CIEE Thailand Fall 2007 Student Newsletter

Kaao NiaoOctober 25, 2007Volume VI Issue 2

CIEE Thailand Fall 2007 Student NewsletterCIEE Thailand Fall 2007 Student NewsletterOctober 25, 2007Oc o r 5, 007Volume VI Issue 2

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Volume VI Issue 2 October 25, 2007

Letter from the EditorsSawatdee!

Welcome to our second issue of the Fall 2007 CIEE Th ailand newsletter! A lot has happened since you last heard from us. Over the past month, we’ve spent time in both the classroom and Th ai villages learning about the im-pacts of development in the context of food and water, our previous two units. Our food unit focused on agriculture; our experiences ranged from staying with organic farmers in the province of Surin to discovering the diff erent stops foods make on their journey from producer to consumer. Next to come was the water unit, which explored the social and environmental impacts of dams here in the Northeast of Th ailand, focusing on the internationally controversial Pak Mun Dam.

In planning this issue of the newsletter, we struggled with establishing an overarching theme. As we collected contributions, however, a theme emerged on its own. Th e notion that these issues are not confi ned to Th ailand, but occur in the context of a larger globalizing world is something that all of our articles touch upon. As a group, we are constantly struggling with how these issues connect to one another and inform our own lives here, as well as our lives back home.

We would like to thank everyone who took the time to contribute to this newsletter. We hope this publication will give readers a better understanding of what we’re learning here in Northeast Th ailand.

Enjoy,

Emily Odato (Tuft s University)Kelsey Cummings (University of Vermont)Laura Th eiler (University of Michigan) Rachel Filip (University of Minnesota)

Note about our publication title:depending on the tone mark, kaao-niao can mean “sticky rice”, our favorite food, or “sticky news”

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Volume VI Issue 2 October 25, 2007

My host mother or mae, stepped off the song taew, a buslike type of public transport, that was piled high with the villagers’ produce, small wooden stands, pots and pans, and the villagers themselves. She caught sight of us and let out a little shriek of delight. We were right on time to help with the great unloading of wares to be sold at the weekly Green Market in Surin. Our host mother and many others in her village rely on the Green Market, the largest organic mar-ket in the Northeast, to provide a source of income (about 900 Baht per month or 28 US dollars) for their families. Th e market had humble beginnings, but it has grown to be-come a place of com-munity and strength for the people of the “Organic Province” of Th ailand.

As we helped our mae unload, we marveled at the simplicity of her set-up. She placed her bananas, ba-nana tree fl owers, sweet basil, and steamed bamboo shoots on a small wooden table made from foldable bamboo and green banana leaves. Her goods came from her home: the herbs from the garden, the ba-nanas from her own trees, and the bamboo from her yard- all grown without chemi-cals. Around us other families were setting out their various produce, kanome (Th ai snacks), homemade soaps, and bags. Won-derful smells of grilled fi sh mingled with the aroma of my mae’s basil and I wondered why everyone in the world doesn’t get their food and income this way.

About one hundred families come to the Green Market every Saturday in down-town Surin. Th e market occupies a spa-cious, tree-lined plaza along the river. Th e area is public, so the Market organization is not allowed to lease it. Th ey fear they will be forced to move by the city if they cannot secure a permanent con-tract. Th is situation has been a threat for the past few years, but so far nothing has happened to make them move. Finding a space to operate is one of several obstacles the market has faced over the years. Secur-ing a steady customer base has also been a hard won success. Th ere are now a large number of regulars each Saturday, health conscious people mostly from the middle and upper classes. For these people, the gap

between farmer and consumer has been bridged. Th e produce sold at the Green Market travels less than fi ft y miles to get to the consumer. Th e market organizers would like to expand their clientel even further and are looking into diff erent advertising strategies.

Besides reducing the impact of greenhouse gases released by trucks traveling long distances and supporting a chemical-free, more

sustainable way of farming, the Market also fos-ters a sense of community around food. Farmers have a place to gather and connect with one an-other. My host mother was almost seventy years old, yet she was still selling at the market because she had the help of her neighbors and friends. Th e Green Market is a living example of how farmer’s markets are about more than simply buying and selling fresh food. People feel connected to them-selves, each other, and the land. Around the world, farmer’s markets are growing in popularity as peo-ple recognize the need for a shift in how we get our food. Surin farmers are doing a large service to their families and to their region.

One of the market organizers told us that this way of small-scale organic farming is benefi -cial for the next generation of farmers. Many chil-dren in rural Th ailand go off to cities for school or

work when they turn eighteen. Our mae had two daughters who worked in Bangkok. Maybe this type of farming can be a way to keep everyone together and participate in the collective liveli-hood of cultivating land and selling the surplus produce. I saw whole families go to the market with young children helping their parents

and grandparents set up and sell the various goods. Th e Green Mar-ket provides a space for many gen-erations to come together. Perhaps markets like this one can help slow the rural fl ight into urban centers that too oft en result in fragment-ed families and communities in Northeastern Th ailand.

As we helped our mae sell her bananas, herbs, and bamboo, I realized how lucky these people are to have carved out a place for themselves amidst the chaos and exploitation of global agribusiness.

Th is is the anecdote to the supermarket; this is how the future must look. People like my mae in Surin are the leaders of this movement.

-Anne Kirkner (Pennsylvannia State University)

Th e Green MarketA Visit to Th ailand’s Organic Province

Silkworms and chilis at the Green Market

Vendors at the Green Market

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Volume VI Issue 2 October 25, 2007

Our fi rst homestay for the food unit was in the beautiful province of Surin in Northeast Th ailand near the Cambodian border. Th e two communities we stayed in were comprised mostly of rice farm-ers, many of whom farmed organically. Organic farming in Th ailand is fairly uncommon for many reasons such as farmers’ lack of knowledge about its implementation and benefi ts, as well as the lack of government sup-port. Only over the past ten to fi ft een years have farmers in these two villages switched from chemical to organic farming. Because of the switch, farm-ers have seen improvements in their health and the condition of their land and a decrease in their debt. Th e fi rst morning of our homestay, my roommates and I asked our host mother, or mae, if we could accompany her on her daily trip to the rice fi elds. We had heard much about them from articles and exchanges with organizations and were eager to see them in person. She said that we could go, but added hesitantly that we would have to walk over three kilometers to get there. Being as excited as we were to see the fi elds, a twenty minute walk seemed to be a small price to pay. However, aft er a few minutes of walking in Th ailand’s unforgiving sun and humidity, the beads of sweat were starting to blur my vision and I began to ques-tion my initial enthusiasm for our excursion. Th at moment of skepticism soon diminished as we turned the corner and I saw the tranquility and enormity of the rice fi elds. Th e rich green colors of the rice plants stretched out as far as I could see and before I knew it, my host mother had started traips-ing through the fl ooded rice fi eld. Aft er a couple of minutes of trekking through the water and mud we arrived at a pen in the middle of the fi eld. In the midst of my confusion as to what a fence was doing in the middle of a rice fi eld, I heard a loud, low groan. When I looked up I noticed four rather large cows standing in the middle of the pen. As our mae gathered weeds from the surrounding rice fi eld, we went over to say hi to them. As it turns out, as good as our intentions were, those cows didn’t like us very much (or else we missed the page in our handbook that said violent head-butting gestures were signs of love and aff ection from Th ai cows). However, when our mae

returned with armfuls of grass the cows turned into angels. Hunger makes them agitated and a bit aggressive she told us, petting a cow who was now peacefully eating his way through the large pile of food. Apparently, the behavior of cows is closer to humans than I thought.

When we got back from the rice fi elds, we felt as hungry as those cows (although we weren’t about to head butt anyone). Coincidentally, the food for our meal was collected in a similar manner. All of the ingredi-ents for our meal came from near our house. Th e Jasmine rice came from what was left of their previous harvest, while the green beans and vegetables that made up the stir-fry were from the small garden in our backyard. Our favorite dish, a type of egg omelet, was made from fresh eggs laid by ducks that ran through our front yard. Aft er we thought our meal couldn’t have gotten any better, our host mother cracked open fresh coconuts that she had picked off of a tree in the back-

yard. As I sat at the table so full and satisfi ed that I didn’t think I could move, I realized that all the ingredients that went into our meal had been grown by my host family. I marveled at their self suffi ciency and envied their ability to have fresh food. I had gone into the home-stay thinking that the unique characteristic of the community was that they farmed organically, but what I saw and experienced encompassed so much more. Th eir culture that surrounded food showed the respect and confi dence they have for themselves, for their community, and for

the land that they live off of. As I fi nished my dinner on the last day, I made sure I savored the lightness of the rice and the crisp-ness of the vegetables one last time. Not only because its taste had proven to be unmatched, but be-cause of the unique and wonderful food culture and community the food represented.

Living Surin StyleA homestay full of adventures and good food

A typcial kitchen setting at our homestay in Surin

- Emily Odato (Tuft s University)

Cows in a rice fi eld in Surin

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Volume VI Issue 2 October 25, 2007

Have you ever wondered how far your food travels before it reaches you? Someone once told me that in the United States food travels approximately fi ft een hundred miles before it gets to your belly. But what about here in Th ailand; does the land of smiles rely on far away places to import its food as well?

Th ese were some of the ideas behind our “Follow the Food” activity. Students were split into various groups of food: meat, coca-cola, vegetables, green papaya, and som-tam. Som-tam was especially interesting because it is a staple dish of the Northeast, an area lo-cally known as Isaan. Th is treat is a mixture of three main tastes: spicy, sour, and sweet. It is a combination of green papayas, garlic, fi sh sauce (or if you’re lucky fermented fi sh sauce), chili peppers, sugar, tomatoes, and limes. Because of som-tam’s importance to Isaan’s culture, I chose to follow its main ingredi-ent, green papaya. Although our jour-neys diff ered in length and distance they followed simi-lar routes, which included vendors, markets, middle people, factories, slaughter houses and farms.

Our journey to fi nd the green papaya started at a som-tam vendor located right down the street from our apart-ments. With the help of a trusty translator we found out that our favorite vendor obtains her green papayas from the government bus station in Khon Kaen. And where does the government bus station get their green pa-payas from? Th e government train station. Bus station! Train Station! What’s next, the airport?

Th is is where our journey started to get interesting. It turns out the woman at the government train station is the green papaya queen of Khon Kaen. She supplies all of the restaurants and vendors in Khon Kaen with their green papaya needs, and gets a shipment of ten thousand kilograms of them three times a week. She explained to us that green papa-yas are grown here in the Northeast, but that

there are actually two diff erent species grown in diff erent types of soil.

Th e green pa-payas grown in Khon Kaen and the rest of the Northeast are too mushy, but the soil in the provinces surround-ing Bangkok produces a crispier, crunchier green papaya. Mushy som- tam? No thanks.

Th e green papa-ya queen had a unique situation because she bought her green pa-payas straight from a farm in Ratchaburi, a province just south of Bangkok. Most people, however, get their green papayas from the Th ai Market in Bang-

kok. So we hopped in a van for an over night ride down to the big city.

With sleepy eyes we arrived at the Th ai Market around six a.m. and found a green pa-paya stand ripe for the picking. We asked the vendor if she knew of any green papaya farms nearby, but the

closest one she knew of was four hours away, and we concluded that was too far.

We were stuck. But, we weren’t willing to give up with-out a fi ght and decided to drive to Ratchaburi and look for green papaya farms. How hard could it be? So we drove, and drove, and drove some more. At this point we had been driving for about eight hours, and there were no farms to be found. Right when we were about to call it a day, the green papaya queen of Khon Kaen called us and gave us di-rections to the farm she gets her papayas from. We drove for an-other twenty minutes and met

her brother at the elusive green papaya farm in Ratchaburi.

S o , let’s do the math! Bang-kok is about two hundred sevent y-five miles from Khon Kaen, and Ratch-aburi is about fi ft y miles from Bang-kok, meaning our green pa-payas travel a

total of three hundred twenty-fi ve miles be-fore reaching us. Food for thought: how did something so popular in Isaan come from a completely diff erent region? And, how and when did we start relying on far away places to satisfy our cravings?

- Shayne Th omas (Virginia Commonwealth University)

Search for the Great Green PapayaWhere does our food really come from?

Green papaya farm in Ratchaburi province

Som-tam ingredients

On the way to the market

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Volume VI Issue 2 October 25, 2007

I watched my little sister As she stared at the television set In front of her. The bright flashing lights it gave off Illuminated the wooden boards That had been inadvertently Nailed together To form four walls. This little wooden tree-house My homestay family called home.

The children in Nong Waeng Community are blessed To have an amazing education at the school that is Just at the edge of their slum community. They know how to dream big. They aspire to be doctors, Lawyers, and environmentalists.

They are also blessed To have amazing parents Who love them And enjoy spoiling them. My little sister was not The servant of her family, Like other younger sisters I had In middle class homestays.

Photo Essay: How to Dream Big

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Volume VI Issue 2 October 25, 2007

But watching her eyes absorb The advertisements blaring at her From the television, As images of Bleached faced young Thai girls Danced around with pearl necklaces Purses and makeup containers And an American pop song Played in the background About how riches and pearls Were all a girl needed, I couldn’t help but realize That she would probably Never have these things.

What is the life that we wish for For the children of the world? Does it exist in the images Of the smiling consumers on television, Or in the awe produced When young brown eyes watch An exotic blonde foreign student, Parading around With an expensive digital camera? What are we teaching?

- Kat Schweikert (Middlebury College)

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Volume VI Issue 2 October 25, 2007

Her silky pink pajamas gave it away, but I thought I’d ask anyway, “Kun chaab si arai?” (What color do you like?). “Si champoo,” she said, shaking her pink shirt sleeve for clarifi -cation. We dumped the bag of strings on the fl oor and sift ed through the assortment of colors. Jang’s birthday was tomorrow, and we wanted to give her something that symbolized our friendship and appreciation for everything she had done for us. Using her favorite color, we fashioned a friendship bracelet and tied it around her wrist.

Jang was my host sister in Rasi Salai. During her midterm break she woke up at fi ve a.m. to begin cleaning the house. By the time we got up at seven a.m. she had breakfast pre-pared. It was rare to see Jang sitting down and not helping with household chores or attend-ing to the younger kids. At just fi ft een years old, she has exceptional work ethic. At night she would patiently engage in conversation with my roommates and I as we attempted to utilize our Th ai speaking skills.

Jang lives with her grandparents in Northeast Th ailand because her parents were forced to migrate to Bangkok. Th e construc-tion of the Rasi Salai Dam has had a signifi -cant eff ect on the villagers who depend on the river and surrounding land as their source of income. Since dams can cause unnatural fl ood-ing and the disappearance of fi sh species, many families no longer have access to the food or work they once had and are forced to move to the city. Jang is no exception. When school is not in session she oft en spends her breaks vis-iting her parents and helping them with their work in Bangkok. I am so grateful for the op-portunity to have spent time with Jang and to have heard about how this large issue has per-sonally aff ected her and her family. -Whitney Morgan (University of

Michigan)

Th roughout the water unit I was continually inspired by the exchanges, homestays, and the amazing individuals we were given a chance to meet. It became truly evident that every drop of water contains the souls, livelihoods, and traditions of the villagers.

A Culture of WaterArtwork by Kayla Kaiser (Hamline University)

Jang’s StoryA Personal Look at the Eff ects of

Development

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Volume VI Issue 2 October 25, 2007

PrecipicePrecipice

Th is poem took shape during an exchange with villagers and activists who are protesting the Hua Na Dam in Rasi Salai, Northeast Th ailand. With fourteen gates, Hua Na is one of the largest dams in Th ailand, but is not yet operational. Many villagers are involved in the struggle to keep the gates from being closed, for fear that vital community wetlands and farmland will be fl ooded and destroyed. Th e words of one man in particular inspired this poem.

Alexandra Dalferro (Columbia University)

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Volume VI Issue 2 October 25, 2007

Pak Mun village in the Northeast of Th ailand has been slowly choked by the grip of modernization that is now clawing its way across the entire country. Now notorious in Th ailand, the Pak Mun Dam has been stud-ied internationally as an embodiment of ev-erything that can go wrong with a large scale development project. Th e dam ran millions of dollars over budget when it was built and op-erates at less than half of its energy generating potential. It now costs more to operate than the electricity it creates is worth. But most im-portantly to the villagers residing on the Mun River, the dam has ruined the precious eco-system which has helped provide food for the people for thousands of years. A few people in the village have taken it upon themselves to fi ght what seems like an impossible battle against the prevailing trends of a globalizing world. I spent a few days with one of them to see what that fi ght looks like.

Paw Somkiat Ponpai, my host father and the leader of Pak Mun village, sits in his backyard that doubles as a schoolhouse and tells me how he fi ghts both the dam and the trends of modernization, which have cursed this serene river. At the age of fi ft y-fi ve, I can’t help but think that like so many villagers in Th ailand, he looks fi ft een years younger than his peers in America. Only his beard betrays him. Spiraling down to a narrow point, just touch-ing the breast pocket of his fl annel shirt, Somki-at’s beard looks as if it had given up the fi ght against the color grey long ago. His hair, however, is still as black as that of the students who litter the pictures hanging around us, a refl ection of the life that Samkiat’s school seeks to preserve.

“Th e main prob-lem in Pak Mun now,” he says, “is fi nding food.”

Partly to address this problem, Somkiat began the “Local Wis-dom School” four years

ago. Th is school brings local students out into the surrounding environment to teach a sus-tainable way of life that relies on nature for nearly everything, especially food.

“If it is bamboo season they will bring home bamboo to eat, if it is mushroom season [...] mushrooms.”

Th e school teaches local people of all ages to identify edible fare in the forest, catch fi sh in the river, and build all manner of necessary items, like wooden boats, woven fi shing nets and handmade baskets. Hanging from the wooden beams above the timber fl oor where we sit are pink and blue laminated sheets giving Th ai instructions on how to go about doing all of these things, even recipes for preparing food. I notice an older woman walk by as we talk, and sit down to read one of these sheets, which I later fi nd out details the fi ner points of making fi sh paste. Paw is ab-sorbed in our conversation and doesn’t seem to notice the stranger walk into his own back-yard; in most Th ai villages, this sort of blind trust is common.

Somkiat’s school has been so popular that the Minister of Education called him in response to a complaint made by an anony-mous party about an “illegal school” he was running.

“I suspect it was someone from EGAT [Energy Generating Authority of Th ailand],” paw posits, assuming it was the government organization responsible for the Pak Mun Dam and many others like it all across Th ailand. EGAT seems to be the villain in almost every story around here.

Th e Minister asked Somkiat all sorts of questions about the school building, such as how many fl oors it has, how many acres it covers, and so on. I hear this and look around at the small, open air, wooden shack we are sit-ting in and the small sleeping quarters where I am staying and laugh at the thought of this stereotypical village home being described as a school building. Somkiat, though, had a diff erent response for the Minister.

“Wherever there is soil, water, or for-ests, that can be a classroom for us,” paw said.

But the school, which caters to fi ft een students at a time, is a small endeavor in com-parison to the giant forces of capitalism which Somkiat speaks out against.

“To really talk about self suffi ciency, you must talk about fi ve hundred years ago. Now it is almost impossible,” paw says, con-tinuing by saying that to get back to a sustain-able life now, “consumerism and capitalism have to go out the window.”

Paw’s Words of WisdomTrends of modernization

Pak Mun Dam

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Volume VI Issue 2 October 25, 2007

Paw’s lamentations on the capitalist way of life seem more striking as a truck car-rying potato chips passes by us on the narrow, uneven street behind his house. Even here in this small remote Th ai village, a foreigner like myself can see much to bring back memories of home: a motorcycle shop sits across the street, with a cell phone shop next to it and a major bank just a few stores down. In this remote village, just miles from the border of Laos, everyone now needs a cell phone and a car to get what they need to survive. I would ask if these things existed here when paw was a boy, but I know the answer.

In the old days there was no national park and no dam. “But now, our forests are taken away, our river is taken away. It is a fi ve hundred baht fi ne to take something out of the forest,” Somkiat says. Th e sharpness of his gaze is surprising for a lanky, old man.

“Nowadays, you have to pay for every-thing,” paw continues, “if you have to pay a water bill every month, how can that be self suffi ciency?”

He went on to describe the systems

of the world intensely and with a depth of thought that shocked me, coming from a man with just a fourth grade education. Somkiat spoke of how capitalism has colonized Th ai-land and how the new age of colonialism was bread from globalization, forcing rights and economic systems onto people who were hap-py for thousands of years without them. He spoke of the destruction of the environment, of the ruination of cultures, and of the in-herent unsustainable nature of development projects like the dam, which provide short term electricity solutions in exchange for the undoing of the ecosystem.

My heart ran a gamut of emotions as I was struck by the beauty and undeniable appeal of Somkiat’s sustainable lifestyle, and subsequently devastated, feeling guilty to be a part of the system which is slowly eradicat-ing the possibilities for these lifestyles in the future. When the dust settled and it seemed Somkiat was fi nally ready to take his fi rst breath since launching into his harsh criti-cism of modern life, I was left with one feel-ing: What can a person do to really fi ght this?

Paw, for all he knows, doesn’t have an answer. In the front of his house, the house of the man who has practically devoted his life to fi ght-ing the trends of globalization, his family runs a small market. Th ey sell Lay’s potato chips, Coca-Cola, and all of the staples of modern life. Th e family drives a Toyota truck and is now working to build a new house on the property specifi cally to improve their mar-ket. In some sense this is comforting; if even Paw Somkiat is giving in to capitalism, how can I be expected to contribute to the fi ght against it? But in another sense, it is extremely depressing; can anyone in Th ailand resist the imposition of this way of life on them?

Paw, unfortunately, doesn’t have all the answers. - Dan Miller (Occidental College)

Paw Somkiat Ponpai

David Streckfuss • Resident Director • dstreckfuss@yahoo.com • (66)(81)708-1852 Adisak Kaewrakmuk • Logistics and Field Study Coordinator • numerosak@gmail.com • (66)(81)974-0290 Arunee Chupkhunthod • Program Assistant • aruneee@yahoo.com • (66)(81)965-3400 Jintana Rattanakhemakorn • Language Coordinator • jeabjin@yahoo.com • (66)(81)662-3324 John Mark Belardo • Offi ce Manager • jm_belardo@hotmail.com

CIEE Th ailand P.O. Box 91 Khon Kaen University Khon Kaen 40002 (043) 342913 calling from the US: (66) (43) 342913

cieeCouncil on International Educational Exchange

Editing and Layout:Kelsey Cummings (University of Vermont)

Rachel Filip (University ofMinnesota, Twin Cities)Emily Odato (Tuft s University)

Laura Th eiler (University of Michigan)