was killed, was amazing. Truly delicious. All together, our time at UHDP was really great. We got to interact alot with the community memebers-- even just playing cards, or soccer, or hula hooping. And I now know more about ratan than I would have ever wished to.
After our time at UHDP, we had to travel down to the lowland community of Mae Ta. But along the way we stopped in paradise. We spent one night at an eco-resort characterised by small bungalows, towering trees, gourmet food, and the most comfortable beds in Thailand. Our professor from Chiang Mai met us there to hold a mid course seminar, but we also got alot of free time to explore the area. I went with a couple of people up the road and then up 500 steps to a gorgeous Wat nestled onto the mountaindside. So for one precious day and night, we enjoyed the kind of luxury that only complimentray bathrobes and mouthwatering porkchops can bring. It was cruel, really, to taunt us with this in the middle of a field course.
We reluctantly left the resort and headed off to Mae Ta. Of the 1000 or so families in Mae Ta, around 400 have switched to organic agriculture rather than chemically intensive agriculture. So we were there to live with and learn from families that had made the switch. Here, we lived 2 students per host family. My family was hysterical. The language barrier was especially difficult since these people speak a dialect of Northern Thai, so the central Thai that we have been learning is their second language, not to mention the fact that we barely know it anyways. But it helped alot to have another student around to try to decipher the various conversations. Our dad is a bit of a whiskey addict, coming home with the moonshine packaged in only a plastic bag. He poured it into a old plastic water bottle before pouring us a taste. Our mom is, as Christie (my housemate) fondly says, "an angel in the kitchen". Every meal was a feast and every feast was delicious. Plus, just about all of the food came directly from our families land-- the most local and fresh you can find. We had 2 or 3 sisters, its hard to tell. Three girls lived in the house but apparently one is a Thai student who was also just staying briefly-- except we are not sure which one she is as they all seemed so familial. Oh well. The girls were 16, 18, and 20 so it was always fun to chat with them about school and boys, two subjects that our Thai vocabs limitedly allowed. Their house was pretty nice. The eating and living areas were both on an outdoor covered patio, which I found interesting because the most valuable thing in the house-- the TV and stereo-- were constantly available for any greedy hands. Th ebathroom had a traditional Thai squat toilet (basically a hole in the ground) and a bucket shower (large bucket of water with small pail used to scoop water onto yourself). And none of the house was sealed, as the eaves below the roof were open to the outdoors. This meant I was often showering with snails or racing spiders across floors. I also saw the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen in my life on one wall-- the diameter of a grapefruit. The house also had a small garden out back, along with a few concrete tubs of catfish, and a bajillion chicks, not to mention a couple of noisy roosters. So, we spent a couple of days on our families farm, hoeing and picking vegetables. But honestly, I have no idea how these families keep up their farms. All of them will work for an hour, but then if its hot- take a break, if its sunny- get a drink, if its raining- take a break, if you're tired- take a nap, if you're hungry- eat, if you feel like it- take a break. In 8 hours on the farm, they will work for maybe 4. Its amazing. We then got an opportunity to go with our families (at 3:30 am) and help them sell their produce at a local market. It was pretty cool to follow this short food chain and see the food go from farm all the way into the consumers' hands. On other days, we had meeting with commnity memebers or did activities like hiking the watershed. This proved to be quite the lesson on wildlife, though. Just about everyone found at least one leech on them throughout the hike, but typically it was more like 3 or 4. I caught 5 but none of them had made it past my shoes and socks. Then, when we had reached the spring, the source of the water, we were standing around talking about with out village guides. And someone notices, 6 inches from where another student was standing, a slim, bright green coil wrapped around a low branch. Viper. Poisonous Viper. The snake didn't seem to alarmed as he barely moved a muscle, but all of us were quick to give him plenty of room. Until we noticed another one a few yards away, again only inches from other students. So that was exciting, to say the least.
So much more happened but it would take me forever to recount it all. I really loved being out in the field. And I really loved that my professors were all local village men and women, without college degress but with a heck of alot of experience and local knowledge. I'm already looking foraward to the next field course, one week from Monday. Returning to the city was a bit of a shock, but is also exciting and comes with alot more freedom.
Finally, yesterday, we went to Burma. We drove the 4 hrs up to the border with the sole prupose of crossing and renewing our Thai visas. We spent about two hours in Burma, in the crowded market filled with pirated DVDs, knockoff designer stuff, cheap SE asian souvenirs, and beggars. It was pretty overwhelming and a bit sad, and I left empty handed. But it was certainly an adventure and the 8 hours in the car was almost welcome after such a busy couple of weeks.
The course started with a few hikes up into the mountains of Northern Thailand. So there we were, finally in the field. The scenery was extraordinary. Huge expanses of lush green land interspersed with some linear rows of crops whenever we neared a village. We spent two nights out in this area, each in a different village. And when I say village, we are talking legitimate hill tribe village. These people were ethnic Palong, a people who fled from Burma around 40 years ago. And they were learning how to use the difficult hillside land that they had been left in order to provide their livlihoods. A few pioneering villagers had started agroforests on their land, which essentially means they planted a forest that would produce food and other products. The theory behind this is that the more closely an agricultural field resembles a truely natural ecosystem, the more sustainable it will be-- by reducing erosion, eliminating the need for irrigation or chemicals, maximizing nutrient cycles, etc. So we got a tour of everything these villagers were doing to try to provide for the families in this sort of sustainable way. The homes in these villages are on stilts and made primarily of bamboo and thatched roofing. They would cook us meals and then at night, sit and talk with us about their lives. It was very humbling to hear one man talk about how happy he is because 1) his son has citizenship (he does not), 2) he has enough to food for his family to eat, and 3) he has "enough". It really doesn't take much.
After those couple of days, we moved to the Upland Hollistic Development Project (UHDP) which is the organization that taught and helped the previously mentioned villagers start up tehir agroforests. It is a research center that works on developing different methods that marginalized hill tribe people in Northern Thailand can utilize to better their lives. But it in itself is like a village since the staff live on the grounds surrounded by their experimental fields and agroforests. While we were there, we stayed in a relatively comfortable bunkhouse. They cooked us DELICIOUS Thai food for lunch and dinner but gave us an 'American' spread for breakfast. I was pretty sick of toast and peanut butter after about the second day. Our days were filled with all sorts of activities: plant identification, plot surveys, industrial tangerine farm visit, organic tanegrine farm visit, compost making, natural pesticide amking, plant propogation, and more. One day was dedicated to foraging for food from the forest and then cooking it so that our entire lunch came from UHDP's land. The final meal included a frog dish made from ground up whole frogs (bones and all), and wood fired crickets, among other more normal things. Another day was dedicated to...a pig slaughter. We spent the morning talking with staff of three different tribal backgrounds. They told us of the traditional significance of killing pigs within each of their cultures. And then after lunch, we killed a pig. I will save you the gory details, but I will say, tehey were gory. It was quite the experience and absolutely gave us all alot to think about. But it was a great opportunity because we were involved in every step of the process. After the pig was dead, we all helped to shave it, disect it, and then butcher it. There we were, a bunch of American students sitting outside of banana leaves, machetes in hand, hacking away at huge chunks of raw pork. They used the entire pig. In fact, while we were butchering the body, we were fed snacks of pig tail and ear. I also ended up trying the nose, intetsines, and liver. None of which I have much desire to eat again but the meat itself, which we feasted on a mere 4 hours after the pig was killed, was amazing. Truly delicious. All together, our time at UHDP was really great. We got to interact alot with the community memebers-- even just playing cards, or soccer, or hula hooping. And I now know more about ratan than I would have ever wished to.
After our time at UHDP, we had to travel down to the lowland community of Mae Ta. But along the way we stopped in paradise. We spent one night at an eco-resort characterised by small bungalows, towering trees, gourmet food, and the most comfortable beds in Thailand. Our professor from Chiang Mai met us there to hold a mid course seminar, but we also got alot of free time to explore the area. I went with a couple of people up the road and then up 500 steps to a gorgeous Wat nestled onto the mountaindside. So for one precious day and night, we enjoyed the kind of luxury that only complimentray bathrobes and mouthwatering porkchops can bring. It was cruel, really, to taunt us with this in the middle of a field course.
We reluctantly left the resort and headed off to Mae Ta. Of the 1000 or so families in Mae Ta, around 400 have switched to organic agriculture rather than chemically intensive agriculture. So we were there to live with and learn from families that had made the switch. Here, we lived 2 students per host family. My family was hysterical. The language barrier was especially difficult since these people speak a dialect of Northern Thai, so the central Thai that we have been learning is their second language, not to mention the fact that we barely know it anyways. But it helped alot to have another student around to try to decipher the various conversations. Our dad is a bit of a whiskey addict, coming home with the moonshine packaged in only a plastic bag. He poured it into a old plastic water bottle before pouring us a taste. Our mom is, as Christie (my housemate) fondly says, "an angel in the kitchen". Every meal was a feast and every feast was delicious. Plus, just about all of the food came directly from our families land-- the most local and fresh you can find. We had 2 or 3 sisters, its hard to tell. Three girls lived in the house but apparently one is a Thai student who was also just staying briefly-- except we are not sure which one she is as they all seemed so familial. Oh well. The girls were 16, 18, and 20 so it was always fun to chat with them about school and boys, two subjects that our Thai vocabs limitedly allowed. Their house was pretty nice. The eating and living areas were both on an outdoor covered patio, which I found interesting because the most valuable thing in the house-- the TV and stereo-- were constantly available for any greedy hands. Th ebathroom had a traditional Thai squat toilet (basically a hole in the ground) and a bucket shower (large bucket of water with small pail used to scoop water onto yourself). And none of the house was sealed, as the eaves below the roof were open to the outdoors. This meant I was often showering with snails or racing spiders across floors. I also saw the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen in my life on one wall-- the diameter of a grapefruit. The house also had a small garden out back, along with a few concrete tubs of catfish, and a bajillion chicks, not to mention a couple of noisy roosters. So, we spent a couple of days on our families farm, hoeing and picking vegetables. But honestly, I have no idea how these families keep up their farms. All of them will work for an hour, but then if its hot- take a break, if its sunny- get a drink, if its raining- take a break, if you're tired- take a nap, if you're hungry- eat, if you feel like it- take a break. In 8 hours on the farm, they will work for maybe 4. Its amazing. We then got an opportunity to go with our families (at 3:30 am) and help them sell their produce at a local market. It was pretty cool to follow this short food chain and see the food go from farm all the way into the consumers' hands. On other days, we had meeting with commnity memebers or did activities like hiking the watershed. This proved to be quite the lesson on wildlife, though. Just about everyone found at least one leech on them throughout the hike, but typically it was more like 3 or 4. I caught 5 but none of them had made it past my shoes and socks. Then, when we had reached the spring, the source of the water, we were standing around talking about with out village guides. And someone notices, 6 inches from where another student was standing, a slim, bright green coil wrapped around a low branch. Viper. Poisonous Viper. The snake didn't seem to alarmed as he barely moved a muscle, but all of us were quick to give him plenty of room. Until we noticed another one a few yards away, again only inches from other students. So that was exciting, to say the least.
So much more happened but it would take me forever to recount it all. I really loved being out in the field. And I really loved that my professors were all local village men and women, without college degress but with a heck of alot of experience and local knowledge. I'm already looking foraward to the next field course, one week from Monday. Returning to the city was a bit of a shock, but is also exciting and comes with alot more freedom.
Finally, yesterday, we went to Burma. We drove the 4 hrs up to the border with the sole prupose of crossing and renewing our Thai visas. We spent about two hours in Burma, in the crowded market filled with pirated DVDs, knockoff designer stuff, cheap SE asian souvenirs, and beggars. It was pretty overwhelming and a bit sad, and I left empty handed. But it was certainly an adventure and the 8 hours in the car was almost welcome after such a busy couple of weeks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
