Laurel~

We are now in the village of Serine, which consists of only 85 families. The people here are so kind! They live a very mellow life and are very family oriented. The children help out willingly and people smile often. However, there are many cultural differences that make it difficult to be completely comfortable. Personally, the diet is not one that I am used to. Having never been around meat causes extra sensitivity to cooking smells. Showering and using the bathroom is very different too. The water is cold, but often feels good in the heat. It is hard to wash shampoo out of my hair with a bucket of water, and using a hose to wash my bum is very different too. Despite these differences in culture and lifestyle, it has been a very enjoyable home stay so far. I am realizing how vital it is to keep a positive attitude through aches and pains, and despite the bad smells of the cities. I hope to gain more awareness of specific issues the farmers here are facing.

Surin rice fields

One difficulty I have had is communicating to people who speak two or three different languages. They speak to us in Comer mostly. Although they understand us when we speak the little Thai we know, we don’t understand the majority of what they say to us. This forces other forms of communication to be used. We use our hands often and laugh when we make mistakes or don’t understand. It is vital to do so in order not to get frustrated.

As a group, we have faced many challenges as well. It is hard to be patient with each other especially when we face individual discomforts. We are all tired and hot most of the time, which makes for short tempers and snappy remarks. It is easy to elevate an argument, but in reality the best solution is to walk away. Speaking for myself, I feel very engaged and aware of the benefits of this whole experience. I see that we are gaining communication skills and learning to cooperate as a group as well as with the locals. I am learning to travel and some of the precautions necessary to stay safe. I have overcome cultural differences and adapted to a new lifestyle.

This experience has taught me more than my entire 12 years of schooling. I am learning how the world works and beginning to have an understanding of the life beyond Portland. My mindset has taken a 180 degree turn, and overall, I am changed for the better. It is hard not to be frustrated with those who may not see these benefits as clearly as I may. It takes patients to allow each person to learn on there own. I realize now that people may not see things the same as I do. They may not see any positive side at all to the difficult situations we have experienced. It may take looking back on the trip to realize the benefits, but with time they will understand.

…………………..

Laurel~

Constant motion and swaying back and forth, side to side had made my stomach uneasy. My eyes slowly opened to Eric’s kind “good morning!” I sat up and it was good to feel better. The urge to throw up was gone and my stomach settled. My eyes drooped from the little pink and white Benadryl pills I took the night before. “Khon Kaen twenty minutes,” the uniformed men announced to all the passengers as we got our things together and prepared to get off.

Stepping off the train, the air was humid and warm. The sky was not yet light at 5:00 in the morning and we watched the train chug chug away as we crossed the tracks to find a “took took.”

Street vendor in Khon Kaen

Next thing i knew my eyes were slowly opening again to see Eric standing in the doorway and half the morning was already gone. I was still drowsy from the Benadryl and fell asleep during language lesson again.

We discussed wealth and poverty with Kovit and prepared to stay in the slum community. We learned that the poor people in Thailand struggle through the same issues that many impoverished Americans experience.

After settling our minds and feeling more confident about staying in the slums, we jumped on blue truck #8 headed out of the university campus and began our adventure. Upon arrival we were shown around the community and we met some of the people living there. We bought about 8 juices and 2 waters to quench our thirst and together they cost 30 baht. We were welcomed by our host families at the slum community center and shown to our houses and rooms. We were fed, showered, and put to bed all before 8:30pm. But despite the noisy trains and laughter of children, I fell right asleep after a hard day of walking in the heat.

………………………..

Dean~

July 11

Khon Kaen slum homestay

Today we had a discussion on wealth and poverty. Mr. Kovit came to facilitate the discussion. He had knowledge of the community we were going to be staying in. It was an interesting discussion. He described the slums in Khon Kaen and we described our hood back home. Our hood was way more violent compared to their slums.

Next we traveled to the slums to where we were staying for the night and met our families. Our families were great but went to bed early because there was work to do the next day.

…………

Jo Jo~

July 11

Khon Kaen Slum Homestay

What i learned while being with my family is that you should never be mad. Being mad causes you to not smile. NEVER be angry with your family. Just smile and always laugh at your mistakes and when others laugh at your mistakes they are laughing with you not at you. Also what i learned was that my “little sister and her cousin” both had a crush on me and at one point my cousin asked me out, which had caused little sister to be mad. That’s why she didn’t get involved in the games last night. Also, my “paw” and “mah” (dad and mom) are really loving, caring, and hard working people and “paw” is madly in love with “muay thai” (Thai boxing). And as for our “mah”…well she’s just an amazing woman and an awesome cook. Also, my little sister I think I’ll miss them most. But it was an awesome experience. I hope to see them again.

……………………..

Trevor~

We went to Khon Kaen, and in that area we saw a lot of cooperation in terms of the communal slums. In the slums, amongst the insects, rodents, and untrustable water, are people who truly act as a community should: working together to better their community and their lives. Everybody is treated with respect, and it almost has the feeling of one giant family. The slum (I can call it this since it isn’t such a derogatory word here as it is in the States) focused on keeping the money it gained within the slum confines. This is achieved by buying products like soap and trustable water from in-slum stores, while at the same time buying and trading food between the households. Sources of income that draw money into the slum include working at markets in the city as well as scavenging. Think of scavenging as dumpster diving for recyclables which can be sent in for money. Such a noble job, cleaning the recyclable stuff out of the trash and helping preserve the health of the earth, and yet the entire city, nay the entire country, looks down on scavengers. From the slum we learned the idea of internal money circulation.

Khon Kaen poverty and 5 star hotel

During our stay in Khon Kaen we also visited a landfill community. Yes, that’s right, a community built next to a landfill. The smell was horrendous. And not a clothespin in sight! Anyways, this community was similar to the slum: the showed cooperation by keeping what money they had in the community while at the same time scavenging to add money to the community. It is sad, no revolting, what conditions they have to work in. Not just the smell, but the heat, and the bugs, and the smell. Did I say that last one twice? And they would work sometimes for 10 hours or more a day! Keep in mind, that is in a place I couldn’t stand the smell of for more than an hour. That’s some tough people. They had a program there called “A Baht a Day”. This program had members that would put one baht into a community pool each day. The pool was used for making loans and such. Since the interest rate was relatively small, it kept the community together and the banks and private lenders out. One baht may not seem like much, it is really only about three cents; however that is about one percent of their total wage for that day. That’s right, the average worker works 10+ hours a day and earns about 104 baht for his/her trouble. It’s sickening. And the children that live there work and play in the landfill too. Like I said, some really tough people.

Finally our travels took us to Surin where we are currently sentenced to a week plus homestay with free trade rice farmers. Did I say sentenced? I meant committed. Oops, I didn’t mean that. I should have said confined instead of committed. Actually, it isn’t all that bad, I am just playing it up. Though, I do concede that the “beds” are extremely uncomfortable here. I suppose, though, that that shows just how lower class the people are here. Which is surprising since this seems like the best example of profitable fair trade thus far in our trade. What we have seen here so far in Surin is a community where its members are more devoted to the good of others and the community than they are to their own personal profit and gain. It has a strong communistic feel to it. Now for all those jaded readers, communism is not a bad thing. A community that takes care of its people, and the people take care of each other, should be a community that we all strive to achieve back in the States. But before I get on my soapbox and start trying to convince you on communism, let me get back to the topic at hand.

The cooperation here is beautiful. All the neighbors know each other, know everything about each other, and are always there to give each other a helping hand. Also, there are other organizations here looking to help the farmers, such as the Surin Farmer Support group and the Rice Fund group, both of which were focused on helping the Surin farmers achieve self-reliance. These groups worked with the farmers to inform them on cultivation methods, when to plant certain crops, the benefits of multiple crop types, and they helped the farmers set up the Green Market, a farmer’s market that meets every Saturday. Anyways, these groups work together to improve the lives of the farmers. And they succeed in their mission. The Surin fair trade farmers earn 30% more selling to the co-op than they would to a competition company. And the fair trade farmers make about twice the income that free trade farmers do, thanks to the co-op. Life truly is better here. Everybody is always smiling, families are close together, and people enjoy what they do. This is the more appropriate “American Dream”, found here in Thailand.

And so, laying that all out for you, doesn’t seem like a stupid or redundant question to ask, “How can Americans learn from the examples here”? If not, let me lay it out simply. If you want to live happy, truly happy, you have to do two very simple things. Smile, that’s definitely a biggy. And also, STOP STABBING YOUR NEIGHBOR IN THE BACK FOR A SMALL BUCK! Obviously competition only hurts people. In nature it means that two species are fighting for the same resource, and both species suffer. In our world, it means people starve. So how do we learn from Thailand? We suck it up, we band together, we work for the good of the group, the majority, and we thus all thrive. Forget the Capitalist philosophy that “it’s all about me”. There is a reason the saying “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” survives in common speech to this day. Obviously its true. Give the guy or girl who coined the term a Nobel Peace Prize. I wonder if they ever knew how right they were? So, back in the States, say hi to your neighbor once in a while. Go to work and listen to your coworkers. Who knows, you may be able to work together to be able to fix the stupid copy machine that never workers or to replace the coffee maker that hasn’t worked last since last June. Personally, I hate coffee, but I realize most people need it to function properly. In short, and as a summation to all my babbling, work with people, instead of trying to undermine them, that way you can build off each other and the both of you thrive.

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Jo Jo~

July 14^th

Kham Bon Noi (Landfill Community), Khon Kaen

OK so I may have been sick most of the time and dont really remember today, but ill try. What I remember was arriving and seeing a very scary doll tree. Then we went and sat, talked with this guy about the landfill, then went out for a tour but then it started raining so we ducked under a little shelther area for 10 or so minutes and chatted again about the landfill. Then we started walking more after I put on longer socks b/c of the rubber but the smell got horrific so i had to turn back and do lay down. Same with Nemo (PBlaa) and Tabbi and on our walk back we made another connection with Eric, telling us about now the landfull will be and what an opportunity we were missing out on by not going on the full tour of the landfull and when we got back to the house Eric wanted us to write abouT how we felt about the landfill, but I honestly think i turned it more into a rant and went on about everything, which felt really good actually, then we “ate” LOL (555) and after that we went and had the exchange with the people we were staying with. it was quite interesting about what their answers were to everybody’s questions and how Laurel asked about their lifestories and they actually gave us their whole entire lifestory and the guy who’s house the girls were sleeping in said that he couldnt do it without getting emotional but he didnt anyways and didnt get sad which was amazing. And then we went to bed.

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Jo-Jo~

Well if your going too Thailand don’t really expect too perfectly un-sick the whole trip, everybody on this trip has gotten sick so far from something or another [its only stomach stuff nothing too fear =)], except trevor *555* whether it be the food or of the heat or of just being home sick like me.

Another one of the bigger challenges is the communication, I mean I know they tell you about not worrying about it but you should because its hard the only thing you have too communicate with is your own body language which most of time they don’t understand anyways which makes you more iratated and you just want too give up but you cant because then all the “work” learning how too say what your trying too say went too waste. (sorry about ranting) :]

The best ways too deal with wanting too give up is (1. Keep trying too they figure out what you want (2.Have Eric or one of the other people come over and translate for you and well (3. Is basically fine another place or person that will know what your talking about and or wanting…

I think what you can truly learn from getting a person that completely doesn’t know what your talking about is learning how too deal with the people that don’t have any clue what your talking about, and that helps you out a significant amount because then you know what too do when somebody doesn’t know what your talking about.