They Say It's Your Birthday...!

Pretty forest next to the sala

After Mae Ta we went to The Nest, a bungalo-type place in Chiang Dao. We shared little cabins in the woods. I was with Liz and Kari for those two nights. We got to The Nest in the evening, with enough time for dinner and mid-course essay writing. I was snuggled up in THE most comfortable bed I’ve been in yet in Thailand, with a down comforter and a cool night air coming through the window. I was hoping to finish my essay before midnight so I might get some sleep, but alas, twas not the case. 12:00 am came around on October 7^th 2012. I was writing an essay in the most comfortable bed since this quaint little in with down beds, comforters and pillows in the Swiss Alps. It was my 21^st birthday. :D

Unfortunately, my birthday was relatively uneventful. I woke up and had some great American food (bacon and cheese omelet with a small warm loaf of bread/bread roll). The place caters to Americans and Europeans, so they didn't have much Thai food. Then I had class where we got to draw with oil pastels to depict how the village of Mae Ta was all interconnected within the context of the three pillars of sustainability: environment, social, political. Lunch, good as always and afternoon lecture was on genetically modified organisms, aka GMO's. I brought some sugar donuts from the Tesco to share as a birthday treat, just like in elementary school.

"This is your classroom"

Dinner that evening was at a nearby restaurant. We were nestled into the mountains and had a great view from our table. There were two great parts of my day, and one occurred on our way back, in the dark of night. We looked up as we were walking along the road, forests up on either side, and saw the milky way! It was gorgeous! I have never seen so many stars before, not even in the most rural of the Ohio locations I’ve been to. The sky was alive with stars, shining down on us with such expanse it nearly took your breath away. To count them would have been impossible. The second great part of my day came soon after. We were settling down to watch Food Inc. when all of a sudden I hear Charlotte and Pi Amy start singing Happy Birthday. Soon the entire class is singing along. I turn around to see Charlotte and Pi Amy holding my “birthday cake”: three boxes of various kanome (basically any type of sweet, be it a cookie, piece of chocolate, or plain fried piece of dough) with a candle on top. And milk :) I love milk. Charlotte also bought me a jar of peanut butter and a bag of chocolate chip cookies as a birthday present. Not even nearly halfway through the movie I was stuffed to the brim, happy as could be. A close contender for my day was getting to nestle back into that down comforter and drift off to sleep. The 9 imaginary shots I took that day were an added bonus. 

Imaginary shot at dinner!

Charlotte across the dinner table.

On a break, Liz and Kari playing some ping pong.

Cool lizard guy.

 

Goat! I fed him. The groundskeeper told his he recently lost his lady friend, and is now very lonely :(

Local, Organic, Mae Ta

Ahh! Mae Ta, a very peaceful, quiet, sabai village in Northern Thailand. Charlotte, Cassie, and I were placed with Pa Pat, the leader of the organic sustainable agriculture movement in Thailand. We arrived in the evening to a house bustling with people. The house is raised up so that there is a completely an open-air, dirt floor space underneath the rest of the house structure. That’s where people spend most of their time, where visitors come, where the kitchen, dining table, two other bedrooms, and the walkway to get to the office is. It took a while to figure out who was who. We didn’t actually know who lived in our house for a little while, and it took about an hour to figure out who our host-father was… whoops. We had a pa, maa, Pi Pui, our older sister, and Dilip a volunteer from Putan learning about sustainable, organic agriculture. Pi Pui, a 32 year old farmer, is also the head of a seed saving and selling business (with the industrial seed production, much of the variety of seeds and consequently the plants and vegetables they grow has been lost) a part of Greennet (an organization for organic farming). She spoke English, so my roommates and I hardly had any translation issues, which was good, because at the start of this excursion course we’d only been in the country about 6 weeks. There’s only so much Thai you can learn in six weeks. But talking with Pa and Maa was still a struggle and allowed us to really practice our mad Thai skills we’ve been honing. 

Charlotte and I having a fun time in the mosquito net! Hahaha

 Our first big part of the trip was to visit a “conventional” farm, which means that chemical inputs are used and monocropping is present. The farm we were on had a host of pigs and a few rai of corn (2.5 rai = 1 acre). It turns out, the woman who farms this land works pig manure into the soil before planting. Then she sprays fertilizer once during a growing season, but no more. She doesn’t worry about pesticide or herbicide, knowing that the corn will soon shade-out all the smaller, slower growing plants beneath. She’s also slowly letting the field be converted into a Teak forest. However, because of the one-time fertilizer application, she is considered conventional not organic. She buys her seed and fertilizer from a middleman working with a corporate company, once crops come up she sells back to the middleman but struggles to make a profit and usually just ends up in debt. Lands are degraded from monocropping and chemical inputs, decreasing soil quality and consequently producing worse harvests with each passing year. Then farmers buy more seed and in many cases except hers more fertilizer to make higher harvest profits, but it seldom works out. Each year she and many other farmers accumulate more and more debt, never being able to end the cycle.

Cricket, gutted and fried.

We took a hike to a watershed one morning. It was interesting to look at the students versus our four local guides. We were in hiking pants and shoes with day packs, water bottles, sun hats (adventure hats), copious amounts of bug spray and of course the most fashionable item we owned: gaiters. Our guides however, were in a t-shirt with highwater pants, and cheap plastic-y slip-on shoes, with a bag for food slung over one shoulder and a machete secured at the hip. It was adventure time.

Cheem-ing it (trying it)

Still not so sure about it...

So we start up through the community agroforest. And for those of you who have no idea what that is, it’s a forest, with agricultural products available throughout. Upon entering the forest only a few meters, the temperature was noticeably cooler (and much more comfortable). The first half of the hike was pleasant, up and down slopes through bamboo and deciduous. The second half was just as gorgeous and included some stream crossings, and a lot of leeches. I mean a TON of leeches. We all acquired short sticks so that when we stopped every few minutes to de-leach the outside of our gaiters we could use the stick to fling them off. Pi Tik was wonderfully squeamish around leaches and it was hilarious to watch. Finally we got to the source of the stream. It poured out of some rocks on the side of a slope. More interesting, I thought at least, were the pure white clay sediments I found there. Because the forest is a watershed forest, the villagers don’t cut down any of the trees and consequently no agriculture is done in the area, therefore no chemicals are going into the stream. The water was tested years back and was found to be cleaner than city water. 

 That comes to absolutely no surprise to me, and I hope it doesn’t to you either. Human interaction with the Earth has been a historically destructive relationship. The advent of agriculture was a huge turning point in human history. It allowed for large numbers of people to congregate in a single area. Populations rise as a result in part of food security, so technologies advance to meet to need for higher food production. Humans use biofuels and natural resources, they synthesize chemicals not normally found on this earth and package them in ways that won’t degrade for thousands of years to come. They exploit available lands and ecosystems, while becoming consumerist and glutinous over their product use. This all adds up to create unnaturally large populations of humans, consuming more product that available and demanding more from the land than it can give. Consequently the waste outputs skyrocket and industrialized agriculture booms with the idea of “the green revolution” [which is an agriculture platform pushing high-yield varieties sold exclusively from large corporations like Monsanto, monoculture, and intense use of chemical fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide]. Somehow this doesn’t sound very “green” to me.

Charlotte lookin fly like a G6, picking amaranth.

Another day we got to spend the day on the farm. Our family says be downstairs at 8, so Charlotte, Cassie, and I are dressed and ready to work in the garden (and by garden, I mean the ENTIRE backyard, maybe a rai or two). After sitting around half an hour, we’re led out to pick some eggplant. They came in all shapes and sizes, I couldn’t wait to try them. After maybe half an hour we were back under the house because breakfast was ready. Finally by 10 we’re out in the field picking amaranth. In its young stages, it’s a tasty plant used in many curry dishes. However once it becomes too big it becomes tough and develops thorns. After scavenging all the fallow beds of some leftover amaranth, we deweeded another two rows of beds. By then it was about 11:30 so we took a break for lunch. As we were helping make lunch (som tam! -> grated green papaya, peanuts, crab or other meat but sometimes it’s vegetarian, peppers (of course) and some other stuff I have written down somewhere…) it started to rain. So after lunch, our family says “non lap, nan lap, sabai. Lao goh bai ti sala gap naksuksah = take a nap, shower, be relaxed. Then later go to the sala with the other students”. We felt really unproductive on the farm, but it had been a hot day and we were kind of excited to have the afternoon off.

Som Tam!

We heard a lot of cool things from the people we talked to in Mae Ta. Pa Pat gave us a lecture on the decreasing value of an education. He said ‘so many people are getting degrees these days, it’s just the “thing to do”. But with such a huge influx qualified grads, those with these lofty degrees are now out of work. The job market is only so big and those with college debt are finding it difficult to pay it off. Sometimes people think less of jobs as farmers, but they have all the food they need and a source of income. If it rains for 10 days, you get 10 days off to do as you please, while your crops are out growing. It’s a very happy life.’ And think about it, if all the farmers went on strike and didn’t make harvests next year, how much food out of your diet would you lose? Probably all your meat, nearly all your winter food source, pretty much any processed product containing corn, corn flour, or corn syrup (and those are the obvious names that corn by-products go under). If farmers refused to plant, seed prices would go way up for home gardeners. How many seeds do you have saved, ready to plant for next year? Farmers are a crucial part of the way of life for most humans living in America. We also talked to some young farmers who had gone to the city and received educations and some got jobs in their fields, only to decide that they didn’t want that type of life. They liked feeling connected to their communities and being able to set their own schedules. One said they couldn’t imagine a life in which they weren’t a part of their community. The mindset is just so different from what I’ve experienced in America, and yet I completely love it.

Pi Pui, Me, Cassie; Maa, Charlotte - holding some produce we're to sell at the market the next morning.

Eventually Mae Ta came to an end. We said goodbye to the giant blue mosquito net, saw the farm and the family for one last time, and set out at the wonderful hour of four in the morning. We spent the day comparing food prices at an organic market that all of our host families sell their produce at, as well as at the Tesco Lotus supermarket around the corner. We drove back up north again and to Chiang Dao, for our mid-course seminar.

Do you know what milestone came the next day?

How I Ended Up at a Gay Bar

“It’s the first weekend all together in the apartments, we should go out and explore. There’s this bar around the corner, let’s go check it out!” said no one in particular, but it sums up the start to our night. So it’s maybe 9 pm, and a group of nine of us head out in search of this bar, called “The See man’s Club”. It’s a very short walk away, so we’re there in no time. All the windows are blacked out and there seems to be no one outside, so we’re a little confused, but go in anyways. In true club fashion, there’s very low lighting, music pumping, and laser lights going on. And there was the occasional spurt from a fog machine which seemed to be on no particular schedule.

We seat ourselves in the comfy couches in the upper section and order a round of drinks (okay so we ordered a fifth, but whatever let’s not get too technical). We’re drinking our way through that while carrying on with conversation and singing along to the English music. Then one of my group-mates says “hey there are only dudes in this club and there’s a stage. I think we might be at a gay bar…” which we all laugh along to. When one of the guys comes back from the bathroom he informs us that there are posters of nearly naked attractive men in the bathroom. We’re definitely at a gay bar. But what do we care? We’re out together having a good time so it’s all good.

We’re sipping on a second order of drinks when all of a sudden the club changes. Lights set up on stage and the curtains open. Out struts a woman in high heels and a tight dress, dancing and singing. Yep, definitely a gay bar. We cannot contain ourselves, now cheering and singing along with her (genetically male, but mentally female). We even got a shout out from one of the women on stage. They were speaking to the audience of maybe 40 men, when the woman turns to us we heard the word “farang”. Immediately, of course, we stand up and cheer for ourselves. No idea what she’s saying, but she’s gesturing to us and talking to us and it sounds positive, so we embrace it. The show goes on into the night, but after spending a few hours at this club we decide to move on. Who knows what the finale might have been. ;)

It was definitely not what we expected to find when we set out, but it turned into a really fun night.

Saying Goodbye

I stepped off the plane in Thailand and was greeted by Ajaan Mark and some of the Thai Pi’s. They dropped a necklace of flowers over my head and said “welcome to Thailand!” We stayed that evening in a hotel and the next morning were taken to ISDSI for orientation. By 5 pm our host families began arriving to come pick us up. I hadn’t been in the country a full 24 hours by this point and had learned only one word in Thai (sawadee-ka). Then all of a sudden there I was standing face to face with a Thai couple in their 50’s. They smiled at me and spoke some Thai; I just smiled back and got in the car. I had no idea who I was with or where we were going. We drove through the city (a scary experience, to be sure), all the way through the city, then started coming upon some rice fields and orchards. Where are we going? I wondered the whole time. I had no sense of direction, no way of communicating, no knowledge of appropriate behavior. All I had right then was my Thai parents. They were my only foundation and source of help, comfort, and conduct and so to them I entrusted myself and my wellbeing.

The fields across my house

For five weeks, I’d woken up to these parents and my two sisters in a house in the country. I’d learned (very slowly) what to expect as normal Thai behavior and began to feel more comfortable in their house. My pa woke up every morning around 5:30 and showered. By the time I got out of bed at 6 the front doors would be opened with light streaming in. As I showered he or my maa would cook me breakfast. Different dishes at first, sometimes it was a full meal, other times it was a piece of fruit. Eventually they settled on hot-dogs and a fried egg, which I would routinely couple with hot chocolate. My sister would wake up and when she put on her backpack I knew we were leaving for school. I’d walk outside and down the steps to where all of our shoes sat. They’d unlock the gate and out we’d go. When school was over my parents would drive up and if I didn’t see them first and walk out, my maa would come find me. She’s ask “wan ni koon le-en aria ka?” and I would take out my notebook and butcher the pronunciation of about every word I tried to say. “Kao jai?” I’d add after long silences after I’d read a word. (Do you understand?) to which the response was usually “mai kao jai” (I don’t understand) and a chuckle. I’d then try it in a sentence, if I knew enough vocab for it. But oftentimes I had to resort to pointing at the Thai spelling of the word (while I had English phonetics written beside). Once she realized what I’d been trying to say she’d laugh harder, pronounce it correctly for me, and I’d repeat.

We’d get home and I’d retreat to the air conditioning in my room (yes! I had a small AC unit in my room! It was absolutely wonderful) to cool off and unwind from the mentally taxing day of learning Thai. I’d come out a little bit later and practice my Thai or watch my mom cooking dinner. I’d ask “ni arai?” (what’s this?) and she’d tell me Thai word that I’d repeat and usually forget within 20 seconds. I do regret not writing more down about what she was cooking. Many of the ingredients were different and not common/available in the States so it was hard to figure out what she was making and how I could copy it. I did learn general trends in cooking, how things are cut and prepared, how foods are cooked, and whatnot. Then I’d gather five plates and place some heaping mounds of rice on them. We’d eat dinner in Thai fashion: fork in left hand, used to push food onto the spoon in your right which you then eat from. There were multiple dishes, all placed in the middle with little serving spoons. You’d take one or two bite portions at a time from a dish so eating was a communal affair. Some night’s I’d do dished, if not then my maa would the following morning. Then came karaoke time, which was after dinner most nights. I sang some English songs for them and even a Spanish one, while they sang many in Thai. We also listened to a lot of K-Pop while my sisters would dance to the music videos. My maa would say “ap nam” (shower) and I’d be soon showered and off to bed. They day would repeat for nearly every school day.

On weekends, they took me to meet the grandparents and see the piglets, chicks, and puppies that had just been born on their little farm. We went to many shops and markets. I went to Pa’s retirement ceremony and a funeral. I met many policemen at my pa’s station, and the students my younger sister went to school with. I was introduced as their “luke sow” (daughter). Sometimes they would tell me we were leaving, so I’d grab my things and hop in the car without any idea where we were going. Show up, have no idea what was going on, and end up back at home (sometimes still clueless). Sometimes my maa would sit down and talk with me. This was an entirely Thai conversation, as she speaks little/no English. It was a long, long, long process to express a few seemingly simple ideas. One time there was straight-up charades, which actually went over pretty well. I went to the mall with my sisters and had my pa help me in the evening with my homework. It was truly a part of their family.

But after five weeks, the homestays were over and the students had to move into apartments. I was sad to leave my family but excited to gain some freedom. I spent most of Friday night packing, which was a much less organized affair then my packing to come to Thailand a month before. Saturday morning I’m served another fried egg and make myself some hot chocolate. It’s pretty low-key and doesn’t even seem like I’m leaving or my family is too concerned about it. I’m actually ready early so we load up the car and set out. Then I realized I forgot my Karen bag so we had to turn around. Setting out again I realize we’re turning onto the small street that my grandparents live on. We pull in and I’m ushered over to sit next to my grandfather. I greet him appropriately and smile, sitting wondering what’s going to happen. My maa has me hold my hands out in front me, side by side, palms up. My grandpa pulls out some white string and takes a short piece (maybe 6 inches) and drags in across both my palms, chanting. He then takes one of my wrists and, with more chanting, wraps the white string around it three times, ties a knot, and blows on it. He then repeats on the other wrist. When it’s all said in done my parents tell me to thank him, and then we’re back in the car again.

I think my grandpa might have been a monk previously. I think he was Bali chanting, because I couldn’t understand any of it, which is what monks chants and blessings are in. I’m pretty sure I was just blessed by an 80-something Thai monk. Words could not describe how I was feeling at that time. I just felt really great and kept smiling. It was a great send-off from my family, blessing me with good luck and fortune for the rest of my adventures in Thailand and America.

We reach the P&S Mansion Apartments (yeah, say P&S five times fast. You’ll be laughing too). My family helps me take my things up to my room and they check it out to make sure everything is working properly. After so long, there’s not much else to do but for them to leave. I walk them back down to the front door and we stand there for a while, greeting other families as they drop off their host-children. I could tell they didn’t want to leave me, and I knew I was going to miss them, but I was ready to unpack and see where the other students were living and settle into our new apartment life. I also wasn’t sure what correct protocol was for saying goodbye in Thailand, so I just stood there. When it comes time they and give me wai’s and ‘sawadee-ka’s and we just stand there looking at each other.

“Can I have a hug?” I say to my host sister Fern, “That’s what we do in America.” She translated to my maa, who promptly ran forward and threw her arms around me and started to cry. “No, don’t do that. You’re going to make me cry too!” To which the tears immediately started swelling in my eyes. I buried my head in her hair and hugged her, both sobbing. I didn’t want to leave this mother who has had a hand in helping and guiding me during my first very confusing five weeks in Thailand. She’s helped give me a place in society and ground me within Chiang Mai. She’s taught me when to wai, how to eat Thai style, and taken as good of care of me as I could have ever asked (actually she was a little too caring, and it sometimes felt a little suffocating to have such lack of responsibility and freedom, but I know it was only out of love). She steps back, still crying, and I hug my sister Fern as well. Men and women don’t really touch in Thailand, so I didn’t hug my pa, but he did give me a smile and a nod. Then my family walked down the steps, got into the car and drove off. My safety net and security blanket, and most of what grounded me in Chiang Mai had suddenly been ripped away in a very emotional morning.

I walked back upstairs, trying to dry my tears along the way. After sitting in the air conditioning for a little bit, I decide I should unpack. After all, it will be a Saturday night and the first night all the students are together with our new-found freedom.  I would much rather come back in the night to an organized, unpacked, and put together room. I open my backpack and start to unload my books when I come across something I don’t remember seeing before. I pull it out and find a hand-made card written by my host sister Fern. It’s so touching and sweet, full of pictures of me and the family (and my classmate Reid, who my sisters think is incredibly attractive and looks like Justin Bieber. Reid disagrees with the JB part, as most American boys don’t want to look like him). Reading this brought me to tears again.

Sara Do not forget my family. I hope that you will be successful. I hope we can meet again and teach me to sing again. Some call me back. If you come to Thailand again. Families are always welcome. Goog luck! Fern and family <3 Ps.. My love won't accept to change... "love you"

They really cared for me, as a family should. I’m happy to be moving onto the field excursions courses, but I’m very sad to leave them. I have my family in the States. I then have my Prairie Lane family, whom I address as Aunt, Uncle, and occasionally Cousin. A brand off of that is my longest-time friend Leah’s family in southern Ohio, with people like my Uncle Richard, Aunt Pam, and my cousins Josh, Sean, and Nate. They treat me like family and love me just the same. I’ve also adopted two step-families into my life (one’s Italian, now that’s at least five times the size of my blood-related family). Now I’m adding another group of people I can call my family. Having these six families have led me to develop a new definition of the word “family”. A family isn’t only a group of people to which you are genetically related to. Families do not have to be born through blood. A family is a group of people who support one another. They teach the young together. I know I was always safe in the care of any of my Prairie Lane family members. I don’t think there was much worry in my parents mind if I were to be left with any of them. My step-fathers family taught me much about cooking. My southern Ohio family taught me how to ride four-wheelers, shoot guns, throw knives, and drive a car. A family is a support network of people who love and care for one another, and who would drop all they were doing to come to your side in time of need, even when you don’t ask for it. A family is above all, a group who loves one another. I love all my families and am so grateful that I’ve grown up in each of their lives. It’s given me a large safety net to fall back on, a place to be grounded, and an environment to feel safe and comfortable. If I should come back to Thailand, I’ll definitely be visiting my Thai family again. We may be physically apart, but they’ll always be a part of me. To maa, pa, Fang, and Fern: Thank you for such wonderful hospitality. I miss you already, and I’ll never forget you. 

Traditional Lanna dress for the farewell dinner