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We have had an interesting trip to Thailand. Bob, it turned out, needed a TON of dental work so it changed our plans a bit; we spent a lot of time in Chiang Mai the first part of our travels. We did make it down to Koh Jum with Theo and Ang. There are some photos on. They are uploading now...
I am pleased to note that Noh Ta Dah, the 7 year old blind girl from the family we are working with, is not settled in at the boarding school for the blind in Chiang Mai and is doing really well. She is just so bright! After only about three months, she is writing in braille, both English and Thai.. simple words like Cat, etc... but she is learning to write. This is her first exposure. We are very happy to see her developing physically as well. Her family gave her basically the leftover food, always showing preference for the other children. Not uncommon in primitive societies where the disabled and elderly are seen as a burden and therefore not treated the same.
Our trip to Koh Jum was fun. Think what you will of the extravagance... we spent about $300 for a week, including the food, housing, etc... Costs less to vacation here than it does to live in Hawaii!
We are exploring leasing a little land up in the mountains to build a little house for a retreat. Although Farang (foreigners) can not purchase land here, we can lease for 30 years, with a guaranteed renewal. We will be long gone when that runs out. So, after next year, if anyone wants to visit Thailand, we will have some fun options to share with you. Theo is thinking of a small trekking business to show people around here, so maybe a couple primitive bungalow's ... plus a trip to Koh Jum... adventure of a lifetime for sure!
Bob is safely home at the ranch, and thanks to help from Mella, Royal, Jim & Carey and our local Clayton, all is well. Thank you everyone for keeping things safe during our adventure.
I will continue here for another month, doing some teaching of English at the High School (they have never had a native speaker) as well as have my dental work completed in three more visits. Yayyy!!!
See you all by September 1.
I will keep posting photos.
Aloha and Sawadee Kah!
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
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Hi Pam:
Sounds wonderful.
Andrew
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Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times".
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Hi Pam,
Andrew's right, it does sound wonderful! If you don't mind my asking.. are the pics posted online, and if so, where are they posted?
~ Rachael
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Yes your adventures are always interesting, thanks for taking the time to post.
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"Her family gave her basically the leftover food, always showing preference for the other children. Not uncommon in primitive societies where the disabled and elderly are seen as a burden and therefore not treated the same."
I wonder if this phrase comes across the way exactly as it is intended. Thai society is certainly different than American society but it would seem going out on thin ice to term Thai society "primitive." To me, a primitive society does not make access to decent medical and dental care an affordable option to all citizens, so by that measure America is a primitive society relative to Canada, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, et cetera.
Rather than being primitive, I'd suggest that societies where the less able receive left-over food are societies living very close to the earth in the sense of not having buffers, safety nets, and supports to cover the difference if there is a food shortfall. This hardship relates more to problems stemming from historical and current inequities in resource distribution, political power, and access to goods and services than to being primitive. Thai societies had highly developed cultures when many European societies were still thwacking each other with clubs.
Puna strikes me as being a good example of this sort of odd discrepancy between material development and cultural development, being as it is lacking in medical coverage, roads, post office boxes and so on relative to other areas with more political clout yet also being sophisticated and highly developed in its culture, music, art, literacy, local know-how regarding agriculture, surfing, and so on. This is rooted in historical and current inequities in access to and the exercise of political power, IMHO.
Thanks for sharing your travel experience!
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Astonishing skill! This archer is a real-life Legolas and then some!
http://geekologie.com/2013/11/real-life-...rs-anc.php
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Having been to Thailand about two dozen times, I can safely say that there are amazing differences in economic and cultural factors between the various regions of the country. The region around Bangkok has a modern industrial economy with a sizeable middle class and every imaginable modern convience with that unique Thai perspective, of course. The southern resort areas also are loaded with modern amenities and the accoutrements of the middle class. Poverty is never very far away, even in these relatively prosperous areas, but the overall scene is pretty advanced.
Once one gets into the hills of the northern provinces and along the Cambodian border, however, it is like a different world. Many of the tribal people there live on a subsistence level similar to New Guinea. They have a rich local culture and often to not speak Thai, which (along with their economic status) limits their access to what is a reasonably decent primary education system. Unfortunately, this system is only theoretically free since there are charges for uniforms, books, supplies, etc. Children with special needs of any sort are not well served by the basic rural schools, hence the necessity for Pam's efforts for the blind girl.
Alaskasteven's analogy is quite good. Sometimes one finds amazing contrasts within a single political entity, even one as small as Hawaii. Primitive is as primitive does, and the value a culture places on the well-being of its people is ultimately the benchmark.
Cheers,
Jerry
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First of all, photos are being uploaded to www.freewebs.com/punachat
You can access the photo gallery there.
As to my reference to primitive...
I am currently living in a village in the north west of the country where, indeed, there isn't even road access all year because of rainy season. It is where tribal people who were the wandering hunter/gatherers traveled in their annual circuit until about 35 years ago when borders were closed between Myanmar, Thailand and whatever else is up here... my map skills are a little limited. These are the Pakyo people who speak Gallian, not Thai. Some homes in this village have electricity, most have running water in a spigot in the yard near their dirt roads. Most people farm rice and have small vegetable gardens. Rice Whiskey is prevalent and a problem. The family we are working with has an alcoholic 34 year old father who has been drinking for over 15 years. Mother has a very low IQ although the children are virutally brilliant. They live from day to day, mostly on handouts from neighbors and extended family members. It is truely a village in that everyone works together but family units are family units. As a community they are extremely poor, so what is apportioned to each family is meager. Dad doesn't contribute to overall farming, though the two boys ages 14 and 12 do, which is where the family rice allotment comes from. This family owns a small area of flood plane for their own rice field, but mom and dad don't bother to do the work to plant it. Our home is to remain involved and to empower the boys to begin planting their own fields within a couple more years. Right now they need to stay in school, which they are doing very successfully.
So, no slam intended to the Thai nation or people. I was referring to the extremely primitive culture in which I am currently participating in this extreme outlaying area of the north west of the country.
Last night I had three teachers from the high school which serves I think about 50 villages, along with the two Peace Corps workers I have met from a few miles away. One teaches English at a school and her husband works in a government office developing education programs in agriculture. This is the guy Theo and I brought the Adobe Brick idea to who has now successfully developed bricks made of mud and rice husks. The government has grasped this idea and showcased it at last year's annual fair, building a small 10 ft round demonstration building. They plan on using them for establishing what used to be called mobile medical stations. They will now be permanent! Again, these placed in the mountains of the north west where access is limited.
Off I go online to try to get some photos, thanks to Royal, to show these people what a pink pig looks like. They raise pot bellied pigs here and the meat is really minimal, though they reproduce like rabbits. There are pink pigs in Chiang Mai, but superstition keeps them out of the village. We tried to buy and bring some here and were told by the village headman that we could not; it would bring great sickness to the whole village if they allowed pink pigs here. We do, however, have a 30 year old man who now works for the government in agricultural development in the city who is originally from this village. He has build a demonstration project 2 hours from here of a pig pen for pink pigs combined with They are using ET (??), the stuff we put into cesspools and septic tanks to do a biological breakdown. Seems the combination of chicken poop, pig poop and rice husks is making some of the most sucessful fertilizer available. Theo has grown a garden using this fertilizer here and shown that while their traditional corn is 5 to 7 feet tall with 6 inch ears at best, he is getting 12 foot stalks with 12 inch + ears of sweet, tasty corn. It is getting some attention... that with fresh tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers, salad has been introduced. Until we arrived, "salat" (lettuce) was something chopped and boiled with rice, negating almost all nutritional and roughage value. So, we are moving things along well! All the vegetables we have introduced in our garden are available by seed in the nearest big city, Chiang Mai, so the people can sustain. We think the variety of squash, green beans, okra, corn, tomato added to their current diets will improve nutrition.
Anyway, off I go. Hope you are enjoying my adventures vicariously. If not, don't read! LOL
Again, see photos at www.freewebs.com/punachat in the photo gallery.
Aloha and Sawadee Ka'a
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
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It is Sunday,, July 27th. I am posting more photos to freewebs ( www.freewebs.com/punachat). Theo went rice planting and gained great esteem in the community. My knees and back won't even get me down into the fields! I have done some baking and the locals are loving banana bread, cinnamon swirl bread and plain old Italian bread. 
Malaria continues to be a problem here. No new cases in the last 5 days but our little 4 year old guy, PaBleh is not doin so well. They hauled him off to a small community hospital last night. I could provide care but the family won't listen to me; he is now very dehydrated. I am hoping they will be giving him IV fluids and his medicines there.
Everyone else is out planting rice, so I guess I better get to cooking for when they all come in at lunch.
Aloha and Sawadee Kaaa
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 2,189
Threads: 295
Joined: Sep 2004
It is Sunday,, July 27th. I am posting more photos to freewebs ( www.freewebs.com/punachat). They are uploading as I type this. Theo went rice planting and gained great esteem in the community. My knees and back won't even get me down into the fields! I have done some baking and the locals are loving banana bread, cinnamon swirl bread and plain old Italian bread. It is amazing what you can do with a two shelf toaster oven.
Malaria continues to be a problem here. No new cases in the last 5 days but our little 4 year old guy, PaBleh is not doing so well. They hauled him off to a small community hospital last night. I could provide care but the family won't listen to me; he is now very dehydrated. I am hoping they will be giving him IV fluids and his medicines there.
The photos include some green land next to the rice paddies. Theo and I are arranging to buy a few acres here overlooking the river. Of course, we can not own land in Thailand as foreigners, but his wife can and then we least it back for 30 years with a renewal guarantee. Ain't it fun? I sure think so!!!
Last evening a small group of boys came over selling corn. Cost me 10 baht (about 30 cents) for 12 ears of corn. I didn't have the heart to tell them we are growing our own corn. Heck I buy girl scout cookies and then give them away so this is the same thing! LO
Everyone else is out planting rice, so I guess I better get to cooking for when they all come in at lunch.
Aloha and Sawadee Kaaa
Pam
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
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What you are doing is wonderful. Looking forward to see you in September. Tell Theo I say hi.
canhle
canh Le
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