This last weekend our SST group traveled 3.5 hours into the Northern mountains of Thailand, just a few hundred kilometers from the Burmese boarder, to spend the weekend with a Lahu village. There are many different tribal groups in Thailand, the largest of which is the Karen (the group we'll be staying with in April); the Lahu make up a smaller percentage of the remaining tribes. Ajarn Ann and Ajarn Mike have been connected to this community for years and have helped fundraise for several community projects there, like a waterline for the village, a community center and community kitchen, fencing, as well as plans to build a village school in the near future. To get an education, the children have to leave home at around 4th-6th grade, which not only separates families, but also keeps children from learning their own Lahu culture, which is rich and worth perserving.
From what I could see, the village has a strong community focus and everyone helps the others out. Though it might not happen every night, every day the village pulled t ogether to help prepare our meals and to accomodate us. We even went fishing with the village while we were there (which was much different than my idea of fishing, which is either to use a pole or to use a net. The Lahu set up barriers to drain a small section of the river, a team effort, and then search under rocks and debri to find the hiding fish. If you don't find any individually, the whole community starves).
Ajarn Mike told us that the way they did butchering here was what you might label Socialist: each family would take its turn killing a pig to share with the village. Whoever kills the pig gets to choose their own portion but then gives the rest to everyone else. This way, people have incentive not to be greedy when it's their turn to kill the pig and to share with others as that's the only way they can all be able to eat more than just a few times off their own pigs. Communal sharing works so well here, though, because the people see it as a necessity to surviving and it's been a tradition that's kept them alive for generations. To say that the ugly aspects of human nature aren't present here, like greed and selfish hoarding, would be to idealize them.
I say that just as much for myself as anyone because I had a sort of revalation while in the village. Jen and I were talking and she shared an experience she had in Honduras. She was supposed to be making baloon animals for a village but there were only two people making them. People shoved and pushed and hoarded, grown women edging out the kids that surrounded them. "And I was supposed to love and serve these people?". Her sharing that demonstrated that human nature can be just as ugly in a small village in a developing country as it can be in the wealthy U.S., something that I acknowledged in my head but never really had seen neccesarily played out. Maybe it's just a question of how much a society's culture nourishes or fosters those attributes. For instance, the Lahu's culture used sharing as a tool for survival. This didn't necessarily make them more egalitarian, but it did effectively use the human desire to keep one's-self alive to ensure the whole community's welfare.
We did homestays there too, this time 2 to a house. My friend Z and I stayed with a woman named Happie who really seemed to live up to her name. I think some people had it rougher than us, but our house was fairly nice, meaning that there was a big open space for a living room, a spacious kitchen, an "American standard" indoor toilet, and we had plenty of blankets to sleep with on the floor at night.
On Saturday we went to an orphanage where abandoned, impoverished, and/or kids whose parents were killed by AIDS go. They performed songs and dances for us, all decked out in their tribal outfits. There were 2 different tribal groups there, one of which was Lahu. After they performed, we handed out Christmas gifts that we had helped buy but most of which Ajarn Mike had fundraised for back home by being Santa Claus at different places (and really I've never seen a man look so much like the traditional picture of Santa). We then sang some worship songs with hand motions in English. One little girl just latched onto me during that and cuddled up next to me during the whole meeting with the managers of the orphanage. She was the sweetest, most loving little girl and I'm going to miss her. I'm just glad that I got to meet her even once.
Their stories were so encouraging and inspiring: the kids apparently, without aid from Ajarn Mike and Ann, would have only 2 baaht a day to eat with. I can't even imagine what that could buy, considering 33 baaht= $1. After they fed us a wonderful lunch, we played with the kids, and Jen had a sort of cathartic moment: while she was making the animal baloons, instead of pushing and hoarding, the little kids were helping each other make them. That was healing even for me.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
There's a mouse in the room
There really is.; I just saw it scamper across a barrier and am now hearing it rustle in a plastic bag. WHat am I supposed to do about it though? Naan (my host sister) warned me that I might see mice and Geko's downstairs. One of which I'm obviously more okay with than the others, but even those green little guys I think are hiding out in my bedroom because I've heard their shrill singing at night, and it almost sounds like they're saying "nanny-nanny na-na, you can't find me". But I"m too pacified to actually seek them out to kill them or remove them; they're going to have to attack me in my sleep or get annervingly close to my bed in order for that to happen.
I'm living with my host family now and having the first thing I say about my living conditions be about mice and Geko's is probably unfair and deceiving in the sense that those things are a reality for many people here but I'm not living in squalor or anything. First off, materially, Thailand's really developed over the last decade and is considered a developing country (not developed but not undeveloped). It's a land filled with smiling faces, of easy going people who are patient with your butchered or non-existent Thai, who in fact praise you for speaking "very good Thai" when you can say as much as "Can I have fried rice" (which by the way is difficult for English speakers because the word for Can I.. and rice are almost identical save their tones. The 5 tones of Thai make things pretty tricky). Plumbing isn't as good here, but it's not unlivable and there are porcelain, Western style toilets and/or squatters everywhere. Just don't try to flush toilet paper down them, if there is any toilet paper to be found (many Thai's use a, as Ajarn Mike said, "vegetable sprayer").
I love the way meals are done here! It seems that most people eat out for dinner, unless they enjoy cooking and/or have a maid to cook for them. But their eating out isn't the fast food that we typically eat or the huge portion sizes at dine in restraunts. All over Chiang Mai there are thousands of street vendors and restraunts where you can get plates of fried, plain, sticky, and any other kind of rice there is mixed with vegetables and sauces and whatever kind of meat you'd like from whatever part of the body you'd like it from (if it's edible, they'll eat it here. My host sister just ate a little squid out of a plastic bag the other day and, as my experience with pig's blood tells us, there are even more things that American's would never think to eat). I love it because each shop is so different and each person selling the various foods have a story and here we all are on the same street for dinner. I'm still fascinated, thouh alternatively disgusted at times, at all the different kinds of foods. They loved jelly filled/based deserts here and seem to be more into candy selling than into chocolate. Portion sizes are a lot smaller too, which I love; it's so much healthier. At home, I usually just eat the whole thing of whatever size I get because it's there in front of me or I feel guilty for not finishing it when I would've been satisfied witha much smaller portion, but ehre I don't really have to worry about the portion on my plate being too big. For an example of a portion size, the one night that I got ice cream for dinner, the two scooped cone I got was no bigger than the size of a one scoop back home (if that).
One thing that does annoy me about portion sizes are their drinks; they have these really good fresh fruit drinks that are probably neutral for you considering how much dreamer and/or sugar they put in the base. The only thing is that they fill the cups up to the brim with ice and so it doesn't seem like you get very much at all. Again, maybe that's a good thing and maybe I need to adjust myself because it's healthier to drink less of that kind of thing anyways. Besides, comparatively everything's so cheap here that I really can't complain about being served that amount of drink for say 6 baht (33 baht is $1, so much less than $1).
I'll have to write more about my host family and about Ban Phansuwan later. I have class in 40 minutes and need to get ready. Every time I sit down to write things down I feel that I've only begun to scratch the surface of what we're experiencing here. It's frustrating, but not that frustrating; I guess I kind of expected it to be that way, though I didn't know that there could be this much to process or even basic things to share.
I'm living with my host family now and having the first thing I say about my living conditions be about mice and Geko's is probably unfair and deceiving in the sense that those things are a reality for many people here but I'm not living in squalor or anything. First off, materially, Thailand's really developed over the last decade and is considered a developing country (not developed but not undeveloped). It's a land filled with smiling faces, of easy going people who are patient with your butchered or non-existent Thai, who in fact praise you for speaking "very good Thai" when you can say as much as "Can I have fried rice" (which by the way is difficult for English speakers because the word for Can I.. and rice are almost identical save their tones. The 5 tones of Thai make things pretty tricky). Plumbing isn't as good here, but it's not unlivable and there are porcelain, Western style toilets and/or squatters everywhere. Just don't try to flush toilet paper down them, if there is any toilet paper to be found (many Thai's use a, as Ajarn Mike said, "vegetable sprayer").
I love the way meals are done here! It seems that most people eat out for dinner, unless they enjoy cooking and/or have a maid to cook for them. But their eating out isn't the fast food that we typically eat or the huge portion sizes at dine in restraunts. All over Chiang Mai there are thousands of street vendors and restraunts where you can get plates of fried, plain, sticky, and any other kind of rice there is mixed with vegetables and sauces and whatever kind of meat you'd like from whatever part of the body you'd like it from (if it's edible, they'll eat it here. My host sister just ate a little squid out of a plastic bag the other day and, as my experience with pig's blood tells us, there are even more things that American's would never think to eat). I love it because each shop is so different and each person selling the various foods have a story and here we all are on the same street for dinner. I'm still fascinated, thouh alternatively disgusted at times, at all the different kinds of foods. They loved jelly filled/based deserts here and seem to be more into candy selling than into chocolate. Portion sizes are a lot smaller too, which I love; it's so much healthier. At home, I usually just eat the whole thing of whatever size I get because it's there in front of me or I feel guilty for not finishing it when I would've been satisfied witha much smaller portion, but ehre I don't really have to worry about the portion on my plate being too big. For an example of a portion size, the one night that I got ice cream for dinner, the two scooped cone I got was no bigger than the size of a one scoop back home (if that).
One thing that does annoy me about portion sizes are their drinks; they have these really good fresh fruit drinks that are probably neutral for you considering how much dreamer and/or sugar they put in the base. The only thing is that they fill the cups up to the brim with ice and so it doesn't seem like you get very much at all. Again, maybe that's a good thing and maybe I need to adjust myself because it's healthier to drink less of that kind of thing anyways. Besides, comparatively everything's so cheap here that I really can't complain about being served that amount of drink for say 6 baht (33 baht is $1, so much less than $1).
I'll have to write more about my host family and about Ban Phansuwan later. I have class in 40 minutes and need to get ready. Every time I sit down to write things down I feel that I've only begun to scratch the surface of what we're experiencing here. It's frustrating, but not that frustrating; I guess I kind of expected it to be that way, though I didn't know that there could be this much to process or even basic things to share.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Thailand!!! Culture shock 101
It's only been 9 days since we've been in Thailand and already I feel stretched beyond what I thought I would be. I've always considered myself easily adaptable to new situations, but I don't anyone who develops any habits or preferences in life can cross the globe and not be shaken up a little bit. Mostly I'm talking about changes in diet and cultural customs that make up our everyday but often go un-noticed. For instance, I didn't know how not having cheese at least every once in awhile effected my mood or how I rely on something like pb&j when I"ve had a rough day to comfort me.
There was one day in particular here where I tried ordering something in quasi Thai and was given something completely different. Not knowing what it was and being suspicious of its looks and smell, I tried communicating to the lady that it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Obviously she couldn't understand me, so, feeling helpless and frustrated, I gave in. Here is where I learned traveling rule #1: If something looks like it's going to taste groose, don't necessarily avoid it, but beware, because there's a good chance that it might (if for no other reason than your body's up-chuck reflexes have been culturally conditioned to think so). After forcing down a few bites of this brown tofu looking stuff emersed in brown juice, I knew I had to find out exactly what I was eating or I would see it again very soon. Ajarn Ad, one of the Thai professors who's helping out with the program, looked at my bowl and with a smirk (which I think with Ajarn Ad can mean many things), kindly informed me that it was pigs blood.
Standing there, knowing that that stupid pigs' blood had weaseled its way through my esophagus and was at that very moment defiantly sloshing around in my stomach made me feel helpless and defeated. I tried to stop it but couldn't and was now experiening my first real case of culture shock. I wanted to cry. Thankfully, there is chocolate in Thailand, and so I fixed myself up with a little box of a chocolate stick snack to comfort me and had only two unadventurous scoops of ice-cream for dinner that night.
Okay, so I just shared probably the worst experience for me so far in Thailand, but over all it has so far been an amazing experience! I guess I didn't know where to begin with all the good and so I just shared the "bad".
There was one day in particular here where I tried ordering something in quasi Thai and was given something completely different. Not knowing what it was and being suspicious of its looks and smell, I tried communicating to the lady that it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Obviously she couldn't understand me, so, feeling helpless and frustrated, I gave in. Here is where I learned traveling rule #1: If something looks like it's going to taste groose, don't necessarily avoid it, but beware, because there's a good chance that it might (if for no other reason than your body's up-chuck reflexes have been culturally conditioned to think so). After forcing down a few bites of this brown tofu looking stuff emersed in brown juice, I knew I had to find out exactly what I was eating or I would see it again very soon. Ajarn Ad, one of the Thai professors who's helping out with the program, looked at my bowl and with a smirk (which I think with Ajarn Ad can mean many things), kindly informed me that it was pigs blood.
Standing there, knowing that that stupid pigs' blood had weaseled its way through my esophagus and was at that very moment defiantly sloshing around in my stomach made me feel helpless and defeated. I tried to stop it but couldn't and was now experiening my first real case of culture shock. I wanted to cry. Thankfully, there is chocolate in Thailand, and so I fixed myself up with a little box of a chocolate stick snack to comfort me and had only two unadventurous scoops of ice-cream for dinner that night.
Okay, so I just shared probably the worst experience for me so far in Thailand, but over all it has so far been an amazing experience! I guess I didn't know where to begin with all the good and so I just shared the "bad".
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