Da Bluhd!

Back from a wonderful few weeks in the mountains of Mae Hong Son Province.  It went so quickly- I cannot believe it is already over and almost time for our last course! Yikes.
We started and ended the trip with an extremely windy 8 to 10 hour bus ride to the small city of Mae Hong Son from Chiang Mae, and on the way there, I am pretty sure that we rode the World's Slowest Bus. It was truly shocking.  But we made it there without it breaking down, so that's a bonus.  The next day, my group had another crazy drive, only this time in four-wheel drive trucks along partially paved roads on beautiful (but so windy) mountain roads and ridges.  It is the only road that connects the villages to the city, and most people drive it on motorbike. I can hardly imagine. Oi.

Before we got to our first village, we had two meetings: one with the NGO that does a lot work with the Karen villages that we would be staying with, and one with the government subdistrict office.  It was really interesting to have these meetings back to back and to compare their (often contradictory) answers.  But before I get too carried away, here's a bit of background on the Karen villages:  all of the ones we stayed in were around 30 household or less, 3 out of 5 have community based tourism (CBT) set up, and they all rely on swidden agriculture as their main form of subsisitence.  Swidden refers to a slash and burn style of agriculture done on the slopes of the mountains.  It involves farming one plot of land for one year, then letting it lye fallow for around ten years before farming it again.  The idea is to let the forest reclaim the land, and usually it does, allowing it to be a pretty sustainable system (as long as the population is not too big).  One day, we went out into the Rai (ag plots) of Huay Hee village and did a biodiversity study on 5 different fallow plots- one that had been fallow for 1 yr, 3 years, 5 years, 8 years, and 25 years.  Each plot had such different vegetation and it was really interesting to see how swidden agriculture affects the landscape.
But anyways, our first village stay was in Huay Tong Kaw (village of fan palms) were I stayed with Pawti and Mugaw and their two year old son.  They have 3 other kids, but they are all off in the cities studying (either in Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, or Bangkok).  This was a pretty common trend throughout our trip- the Thai government requires that all citizens graduate from 12th grade, but there are hardly any schools in the villages (and practically none past 6th grade), so pretty much all kids go into the city.  It is a pretty interesting predicament, with most students acquiring debt and not being able to return to village life becuase they must work int he cities to pay off their debt... but that's a story for another day. 
Huay Tong Kaw was a wonderful little village.  One day I went with Pawti and Mugaw to their rai where we (tried to) help harvest rice.  It was pretty ridiculous though, I could hardly walk up and down the slope without slipping and falling every few minutes, while of course Mugaw and Pawti never fell once and worked 4 times faster than us.  Per usual.  Everyday in the villages was full of new sights and beautiful mountain scenery.  Their Rai was right along a river bed which had since been planted with paddy rice (different from upland rai rice) and it looked like a flowing golden river of rice.  Other highlights of the village was learning traditional blacksmithing, herbal medicine, basket weaving with bamboo, and trying to learn a traditional Karen song.  Sidenote: bamboo is the greatest- you can really make anything out of it, i.e. cups, floors, walls, baskets, twist ties, steamers... the possibilities are endless!
The average morning in each village consisted of waking up around 5:30 or 6 (but reallly being awake since around 4 from the roosters).  Usually, we went to stay warm by the fire in the main part of the house- turns out it gets REALLY cold at night, as in wool hat and socks status.  who knew?  Some mornings, we would help pound rice or cook breakfast, or sometimes just simply sit by the fire.  It was always a pleasant start to the day.  I think I like the village sleep schedule- early to bed and early to rise, with a consistent afternoon nap.  Premium.
My favorite event of the Huay Tong Kaw was a cultural exchange.  the villagers and students took turns performing different dances, songs, etc. So obviously we taught them the makareena, some Cat Stevens, but most importantly the Limbo.   We got the villagers to join us, and it was such a scene, complete with traditional Karen garb, the medicine man and his wife limboing, and all the village kids.  Such a good image.
The next day we hiked through many different forest types, across a few rivers to Huay Hee (about 6-8 hours away when we walked with our packs).  This village was the first to do CBT in the area, and it definitely felt more like bed and breakfast than a host family.  But what can you do- we tried to help cook and wash dishes, but we really had to force ourselves in.  While in Huay Hee, we had midcourse seminar on the nearby mountain , Doi Pui.  It was absolutely beautiful as it is the second tallest point in Thailand with some awesome panoramas. 
Next we hiked over Doi Pui's adjacent ridges and through a bamboo forest to Nam Hoo, a tiny village of about 10 household with a fictional backdrop of mountains, caves, and tropical folliage.  I think this was my favorite village.   Stayed with the cutest 29 year old whose husband and son live in the city during the week.  Her house was made entirely out of bamboo, palm leaves, and a bit of hardwood and it had a sunporch that looked out on the mountains.  It was wonderful.  we spent a day with her cutting firewood from the forest, visiting the village cave, harvesting herbs from the rai, and taking a shower in a tiny waterfall.  Overall, great life experiences and a beautiful village with lovely people.
Unfortunately, we were only there for two nights before we moved on to Hua Nam. Highlights from Hua Nam include weaving lessons, more rice harvesting, seeing a tarantula in the road then seeing the largest regular spider of my life next to my bed, and eating wild boar.  The next village was Pakalo, which is only about 5 k from the town of Mae Hong Son, and it is accordingly developed. All of the villages had their defining characteristics and it was so cool to be able to see them all one after another. 
Now we're back in Chiang Mai for a week until the Oceans course.  Holy moly this is going much too fast.
Thai Thai for now,
Hannah

pictures galore!

P.S. I just put up a lot of pictures on the old FB if you are interested in seeing my life as of late.

And we're off (round 2)

Another crazy week has flown by in Chiang Mai.  Nothing too new and wild has happened- just lots of the ol’ HW and cruising around on my favorite yellow bicycle that I rented for a few days.  It’s the best (and probably one of the more sketchy) forms of transportation in the city.  

I just finished this week’s essay, so next on the agenda is tracking down some Halloween costume materials... to the market! This weekend, we’re all headed to Burma for the day to renew our visas. So we’re driving four hours and stopping just in time to  buy some pirated goods (greeaaat, just what I’ve always wanted...) and then we’re headed back to Chiang Mai. 

Monday, we leave for Mae Hong Son for another 3 week expedition.  Looks like we’ll have plenty of hiking between 6 small villages where we will stay with host families.  So excited to harvest rice and learn about hilltribe medicine! And great news- just when I am getting comfortable speaking Thai, the Karen don’t speak Thai! So we are trying to learn some key phrases before being thrown into our host families’ homes.  

Overall, I am really excited for it- and in the meantime, it’s Halloween! (even though no one celebrates it here but us...)

Thai Thai for now (and for the next 3 weeks),

Hannah

Pigs and Thai Peppers

We got back from our first field course yesterday afternoon to the terrential rains of Chiang Mai and a final essay to write.  Fortunately, both have finished now and we have a three day weekend!

But the field course was an awesome experience.  The first week we were living in a small agricultural town called Mae Ta, living with families who have switched from cash crop farming to organic/polyculture/subsistence farming.  My Paw was 60 years old and Mae was 55 and they have been proudly farming organically for twelve years.  They were so cute and kind (as was everyone in Mae Ta)- Mae was at least three times the size of Paw, both were very soft spoken, and they just love to farm.  I am pretty much in love with the community there- everyone is so excited about farming and the neighborhood was so friendly.  Some highlights of the week include: prepping live crickets for cooking, eating fried crickets for breakfast two days in a row (they were actually pretty tasty), hangi ng out with the neighbor family, exploring the community forest and watershed, and seeing how successful agroforestry and polyculture farms can be in subsistence farming.  The crazy part was that all of the farmers said they have lots of relaxing time (i.e. "Sabai" time) and the few days that we worked with our families on their farms definitely prooved that. I actually never worked for over an hour before it was time to take a break, or to start cooking lunch, or to take  an after lunch nap.  It was ridiculously relaxed (but I have to wonder if they were just letting us off easy...) Regardless, I love Mae Ta and I am really excited to visit my Mae Ta family at the organic market in Chiang Mai next week.  

The next few days after Mae Ta were part of Mid-Course Seminar.  For some reason or another, it was at the fanciest resort with little bungalos and delicious food.  Very unexpected, but very lovely indeed.  The day we got there, we had gotten up at 3 am to go to Chiang Mai and sell produce with our families at the Market, and then we had a paper to write.  So unfortuately, I didn't have much time to explore the surroundings, which consisted of lots of awesome cave-filled mountains.  

After two nights in the most comfortable best of all of Thailand, we headed off on a hike to a very small hilltribe village.  The next day we hiked to another village and explored their political/social situation.  Both villages were in pretty bad states of food security, but UHDP (the organization we went to next) was working with them in terms of sanitation, food security, citizenship/land rights, etc.  It was pretty interesting, but it felt kind of weird to just pass through and not really spend time getting to know the places.

Next we went to the UHDP agricultural center- a big demonstration area, almost like a small village- there were houses and a meeting hall and a few agroforests, etc.  We stayed here for a week studying more of the science side of things- identifying species, prepping seeds for saving in the seedbank, etc.  

A main highlight of the week was the pig harvest.  Saturday, after learning about the ceremonies that different hilltribes use pigs in, we had the chance to participate in the slaughter of a pig.  Definitely more intense than a chicken.  Much more intense.  We spent the entire afternoon slaugthering, then prepping the meat, then cooking dinner with the UHDP staff and it was quite the experience.  The staff did the actual stunning and killing of the animal, but we had the opportunity to participate in as much of the rest of the process as we wanted.  I will leave the rest up to imagination and maybe some pictures later...  For dinner we had...Pork! what a coincidence.  And the Thai eat every part of the pig- they were loving the intestine and liver, and I tasted a bit of ear, which was perhaps one of the more disgusting things I have attempted to chew.  But an experience nonetheless.

Another day, we split into groups and forraged in the agroforest, caught catfish and ducks, and cooked it all with bamboo and rattan for lunch.  It was pretty cool to see a meal prepared entirely from the few acres around us. 

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty great trip, one more week and we're off on another adventure!

Thai Thai For Now, Hannah

Off and away

We're off on our first expedition tomorrow!
My group will be in Mae Ta for the first week living with host families and farming with them.  The village used to be a major supplier of baby corn to the world market, but then recently decided to completely switch to organic, sustainable farming, so we'll get a taste for their lives.  I am real excited.

Then we will go to UHDP (I think it stands for upland hilltribe development project) and learn a lot of agroforestry/ecology while hiking to different villages.  So much to look forward to and many adventures to come!

News as of Late

Exciting things from the past week:

1. Host family farewell party.
Everyone was all dressed up in their traditional Lanna (Northern Thai) outfits.  It was really entertaining and there was the whole spectrum of dressiness.  For example, a few girls' families took them to get their hair and make up done and their clothes were super shiny and metalic.  Loved it.  Then there were people like me, who came straight from school and had a pretty basic outfits on.  Definitely the ugly step sisters of the night.  Also, to make matters even better, I had a Lanna headwrap of sorts on which made me look like I had a serious head injury. But I just let Mae do her thing.  So we both looked like we had just been in a serious accident.  We had a talent show with lots of dancing by ISDSI students with their little host siblings, and a few song performances.  Overall, a very fun night.

2. Moved into the dorms!
I have three roommates: Jamie (from Kalamazoo), Mckenzie, and Kelsey (both from CC) and we have been having a wonderful time.  After gathering some supplies this weekend (specifically a lot of fruit), our home is complete.  Saturday night we wandered around the city for a while and ended up at a funny club/bar.  Naturally, we proceeded to dance wildly and scare off all the thais.  Oops. But very worth it.

The week has been fun but super busy.  I'm so conflicted- there's a whole city to explore, errands to run, and tons o' reading, and an essay to write.  But I'm attempting to fit it all in.  The other night we found a market near by, got dinner for 15 baht (50 cents), super sweet and delicious rotee, and took a tuk tuk home.  It was great fun.  And on the way, we passed the Chiang Mai University Alumni Center which hosts aerobic dance every night! So we are definitely checking it out tonight.  Last night, a few of us hit up some karaoke, which proved very entertaining.  The eight of us had our own room- different than an American karaoke bar, but still a great time.

Now, it's time for some post-class yoga, and then off to the market!

Playin some tunes

Let the cymbals ring!

Oh my heavens.  I survived what was at the time a very painful experience.  In retrospect, it was hilarious, too bad I couldn't appreciate it as it happened.

It all started last night as I was practicing writing the names of fruit in thai with my host mom.  Innocent enough, right?  Then we progressed to practicing our song for the "Farwell Banquet" (the thank-you party for the host families tomorrow night).  We ran through it a few times, Mom and I, and then I decided that I would go to sleep- I was getting pretty tired.

No sooner did I start to stand up did my host dad come in with his guitar, sit down, and with a smile on his face, count off for another run through.  So we did it a few more times. Harmless really.  Then things got wild.

Paw left for a second and came back with finger cymbals and a tambourine.  Awesome.  We were quickly becoming a regular Thai VonTrapp family.  After nagging my host sister to play the tambourine, she finally agreed to half-participate by keeping her headphones on and playing her facebook 'cafe life' game while grimacing and keeping a beat on the tambo.  Great news is, Mom got to play the cymbals. But boy do they have an ear piercing pitch and she was sitting right next to me.

It's really too bad that I was not in the mood to appreciate the ridiculousness of this event, because it just kept getting better, but I just wanted to pass out.

We sang the song probs 6 more times, with variations on the cymbals and tambourine, even bringing in the cousin for some guest guitar playing.  I thought I was finally off the hook, but then Paw printed out the lyrics and chords to a new thai song.  Oy.

By this point, by brain was not functioning, and Paw was under the impression that I could read thai.  That's just false.  So I tried to follow along, and they made me repeat this one line over and over again, laughing every time I said it.  Holy moly. I was about to keel over.  Finally, I said I needed to go to sleep.
What a hoot of a night.

Baba Bobo

My new favorite Thai vocab word: "baba bobo," which means crazy.

I have been slacking big time- my apologies.
But to catch up on the events of late, I will start with a brief synopsis of the past week:

Last Friday we went to Crazy Horse climbing area- about a half hour out of Chiang Mai.  It was beautiful! We broke into small groups and then headed off for adventures.  My group started out spelunking in big time caves.  Apparently the whole mountain is limestone and essentially hollow because of all of the caves inside.  We took a "tyrolean Traverse" across the biggest cave.  It was like a zip line only ropes, not cables, and we pulled ourselves across the cave about 40 m in the air.  Then we switched lines and repelled down to the base of the cave- it was SO fun.  The afternoon was full of climbing and checking out the views from the top of the routes- lots of scenic mountains.

Saturday, my host mom, sister, and Alex (neighbor ISDSI student) and I took the bus to Chiang Rai at 6 am.  It's about 3 hours away.  I didn't really know what was going on, but apparently we were going to stay with a friend.  Turns out the friend owns a resortish place a ways out of the city, so they picked us up and drove us to this beautiful and very fancy little hotel.  We stayed in our own little adobe hut and the friend drove us around to a bunch of tourist hot spots.  The weekend consisted of driving A LOT and taking tons of pictures.  It was a lot like sightseeing with Grandma- they just love taking the individual pictures in front of everything.  But it was fun overall- esp. the ridiculous quantity of pineapple! We say 31 road-side stands in less than a twenty minute drive.  What a wonderful place.

Other highlights of the week:
-It's been pretty rainy= cooler weather
-There was a frog in the shower with me
-Paw is teaching me a thai song on the banjolele

Today, we are headed to hike up Doi Suthep, a nearby mountain/national park.  We're doing an intro to ecological field studies and apparently the mountain itself has over 1200 species of trees! Pretty exciting.  Should be a fun day!

Thai Thai for  Now!
Hannah

P.S. I put some pictures up on the fb. I will try to post some here if I figure it out...

A Weekend at Mok Fah

What a wonderful weekend we had! 

We left Friday for a local reservoir for a swim test/time to swim and kayak around the lake (very brown and very warm, but still very refreshing).  We ate lunch at these little thatch huts along the lake- so scenic!

Next, we took our ritzy buses to Mok Fa, part of Doi Suthep National Park, where we stayed in big bunk houses/cabins for the weekend.  All of ISDSI staff came too, and we spent the weekend learning about wilderness safety and rescues and exploring the park.  Less than five minutes walk was a beautiful waterfall where we spent a lot of time swimming.  Waterfalls are top notch and it was definitely a key component to the weekend.  Between mini lectures, badminton, extreme ring ball (a game like capture the flag), hiking, and swimming in the waterfall, the weekend was definitely fun-filled and a wonderful getaway. 

Now back to classes- this week focusing on Thai politics and culture.

Thai Thai for now!

Kahnom Gluay

Yesterday was a delightful day:
Instead of regular language class, we split up into 6 groups, went to the market with a grocery list, and came back to cook a dish for lunch.  It was quite the feast! 5 different savory dishes and one dessert- kahnom gluay, which I helped make.  It was like a banana pudding/bread that we steamed in individual banana leaf cones.  I will post pictures when I figure out how to do that. But is was so fun and the most delicious meal so far- so much variety!

Last night we celebrated my Mae's birthday.  Paw is in Malaysia for 10 days with work (he is a prosthetics technician) and so Nong and I bought a little cake to celebrate.  It was very fun, although I bought the candles that relight on accident which turned out to be a hilarious fire hazard.  All in good fun.

Tomorrow we are off to a camping retreat for the weekend. Should be a rainy one, but fun nonetheless.

Thai Thai for now!
Hannah

Fish time

After trying to post more, I finally figured out which button to push. Well that's good news.

Last Friday we went to a fish Hatchery NGO about an hour north of Chiang Mai.  It was started by a Minnesotan named Randy 13 years ago and they raise millions of tilapia to sell to local farmers to raise.  We hopped in the fish ponds- quite muddy and great, just like the mushy pancake.  First, we emptied all the fish from one pond and carried them in small nets to another pond.  Then it was lunch time.  We had...TILAPIA! Who would've thought. But it was delicious and a very fun meal, followed by some entertainment on Thai instruments and a little dance lesson.
That afternoon, went through another pond to harvest the eggs.  Tilapia are mouth-brooders so we looked in each one's mouth for the eggs and collected them to bring to the hatchery.  After cleaning out a bunch of nets, we hit the road back to Chiang Mai, trying not to smell to fishy for our families (they are super into hygiene).  Overall, a swell day in the mud.

The weekend was pretty low key- went to the biggest mall ever to buy a cell phone and took a nice ride to Wat Doi Saket on Sunday afternoon with Pi Ahm (who I may or may not be related to, but I like her a lot). For the b-day dinner we had Thai bbq- a very fun and interactive meal There's a little grill on the table with a soup trough on the outside and you just cook meat and eat soup all through dinner.  Post dinner, the relatives came over to celebrate Pi I's birthday too- it was a lovely and fesitve evening.

Back to school now, nothing too new yet, but more to come.

Thai thai for now!

Market Market Market!

Another few days = a little better at understanding Thai- wooo!  But really, trying to read is quite the puzzle.  It's pretty fun though, even if it takes me forever.  Other exciting news: Mae Mame taught me to do my laundry, but I have to say, I am not sure that round one of handwashing really benefited my clothes...  It's a work in progress.

Yesterday, we had language class in the morning and then went on a field trip in the afternoon! We ate lunch at a traditional Northern thai restaurant (sticky rice is essential), checked out the Chiang Mai art / history museum, and then hit up the market for a scavenger hunt.  The items on our list were written in Thai, so we had to ask people to tell us what is was and tell us where to find it.  Problem is trying to understand them.  Sometimes, random old ladies took our papers and led us to the right place (often a strange food to try, i.e. fried bamboo worms).  So many fun foods!

The other night, I brought out the banjolele and Paw Nong played his guitar and we had a little family band! I tried to play along with his thai songs, but I have some serious learning to do... It was some good family bonding time though (especially since it didn't require too much cross-language communication).

Well, I am off to class again before lunch. Thai thai for now!

Hannah

Life in the city

Sa wa di ka friends!

I am settling into life in Thailand bit by bit.  Just finished day two at ISDSI where we did a crossfit workout as part of our classes (!)  I think it is pretty funny, but a nice break to mind overload in language class.  We started learning how to read and write Thai today and I just about exploded. But hopefully it will make more sense soon!  There are 34 students with the program, about half of which are from Kalamazoo, 8 ish people from CC, and everyone else from various other schools.

My host family is going well- there's Mae Mame, Paw Nong, and Nong Weeoo, as well as some mysterious other family members that make guest appearances.  I am a tad confused about who lives where, but I think their cousins live in the same housing area with Grandpa.  And there's a little store under part of the house too. I am discovering more fun facts about the house/family each day.  Nong Weeoo (nong means little sibling) is 16 and into "Punk Style" as she says.  She loves Lincoln park and greenday which I find particularly amusing, and we listen to her fave American pop tunes during dinner.  I love hearing her sing along to "Kiss me through the phone."  She goes to a big school in the city with 7000 students- yikes!  But I like her a lot, and she is the best English speaker in the family (which isn't really saying much, but has nonetheless mad us fast friends).

Paw Nong apparently makes prosthetics and plays a lot of instruments.  They actually have a whole music room with guitars, a bass, drum set, and microphones/amps.  Quite the setup, and I am curious how/why they have it all... but it's fun to combine banjolele with guitar.

Our house is a ways outside of the city, but there's about 5 or 6 other students that live near by, which is convenient for the ride to school.  We're supposed to take the bus, but the past few days they've driven us or called a taxi.  But the way home is great! We have to stop at a big market to catch a different bus, which is the greatest excuse to look around and buy fruit.  It is just wonderful.

Tomorrow we are headed out on a City Orientation in the afternoon, and I'm really excited to not be sitting all day!  We've been waking up at 6 and getting home around 6 with a full day of thai class/orientation, so I am looking forward to a day on the town.  Woot! (and we get to go to the market again!)

We will be in Chiang Mai for about 5 weeks before our first field course which is Agroecology.  We'll be in two different villages for 3 weeks with host families and experiencing their lifestyle/working with them.  It will be a sweet change from the usual classroom.

Anyways, I am headed home now but I will try to update this guy more often... we'll see though.

Hey!  if you want to sent mail to Thailand here is my address:
PO Box 222
Prasingh
Chiang Mai, 50205
THAILAND


Thai thai for now! 
love, Hannah

TTFN, America!

I'm almost off! I'm just printing out a few last minute tabs for my banjolele, then its off to the airport.  Wahoo!
TTFN (thai thai for now), see you in Chaing Mai!

p.s. This post, and the title, were created by Jillian.  Blame her for the bad pun.