Final days.

I legitimately have 4 days left in Thailand, you guys. 4. Freaking. Days.

I’ve certainly had an adventure while I’ve been here, but first, I’ll fill you all in on what I’ve been up to since Na Nong Bong and my Thai assignments.

Basically, we had 2 weeks of final project time. Since our group was so small, there were lots of projects to do. So I signed up for the Na Nong Bong campaign project (with Katie, Brett, and Alex) as well as the Baw Kaew legal report project (with Katie).

So first, the Na Nong Bong project consisted of all of us working on campaign materials and activities for a high school and a university back in Loei, all facilitated by the Dao Din kids that we worked with during the last unit. It was supposed to be a “fun” informational campaign for those in the area to raise awareness about the mine and how awful it is. It was pretty smooth sailing for us CIEE kids, since we went through the whole planning process a million times over the semester and knew what was going on. But we ran into a bunch of problems while working with the Dao Din kids this time. First, only the first years were able to do the event with us because the older, more dedicated members weren’t free. So there were varying levels of participation and engagement right from the get-go. Also, apparently these kids don’t know what a freakin’ clock is. With the exception of 2 kids, everyone else would come to meetings from 30 minutes to even 1 hour late. Or they wouldn’t come at all, which presented even more issues. A proud moment came when I facilitated the students IN THAI. It really just shows how far I’ve come since the beginning of the program – with no facilitation experience and little Thai speaking abilities to being able to do both at the time. So anyway, with this project, we CIEE kids basically just worked on our materials and activities, action toolkits for people who were interested at the high school and university, and other CIEE-y materials while the other kids did their regular school thing (which is so weird to me because I’m going to be returning to that in like 2 weeks…).

But even before we could go to Loei for the campaign, Katie and I had to do our legal report on Baw Kaew. On the 6^th and 7^th, we were able to go back up to Chaiyaphum (where all the nasty mosquitoes were…) to do some further research on the charges of contributing to global warming that the villagers were facing. I know, I know, it sounds ludicrous. But it’s true. Thanks to the Land Reform Network and Ajaan John, who was our translator and pretty much our saving grace for both the Na Nong Bong campaign and this project, we were also able to visit a few communities in Phetchabun province to further get material to write our report.

Essentially, the villagers we visited had lived on their land for generations upon generations but didn’t have full land ownership through specific land titles. Though the villagers had officially been given the land by the King himself, the central government decided to make the forest around their land into a wildlife sanctuary and national park. They are also currently trying to make that land into a World Heritage site, which costs money and also requires for the villagers to vacate the area. So, for the past few months/years, the government has been charging the villagers with global warming and fining them ridiculous amounts in order to try to force them off. For example, the government told one villager to cut down all of his rubber trees or else he would be charged for global warming. After doing what he was told, he was charged with trespassing and damaging government property (criminal) in addition to contributing to global warming (civil). No, I’m still not kidding. After performing some ridiculous “environmental tests,” they determined the exact fines in baht that he would have to pay for his apparently horrible deed. The charges included loss of water, increased in temperature, loss of soil, and loss of potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus in soil, and the guy had to pay over 400,000 baht. And do you know how they conducted those tests? Well, for the loss of water, an officer from the Ministry of Natural Resources would come into the area, pour 2 liters of water on the ground, and wait until all the water has evaporated. Then, he would take that number, put it into a computer program designed by academics (not necessarily scientists, from our knowledge), and then come up with the fine for that amount of time that the water took to evaporate. And if you think that sounds crazy, the other tests were, you know, just as ridiculous.

We were also able to visit a community of villagers who went out one day to pick corn for their private employer. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by government officials and driven away by the police, who didn’t even give the villagers time to tell someone to take care of their children. They were all charged for trespassing, destroying government property, and contributing to global warming. One was charged with obstructing the duties of an officer or something. And they were all pretty baseless claims.

Needless to say, Katie and I were pretty riled up. So when we got back from the Loei campaign, we sat down and wrote a monster 26 page paper when we were really just required to write like, 5 pages. Mostly, it was a pass-on for future students and a very detailed account of the information we received so that the program can use it in the future. We’re pretty proud of that. :D So here are some pictures!

Oh, PS, we also got to see an amazingly beautiful view of the national park and wildlife sanctuary while we were in Phetchabun. Pictures are courtesy of Lindy and Katie because I forgot to charge my camera battery.

When the time came to actually go to Loei for the campaign on the 8^th, we were only expecting our most dedicated first years (ชมพู่ ท๊อป โต้ง what up?!), but ALL of our buddies came along, despite not coming to any of the meetings. Thanks so much for your hard work แคน แท็ก สมา ทราย!

I would say the campaign was a success, despite there being over 100 students (when we were expecting like 30 students) at the high school (which really wasn’t a high school and actually had those from 2^nd – 9^th grade) and despite there being a super boring powerpoint by the villagers which drove tens of people away every 10 minutes or so at the university. Our activities ran well, and the Thai kids did really well in facilitating. Speaking of, after the event, we all sat down back in the village and did a +, -, delta, which is a tool we CIEE kids were familiar with. It consists of a notetaker/facilitator on the board and then everyone throwing out ideas of what went well, what needed improvement, and what we could change for those things that needed improvement. I was doing the main facilitating, and I decided to do it JBO-style. This basically consists of setting time limits on each section and putting pressure to stay on task and get things done. The namesake is JBO, who famously does this style of facilitation whenever we need something done quickly yet still thoroughly. When I said, “Okay, you all have 2 minutes to think about good and bad things about the program and what we can change. GO,” and then later, “30 seconds,” the Dao Din kids got pretty freaked out. On a positive, we got the whole process done in 30 minutes instead of the regular 2 hours that we probably would have spent. Another proud facilitation moment for me. So yeah, here are some pictures. J

สมา and ท๊อป at the high school

โต้ง , freakin' rockin' it at the high school

ท๊อป and ชมพู่ emcee extraordinaires.

Villager panel at the university

Ajaan John, P'Fac Sam, and Alex with some girl answering a question for our Q&A prize game

So that was kind of it for project time. Don’t get me wrong; it was 2 weeks filled with stress, work, and sleep deprivation, but looking back on it, that was the simplest explanation I think I could have given about the whole process.

Last, we had a human rights festival on the 10th! We partnered with the law faculty and put on an awesome conference! Certainly not Bangkok/unit 3 level, but much, much better. :P

Now, I just got back from a “retreat” where we discussed the program – what we liked, what we didn’t like, what we’d like to change, etc. It was a nice place to reflect on the entire semester and provide insight as to what we could potentially change for next time. I’m also proud that next semester might have a land reform unit just because of my and Katie’s final project about global warming charges! Yay! So essentially, that’s all for the actual Thailand bit. I’m probably going to write one big reflective entry once I get back to the states, but for now, bye~ ^^

The price of luxury

So first, we went to Na Nong Bong village in Loei province, which is a village negatively affected by the nearby gold mine. We were using the unit to collaborate with Dao Din, a KKU student group focused on social issues in Isaan. I was a unit facilitator, so I had a bunch of meetings and extra stuff to do, but in general, the experience was quite enlightening and super fun!

My host family in the village grew rice (kiiiiinda like every other homestay family) and rubber trees (unlike every other homestay family). My roommate was Sai, a first-year undergraduate law student at the university. She was a new member of Dao Din, so the whole homestay thing was all very new to her. We got to the house pretty late, so we immediately went to sleep. But we got back up bright and early at 6AM to go harvest the rubber with the family. After a super confusing motorcycle ride full of hairpin turns and views of the breathtaking mountains around us, Sai and I finally arrived at the family’s rubber tree field. Basically, the trees were equipped with little spigots which guided the tree’s sap to a small black bucket connected to the tree. Our job was to dump the sap in the black bucket into a larger bucket. Then, the sap was to be molded, flattened, and dried further in order to make rubber. It was pretty fun, although as it turns out, I really fail at walking uphill with a bucket of sap. I didn’t giff it, but I certainly came close.

Afterwards, I had a few meetings, so the rest of the day was super boring. Until I remembered that the village’s water was contaminated by cyanide, arsenic, and lead from the mine. And I had been bathing in it. Thankfully, nothing bad has happened so far, but… That was certainly a scare.

The next day, Sai and I had the bright idea to go hiking up a mountain, since Loei is known for its mountains. The first bit consisted of stairs. Lots and lots of stairs.

But after a while, the stairs stopped. And then I resolved to climb up the steep trail on my hands and knees. And then THAT path stopped; we eventually just hit the sheer rock cliff. So Sai and I finally looked down and saw a beautiful view beneath us.

Afterwards, we had an exchange with the Provincial Health Office about, you know, the cyanide in the village’s water. And they, of course, denied that it existed altogether and tried to reason that the mine wasn’t causing any pollution. Instead, it was cigarettes that were causing so much pollution in the water and air. Riiiight. After that, we all painted protest signs for the villagers, saying stuff like, “STOP THE MINE.”

The next two days were filled with meetings ‘n stuff. We went to a community meeting with the villagers and government officials. The government had come to “listen” to the people, but really, they could probably care less.

Maddie with a sign documenting all the horrible things that have happened to the villagers that came in contact with the water contaminated by the mine.

Maddie, Babz, and Ajaan Poi, gettin' pumped.

We students also had the opportunity to “interview” the governor, vice governor, tambon (district) official, amphur (subdistrict) official, and some people from the Ministry of Environment. Aka, we bombarded these people with questions about the human rights violations that our host families were facing every day. And boy, did they get angry.

This guy got super pissed. He's the amphur official. He told one of our group members, Bryant, that he didn't know anything and should go back home to America. I have all 10 or so glorious minutes on my camera, if anyone's interested.

That was certainly an adventure. The next day, we headed to a village close by that faced the construction of a copper mine called Huay Muang. I stayed with Sai again, but we also had Katie and her Dao Din counterpart Aoi in the house with us. The mother in my host family there was actually the headman of the village. The first headman that is a woman in Loei province. The headwoman, I suppose. And she was pro-mine, which was really, really disturbing to me. But that was kind of unsurprising, as her house was pretty freakin’ sweet. The next day, we took a tour of the area surrounding the village that was already carved out, ready to put a mine in. We also got to tour an illegal iron mine, where people come to take the minerals out of the community’s land without the proper licenses or land titles. And the evidence of chemical contamination was more than obvious.

Ew.

Dead snake bits and unidentifiable blue substance everywhere.

Gold.

This unit probably gave me the clearest picture of human rights violations… Ever. After facilitating an exchange with the villagers, where they all vehemently told us about their opposition to the mine and strategies that they would use to fight the construction of one in their community, Katie, Sai, Aoi, and I had dinner with our host family.

We found out that the headwoman/host mom really did care about the environment but thought that the mine would help strengthen the economy of both the community and Thailand.

Now, if you have on any gold jewelry on right now, I would advise you to take it off.

But doesn’t she know the environmental impact of the mine? That for every OUNCE of gold mined, there are 79 tons of toxic byproducts (arsenic, cyanide, lead) that are just dumped into a lake? That those byproducts leach into the surrounding rivers, which the community depends on? Of course not; the woman has money stuffed in her ears and can’t hear the truth. Don’t get me wrong – she was nice and hospitable, but how could she really claim to be on the side of the people if she is in favor of something like that?

Something else I’ve been struggling with is the balance between keeping communities just the way they are and keeping the country just the way it is and developing large-scale products to draw in more investors and money for the country. And the issues of mining and dams in Thailand seem to make it clear that the preservations of local wisdom and culture in communities are more important than development, but it’s still something for me to reflect on.

Anyway, I have less than 1 month left in Thailand. Wow. So for the next month, we’re doing final projects, which means going back to a community and helping them with an issue. Not sure how it’s going to work, but I’ll keep you all updated!

Phurua, Loei!

So, here's the resort! The place we stayed at was called Phu Rua, and above are pictures of the resort. As you can see, it was beautiful! It was definitely in the middle of nowhere, and I felt super isolated from civilization. On the bright side, there was a balcony outside our hotel room, and we had a view of a gorgeous [manmade...] waterfall! YEAH. I'm not sure what river the waterfall flowed into, but the views were to die for.

On Sunday, I had my first Thai lesson. It was a whopping 4 hours long! To top it all off, I am THE ONLY one in the intermediate Thai class. So I will have an ajaan all to myself all semester! Auuuugh. My book is mainly meant for 1st graders, and the story features about a boy named ฦูผา, a baby boy elephant named ใบโบก, and a baby girl elephant named ใบบัว. So far, they've gone to play soccer, take a bath, and had a scary encounter with a snake. Anyway, the first class was mainly a gauge of how well I know Thai. After that, the whole group had discussions on how the rest of the classes and stuff would work. We also had a horrible "bonding" game that featured a tiny cloth that my entire group of 10 people was supposed to both fit onto and flip over while

we were all on the cloth. Please, please don't ask me to elaborate on this. I still have nightmares about it.

On Monday, we had lots of workshops and lectures about NGOs, social justice, human rights, and the Isaan area.We also had a culture + etiquette workshop where the girls and I got pa toongs and the guys got sarongs to wear in the villages. They're basically skirt-y thingies that we're supposed to wear to bathe, sleep, and put on in order to go to the bathroom and stuff. We all also got elephant bags! There were a few with giraffes on them, but I didn't realize it until i saw someone take the last one. Sorry Caroline!

Khon Kaen University notebook, check. Bright pink pa toong, check. Elephant bag, also check.

On Tuesday, there were super boring workshops and Thai lessons. The only different thing was a Thai number BINGO, in which I won some awesome prizes. Woop woop.

On Wednesday, we did a lot of the same workshops and Thai lessons. My Thai lesson was supposed to consist ofwatching a Thai drama (lakorn) and summarizing it in English. But my ajaan accidentally downloaded the episode ofthe lakorn with English subtitles so... That was a no-go. Instead, I had to watch gifs of hilarious situations and describe what happened in Thai into a tape recorder, which my language ajaan at KKU will apparently listen to.Scary. But the gifs were funny; the most notable gifs consisted of a guy skateboarding down a ramp, falling, and then allowing the skateboard to come back and hit him in the nuts; 4 elderly people sitting at a picnic bench, also falling due to the picnic table breaking, and rolling a little while down a hill; and a fat kid (no joke; the caption was "dek ooahn"; fat child) trying to sit in an inner tube that was in the ocean and then falling right into the water. We also had our "Buddha Buddies" assigned, in which the program staff matched each of us up with our complete opposite in order for us to find a way to find a "middle path." Mine is an awesome guy named Brett, and we're definitely, definitely opposites. We kind of clued them in during a discussion of our goals, in which one of my goals

was, "Participate more in discussions," whereas his was, "Speak less during discussions." So our Buddha Buddy time should be full of funtimez. Then, we had a campfire with the rest of the ajaans and program facilitators. We ate American-ish food for the first time since we had been back in the states, and most of us shared a few beers with the ajaans. We call the local beer, "Leo," by a loving nickname, "Ajaan Leo," thanks to Ajaan Jeab. Basically means Professor Leo, but it's a beer, so that's why it's funny. Yeah.

Thursday, I would really like to forget. We had to do an activity that consisted of lifting each person one at a time up and through a tiny hole in a net that was about 4 feet off the ground. I disapproved for so many reasons.

And Friday and Saturday, we spent the night at Baw Kaew Protest village, which is about 2 hours away from Khon Kaen. The village was built last year in a eucalyptus forest that the government built. The reason why the government built it was to create more paper, but in turn, it seized all of the land of the villagers, evicted them, and threatened to jail them if they didn't leave. During an exchange with the villagers, they revealed that the government even charged the villagers with "creating global warming," by living on the same land that their ancestors have lived on and farmed on for centuries. So we got to learn a lot about their struggle in that village. We were also able to eat with the villagers, so we had lots of sticky rice (cao niew), som tum (both Thai and Lao), kai jiew (fried eggs), and other traditional Isaan food. And of course we ate with our hands!

So Saturday, we finally reached Khon Kaen. Next entry!