Diving In

Nothing much happens on the weekends at UHDP. My first weekend here was a chance for me to orient myself, and, man, did I need it. I was able to wander around on the property at UHDP to get a feel for where everything is and did a bit more unpacking. I didn’t have any food so Ruth and I went into town for some groceries. I was looking forward to stocking up for the week, but getting groceries turned out to be much more difficult than I had anticipated. Back home I have certain meals that I like to make, and it was hard to find all the ingredients that I needed for those meals. I gave up trying to find things for my “American” meals, and since I didn’t know any Thai meals, I wound up just getting a few things to snack on. I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to find any chips and salsa, but I’m finding that I’m getting by just fine without my favorite snack.

On Sundays, Ruth and I have been going to a church in a Palaung village with Gurt and her two kids. Ruth has been going to that Church for a while so she knows a lot of the people there, and I am just starting to learn a few of their names. So far, I have had the chance to chat (with Ruth’s help) with a couple of older men who were enjoying a cup of tea and a smoke, and I have also spent some time with a few of the women of the village who shared a Thai melon with Ruth and I. The church service at the village lasts an hour and a half, and everyone sits on the floor with the men on one side and the women and children on the other. I recognized a few of the songs they sang, but I couldn’t understand anything else throughout the service. The guy who preaches at the church is actually from a Karen village who has been working in the Palaung village as a missionary. The preacher, Pi Yoong, and his wife, Pi Da, invited Ruth and I to have lunch with them after church so I have gotten to know them a bit. Pi Da speaks a little English but Pi Yoong doesn’t know any English. I was able to gather that Pi Yoong likes to talk a lot, and I have a feeling that going to their house will be good practice for me when I am able to understand the Thai language.

The work week was a good opportunity for me to get a feel for the pace of work at UHDP, as well as how all of the different projects are coming along. The pace of work is very laid back, which is a nice change from the American pace of life. There is a general outline of things that need to be worked on, but there’s no rush to get specific projects done by specific deadlines. Work starts at 8:00 in the morning, and we work until break time at 10:00. Work starts again at 10:30 and goes until lunch at 12:00. For lunch, everyone goes back to their house to make a dish and relax a bit, and then everyone slowly makes it back to what they were doing around 1:00. There is another break from 3:00 to 3:30, and people finish up work sometime between 4:30 and 5:00. This kind of a work pace is a lot different then what I’m used to because I’m used to working at a much faster pace. At UHDP, the staff tries to make work as fun a possible, and they don’t care about productivity and efficiency as much people care about it in the states. The long breaks allow the field workers a break from the sun and humidity, and it gives everyone a chance to chat with their co-workers. Lunch time is also a time to enjoy each others company while eating a meal because often times people will gather at someone’s house to eat lunch together. As different as the work pace feels, I think it has a lot to do with the sense of community here, and I am enjoying the cultural difference. I have had the chance to work with a few different staff members on their project so far. I have worked with Apot and Suphana in the nursery where all the agroforestry plants are propagated. Suphana, who is studying under Apot, is one of the 5 students at UHDP who has a staff person teaching them how to manage the different projects at UHDP. I have tagged along with Suphana and spent a day mixing soil together with some of the Palaung villagers from the church that I went to. Propagating plants is a big job in the nursery, and I have transplanted some of the seedlings in the nursery such as fish tail palm and rattan. I have also spent some time out in the organic gardens with Gurt and her student When. In the garden, we have done a lot of weeding because the gardens get overgrown during the wet season, and we have also been preparing the soil so that we can sow seeds when the dry season starts. Ruth and I have been helping Chai, the research director at UHDP, with his new stove project. Chai is making different molds for clay stoves so that he can figure out what the most fuel efficient stove design is. It has been interesting watching him use sheet metal and plastic buckets for the mold, and the stoves, themselves, are just made out of mud, burnt rice hulls, and a little bit of cement. The goal of the research projects at UHDP are to make them practical for the surrounding hilltribe villages, so Chai is trying to make the stoves with materials that are cheap and readily available for the local people.

After work I usually head back to the house to take a shower, and get something ready for dinner. I haven’t been doing much cooking myself yet, but I have been watching how Ruth makes meals, and I am slowly learning from her. Most nights we go over to Wha’s house and eat with Chai and Ajarn Dah, and when that doesn’t work out, we try to eat with other staff members like Gurt and Apot or Meh Nong Ket and Pi Singham. The meals that I’ve had at dinner have all been amazing, but I am still getting used to the spiciness of the food. I have learned to bring tissues with me when I go have a meal with someone so that I can wipe the sweat off my face and blow my nose. The dinners are always spicy and served with rice and nom prik, which is one of the few things I can make myself. Nom prik is a spicy paste made with roasted garlic, shallots, and chilies crushed together in a mortar and pestle along with cilantro, green onions, lemon grass, salt, and your choice of fried chicken skin, pork skin or fish from a can. Nom prik is eaten with things like boiled morning glory, bamboo, cucumbers, other cooked vegetables, and plain rice. The soups that are made are always good and spicy, and the stir fried dishes that are eaten with the rice are usually a mixture of meat and veggies with a bunch of spice and fish sauce added to it to top it off. The stir fried meals are much different than the meals that I had when I was in Bangkok and Cambodia with the Calvin group. There is no such thing as sweet and sour chicken at UHDP.

Eating meals together has been a good way to get to know the staff members at UHDP. I still can’t communicate much with them, but I enjoy spending time with them, and Ruth is able to translate for me if what I am trying to say is to complex for them to understand. It is fun to eat with Wah and Gurt because Wah knows English fairly well, and I can have very simple conversations with Gurt because she knows a few English words. Gurt’s son, Nong Pon, likes to play Uno and watch cartoons so I often do that with him after we eat, and I have also spent a lot of time catching insects with him because Ruth just recently found and insect net when she was in Chiang Mai. Once we got the net, Nong Pon has wanted to catch insects every chance he gets, which is great because I love to do it to. Before we got the net, Nong Pon would bash the insects with a stick, but now we can catch them without destroying them. Sometimes I feel like I have my own kids because Nong Pon and his friend Nong Ket are always coming to get me so that we can go out and play. It gets overbearing at times, but I enjoy spending time with them for the most part. I’m just glad that they aren’t really my kids, and that I can send them home to their moms if they get too obnoxious.

I have one more week at UHDP before I head down to Chiang Mai to start learning the Thai language at ISDSI. This past weekend I went down to Chiang Mai to pick up another intern, and I found myself a place to stay for the month while I’m studying at ISDSI. I was able to find a nice place in an area where local Thai people live so that I won’t be surrounded by all of the tourists that come to Chiang Mai. I know learning the language is going to be tough, but at this point, I’m really looking forward to it.