Life in a brothel

I’m sorry that I’ve been absent for so long! I’ve been working on my final project, which is a human rights report, for roughly 14 hours every day. On November 25, I got into a wan with the dream team: Kati, Josh, Tommy, Brodie, Ajaan Ooh, P’Joy, and myself. We went to Roi-Et province, where we stayed in a nice hotel. The room that I shared with Kati had a bathtub, a western-style toilet, and a t.v: it was one of the nicest places I’ve stayed at during my time in Thailand. However, it was also a brothel. An entire wing of the hotel was full of prostitutes, and at night they all flocked to the lobby of the hotel. It was so strange to stay in a hotel that was also part brothel because the hotels in Bangkok won’t even allow Thai people to stay in them in fear that Thai people are prostitutes. It was quite an experience.

The next day, we spoke to the Sangsawat family whose house was destroyed by the transmission line that carries a reserve of electricity from the Nam Theun 2 project in Laos to Thailand. The Electricity Generating authority of Thailand (EGAT) threatened the family multiple times because they were unwilling to give up their land. EGAT took Paiboon, the father to jail and threatened him, it forged the mother’s signature on the compensation document, and it brought local police to the family’s home to force them off of their land.

The family lost their house, their land, and their livelihood. They used to sell ducks, chickens, fruit, and fish, but can no longer do so because they do not have the appropriate land. Currently, the family has Bt 2, 000,000 in debt, which is an amount that they will never be able to pay off. Their lives were ruined because of this development project, and it was absolutely heart wrenching as the father began to cry while telling us that he couldn’t sleep because the pain in his heart was too much to bear. At one point, the entire family started crying because their lives and happiness have been stolen.

Interestingly enough, their home was the only one affected by the 500 kV transmission line. We all started to ask if it’s o.k. if one family is destroyed so that thousands can lead more developed lives. I came to the conclusion that it’s never acceptable for anyone to suffer for anyone else’s’ happiness and comfort. Furthermore, we had an exchange with EGAT, where they told us that they could not do anything to help the family since the project is completed. When we asked why they were able to avoid a dinosaur park (dinosaurs are a big deal in Thailand; there was a dinosaur craze in the 90’s. I wish I were joking.) but not the family’s home, EGAT responded that villagers wanted the park to be preserved. EGAT then said that it spent Bt 20,000,000 to buy the villagers’ off. Thus, the Sangsawats were not important enough to adequately buy-off. I just can’t understand how EGAT could do this. How is it that so many governments and companies around the world care more about natural resources, money, and development than human beings?

I started to get really sad that during my time in Thailand I have witnessed so much unnecessary suffering. People who have had their lives, communities, and families torn apart in the name of development. Yet at the same time, I have met some of the most extraordinary people that I’ve ever met in my life while in Thailand. People who are fighting for their lives and rights with the most passion and enthusiasm I have ever seen in my life. People who are kind, intelligent, and generous. People who have faced enormous adversity in life, but who still view life as a beautiful thing worth fighting for. There are so many people in this world who have the capacity to change the world for the better, and I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of them.

For the next couple of days, until the 29, we piled into the wan everyday and searched for other households negatively affected by the transmission line. We went to all 19 sub-districts in Roi-Et province, but we did not meet anyone else. We then returned to Khon Kaen, and Kati and I immediately began work on a human rights report for the Sangsawat family. I’ve been working tirelessly on this report, and it is coming to an end. The plan was to send it to International Rivers, an NGO that investigates communities affected by hydropower projects in Southeast Asia. We sent them a draft of the report, and tonight I found out that they are planning on sending our report directly to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The ADB is responsible for the planning and implementation of the Nam Theun 2 project. I’m beyond ecstatic knowing that all of my hard work is paying off. I really hope that this makes the ADB re-evaluate the case of the Sangsawat family because they need to be adequately compensated for all that they have lost.

The other night, I went to Central Plaza, which is a brand new mall in Khon Kaen. A bunch of us went for the grand opening, and I was so scared as soon as we entered the mall. It was the largest mall I’ve ever been to in my life, and it was all so fancy. It was the first time I’ve really experienced culture shock. It was funny to be confronted with what awaits me when I return to home. The bright lights, fancy shops, and polished floors were all a bit much for me to handle without becoming overwhelmed. I have less than a week left in Thailand, and a packed schedule awaits me. There are things planned every day, but I’m prepared to spend as much time with my friends as possible, and I want to soak in everything about this country so that I can bring it back with me to the U.S.

I'm so full, I can't laugh

Since returning from Na Nong Bong, my days have been filled with dancing until 4 AM, returning to Yasothorn, and celebrating Thanksgiving. On the 14^th, a bunch of my friends and I decided to go to Sunset Bar, which is in the middle of a huge field outside of Khon Kaen city. We set off in two tuk tuks, and unfortunately, one broke down, so we waited by the side of the road for ½ an hour and then made our way to the bar by 12 AM. We sat underneath a sky full of stars and just talked while looking out into the fields. We also danced like fools to American music until 4AM, and took someone’s birthday cake and completely devoured it (he gave us permission to, but seemed stunned when he no longer had a cake).

On the 21^st, Ana and I returned to Yasothorn, where I had my first unit, and we were able to stay with our homestay family, which was amazing! As soon as we arrived, we were put to work by our paw, who had us harvest dead rice for the cows. Our family has 20 rai of land, but we think that he did not trust enough to harvest the rice that is used to feed people, which was probably a good choice. Although I don’t think that I was particularly good at harvesting rice, I simply hacked it off with my sickle, I found it to be extremely relaxing and peaceful. We then had lunch, went back to work in the field, and then went on a wonderful walk throughout the village. On our walk, we even made a friend named Gus, who was a stocky little dog that trailed us wherever we went. After we returned from our walk, we read and relaxed while looking out over the pond, and then had dinner. Soon after, Ana and I prepared to go to bed, but we were unable to sleep for more than an hour the entire night because it was absolutely freezing. The house is constructed out of wood and provides very little protection from the howling wind. As a result, we were left shivering the entire night, and barely got any sleep.

We woke up at 5 AM, which wasn’t so bad since we were eager to warm up, to go to the Green Market, which is the market where the farmers sell their organically grown produce. We stayed at the market until 9 AM, and then went to Meh Pid’s house, which is where our friends, Maina, Jordan, Liz, and Shayne stayed. Their house had a wonderful raised, wooden plank that we all slept on, covered by a mountain of blankets. I slept for 2.5 hours, and it was wonderful to sleep in the fresh air, especially after having gotten such poor rest the night before. I then read…We’ve all been reading a lot, and many times, there are 10 or more of us in a row with our heads bent low over our respective books. We then went to farmer’s camp, which is where people learn how to farm and kill their own animals, and we were able to spend some time on the farm of 40 rai. While taking a tour of the land, Liz was almost stabbed by a running cow, and I was head-butted by a goat! Then we were on our way back to Khon Kaen. Although my trip to Yasothorn lasted less than 48 hours, I had a wonderful time.

However, last night, the 22^nd, topped dancing underneath the stars and harvesting rice…We celebrated Thanksgiving, and surprisingly, it was delicious! CIEE was very kind and brought us to the nicest hotel in Khon Kaen, The Pullman. There was a Thanksgiving buffet being held there, complete with a turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, sushi, bread and cheese, salad, etc. It was a startling sight for us, and we attacked the buffet as soon as we laid eyes on it. I ate 5 plates of food, and had a food monster growing inside of me by the end of the night. I was so stuffed that it actually hurt to laugh, and I had a great deal of difficulty in standing up. I ate myself into a state where I gagged many times because my body was having a hard time trying to process such an unhealthy amount of western food. It was just possibly one of the best nights of my life. Although I know that I’m going to miss Thanksgiving in America, my early Thanksgiving celebration in Thailand was more than enough to make me feel thankful for all that I have in my life, and I was surrounded by plenty of people who I have grown to love in the span of 3 months. I couldn’t have asked for anything else.

Not surprisingly, I am leaving tomorrow to begin my final project. I am working with Kati, Tommy, and Brodie to investigate the effect that the electrical transmission line has on households in Thailand. We are going to make and compile case studies and then make human rights reports through an ESCR lens. Our project is going to be slightly insane because we have never studied this specific issue before, and we don’t even know where the households that have been affected by the transmission line are located. We only know the whereabouts of one family that was physically threatened, had their house destroyed, and their signatures faked on a legal agreement by EGAT, the company that constructed the transmission line. Therefore, we will be going in a van simply following the transmission line looking for households near the line that we can hopefully interview. It is going to an adventure, and I can’t wait to begin the search!

The price of gold

A week ago, I went to Na Nong Bong, which is a village in Loei Province (where I had my orientation!). Loei Province is known for its beautiful mountains that cover the entire landscape, and Na Nong Bong is no exception. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to in my life (I’m so sorry, I forgot to bring my camera, but I promise to steal some from my friends) with all of its green, rolling mountains that reflect the sun’s brilliant colors throughout the day. Sadly, the landscape of the village is tainted by a mountain that has been deforested, and all that is there is a mine, which looks like a massive dirt hole. Not only is it aesthetically unpleasing to the eye, but it also has deadly affects on the village and the surrounding environment.

Na Nong Bong is full of some of the most wonderful people that I have ever met in Thailand. They are spirited, willing to fight for their rights until the very end, generous, kind, funny, and compassionate beings. This is why it is so devastating to hear that people continue to use the water to bathe in and to wash their dishes even though the Office of Public Health told them that their water is contaminated with cyanide and heavy metals (they can’t afford clean water), that 54 individuals in the village have been diagnosed with cyanide poisoning, that their rice yields have decreased, that they are afraid to eat the produce they grow, and that their way of life has been destroyed by the mine. To oppose the mine and all that it has done to them, the villagers have formed the group, People Who Conserve Their Hometown, which tries to spread awareness, writes letters to government officials asking for help, and protests the mine.

One day, we had an exchange with the Office of Public Health, where the representative told us that the villagers weren’t concerned about problems relating to cyanide since the kind of cyanide poisoning they have, which is supposedly contact cyanide, can be urinated out of the body in 7 days. She also told us that the government needs to go into the village and educate the villagers on the issues posed by the gold mine because most of them only have 4^th grade educations, and that the Office is scared of releasing the results of the vegetable and plant contamination test because of all the backlash they received after making it public that the water’s contaminated.

It was the most disheartening exchange that I’ve ever had because this was the one Office that should’ve at least pretended to be on the side of the villagers. It should be protecting the villagers’ health, but it’s so clear that the mine has bought the Office off, which it has done to many other branches of the government. I don’ think that I’ve ever been that enraged before, but I just couldn’t believe that these villagers are literally fighting for their lives, and that no one is willing to offer them any help. It’s disgusting to know that people and organizations can act with absolutely no compassion.

Yet the majority of my stay at Na Nong Bong was anything but disheartening. It was one of the best times that I’ve ever had: it was filled with laughter, love, happiness, and a sense of community. 2 mornings, I woke up at 4 am with my meh and paw and went to the market with them (we bought really large rats that still had their intestines intact) since they own the village store. It was really fun to go with them and see all of the food being sold since it is so different from anything that can be found in the U.S.: pig heads, rats, fried, green jelly, etc. Also, one night Liz, my roommate, and I went to work with our parents in the rubber fields. They systematically cut the bark on the rubber trees in a downward spiral, but only on one side of the tree, so that the rubber runs down into a dish. I was terrible at it, and basically hacked away at the poor tree until I saw some rubber meekly dribble out, but Liz was a pro at it. I only attempted to help twice, but then stopped because I was afraid that they would lose money if I continued to maul their trees.

I was also able to go on a hike up to a cave on the top of a mountain! The trek was quite impressive, and I was proud of myself for making it! It started out with A LOT of concrete steps, and then it transitioned into nothing at all…Just hiking up a mountain. As it became steeper, wooden ladders were placed on the ground, but it was so steep that the ladders just sat on the ground. At the end, we essentially crawled to the top. However, it was all worth it because the cave was the most beautiful thing I have seen in my life. We walked around in the dark until we came to a huge opening where a stream of brilliant white light shone through a hole at the very top of the mountain. Inside of this opening was also a huge statue of Buddha. It was probably the most surreal experience I’ve ever had.

After a 5 night stay at Na Nong Bong, we went to a village that is facing the possibility of having the first copper mine in all of Thailand be constructed right near their community. They were warned about this potential project by Na Nong Bong villagers, and have formed a group to oppose the mine. It amazes me that the people of Na Nong Bong are not simply fighting for their own cause, their also fighting for all other people who are, have been, or will be oppressed by the construction of mines. Although the gold mine that pertains to their village is their main priority, they are just as serious, dedicated, and passionate about helping others in similar situations. Thailand is a much more collectivist society than the U.S., and I thought that I would find myself feeling constrained and forced to conform to “fit in,” but instead I find Thai society to be refreshing because people are not so focused on just themselves.

I only have one more month in Thailand, and with the end so near, I am simultaneously giddy to return home and terrified to go back. I am afraid to leave a country that I have fallen deeply in love with, and I can’t imagine being without the 26 other students who are currently here with me. It’s so funny to think of how apprehensive I was to come to Thailand, and now how those same feelings are resurfacing when thinking about returning to the U.S. So many of my loved ones are in the U.S., and the thought of seeing them puts a smile on my face and makes me overwhelmingly happy. All I know is that I need to treasure every moment that I have left in Thailand because I will soon leave this country that has given me infinitely more than I ever could have imagined.

4 day break: forming a human rights youth network

Yet again, I’m up and running….I returned from Bangkok yesterday at 5 Am, and leave for Loei Province (where I had orientation) tomorrow afternoon. However, my 4 day break was amazing! I left for Bangkok on an overnight bus at 12 AM on November 1^st. The buses here are really plush because they are modeled after the business class sections of airplanes, so the seats are really large and recline almost all the way back, and there are even stewardesses on every bus ride. They dress in these really cute uniforms and pass out drinks and snacks, and make sure that everyone is comfortable…It’s really comical, but also quite nice!

We arrived in Bangkok at 6 in the morning and Kate and I walked all around until we were able to find a reasonable hotel that wasn’t a jail cell. After a couple of hours of searching we were able to finally found the perfect place! Then we took showers and we met up with our friend Hilary and Louisa, a friend of Hilary’s. We all went to Indian food, which was delicious, and then went out to talk and have coffee. Then we went shopping on Khaw Sahn Road, which is the most touristy place in all of Bangkok. It is filled with hundreds of farang (foreigners) who, for the most part, are incredibly rude to the Thai people who work there. However, it has really nice, cheap things that are unavailable in Khon Kaen, so I fell for the tourist trap as well.

However, the night did not end there! November 2^nd is Loi Kratong, which is a big holiday in Thailand. It’s when you buy floats made out of banana leaves, filled with flowers and bananas that you put all of your negative feelings onto and then place into a body of water so that all of your worries and aggravations float away. In some places, huge lanterns are places into the air, like my experience at Tamui, but that didn’t occur in Bangkok. To celebrate, we went to the river and watched as everybody placed their floats into the water. We then met a nice professor who worked at Thammasat (the major university in Bangkok) who asked Hilary for a lighter to light the candles on his float. We talked with him for a little bit, and then he let us place all of our ill feelings onto his float, which was very generous of him…His poor float must have been feeling pretty heavy. We then went to a bakery where they had actual desserts!

The next day, was full of planning for the impending meeting on November 4^th. We met at 9:30 am, and planned until 6 pm at night to decide the agenda of the meeting. Luckily, I don’t really mind meetings since I’m so used to them after being on this program, and we even got falafels, warm pita bread, and hummus for lunch: it was fabulous! At 6:30 pm, Hilary and I met with Metha, a well-known NGO who has lots of connections in Bangkok, for dinner to network and further discuss the meeting with him. He was a really nice guy, and it was cool to meet with someone who has such a stronghold on the youth movement in Bangkok albeit his need to constantly be the center of attention. After dinner, he took us to a great jazz bar that was full of locals, and I got a decent cup of tea (my first once since coming to Thailand)!

On November 4^th, we woke up at 6 am and hopped in a taxi to go to the office of TVS (the Thai Volunteer Service) where we met with and debriefed the students who had come to Bangkok for the meeting from Isaan. Then we had lunch and made our way over to the meeting, which started late because of the terrible traffic in the city. The meeting had 25 people, and it was a great success! The people there came up with the main goals of the network, the name of the network: Youth Partnership for Human Rights, and the steering committee members to plan the big network meeting on December 10^th. We were able to accomplish a lot, and it was really empowering to be there. In the U.S., I constantly find myself questioning what my real passion in life is, and whether or not peace studies is something that I’m really willing to commit to. Seeing 25, young members of Thai society come together to try and form a national human rights youth network was amazing, and it showed me that I should do what I want to do and pursue what I’m interested in, regardless of what others think.

My entire experience in Thailand has made me realize that human rights and grassroots movements are what make me happy. Fighting for people whose voices aren’t heard by their own governments or the international community is something that I find overwhelmingly rewarding. It’s interesting in this context because the concept of human rights in Thailand is brand new. Class action suits were introduced just a year ago. Furthermore, there is hi so (high society) and lo so (low society). Lo so, the people of Isaan, have this notion that they don’t possess any rights. If the government takes the villagers’ land, kills their relatives, and ruins their livelihoods, the villagers don’t think that they have any right to fight for what they have lost because the government is hi so. Therefore, it’s truly inspiring to see villagers and the youth fight against this idea that only those who are wealthy have human rights in Thailand. It also makes me feel so fortunate to live in a county, America, where everyone knows that they have rights and that the court system in the U.S. is much less corrupt and much more effective than in Thailand.

Sa wa dee ka (both “hello” and “goodbye” in Thai). I am now off to my 4^th and final unit: mining. I am really excited, and can’t wait to write a ridiculously long blog post about my adventures!

"Get in the wan"

I returned from my third unit, which was centered around dams, three days ago, and I am now off to Bangkok tonight for a Human Rights Youth Network Conference for Thailand and Burma. I will be in Bangkok until November 5^th, and I couldn’t be more excited for it. I have been presented with so many amazing opportunities since I’ve come to Thailand, and I couldn’t have dreamed of a better experience than for me to attend a conference about human rights and social injustices occurring in Southeast Asia.

Well, back to my past unit. On October 22, I left for Rasi Salai Dam. The Rasi Salai Dam is different from the Pak Mun Dam in that it was commissioned by the Royal Irrigation Department of Thailand (RID) in 1989, and it has no connections with the World Bank. However, it has caused just as much destruction to the lives of the villagers in the surrounding area as the Pak Mun Dam. It was built without an Environmental or Social Impact Assesment, which has caused it to be completely ineffective in providing irrigation to the surrounding areas because it was built on a salt dome, which means that the water kills all of the crops because the salt is too concentrated within the water. Hence, there is now a huge, concrete Dam that continues to close, and yet it serves no purpose. However, unlike Pak Mun Dam, 80% of those who have been negatively affected by the Dam have been compensated, in part because those who protest the Dam are much more organized than those at Pak Mun.

The first day, we were given a tour of the Dam and the surrounding area, which was quite depressing because the environmental impacts of the Dam were so evident. Many of the rice fields were flooded, and therefore unusable (wetland rice farming has dropped by 77% since the construction of the Dam). Sadly, many villagers were unable to harvest their rice before their fields were destroyed by flooding, so they not only lost a large amount of their food source, but they also lost a lot of income. In comparison to this solemn sight, we all loved being on the Hua NaDam, which we visited next…I know, vey strange. The Dam had these huge slabs of concrete jutting out into the river, and it was so peaceful. We all sat out on these, soaked up the sun, and just took time to think

However, it’s not as bad as you may think because the Hua Na Dam has not affected anyone’s life. The Dam was constructed, but it was successfully protested against by the villagers, and has never closed its gates. It is one of the few success stories of villagers successfully confronting the government on a social and environmental issue.

Ana, Haley, and I all roomed together, and we stayed in an absolutely beautiful house. We had a paw, meh, and 2 seouws (sisters)! Our paw loved to shape shrubs (I have an odd obsession with shrubbery!), so we had a giraffe, elephant, and deer in our yard! Our family was outrageously kind, and I had such a wonderful time with them. Plus, the food was alloy (Thai, or sep in Issan/Laos)!

The next day, we ate breakfast and then went with our meh to feed their 10 water buffalos grass. Afterwards, Haley and I went to our family’s rice fields, which luckily, weren’t submerged under water. We helped our meh and paw gather grass that grew by their rice fields to feed the water buffalo tomorrow. I love going to the rice fields or even just seeing them because they’re always a vibrant shade of green that I’ve never seen in the U.S., and it’s just the most beautiful sight. After 2 hours spent in the fields, we met up with Ana and fished in a little pond! Everyone else was having such success, but I wasn’t able to catch anything…I think it may be because P’Joy (the main driver for CIEE and everyone’s friend) gave me a piece of banana at the end of my hook instead of fish food! Then we had lunch, and as soon as we finished, our paw and little sister (nang seouw) took us to a really, really flooded area. If our paw hadn’t told us it was flooded, we all would have assumed that it was simply a river! Ana and Haley swam around, and then we returned home. To end the day, Ana and I decided to take a really long bike ride, and it was so much fun! One of us peddled while the other one sat on the back seat. It was tough going for a little while (quite wobbly, and lots of times where we careened off the road and into someone’s fields), but then we got the hang of it and were able to keep ourselves on the road!

On October 24, we got into the vans and drove to the protest village in Rasi Salai, which began in July 4, 2009. It was created to protest the Dam from closing its gates, and it is also in solidarity to make sure that the 20% of villagers who have not yet received compensation. The protest village is basically tent city with only two squatty potties, and it seemed to be in a more primitive stage than the Kon San Protest Village. However, the people that we met there were beautiful, courageous individuals fighting for to get their lives back.

That day, there was a wedding going on for 2 older people who had met while protesting the Dam, and it was the most beautiful ceremony. All of their friends, family, and CIEE students crowded around them, and at the end there was a huge bi see ceremony! After the wedding, we had an exchange with the villagers, during which we were told that RID had first told the villagers that the Dam was actually going to be a rubber weir, but it then turned into a huge concrete Dam. Furthermore, villagers from the Hua Na Dam joined us, and it was wonderful to hear them say that they continued to fight for others because they don’t want anyone to have to suffer as a result of a Dam. Even though they were able to stop the Hua Na Dam from closing, they still fight alongside others to make sure that there is justice.

Afterwards, we had an exchange with an NGO working with the Rasi Salai Dam, but she basically told us everything that we had already known from the readings we had done in preparation, which was disappointing. However, I felt much better when my meh and nang seouw showed me the baby buffalo that had just been born earlier that day! It was so cute, and I named it: Wictor!

The next day, we left to go to Pak Mun. While I was sad to say goodbye to my family, I was excited to return to Pak Mun Dam. We started off by having a boat tour of the Mekong River, which was beautiful! Soon after we boarded, the boat began filling up with water, so we got out on what looked and felt like a mud pit while we waited for another boat to come get us. We were sliding around, having races, and all enjoying ourselves until we realized that at a certain point the mud turned into someone’s bean garden. Luckily, we didn’t ruin any of the beans! During the boat tour, we got off at Laos, which is on the other side of the Mekong River. I was so excited to get a peek at Laos, but sadly, it was just like Tijuana in Mexico, and was a touristy area for Thai people to get knock-offs. Yet it was still cool to go to a different country, if only for an hour or so.

Hilary and I roomed together this time, and I was really lucky because Hilary speaks Isaan (she spent her senior year of highschool in Thailand), so she was able to communicate with our family! I liked my family, but they laughed at me a lot because my Thai is pretty bad, and so I felt kind of bad about myself, but Hilary reassured me that they weren’t doing it in a malicious way, so I felt better about it.

The next morning, we went for a walk around our village, Wang Sa Bang, and we saw the dry irrigation pump and canal. It was burning outside, so we used banana leaves to shade ourselves from the sun. When we got back, we had lunch and then went to see the Pak Mun Dam, and it was perfect timing because the gates were closing that day, so we were able to see and document it. That night, we had an exchange with an NGO who worked at Pak Mun, and it was interesting because he originally worked with Rasi and then came to work at Pak Mun after 2 of the leaders at Pak Mun unexpectedly died last year.

Later that night, we had an exchange with the villagers, and it was so clear that EGAT and the Pak Mun Dam had devastated their lives. They had so much anger towards EGAT, and it was sad to see how human beings come to hate each other to a point where it consumes their lives. Yet at the same time, these people have been fighting for 30 years with very little progress made. A loss of livelihood and culture is a loss of life for these people, and it enraged me to see that they had been deprived of everything that had once been their lives.

On October 27, Hilary and I said goodbye to our family, and we then made our way to EGAT, where we had a great exchange! We asked them all about the struggles that the villagers faced and why they hadn’t been doing more, and they were very candid in saying that they had given millions of Baht as compensation to some villagers, but that all the compensation in the world might never give them back what they’ve lost. However, during other times, they outright denied that EGAT hires people to support the Dam during protests. We then drove to RID, which was a hilarious exchange because they hired a radio host and 2 farmers to tell us why RID is such a good company, and they then tried to explain what irrigation is to us, but we were able to get a lot of questions relating to the Rasi Salai Dam by not allowing them to ever speak except for answering our questions. Their answers were really evasive, but I’m glad that we met both EGAT and RID because I realize that these companies are getting orders from the government and royal family, and they have to comply with those commands. There’s a lot more to it than simply blaming EGAT and RID; there’s a whole chain of corruption and power that one must climb to find all of the sources of the problem.

Back in the past

I’m sorry that I haven’t written a blog entry for quite some time now, but my schedule has been pretty hectic. I know that this is going back more than a week from today, but I really want to tell all of you about my experience on October 19^th. I, along with many other CIEE students left the office at 7 AM to go to a trial in support of the Kon San villagers. Kon San is a protest village that was created a little more than 3 months ago, and it is to keep logging companies from planting eucalyptus trees, which suck up all of the water from the surrounding area and kill nearly all other vegetation around them. The logging companies invaded the villagers’ agricultural land nearly 30 years ago because the villagers’ land is optimal for planting and then cutting down eucalyptus trees in order to make paper.

The villagers of Kon San used to have land titles, but a couple of years ago, the logging company paid a neighbor chief to tell Kon San that he was willing to help the villagers in their fight to oppose the logging company, but that in doing so he needed to have copies of their land titles. So, the villagers gave this chief their land titles, and as was directed by the logging company, he then threw all of the titles into a fire so as to destroy all proof that that land truly belongs to the villagers.

Furthermore, the logging company hires men dressed in black shirts to monitor the villagers at all time. They have stations set up at every entry point, and normally take photos of the villagers in a menacing way. The black shirts, as they’re referred to, also use violent and scare tactics to try and get the villagers to disband the protest village. In order to deal with the black shirts, the villagers have created wooden platforms on trees that are used to monitor the movements of the black shirts, and if one comes too close to entering the village, an alert goes out to every single villager.

After 30 years, the villagers decided to sue the logging company (law suits are a pretty new thing in Thailand) for trespassing, loss of land/sustenance/and livelihood. Yet as a result, the logging company chose 36 people, at random, who are being tried for supposedly trespassing on the logging companies’ land, and if it is brought to a criminal court, those 36 people have the possibility of being sent to jail. Hopefully that won’t happen, and the case will simply stop at the civil court. Yet to further prove our solidarity with the villagers, all of the CIEE students had shirts made that had a quote from the leader of Kon San, which read (in Thai): “The logging companies must leave. We want our land back now.” I’m so glad that we were wearing them because the villagers really seemed to like and appreciate them.

Two of my friends were gracious enough to let me go into the courthouse even though we all wanted to attend, but unfortunately, no one but those being tried (the villagers and logging company officials) were able to enter the courtroom. I waited outside with everyone else for the villagers to emerge from the courthouse, and while it may not seem like we did much of anything rather than simply show up, it still made a huge difference. Not only did we show the villagers that we care for and support them, but the legal team defending the logging company backed out because the 2 lawyers didn’t want to be attached to a case that was being given so much attention from international students. I think that was a huge success!

Afterwards, the villagers invited us to their protest village, which was like nothing I had ever seen before. Their shelters reminded me of the pictures I had seen that showed the “housing” in refugee camps. They were made with wood and tarps, and were extremely minimalistic. We were given a tour of the village, and although small, it was obvious that the people who live there are dedicate, passionate individuals. It was actually stunning to see how many eucalyptus trees surrounded the village because they were literally everywhere! They still had a really small amount of land where they plant rice, but it’s sad because the logging company has destroyed most of their land. However, the people there seemed to be in good moods, and it was truly awe-inspiring to see people dedicating their lives and leaving their homes to fight for a cause.

1 Day, 1 Night= A Changed Person

On October 9, a group of 6, myself included, arrived in Bamraung 2.2, which is a railroad slum, meaning that it is right by the tracks of a railroad, in Khon Kaen. All railroad slums in Thailand reside on land owned by the SRT, The State Railways of Thailand, and Bamraung 2.2 just recently received a 3-year lease from the SRT, which is nothing in comparison to the 30-year lease that many slums have. The SRT stipulates that all houses within 20 meters of the track must be relocated before the community is given a lease. However, the community I was in has houses, one of which I stayed in, that are literally 5 meters away from the track, and yet the entire slum was able to receive a lease without any of those households having to relocate.

Furthermore, the residents have to buy all of their own water and electricity until they tell the water and electricity companies that they were given the lease because they are technically trespassers on the land on which they live, and therefore the government does not provide them with any basic utilities. As a result, people in Bamraung 2.2 are forced to buy water and electricity from their neighbors at highly inflated rates, sometimes by as much as 60%.

When we arrived at the slum we were given a tour, and it looked like any other village to me. Yes, the structural construction of the houses was very primitive, but it all looked very similar to the houses that I’ve stayed in during past units. I had been expecting to stay in a megacity, but we ended up staying in a village slum that was very rural in the midst of Khon Kaen, and which did not match my preconceptions of a slum. I was slightly disappointed, but the slum dwellers and our meh and paw, who is the slum leader, made up for everything. They were all incredibly generous, intelligent, and proud. I felt honored to be able to stay with them because they were some of the nicest people I’ve ever met in Thailand, which is saying a lot since everyone here is overly kind.

After the tour, we all went to the market together to get dinner materials, and while there we saw intact pig heads (don’t worry, we didn’t purchase any)! Dinner consisted of vegetables and rice and eggs (the usual), and we then went to bed at around 8 PM. Our meh came in to tell us that she was going to the house next door and then repeatedly formed her fingers into the shape of a gun and pretended to shoot one of us while vigorously shaking her head and speaking in Thai. We were terrified, and thought that she was warning us not to leave the house because people would shoot us, but we finally realized that she was telling us that was no violence allowed in the slum and that we had no need to worry about guns.

After a fitful night of sleeping due to the trains that passed every couple of hours and made it sound as though a helicopter was going to tear through the house at any minute, we woke up and had breakfast. Afterwards, we went on a tour of 2 temples. The first temple wasn’t that far away, and we had a monk as a tour guide who took us to every statue of Buddha, at which time we did the customary wai three times (sitting on both legs, press both palms together and bring your thumbs to your forehead and then lean forward and press your forehead and both hands to the ground- repeat 2 more times. Paw then took us to a wat that had 9 different stories as well as relics from Thailand’s history. We went through every level until we got to the top, and the view was pretty impressive.

From there, we visited 6 other CIEE students who were staying at a neighboring slum called Pornsawan, It’s located right next to a golf course, and the community is beautiful. The houses there were the nicest houses that any of us have seen since coming to Thailand, which granted would most likely look like shanties to most people in America. They all had concrete walls, western-style toilets, showerheads, and ceiling fans! Going to Pornsawan opened my eyes and made me realize that I had no right to be upset about the condition of Bamraung 2.2. I had entered this unit thinking that I knew exactly what slums looked like and how the people who lived there should act, even though I had never been to a slum before, and it made me realize that slums are slums. Slums all look different from each other, and the term just means a community full of people who live on land that is not their own. I was really glad I was able to see the other village because it gave me a much needed wake-up call.

That night, we had an exchange with paw and some of the other community members, and it was so much fun. They had never had an exchange before and they were all so excited that people, especially foreigners, had an interest in their lives. At the beginning, they would yell and hoot to show support, and it was hilarious. By the end of introductions, everyone had settled down, and we were able to find out that Bamraung 2.2 had been given money by CODI, the Community Organizations Development Institute—a Thai organization that gives Bt20,000 to each household in a slum to make improvements, and that community upgrading would begin in a month. Paw said that Bt20,000 isn’t enough to put both a new tin roof on one’s house and concrete walls, but that the money was better than nothing. Plus, CODI doesn’t ask for any of the money to be repaid, and all responsibility and power of the improvements are given to the residents of the slums.

On October 11, Paw took us on a joyride around Khon Kaen, and it was the best way to start the day. We all stood up in the back of Paw’s truck, and it was so nice to feel the wind on my skin while looking at a part of the city that I had never seen before. We stopped at a field where we looked at a river, and we also looked at an irrigation system that community members had to pay for, but then the Thai government never supplied them with any water. Currently, it just looks like a concrete passageway through the fields.

When we returned to the slum, it was time for the group to head to the landfill. It was sad to say goodbye to the slum and to the community members because I loved being there. There was always an abundance of laughter, and the people were just so good-spirited.

The landfill provided a drastic change in setting. The first thing that could be seen was a mountain at the end of the small road that the houses line (the houses are situated on the landfill), and the stench was overwhelming. We met our homestay families, and Haley and I lucked out because we had the sweetest mom, dad, and 2 younger sisters. They were all really hard-working, had the kindest smiles, and tried their best to communicate with the farang (foreigners). We went for a tour of the landfill, which was when I realized the mountain I had seen was made out of trash, piles and piles of rotting trash. It was incredible and sickening to see how much waste humans produce. We explored the landfill, where little kids ran in flip-flops and waded through the toxic, liquefied, rotting trash to find treasures amongst the garbage that had not yet putrefied.

We were shown the incinerator, which the community is afraid of because of all of the toxic fumes that it releases into the air, as well as the pond of trash that was created by a Japanese company who wanted to make oil by somehow combining chemicals, water, and trash, but that project has been postponed, so now there is a pond filled with trash in the middle of the landfill. It was really eye opening, and it was hard for me to process what I was seeing because it was all so new, exciting (I hate to say it), and unfamiliar to me.

The next morning, October 12, Haley and I woke up at 6:20 AM, had breakfast, put on our gloves and boots, and headed to the landfill with our parents. My first instinct was to keep from vomiting because the smell was so overwhelming, but I pushed that reaction to the back of my mind and concentrated on finding somewhat steady footing while trekking up the great mounds of trash. We were given hoes and used them to rake through the trash in hopes of finding plastic and aluminum bottles. It seemed kind of easy at first, but then it began to get hotter, my arms ached from raking through trash, my legs were weak with fatigue from wading through trash, and it was getting harder and harder to find valuable materials since the garbage had all been scavenged by someone else just hours before.

I became quite freaked out when Haley happened to find a dog in a bag, which is a common finding. Many Thai people put their small dogs into bags, and then the dogs either suffocate to death or are killed by being squashed by trash. This amazes me because there are homeless dogs wandering all throughout the streets of Thailand, so why not just let your dog loose on the street if you know longer want it?

Haley and I only spent 2.5 hours working at the landfill, but it was enough for me. I hate to say it, but all I wanted to do while I was there was to leave. I’m sure that the scavengers who work their everyday of the week for an average of 15 hours per day must get used to it, but it was really hard for me to be there and to see such wonderfully nice and giving people in such a hard, unhealthy setting. It’s one thing to learn about these things in environmental or social justice classes, but it’s another thing to see and participate in these peoples’ lives.

I hate to admit it, but I’m still not comfortable with people working in the landfill, and I didn’t enjoy my time working there. The people were really great, and I had a blast while not at the actual landfill, but I wish that I could appreciate the fact that these people like scavenging because it provides them with a steady income, they don’t have any supervisors, and they are able to decide their own hours. It’s something that I definitely need to work on within myself, but I walked away from the experience knowing that my time at the landfill changed my life. It’s absolutely amazing how less than 48 hours in a completely new surrounding can have such immediate and strong impacts on a person’s psyche. I have a new outlook on consumption, waste, and careers. I will never look at trash in the same way again, and I will never lose my respect for scavengers around the world for doing a social service that goes unnoticed by most of the world’s population.