07-22-2008, 02:35 PM
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 !!
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!"
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"