Nemo

Nemo~

Why would I stay here longer? Hmmm. That one’s kind of hard to put in words. I guess the main reason, other than what out team always says about why they would stay longer (the people), is that it is so different than what I have come to know in my seventeen years of living in America. It really is a completely different environment. It was really easy for me to come here and feel at home. In America there are only a few places that make me feel that way, and it took it a little while to make it a new home. But here, especially in the slums and the villages, there is an instant warmth that captures you and holds you there and lets you want to not let go. Of course, for me there is the problem of me getting sick all the time, but I think that I will get over that soon.

Feeling under the weather. Yeah, it makes me feel miserable, which I hate, but like I said before, the warmth, the heart of the people, their will, their pride. It sucks you in and honestly makes you want to change who you are, to make yourself a better person than you probably already are. Sickness can’t really overcome that, now can it?

My favorite day…of course all of them are my favorite, but if I had to pick one it would probably have to be one of the days that we spent at the slums. We spent most of our days with our families doing different jobs. When we got back from out jobs of course we had a little time to rest, but what happened right after that would have to be, I’d say, the best part of that day: hanging out with the kids. This day is by far the best because of the simple fact that I love to hang out with, babysit, and teach little kids. Seeing the joy in their faces and hearing their laughter, kind of, in a way, send you into a short point of jubilation and exhilaration. Once you get started you honestly don’t want to stop. I could just play, play, and play some more, until I just had to stop. I know what some of you are thinking: “Chimo.” But it’s the complete opposite. Being around, helping, playing, and teaching little kids makes me feel good about myself.

Anyway, as you can see, I like it here and if I had the chance to drop everything and come live here I would. (Of course there are those things and people that I couldn’t live without and would bring with me, but besides that point…) Living here has been one of the best experiences of my life and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Trevor~

Trevor studying Thai

The idea that many local leaders forming a large underground network instead of one overall leader is not new. This term, grassroots leader, is just the term that describes those people who seek to improve their community through minor leadership. These are the people who say “do as I do” not “as I preach”. There kind of people are everywhere in Thailand: and they have to be, because obviously the government isn’t doing anything about it. There were grassroots leaders in the slums. One example is the “4 Area Slum Network” in Bangkok. This small group of people worked to organize the slums and to fight for slum rights. You see, in Thailand, no commercial buildings can be built within 40 meters of a railroad. Since that land is unused, the slum communities move there and build on it. The Network was a group that would fight to get the government to legally recognize the people living on that land, and to legally allow them to rent the land so they can call it their own.

Another example of leadership, though this was in the past and we could only watch films about it, was the Poor Peoples’ Assembly. Around ten or fifteen years ago, the poor people of Thailand, mostly farmers and people living in slums got tired of getting no help from their government. So there was a mass movement in which poor people all across the country gathered in bangkok outside one of the major government buildings and stayed there, living in that spot for a few hundred days, until the government finally gave in and said that it would start o work with them. So the group moved off, heading back home, and the governement immediately started ignoring them again. So again they gethered, and this time sat there for almost an entire year. This time, when the government gave in, people made sure that it followed through on its promises. There has been few greater victories for grassroots leadership in Thailand. For another exmaple we return to our village, Top Pei. In this village, the accepted norm is organic agriculture. This, of course, was a tough choice to make. The government does not support organic agriculture. And it is easier, that is, it requires less physical labor, to use chemical agriculture. But this village realized the harsh effects the chemicals had on the people and the land, and together mad ethe conscious choice to fight it. They are one of the first, but already other groups are starting to follow their lead. While Pangaea was staying in this village a group of Korean farmers came to visit it. They spent hours talking about what it was the village did and how they did it. Think about it, a little village in the unknown part of Thailand has farmers (rich farmers) coming from Korean to learn about its methods. Grassroots leadership in motion.

Jo Jo~

Jo Jo reading to the group

There are a couple things i learned while being here in Thailand, and right now I’m going to talk about them and how they fit into Human-Rights. The first subject is that of the four-region slum network and how how they have too constantly fight for their rights too live where they live, they have lots of history in fighting for that slum they live in, they have led mass protests too Bangkok, in the cities, and they always win or get more time too do what they have too do and theirs always the fact of these adults have children and the children have there livelihood and and all their childhood memories here, where are they too go when their grandparents and all their relatives also all live in this beautiful slum community with them.
Another Social Justice issue in this slum community is the fact that the richer people built a wall too keep the slum people out because there afraid of the slum people coming and stealing things from them, but honestly its completely opposite, the richer people probably more likely too go over and steal from the slum people, and theirs also another little fact that the richer people will, instead of using there trash cans and garbage disposals they’ll use their window and throw their trash and garbage onto the slum people, not in the Four-Region slum Network, but this is happening in other slums and it makes the people very much un-happier than they already are just for the simple fact of living there, but you will never see there sadness there great at hiding it. If you look at these people your first opinion of them is the happiest people you have ever met, constantly smiling at you and always trying too communicate with you, even tho they know you cant understand them and you know you cant understand them except for a couple words we learned from our amazing ajaan, Ajaan John, but its the fact that they’re trying too talk too you that more than you’ll ever be able too say about Americans. In America if your trying too talk too somebody who cant understand you and you cant understand them, typically they’ll walk away more frustrated then they were before they asked you in the first place, and that makes you feel bad because i mean besides the people who are “Drama Whores” and likes going out just too get people mad at you, who honestly likes getting people mad?

And all these things fit into Human-rights with the fact that nobody not even the lowest of the low deserve too have their Human-Rights violated like these people do everyday. When i first heard about human rights i knew nothing about it and from the time i came here to the time now right before i leave too come back too my adoring fans, i’ve learned that human rights is literally for everybody doesn’t matter who you are what you do you have human rights and you have the ability too use those rights whenever you want too use them.