End in Sight

For the past couple of weeks, my work load at UHDP has been steadily decreasing as I prepare to go back to the states (not that I had tons of work to begin with), which has been nice because it has given me the opportunity to spend more time working with the staff at UHDP and even go visit my friend Karen in Phnom Penh for a week.

I realize that I haven’t been keeping people updated on the various projects that have been keeping me busy while I’ve been at UHDP, but I guess that’s because I’ve been relating my experience here with the people I’ve come to know and the places that I’ve been. However, I have spent a lot of time experimenting with growing vegetables around the house, trying to raise ladybugs as well as conducting a bird survey.
- Experimenting in the garden around the house was a great learning experience for me since I have never grown vegetables in a climate like Northern Thailand’s, and half of the vegetables that I grew I had never even heard of before. We had a lot of success growing vegetables in the sunken bed in the back of our house even though Ajaan Tui and Apot laughed when they first saw it and said that it wouldn’t work. The raised container gardens that we had in the front of the house worked really well too. To no surprise, we found that the vegetables grown in UHDP’s potting soil mix grew much better than the veggies grown in the soil from the forest and around the house.
- During the time that I spent in the organic gardens at UHDP as well as the garden beds around my house, one of the major pests that kept popping up were aphids. Aphids were seen damaging a variety of plant species, so when I finally saw some ladybird beetles feeding on the aphids, I collected some of the beetles to try and reproduce them in captivity. However, raising the beetles in captivity proved to be extremely difficult, and I didn’t get very far with the project. I tried feeding the ladybird beetles with various types of artificial food, but the artificial food only partially worked. The food was enough to keep the beetles alive, but it wasn’t nutritious enough to cause the beetles to reproduce. Reproduction was the goal since the ladybird larvae have ferocious appetites for aphids (as do the adults), but the larvae don’t have wings to fly away with and are forced to eat the aphids in your garden.
- The bird survey I conducted at UHDP kept me busy on most days, and I was able to gather a lot of information about the different types of birds in the area. In total, I observed 46 different bird species on UHDP’s property, which is pretty impressive seeing as how UHDP only has 14 acres. I was able to compare the diversity of bird species at UHDP with one of the surrounding orange orchards, and I found that the orange orchard only contained 14 different bird species even though the orange orchard must have been at least 4 times the area of UHDP. I could go on, but I realize that not everyone is interested in this stuff as I am. I’ll finish this section by leaving you with the names of my five favorite bird species at UHDP. If you are interested you can copy and paste the name into google images to get an idea of what they look like. My top five: crimson sunbird, indian roller, short billed minvet, black-naped monarch, and the scarlet-backed flowerpecker.

As much fun as my different projects have been at UHDP, I enjoy when other random things pop up at UHDP that take me away from the normal routine, and a few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to go visit a friend of mine from Calvin, Karen Genzink, who is currently interning at International Justice Mission in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. IJM is an amazing organization that works to stop sex trafficking, and it was great to see where Karen works and inspiring to hear about some of the stories of girls being rescued. Karen and her roommate, Roya, were kind enough to let me stay in the extra room that they have at their apartment, and I was able to get a sense of what everyday life is like in the city of Phnom Penh. It was great to be back in Cambodia again and explore Phnom Penh and get reacquainted with the city since all of the places I went to in Cambodia two years ago have gotten all mixed up in my head. The one weekend I was in Cambodia Karen, Roya, and one of their co-workers, Lisa, and I went down to the city of Kep, which is on the coast of Cambodia, and I got to see a whole new side of Cambodia that I had never seen before. Kep is a nice quiet town with a crab market, great little places to eat, islands to boat out to, and great scenic views! Karen, Roya, Lisa and I spent a day hiking around one of the small mountains in Kep, and we ended the hike by running up the mountain to catch a view of the sunset with just a few minutes to spare. We also had a great day on the beach at one of the nearby islands enjoying some of the seafood and getting a little sun burnt. All in all, it was an amazing trip that I’m thankful I was able to take before I left South East Asia, and I’m jealous that Karen and Roya are just starting their internship and have many more months left in Cambodia.

As my time draws to a close at UHDP, I have been spending as much time with the staff as possible. Since I am wrapping up my projects at UHDP and have less and less work to do, I have been spending my extra free time helping out with other random projects going on at UHDP. Most of my wrap up work has kept me inside, so it was nice to get out and work with the UHDP students (Eak, Ong, Waen, and Suphanat) this past week and help out with things like making mud bricks for the adobe house or putting up shingles on the shack for the cows. Recently, the guys have started playing a game called takraw after work, and I have had a fun/embarrassing time learning to play the game with them. Takraw is sort of a mix between hackey sack and volleyball because you use your feet and head to volley a small ball back and forth over a net. I’m pretty bad with my feet, so I have learned to stand at the net and let the ball hit me in the head and drop down on the other side since I’m much taller than the net is. Needles to say, the guys get a good laugh out of my tactics. I’ve had a great time hanging out with the guys and getting to know them a bit, so saying goodbye will be hard, but all I can do right now is enjoy the time I still have left with them.

I can’t believe that as I post this entry I only have a little over a week left at UHDP. I have come to absolutely love the time that I have been fortunate enough to spend at UHDP, and it doesn’t seem right that I will be leaving so soon. I have a going away party to look forward to this week, and other than that I’m preparing myself mentally for the transition back into American culture. It will be difficult to transition back into life at home; however, I am really looking forward to seeing friends and family once again.

Natural Farming

Sorry it has been a while since I have written anything on here, but I hope that you have had the chance to look through all of the pictures that I have been uploading to my blog in the meantime.

Last week, I had the chance to travel down to Chiang Mai with four other staff from UHDP to attend a natural farming seminar hosted by the SEED (something to eat every day) Project. There was a total of about seven or so other NGO’s that attended the seminar, and we all came together to learn more about how we can serve those in need through gardening and other sustainable farming techniques. The first couple of says were spent teaching everyone how to start their own organic garden, which was a lot of old information for UHDP since organic gardens have been a integral part of UHDP for years now. However, UHDP was able to gain a lot of knowledge about how to make various organic liquid fertilizers by using farm wastes and other cheap materials towards the end of the week. It was encouraging to see an organization like SEED that is involved with educating people on how to grow vegetables with whatever land they have and how to do it organically and sustainably. However, while I was talking with one of the presenters from SEED, I found out that they require the communities that they work with to convert to Christianity before SEED will share their information and technology with the community. I was saddened when I heard this since I would think it would be hard to tell what the community’s real reason for converting to Christianity was if the technology is only presented after the conversion of a community. I was able to share a bit about what UHDP does within the hilltribe communities that we work with, and that UHDP would not have gotten very far within the Buddhist-Animist hilltribe communities if UHDP required the villages to convert to Christianity first. I learned a lot while I was at the seminar, and I know that SEED is a great organization that is doing a lot of good things, and that they are working hard to educate people from Nepal all the way to the Philippines.

Spending the week down in Chiang Mai with the four other UHDP staff was a great opportunity for me to spend a lot more time with them, and it allowed me to put my Thai language skills to the test since none of the staff that I went with could speak English. I traveled down to Chiang Mai with Pi Singhkam, Chai, Ek, and Pi Dah. I ended up staying at Pi Singhkam’s little sisters house for the week with the three guys, and Pi Dah stayed at her sister-in-law’s house for the week. I got to spend a lot of time with Ek in the back of the pickup truck as we rode around town each day, and it was also great to just be able to sit around at night and drink tea with the guys as we watched soccer highlights, the news, or crazy Thai shows about witches and vampires. I have to say the acting in Thai TV shows is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. I was able to learn a bunch of new Thai words as I rode around with Ek and watched TV with the guys, but I still consider myself lucky if I’m able to pick out two or three words when Pi Singhkam talks to me. When Pi Singhkam talks, he talks so fast that what he is saying just sounds like noise to me still. Talking with Ek is great, though, because he knows that he has to talk like a four year old in order to communicate with me. The students (Ek, Ong, When, and Suphanat) have had to learn the Thai language recently as well, so I find talking with them to be a bit easier since they have a better understanding of the Thai words that I actually know. I really wish I could jump into a conversation at ease by now, but it has been great to learn from and talk with the students even though the level of communication can be quite primitive at times. Even though I am no Thai language pro, I’m glad that I have been able to progress a little with the language, and I’m at the point right now where I am trying to cherish the time that I have left at UHDP.

Out of the Ordinary

Working and living at UHDP can sometimes feel like I’m trapped in a bubble, so I usually look forward to any sort of activity that breaks up the normal pace of work at UHDP. The past two weeks have been anything but normal at UHDP as they have been packed full with a lot of different activities as well as a lot of visitors.

Two weekends ago, Armando (Kim and Ruth’s boss from the states) came to UHDP so that he could see and experience for himself everything that is happening at UHDP. Armando works for Floresta, which is an NGO that UHDP has been working with for the past couple of years, but UHDP and Floresta have only just recently made the partnership official. There were a lot of kinks that needed to be worked out between Floresta, UHDP, and the interns, so having Armando here was a great time for Kim, Ruth, and I to explain our experience living at UHDP so far and give suggestions for how the intern program could be improved. Armando, Kim, Ruth and I were also able to get out and explore Fang a bit more, and it felt great for me to have a guy in the group that I could just talk with about things like sports for a change.

Last week, everyone at UHDP was busy with hosting the two student groups that were visiting. One of the student groups came through the organization Thinking Beyond Borders, and the other student group came on their own. Thinking Beyond Borders accepts high school seniors who have just graduated, and gives the students the opportunity to travel all around the world for a year and learn about the development issues in the area where they are staying. I really enjoyed helping out with the activities at UHDP last week because both of the student groups got really involved and were interested about what happens at UHDP. Now that I’ve been at UHDP for a few months, I was able to help out with the activities a lot more and answer more of the questions that the students would bring up. On one of the days, I was able to help Geut and Ajaan Tui show the students how to make pig feed, compost and neem, and explain how they fit in with everything else on the farm. I learned a lot about how the plants in the agroforest are used by hilltribe people by tagging along on the tours with the students since I was never given a formal tour of the agroforests myself. And in traditional fashion, we killed another pig towards the end of the students stay at UHDP, and I was impressed with the willingness of the students to get involved and learn about how important pigs are in the hilltribe culture. A student even helped Apot stab the pig in the heart this time! Having so many people around who liked getting their hands dirty and who had a genuine interest in UHDP’s work picked my spirits up and made the whole week a lot of fun.

The past week was also better than normal because the cold season festival was being held in Fang all week long. At this point, I feel like I have a better understanding of hilltribe culture than I do of Thai culture so it was great to get out and see what Thai people do at night in and around Fang for a change. The festival reminded me of a city fair back home, but instead of Ferris wheels, cotton candy, and elephant ears there were noodles, dried squid, and a techno club. The main attraction each night was a concert, and there were some big names that came to the festival. The first night that I went Prik Thai was performing, and I was surprised as to how crazy the people in the crowd became. The lead singer of the band was a girl so a lot of the guys in the crowd would find a friend’s shoulder to ride on, take off their shirt, and twirl it around in approval. It was quite funny to watch. The second time I went Golf and Mike were playing, but we didn’t get to see the whole show because we arrived in Fang kind of late. The concert Golf and Mike put on was also a lot of fun, but they were a hip hop band so it took me a little longer to get into the music. They put on a good show, but I thought that the outfits that the band members were wearing were the best part of their act…..

To top it all off, I was able to go to Alop’s wedding last weekend. The wedding was a traditional Palaung wedding, which consisted of Alop and his party walking from his village, Huay Sai Gaow, all the way to the village of Huay Wai, which is the village that his bride, Ngun, was from. I headed to Huay Wai with other UHDP staff and met up with everyone at Ngun’s house. Everyone gathered at the Ngun’s house for a ceremony where friends offered Alop and his wife money and tied their hands together with string. Once the ceremony at Ngun’s house was over, everyone headed back to Huay Sai Gaow for the actual wedding. The wedding was held in Alop’s house and was mainly a communal acknowledgement that Alop and Ngun were husband and wife. I couldn’t understand anything that was being said because it most mostly in the Palaung language, but I was still glad I could be at Huay Sai Gaow with everyone to celebrate Alop’s wedding.

It’s back to normal old UHDP again, and it feels good to have it a bit quieter around here again. However, I do have a barbeque at Rick Burnet’s (founder of UHDP) house this weekend to look forward to down in Chiang Mai, so my normal routine at UHDP will soon be interrupted again.

Tropical Christmas

The Holiday celebrations started a bit earlier for me this year than normal. The Christmas party with the staff at UHDP was held on the 18th of December, and the day consisted of another pig killing in the morning with songs and a white elephant gift exchange at night. Most of the day was spent preparing the food and decorations for the party at night. And I must say that it was very different to have palm branches as Christmas decorations. The gift exchange was a lot of fun, and everyone started getting into it when people started stealing the good gifts that were already available. There were a few gifts that kept getting taken from people, but everyone was a really good sport about it. I ended up stealing a cup and a plate for our house from Alop, and I was fortunate enough to keep it until the end. It was great to have a party with everyone at UHDP, but it was also kind of sad because that was Katy’s last day at UHDP.

Once it actually reached Christmas time, things got a bit more relaxing. Christmas Eve was the day that the other interns and I got to be bums and act like we were on vacation. We made our Christmas breakfast that morning and treated ourselves to some french toast with bacon and eggs. For the rest of the day, we watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy and snacked on the food that we got as gifts from one another. On Christmas Day, the other interns and I were invited over to Ajaan Tui, Pi Dah, and Lek Lek’s house for dinner. I ended up making nachos on Christmas for the first time since I’ve been here, and Ruth made a Canadian dish called punteene, which is just french fries with gravy and melted cheese on top. Ajaan Tui is not a big fan of American food so there were also a few stir-fried Thai dishes for dinner as well. It wasn’t the typical Christmas meal that I’m used to, but the meal was still very good and we all ended up getting extremely full. After dinner, Pi Dah took Kim, Ruth and I to her church in her Lahu village where we got to experience the Christmas celebrations going on there. It was a great day overall, and it was good to be able to spend Christmas with the other interns and Ajaan Tui’s family since they have kind of become my family here at UHDP.

New Years was a whole new experience as well. Ruth, Kim, and I were able to spend the New Years with Wah at her Karen village, which is located up in the mountains about 5 hours west of Chiang Mai. It was quite a trek to get there, and I ended up riding in the back of a pickup truck the whole way there. We eventually got to Wah’s older sisters house where we stayed for a few nights, which was in a village only a few miles away from the village where Wah grew up. While staying with Wah’s sister, we visited the school that Wah went to when she was a little girl, and her school gave me the chills because it reminded me of the schools in Cambodia that I saw that had been converted into execution and torture facilities during the Khmer Rouge era a few decades back. On New Years Eve, we left Wah’s sisters place and headed to the village where Wah grew up and where most of her family still lived. We got to meet her Father (who had remarried after Wah’s mom died giving birth) older sister, younger brother, and an older brother. I learned that Wah is one of nine children and that she had been a compassion child growing up, which allowed her to continue school and look for opportunities outside of her village. It turns out that Wah is the most educated out of all of her siblings, and her younger brother is the only one who has also gone on to study outside of the village where they grew up. When the village got together for the New Years Eve celebration, I could tell that some of the younger people had come back to the village from the city, and Wah told me that more and more people are looking for opportunities outside of the village. The New Years Eve celebrations that night started fairly early in the evening and went until an hour or so past midnight. Everyone gathered together around little fires at the church up on the hill where people sang songs and handed out prizes until midnight. Kim, Ruth, and I were even called up to sing a few songs for everyone. The entire celebration that night was all in the Karen language, so I couldn’t understand a word of what was being said, but it was nice to spend the night around a fire, and ring in the New Year by watching the second hand tick on a clock. When it finally reached midnight, one of the village leaders got up in front and asked a blessing for the New Year while others kept on with the usual singing, and then people gradually started heading back to their homes to call it a night.

I knew to expect that the holidays this year were going to be very different from what I’m used to, but I had no idea how different they were going to be. For the past couple of years, the Holidays have been a time for me to recover from the school semester plus exams, eat a lot of good food, and spend much needed time with my family. But this year was spent with people I have only recently met, and at places I have never been to. I’m used to spending Christmas in very familiar places, and I did get homesick at times, but I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with the staff at UHDP for the Holidays. I felt very welcomed everywhere I went, and it was nice to be able to celebrate the Holidays in a different way than normal and just be a part of the celebrations in the hilltribe communities in Northern Thailand.