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_Fu
kuoka ) 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!