11/3
Last night was Ajaan (Professor) Ooh's wedding. More bad Thai music, but good food and a really cool house. Got back kinda late, then woke up at 5:30 this morning to go to Laos to renew our visas. After five excruciating hours there, we came back to Khon Kaen for the Urban unit--aka staying at the municipal landfill. There are several levels of scavengers here in Thailand, and this community is at the end of the line. In the evening we sat in the dirt road adjacent to the landfill for about four hours, talking with the villagers about there lives. Then, at about 11pm, when the temperature was nice and cool, we set off into the piles of rotting garbage and medical waste for a shift of work with the families. The municipal garbage trucks came a little late this night, so we built a fire on top of the landfill and talked for a while longer. At about 1am the trucks started coming, bringing with them the first several of the 190 tons of garbage that is dumped there every day, providing about 400 people with their livelihood since at least the 1960s. So we dug.
When the trucks climb up the 18 meter pile, villagers are there waiting to claim their territory, but the truck drivers have no regard for anyone around--if you weren't alert, you'd be run over when they hit the gas. But everyone has a riot of a time, laughing with each other and joking with us farangs (foreigners). It was actually really fun, and I wish we had more time there. Their community is really strong, and they're as proud of their way of life as the rice farmers who were put out of business when the landfill runoff poisoned the fields nearby. These villagers say they aren't too worried about the toxic water, and they eat the pumpkin and tomatoes that grow by the reservoir that catches the outflow from the dump (which is then 'purified' with a few papyrus reeds before it flows into the river and back into the municipal water supply).
At about 3:30 am, I went back to shower and sleep, since the next morning, we had to leave again. But about 6 people stayed and slept with their families in lean-to shelters on the landfill, made from whatever materials the city made available that day. Some students found a 2-foot fish in the trash, which they proceeded to place on the fire and marinade with a bottle of teriyaki sauce. They were JOKING. But when they woke up in the morning, the community was sucking the bones clean, along with a few full bottles of beer that Ryan and I had found and brought back.
So at 9:30 the morning of the 5th, I left my dirty shoes for my host family and piled in the 9-passenger van with 13 other putrid people and drove back to the university. And dove right back into work for my internship during our supposed "free day" (don't believe them when they say that--it's a total myth).
CIEE has about $300,000 in surplus budget that the Thai Seeka Association wants for itself. Thai Seeka is this alternative education network in Khon Kaen, of which CIEE Khon Kaen is a part. CIEE is going to decide what to do with this money tomorrow at their annual meeting in Spain, so we spent 11 hours writing a funding proposal for the construction of a Cooperative Learning Center on the grounds of Nonchai Primary School that would be a home for Thai Seeka, a meeting space for local community groups, a demonstration of sustainable living, and the future home for CIEE Khon Kaen. We finished the proposal during class yesterday and sent it off 10 minutes before we left for our final homestay.
So now, I'm writing from the office of my new host family; my Paw owns a car rental business in Khon Kaen, and my Mae is a nurse. We're all staying with different families from different economic backgrounds, and mine is pretty well off. We're watching a DVD of Simon and Garfunkel reunited in Japan two years ago. The 16 year old daughter did an exchange program in Ohio last year for High School, and the dad speaks English pretty well too. Last night we watched Pirates of the Carribbean 2, and this morning we went shopping at the downtown mall (because I needed to get new shoes!). It's strikingly like being at home.
Last night was Ajaan (Professor) Ooh's wedding. More bad Thai music, but good food and a really cool house. Got back kinda late, then woke up at 5:30 this morning to go to Laos to renew our visas. After five excruciating hours there, we came back to Khon Kaen for the Urban unit--aka staying at the municipal landfill. There are several levels of scavengers here in Thailand, and this community is at the end of the line. In the evening we sat in the dirt road adjacent to the landfill for about four hours, talking with the villagers about there lives. Then, at about 11pm, when the temperature was nice and cool, we set off into the piles of rotting garbage and medical waste for a shift of work with the families. The municipal garbage trucks came a little late this night, so we built a fire on top of the landfill and talked for a while longer. At about 1am the trucks started coming, bringing with them the first several of the 190 tons of garbage that is dumped there every day, providing about 400 people with their livelihood since at least the 1960s. So we dug.
When the trucks climb up the 18 meter pile, villagers are there waiting to claim their territory, but the truck drivers have no regard for anyone around--if you weren't alert, you'd be run over when they hit the gas. But everyone has a riot of a time, laughing with each other and joking with us farangs (foreigners). It was actually really fun, and I wish we had more time there. Their community is really strong, and they're as proud of their way of life as the rice farmers who were put out of business when the landfill runoff poisoned the fields nearby. These villagers say they aren't too worried about the toxic water, and they eat the pumpkin and tomatoes that grow by the reservoir that catches the outflow from the dump (which is then 'purified' with a few papyrus reeds before it flows into the river and back into the municipal water supply).
At about 3:30 am, I went back to shower and sleep, since the next morning, we had to leave again. But about 6 people stayed and slept with their families in lean-to shelters on the landfill, made from whatever materials the city made available that day. Some students found a 2-foot fish in the trash, which they proceeded to place on the fire and marinade with a bottle of teriyaki sauce. They were JOKING. But when they woke up in the morning, the community was sucking the bones clean, along with a few full bottles of beer that Ryan and I had found and brought back.
So at 9:30 the morning of the 5th, I left my dirty shoes for my host family and piled in the 9-passenger van with 13 other putrid people and drove back to the university. And dove right back into work for my internship during our supposed "free day" (don't believe them when they say that--it's a total myth).
CIEE has about $300,000 in surplus budget that the Thai Seeka Association wants for itself. Thai Seeka is this alternative education network in Khon Kaen, of which CIEE Khon Kaen is a part. CIEE is going to decide what to do with this money tomorrow at their annual meeting in Spain, so we spent 11 hours writing a funding proposal for the construction of a Cooperative Learning Center on the grounds of Nonchai Primary School that would be a home for Thai Seeka, a meeting space for local community groups, a demonstration of sustainable living, and the future home for CIEE Khon Kaen. We finished the proposal during class yesterday and sent it off 10 minutes before we left for our final homestay.
So now, I'm writing from the office of my new host family; my Paw owns a car rental business in Khon Kaen, and my Mae is a nurse. We're all staying with different families from different economic backgrounds, and mine is pretty well off. We're watching a DVD of Simon and Garfunkel reunited in Japan two years ago. The 16 year old daughter did an exchange program in Ohio last year for High School, and the dad speaks English pretty well too. Last night we watched Pirates of the Carribbean 2, and this morning we went shopping at the downtown mall (because I needed to get new shoes!). It's strikingly like being at home.
posted by Darren Legge at 11:49 PM
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