the journey

see you in 48 hours?

your shayne

things are pretty crazy right now. tomorrow is the festival and most of us are running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to prepare. alexandra, whitney and i are trying to get our photo exhibit all ready to go for tomorrow but we still need a few more things translated. its frustrating.
all of our professors are working so hard. its weird because they work like this every semester with no time for their personal life. i feel kind of shitty because for a second i forgot that it is like this for them every semester. there is a joke around here that they nobody ever quits because they dont have any time to think about quitting. its actually not a very funny joke...

i have 5 infected bug bites. i think they are getting better bu it makes me a little nervous.

i got an email from clinton today and he told me he read this whole thing in one sitting! i love him! it made me really happy to know people are still reading this. i miss it being like a conversation where people told me what they thought about the things i was learning/seeing/thinking/writing about

2 more weeks until i am home! (can you believe it!?)

your shayne

today is kind of a big deal. it is the kings birthday and also fathers day (go figure...)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7128105.stm

we have only 5 more days until the festival but things are going pretty good with our project. we went the other day and did 4 profiles and photo descriptions. they turned out really really good. they all picked really awesome pictures and had the best stories. i love that community so much and am going to be really sad to leave.
we transcribed  them and had them translated. we have to go back tomorrow to have one more girl pick her pictures and do her profile and photo desriptions then we have to get the photos enlarged and then we have to design the layout for the festival.

only 9 more days until the program is over! then i am going to ko chang with my friend anne and christy and on my way back to bangkok i am stopping in pattaya to hang out with my peer tutor ciri because she is working at a hotel there.

what is also exciting is another group is working with the landfill for their final project. a woman from india came to talk to the landfill community about a month ago. she works with scavengers in india and has helped them organize together and unite. she thinks khon kaen should be the pilot city from thailand to join the international waste collectors network. this group has been working with scavengers in the landfill as well as scavenger from 2 slums . they bring them together and have meetings where they figure out what they need to do to unite and be stronger. there is an international waste collectors conference in bogota columbia in march and the gorup is trying to apply for grants so they can send some representatives. it would be good if people could go to the conference because they could see what scavengers in countries all over are doing.

one more exciting  thing is me and 4 other people are working right now to create a public health and gender program here in thailand! we are figuring out courses and credits and a syllabus. our program director approached us because he said we probably know more about gender than him so we could probably do a better job. the program looks pretty cool and there is a pretty good chance that either some or all of us would be able to come back as interns when the program starts!

i love you all
shayne

some photos alexandra took from our trash art project with the kiddies:

last night was the loy krathong festival

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loy_Krathong

 it happens every year on the full moon of the 12th month (which here is usually november) people go to the lake in khon kaen and send out tons of tiny floats made out of banana leaves, flowers, and candles & incense sticks. you put your float in the water, make a wish and hope it doesnt sink.
i went and sent a tiny 10 baht float out with a wish but refused to watch it for too long because i didnt want to see it sink... if it did.

i took pictures lastnight and i went this morning at 6am to take pictures of all the trash left behind-- the lake was disgusting!
we have been talking a lot about over consumption and we are going to do a small before and after exhibit at the human rights festival. there will be a lot of kku students there because kku is co-sponsoring it so we are going to have a little blurb underneath the photos about how much trash goes just from kku to the landfill everyday. hopefully it will get people thinking...

the other night we went to a bar owned by one of my teachers and her husband. her husband is an art teacher at kku and we met with him and some of his coworkers because we wanted to see if they wanted to get some students to help out.
so today one teacher and one student came with us to the landfill where we scavenged for materials and made art all day long. the kids seemed really excited and we made 3 mobiles and 5 masks!
alexandra, whitney and i move into the landfill tomorrow to do more art and work on the photo project!

wish me luck!

always always always
shayne

i just wrote this in an email to aunt sharon and uncle brian but i think it describes my final project pretty well but i am going to copy it and put it in here:

We are starting our final projects now and I am really excited about the one I am working on.  We are working with the landfill community here in Khon Kaen.  Everyone in this community does something related to trash-- some are trash truck drivers, some work at a recyclable sorting center, and most are scavengers and go through all of the mountains of trash at the landfill to find recyclables to sell for money.  it can be a pretty dangerous/unhealthy job but the worst part is they arent recognized as a real labor force at all and they are providing a really awesome service to the city. So far they have extended the life of the current landfill by 6 years: taking out recyclables and making more room for trash!

anyways my project is doing several things. one is we are going to make art out of trash at the landfill that cant be sold for money with kids at the landfill.

the second thing is when we met with the community earlier this semester they told us that most people in Khon Kaen dont even know they exist. They said they want people to see the way they live and what they do for a living. We figured the best way to do this would buy disposable cameras and let them decide what they want people to see about their life by allowing them to take the pictures themselves. We also want to combine the pcitures they choose with profiles on each photographer.
the main point of both of these projects is to create visibility and spread awareness about the landfill community, and both the trash art and the photo exhibit will be shown at our human rights festival at the end of the semester (which over 1000 people are coming to!). also we want to organize a tour back at home and tie it into the issue of over consumption.

we are also working with a group of khon kaen university student who just wrote a human rights report about the landfill community to try and get the water tested because we are pretty sure its really bad.



we might sell the trash art decorations at the human rights festival?
we are doing a training for taking pictures, and doing pictures in 2 bunches. after they take the first batch we will get them developed and all look at them together and talk about them:  do they capture whatever it is they want people to see? can they be better? and if so,how can they be better? then they will take the second batch and we will look at all of them and make the final selections and finalize our profiles on each photographer.  our profiles will also be used to supplement the human rights reports to make them a bit more personal.

how does this sound to everyone? please share your thoughts and ideas? do you have any that can make this better?



lastnight we had a fancy thanksgiving dinner at the sofitel hotel and i had really good cheese for the first time since i have been here (the only other kind i have had has been on pizza). it was kind of weird that they took us there because it is a super fancy hotel chain in thailand that mostly caters to foreigners. plus before they built the hotel there was a lake there. but it was really tasty.


love love love love
shayne

some pictures

the national park we vacationed at


look at this crazy bug!


on the beach


the cutest little sister ever


on our hike we spotted a dusty langur (an endangered species)


my little friend in my apartment

more pictures at:
http://flickr.com/photos/21011740@N06/

i finished making a really awesome zine last night with some of my friends here. it is about the iron ladies who have been fighting against the potash mine being built. it turned out pretty awesome.

i got the best email from alex and this is what it said:
omg I forgot to tell you last week because of a marathon they had a little petting zoo in monroe park and there were all these baby goats! So baby like they were the size of cats. There was also a peacock with a t shirt on, a sheep with a cowboy hat, a lemur, alot of chickens, a pony, and a kangaroo!!! People were cheering for the runners like this "WOOO YOU CAN DO IT!!" and I was all like "WOO BABY GOATS!"



i wish there were more baby animals in thailand.

a few things-

people dont eat with chopsticks in thailand (unless you are eating noodles) they use a fork and push their food onto a spoon.

my hair is a lot longer. and i wear dangly earrings now and have an obsession with pretty scarves. my legs are covered in scabs and bug bites. and i have a few new scars.

there are milk bars everywhere in khon kaen and you can get any flavor of milk you want. (not vegan!)


also i wrote a little something during our exchange on tourism. before we talked about "third world" tourism our speaker told us about his travels in europe in the 70s. it made me feel so many things that i wrote a little something (i dont think you can call it a poem...):

he showed us letters from friends he met on his journeys
and pictures!
beautiful pictures
(the kind you woud love)
full of people with long hair and long skirts and cottages with vines creeping up the side
bob dylan played on the tape player as he told stories of couches drugs and street corners
and it made me miss home.


i think while i was writing that i was thinking  a lot about charlotte jones. all of his pictures reminded me of her and things she would love.
i think its worth mentioning here that i think about all of you.
all together at once.
and individually at completly different times. 
its the nicest thing to be riding in the van (we spend a lot of time in vans) and see a mountain and think about lauren and morgan (and wishing i could climb to the top with both of you) 
or to drink a  cup of tea and think of lucy 
or eat some treats and dream about justine 
or see the clouds and imgaine deciding what shapes they make with tammy.
i need to start writing those moments down so i can share them with all of you. 

right now i am finishing a short story that was due a long time ago. it is a ghost story (and you know i love ghost stories) it is about a girl from sisaket. her parents were fisherpeople and when they built the pak mun dam most of the fish in the river died so they lost their livelihood. she moves to bangkok to work and send money home.  and even though she is in the big city she feels really lonely and gets really scared at night and sleeps with the light on.  one night she is woken up by a fish. she cant figure out what the hell a fish is doing in her room, staring at her, and following her everywhere.  it turns out it is one of the extinct fish from the pak mun river! the pak mun dam was built to produce electricity and the fish is visiting her to tell her to stop wasting it!

im a little stuck with the end but i have to finish it today.

(this is more a mental note for me than it is something for you to read:
SWING, bars, the clinic, home visits, and accents.)

love love love love...
shayne

so  i just had a pretty intense past week.

i just got back from this buddhist community called santi asoke. they are self sustainable all vegetarian community against globalization and development.  i thought it was going to be pretty awesome. i was wrong!! it was more like a cult than anything. we had to wake up at 3:45am everyday and could only eat twice a day (once at 9am and once at 5pm) we werent allowed to wear shoes or jewlery.
i was okay with most of this but the no shoe thing killed me. how could a shoeless community have gravel roads? imagine walking great lengths at 4am on tons of tiny sharp rocks. they told us meditating might help. (yea right)
this was our schedule:
3:45am: wake up
4am-6am: discussions
6am-8am: work (cooking, helping build a garden, building a house, rice husking, or harvesting rice, or making soap)
8am-9am: personal time
9am-11am: breakfast, dishes, and more discussion
11am- 12pm: personal time
12pm-2pm: teaching/playing games with the kids
2pm-4pm: work
4pm-5pm: shower
5pm-8pm: dinner, dishes, and more discussion
9pm: lights out

i swear i really was trying to give it a try until our buddhist discussion when they told us that women were reincarnated as women as a form of punishment (not their words exactly) because in their past lives they were probably rapists or adulteres. i couldnt believe it! i was insulted! after leaving that discussion my feet burned so bad that i almost started to cry and thats when i gave up. i got my shoes.

i dont know if i can explain how they were so creepy/cult like. but we all had really weird feelings about the place. i will try and come up with some  better reasons if you are not convinced. 

at our discussion today at 4am they made all 33 of us go around and say what we learned from the community. then all 30+ kids went around and said what they thought of us. and then the 3 monks and 10+ adult community members also shared what they thought of us. therewas  a whole lot of "please come back and live with us anytime you want... you can learn to love it here too..." it was too damn early in the morning for that!

i have a meeting now but more later!

always and forever,
shayne

break was okay but not being busy made me miss home.

we went to a beach 3 hours south of bangkok called hua hin. it was a little bit depressing. this may sound like weird logic but there were a lot of white people on the beach and they made me miss my parents. and there were even more old white men with young thai girlfriends but that didnt really make me think about my parents.
i was suprised at how much thai i actually knew.
we went to an amazing national park on the beach. the sand at night contained bioluminescence. so every step you took it looked like the sand with sparkling like glitter. it was probably the best thing ever.

we are in our movements and trends unit. its pretty amazing. we are meeting the popular thai social critic Sulak, the first female monk in thailand Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, the sex workers organization SWING (and a tour of the bars in the red light district in patpong), hanging out at Santi Asoke temple(socialy conscious monks against globalization), people living with HIV/AIDs, and.... so many more!

i am one of the facilitators for this unit so i am really busy.
we are leaving for bangkok tommorow.

more later...

love always (always, always, always...)
shayne  

im really home sick. i miss you all so much.

its finally here--- our 6 day break!!
my plans have changed so many times.  at first i was planning on going to harvest rice on this woman named sumontha's farm. but then i realized i really didnt feel like working at all over break and would much rather relax. so then i was planning on going to chiang mai to see the city and visit some national parks. but for most of the good national parks you have to rent a car to get to them. and!  then i decided that what i really wanted to do was just go to the beach tolay around and swim, so why fight it? so i will be spending 5 days in hua hin.

today we had our thai final and presented our thai final project. our thai final was hard we had to talk about an issue (either about agriculture, mines, or dams) for 5-10 minutes but we had no idea which we would have to talk about. i had to talk about dams and it wasnt that easy but i think i did an okay job- i tried to just think about every word i wanted to say before i said it so i couldnt think of the correct tone to use. afterwards our teacher asked us a few questions in thai about what we said.

i still want to tell you about the land unit where we learned about mines, but that will just have to wait until after break....


love love love,
shayne

p.s. i miss you all.

p.p.s. even though i travel a lot my address is still the same. and angelica, what is your address?

in my last entry i forgot to mention a few things!

one is that they built a fish ladder for the pak mun dam. in theory fish can swim up the ladder so they can still make it up the stream. but! they modeled the fish ladder off of one they built in the us for salmon, and fish in the pak mun river are much larger! so basically they spent all this money building a fish ladder and the only fish that can get through it are teeny tiny, so its basically useless! all they money they spent on the dam and this ladder and they couldnt do just a little extra research?

another thing is i completely forgot to mention anything about the rasi salai dam.  this dam is supposed to be used for irrigation-- but it isnt. the irrigation canals are really only beneficial for people who are located right by the river. but even worse! is that the water is damaged from the dam and cant even be used.
im going to try and explain. so, underground of the rasi salai area has a lot of salt. and before the dam people used to dig deep holes and sell the salt. but the dam weighs A LOT and after the dam was constructed it started to weigh/push down on the ground and forced the salt that is underground into the water.  saline contaminated water destroys crops. so peoples rice fields have been ruined using water from the damed river that was supposed to be used for their farm land.

what the hell!

i have so many stories to tell....

last week i rode on a boat on the pak mun and mekong river, went to laos for about 20 minutes, showered outside in a patoon, woke up to the sound of cow bells, learned a few new words in isaan*, picked mushrooms and dug for grasshoppers in a community forrest, swam in a waterfall, went on a hike to discover a temple deep in the woods, and missed you a little bit more each day.

we finished our water unit and i have learned so much.  you know, when i first heard we had a water unit i assumed it would be about peoples right to clean drinking water but it was about dams: the displacement of people, and the loss of livelihoods.  its so interesting to think about the different things water means to people all over the world. when i think about water and what it means to me i think about it in terms of consumption (the right to clean water) but to other people it can be about so many other things like a source of income, or a part of local knowledge.

we learned about water management, dams, local knowledge, aquifers, weirs, saline contamination, erosion, and....
the government says it is building dams to help small scale farmers irrigate their crops, but they have already built their own small irrigation systems that wordked just fine (local knowledge!)

and! just in terms of enviromental effects, what happens when you destroy ecosystems and a rivers natural path? the effects are terrifying: saline contamination of water, loss of fisheries, and water pollution.

my first home stay was really incredible and was at a community affected by the pak mun dam.  before the dam my parents fished - like everyone else in the community. now they raise cows and make brooms. this was the first homestay ever that i spent a lot of time with my paw. he had deep set eyes that looked somewhat distant and sad.  soon after we got in he showed us a chart of all the fish that used to be in the pak mun river, and showed us all of the fish nets he cant use anymore. he looked so sad showing us all these dusty tools that used to be such a big part of his life.

the pak mun dam was a giant mistake, plain and simple. and the villagers, who relied on the river knew it was a mistake from the start but no one would listen to them.  the pak mun dam is a run-of-the-river hydropower dam that generates electricity.  it cost $240 million us dollars- way more than it is worth-- the dam is supposed to generate 136 MW od electricity but it only operating at 40 MW.  One top of that more than 50 fish species found in the pak mun river have gone extinct since the construction of the dam (because their habitat in the rapids was destroyed and also their migration routes for breeding were blocked). if thats not enough originally 241 households were predicted to be displaced by the dam, but the world commission of dams report found that actually 1700 househols were ectually displaced and that 6,000 more had their livelihoods destroyed by the dams effect on the fish populaion, which is many areas caused a 50-100% decline.

what would you do if you were skilled at something-- i mean your family had been soing it for generations and generations and it was taken away from you? what would you do to survive if you livelihood was taken away from you?
and in terms of compensation for people who were affected: how the hell do we (or they?) decide what is an adequate amount.  their loss not only affects them, it affects future generations.  and how do you compensate people for their loss of loss of local knowledge? and is it even possible to preserve local knowledge? and who will it be for, when all of the young people are leaving to work in the cities?

our paw took us to a waterfall to swim. at first i felt weird about this because we were playing in the water and having a good time while our meh was herding the cows. but our paw asked us to take lots of pictures to show everyone back in the states. he said he wanted people to see the beautiful river. it made sense, he wanted to share with us (and for us to share with others) something he was really proud of-- something he had loved, and fished, and played in, and survived off of for so many years.

we had two exchanges at pak mun. one with the leaders of the pak mun community, and one with a woman from an ngo that works with people affected by the dam.  i asked her a difficult but important question and recieved such a dissapointing answer. i said, "i know that often when livelihoods are lost and stress is high that domestic violence goes up.  are people in these communities having conversations about this?" and maybe the question wasnt translated right, or maybe i wasnt clear enought, but from her response (or lack of response) my guess is no, people arent having conversations about violence,a nd most likely those who are affected are completly silenced. i am really bummed about this, i cant really shake it--- but what can i do? really, i am here for such a short amount of time...
also weird, someone asked her about what role women take in terms of activism in the movemetn against the dam, and her answer was real weird. she said that they put women on the front line in front of the police at protests because men are too "hot tempered" (back to my question) and women are more rational. she also said that if the police do react violently and hit a women it works out for them because they have more of a case.
and the strangest thing is that when we talked about the exchange later most people just thought that was so awesome.  they thought it was taking womens feminine traits (being more calm and rational) and making it a strength by using them for their advantage. they thought it made women more powerful. i disagree totally. but fine, i will level with them and say sure maybe on the surface it seems that this is women playing an important powerful role in the movement. but... BUT! how does these ideas about women being more patient and calm affect gender roles? isnt it possible that they same ideas have been used to confine women to the private sphere?

maybe thats enough for today...
love,
shayne

*thailand was not colonized by an outside force, but instead was internally colonized and many lao people (as well as people from other bordering countries) were forced to become "ethnic thais". isaan is a combination of thai and lao and is spoken by most people in the rural areas of the northeast. this is one of the many reasons why the northeast is so interesting. also, its hard enough to communicate in thai, but trying to learn isaan (for my homestays) is even more difficult...

7 pages of new  pictures at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11764991@N08/

thai is a cruel cruel language. did you know that the word for near (glii) is the same as the word for far (glii) but just different tones?!?

so i bought a ticket to return home on december 23 but i might change the flight.  i was talking to the program director and he might be able to get me an internship with a sex workers organization in bangkok for 3 weeks. i really do want to come home but this would be a really good oppurtunity.  but that would only give me like a week home before classes start. and will i have enough money? what are your thoughts?

im pretty stressed out right now. we are so busy all the time and i am just having a hard time finding moments to just breathe and process everything.

we are about to start our water unit (learning all about dams!) so i figured i should write a little bit about my experiences at the farm...
we stayed in surin province which is very close to the cambodian border (lots of people speak khmer!). surin province was named the first organic province in thailand-- that doesnt mean all of the farmers are organic -- a lot of them still use chemicals-- but going organic is really important to them.

i stayed with anne and gill in toptai community. we had a 28 year old sister named pie and a mom and dad (although we only met the dad once because he slept and worked somewhere behind the house).  they had 2 other daughters who worked in bangkok (sex industry? factory? im not sure) and sent money back home to help their parents.

our family have 2 cows and a lot of chickens. they grew organic bananas, limes, peppers, mangos, and had a garden full of fresh herbs.

the land was beautiful and i liked our house a lot. iwe slept on the floor on mats w/a mosquito net. the house was on stilts (like an old beach house) and had a tin rood w/wooden walls that didnt go all the way up. there was only one big room where we all slept and the bathroom was outside.

the first day we went with some other people to pick mushrooms from the forrest-- this is not as easy as you may think, most of the mushrooms i picked werent okay to eat! we brought out mushrooms back home and cooked them for lunch. we walked around the village and struck up a conversation (in all thai!) with a few farmers about the risk of using chemicals : "sukapop my dee" (bad health)!

my meh was so funny. she only had like 3 teeth so it was really hard for me to understand her. like all the other older women in the village, she was constantly chewing betel nut (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betel_nut)  its a mild narcotic stimulant that turns your mouth, gums, and spit bright red.  i couldnt understand her when she spoke because she was missing most of her teeth and i had a hard time watching her mouth when she spoke (to help me figure out what she was saying) because it looked like she was bleeding from the mouth.  but i asked her if she liked to dance and she said yes and sang a song and we all danced together. and our sister pie was really incredible. we helped her with english and she helped us with thai. her brain was like a sponge!  we would teach a phrase once and she wouldnt forget it!

our last day we woke up at 4am and went with our meh to the green market (organic market in surin that happens every saturday) to help her sell herbs, bananas, and bamboo shoots. we had a great time. people love farangs here and so i decided to use it to my (or her?) advantage. i told everyone that walked by that everything was deliscious! some people laughed at me b/c for awhile i was saying "aroi maah" (deliscious dog!) instead of "aroi maag". its a tricky language.

im not sure why exactly but i felt a really strong connection to this family.  and it made me feel really sad and stressed when i had to leave. my sisters health isnt very good and my mom and dad were very old-- i just worry about them. its weird to make these fleeting relationships with people who end up having a really powerful impact on you. it makes me feel a little strange.

next we went to non bua community.  i really liked this community. even though we were only there for 1 day and 1 night i was really impressed.  they had similar issues to toptai (trying to go organic--> debt from going organic --no support --> worried about free trade agreement w/us) but they also have community forrest issues.  they have farmed and survived off of their land for ever but they have been forced off of it by the government who sold it to a private company so they can grow eucalyptus trees (to make paper). the company wont use the land forever but the problem with eucalyptus trees is that they destroy the land and soil so it is basically impossible to farm on it after.
the forrest is their livelihood-- they farm it, eat from it, and get medicinal herbs. for now they are still allowed to go to some part and gather medicinal herbs and vegetables to eat, but they cant farm it to make any money to support themselves.  some members have been arrested because they refuse to stop farming.
when we exhcanged with them they were really angry but i appreciated that. they seemed pretty radical and werent really interested in working with in the system/ with the government to change things. it made a lot of sense to me-- i mean they have been continuosly screwed by the government and see them as corrupt so why would they want to work with them? im really interested in this community because they are really proactive, just not in the mainstream way. ya know?

they took us on a tour of the forrest and showed up lots of medicinal herbs and explained what they are used for.  we got to try one for migranes and one that can be crushed up and used for toothpaste! it wa pretty awesome. and this all came in handy because i had a pretty bad cold and they fixed me up a tea (that tasted like hell) but actually made me feel a lot better.

after we left the community we stopped and had an exchange with this woman named sumontha. she was probably my favorite yet. she is one of the leaders for the alternative agriculture network and her philosophy has to do with getting back to our roots in nature. she specializes in natural farming (really interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka )  which has to do more with letting things grow naturally (no plowing!) and indigenous seed saving which has to do with saving seeds from year to year, rather than purchasing seed annually from commercial seed suppliers (we make profit off of everything!) but she also thought that we could get back to nature without denying technology-- because the main problems with technology is what is developed and why, and even more who has access to their benefits (ex: green revolution = monocropping and more food, but ruins the land and dangerous to the environment, and even worse(!) the surplus in food isnt even distributed well!)

it was a really amazing experience. i know i should buy organic and local but i got to actually learn/see/hear/taste why.
i told my parents for my birthday i just wanted them to visit a local organic farm or market and check it out and talk to the farmers, but maybe everyone could do this?

we should support local organic farmers but factory farms and distributors (truck drivers) provide a lot of jobs-- so what do we do about them?
and what if everyone in the us only bought local-- i mean ideally every country would support local markets, but we are already part of a global market and the u.s. is a consumer super power (our money is powerful), so what would happen if we didnt support international trade (free and fair)?
and gender, and race, and class, and geographic location, and... FOOD are all interconnected! and buying organic and local is such a class issue- who can really afford it!?
i dont know, i just feel kind of crazy thinking about all of this. i guess in a capitalist society (because money = power) one of the best things you can do is try and be an informed consumer and make wise decisions. but that doesnt seem to be enough, so what else can you do?
 i dont know... i just feel really overwhelmed, and i really want to know what you all think about all of this. also, was any/all of this understandable? if not, let me know so i can try and explain some of it better...


some photos:

my new bestfriend



unfriendly hungry moneys!

me and sugar canes!

i am leaving for bangkok (second time this week..) in a bus with some of the slum communities for world habitat day to write an article. i will let you know how it goes.

miss and love you all more than you know,
shayne


one more thing! i keep thinking about how important sustainabilty is: sustainable agriculture, sustainable relationships (in this case b/w researchers and community members)...
and we talk a lot about ideas/projects in this program and a lot of people first want to do charity and just give communities/organizations money, but again that isnt really sustainable- what do they do when the money runs out?
and, what about development and toursism: sustainable or not? i think not.... thailand thrives during december and january, but what about the rainy season? thai people have grown to depend on foreign consumers and that is just so dangerous!

so what do you guys think about the situation in burma right now?
any thoughts?

its official. i am 22.

im beat and my old bones are tired (see, i even feel older!)

since my last post i have lived on an organic farm, worked at an organic market, picked mushrooms in a forrest, found and tried medicinal herbs in another forrest, learned the word for deliscious in khmer, fed a monk, monkeys, silk worms, and an elephant, traveled all the way to bangkok and rotchaburi province to see where green papayas come from, got a tour of a green papaya farm, met with green peace, and turned 22... in thailand! sometimes i forget im here. maybe i should just finish all of my statements with "...in thailand!"

i want to tell you all about my journies but i just got back in town and i think i need to drink a beer and write in my journal.

oh! this is important! if you are interested in talking to me on the phone for really cheap you should check out: www.jajah.com  you can put like 5 dollars on an account and you get something like 143 free international minutes. my parents and i use it and there is a bit of a delay but its not bad. if you make an account let me know what your screen name is.

more soon...
love love love
shayne

i dont even know if most people read my posts, but its really important for me to make all of these posts and share what i am seeing and learning here. you know sometimes i feel like its a chore- but really(!) i feel really lucky to have this oppurtunity and i want to be able to teach other people what i am learning.  i started this journey with so many questions and i will leave it with even more. what are your questions?

we started our food unit yesterday and i felt so frustrated/helpless/bound to our system-- its so much bigger than me and you and the big big businesses and the local farms. its all so interconnected with gender, and race, and class, and geographic location and...
we are so disconnected from what we consume!  how far does our food travel to reach us?
and there are so many things. there are pesticides and herbicides, and the wto, and the green revolution, and privatization of everything, and free trade agreements, and... traditional agriculture?
in our lecture our professor asked us: when did agriculture stop being a Celebration? farmers are the guardians/historian of human beings relationship to the earth. what caused the move to industrial agriculture? what have plants become? and are seeds a machine or a depository of culture?
(its all just too big)

did you know that april 1st used to be the new year because that was when planting began. april fools day meant you were still following the old agricultrual based calendar...


but there are 840,000,000 hungry people in the world. and 2/3 of the worlds people are peasants. and do we really give a shit where our food comes from aslong as people are fed?
and who gives a shit if the green revolution produced more food if it was inadequately distrubuted?
and what about people who dont have access to their own land? and farmers who cant eat what they grow because they have to sell it to the market?
(and its just so big)

and did you know thailand once thought about privatizing rain water!

i guess its good to be all riled up...
we are leaving tommrow morning at 7am to live and work with rice farmers in surin province.  we will be staying there for 5 days and having exchanges with a lot of awesome people including people from the surin farmer support (an ngo seeking to help strengthen the community through organic farming methods and fair trade),-sumontha loachai (she is one of the leaders of the alternative agriculture network), and folks from the green market.
immediatley after returning from surin we leave for our "follow the food" activitity (during my birthday!).  we will be looking at different foods prominent in khon kaen and following them to their original source. how far will they travel? for example, som tom (green papaya salad) is famous here. you would think the green papayas come from farms close by, but we'll see...

i threw up a little today. i dont know what happened! i felt fine and then blaah.  i think it might have been my lunch?

love. love. love.
shayne