Unit 1 happened a long time ago and unfortunately, I didn't write down a lot of the feelings I had about organic food and agriculture because I was so busy being a UFac.
I want to remember how I felt about this Unit because if I don't, I simplify the problem down to black and white but there's a whole lot of gray to analyze before deciding how to separate it into black and white.
So here are some interesting quotes/points from the readings they gave us:
"Corn, rice and wheat are especially adapted to catastrophe...Farming is the process of ripping that catastrophic niche open again and again...it requires the equivalent of three or four tons of TNT per acre for a modern American farm."
"On the moral issues, vegetarians claim their habits are kinder to animals, though it is difficult to see how wiping out 99% of wildlife's habitat, as farming has done in Iowa, is a kindness." -Richard Manning
"The Green Revolution had little to do with making plants bigger; rather, it produced high yields by persuading more plants to grow in the same space and by getting them to put less effort into growing stalks and leaves and more into seedpods, the part people eat. The nagging fear is that both trends may be reaching a limit."
-The Economist
"The consumption and meanings of sticky rice and fermented fish - two indigenous and essential foods for the Thai-Lao people of Northeast Thailand - embody the role of food in Thai political culture. Bangkok Thai use these foods to mark and discriminate against Thai-Lao who live at the Kingdom's edge. Contrarily, the Thai-Lao make references to sticky rice and fermented fish as mechanisms for the assertion of regional pride and ethnic group identity and cohesion in opposition to Central Thai."
"In Thailand, the start of the Green Revolution was marked with the acceptance of bilateral aid from the US Department of Agriculture in 1950....farmers had to adopt the rice farming technology package developed for the Green Revolution. This includes application of chemical fertilizers, intensive pest control with pesticides and efficient water management through irrigation." - Green Peace South East Asia
"Many families in Surin province are attempting to move toward healthy and sustainable practices through chemical-free farming...the overwhelming majority is unable to transition out of chemical use...The State has failed to acknowledge the non-nutrient values attached to indigenous varieties and indirectly forced Surin farmers to choose between economic stability and cultural preservation."
So some of the problems I see with this:
Everyone can easily say how good organic agriculture is for the environment and for people. But a lot of people get their 'eating ethics' confused - there's a difference between eating vegetarian, local and organic.
Some people do one out of three or two out of three but it's important to differentiate and a lot of people don't bother. The ideal diet would incorporate all three but sometimes our personal choices won't make as much of a difference until the entire system changes.
Some of the students in my group already ate vegetarian, local or organic but I've never really done any of those three. I think it's pretty hard to accomplish any of those three when you are not rich, Asian-american and don't choose what you get to eat at home. First of all, a lot of grocery stores don't offer local or organic Asian produce. Second of all, I can't afford to buy local or organic when non-organic, mass-produced food is still much more convenient and cheaper. And as an Asian-American who loves very much eating Mom's cooking at home, I'm not going to tell her I don't want to eat meat anymore and have her cook separate dishes for me when she already is busy enough making food for four other people.
But enough about me.
In the Thai context, there's a whole lot of chemical usage going on in agriculture and it's a result of the Thai government really pushing genetically-modified rice and pesticide use during the Green Revolution.
For those who've heard of the Green Revolution, it's not all miracles and piles of unlimited food. It changed crop seeds to become dependent on pesticides and chemical fertilizers that farmers now have to buy in order to have a successful yield each season. In Thailand, it got rid of all those different rice varieties that each region, each village had as their own cultural reminder and had all farmers grow only 2-3 varieties because they are the most popular exports.
Farmers were taught that it would be impossible to make any money if they didn't use copious amounts of herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers and remained unaware of how those chemicals would leech into their water, soil and skin.
Therefore, organic agriculture shouldn't be promoted in Thailand just as a way to save the environment but organic went hand-in-hand with integrated, self-sufficient agriculture. It was a great way to get rid of their health problems and slowly help them become more self-sufficient on the crops they grew. Instead of monocropping just jasmine rice, when farmers were helped to also grow sticky rice, papaya, bananas, herbs and fish, they were more aware of their health, the environment and their sufficiency.
Unfortunately, there still isn't enough support from the Thai government - especially if the US dumps a lot of chemicals into the country - and they keep promoting chemical agriculture so farmers could grow the genetically-modified rice that sells better on the global market.
It's a shame.
______________________________________________________________
Here are some of the questions my UFac group and I came up with at the end of the unit to challenge ourselves. For those of us who were in danger of simplifying the issue - I hoped to ask these questions to really provoke more thoughts so we don't let the dust settle.
I want to look back on these and hopefully still remember how to answer. I also want these questions to always be in the back of my head in case I ever enter a discussion about food with another person so I can sound intellectual and sophisticated. I'm not out to just agree with a person.
Why should we oppose large corporations when they help make things affordable for poor, low-income families?
How easy will it really be to give up some of our consumption and consumer habits? For example, do we take it for granted that we can eat bananas year-long?
In our first exchange, the Ban Dong Dip village receives the same price for organic and chemically-grown sugar cane from the factory. Similarly, organic products from the Green Market are the same price as non-organic products. How is this both a negative and a positive for organic farmers?
I wonder how many people I can get to think about these questions after this program.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
A Reflection on Education
We had a discussion on education once very early in the semester. I started the discussion rather skeptical of it all - I didn't really think I had a lot to contribute. I had good grades, I had fun in school and I took classes I either liked or had to take, that's all. But the discussion went really well and I appreciated all the different perspectives everyone else had to offer. A lot of people were frustrated because grades never really accurately reflected their learning and others loved that they always had the opportunity to learn what they wanted.
I jotted some notes down in my notebook in response to the questions they asked to start the discussion and I'm gonna blog them down here.
My definition of education - gaining and sharing knowledge through one's own discoveries or thorugh the guidance of another mentor/teacher. Education is the accumulation of skills and tools useful for your daily life and future careers. But is education truly an enabler??
Do you only learn through education?
Is all learning considered to be education?
Is education a connection to the wealth of knowledge out there?
What's my educational experience been?
Traditional, public elementary, middle and high school. Private musical education but much of my education was at home and church - I taught myself math, english, reading comprehension and whatnot with workbooks and booklets. Summer camps I attended were supposed to be taught on a " college level" and I got more learning-by-doing in a Civic Leadership Institute program.
Perhaps in my human rights class - the mock trials and the tabling really showed me a proactive education. I've found some educational spaces frustrating when they try to change the little things to make you think the content has become cooler or more meaningful. Things I don't find useful - calculus, some sciences, sociology (because of the teacher) and simply dull experiments.
When do you learn about things that matter?
Is formal education sometimes necessary? I meet a lot of people who like formal education, love to learn but don't want to see it as a means to a career.
Am I really oppressed about my education and do I feel angry about it?
Ooh I'm the man in the cave like Plato says....
Random thoughts:
Education is most valuable if you seek answers to your own questions - then you have the biggest investment in your education.
Education also depends a lot on what your parents want for you - I love my dad for proving that you do what is best for others, not what's best for you.
Is alternative education really alternative education?? It's scary because you have to find what you're really interested in without people telling you what to learn.
Alternative and traditional education doesn't have to be black and white. It could even limit the opportunities within alternative education to completely reject the traditional.
I'm not studying to be something. I'm studying to be someone.
----
What do you think education means?
Have you felt ownership over your education?
How much do you think grades have mattered in your education?
I jotted some notes down in my notebook in response to the questions they asked to start the discussion and I'm gonna blog them down here.
My definition of education - gaining and sharing knowledge through one's own discoveries or thorugh the guidance of another mentor/teacher. Education is the accumulation of skills and tools useful for your daily life and future careers. But is education truly an enabler??
Do you only learn through education?
Is all learning considered to be education?
Is education a connection to the wealth of knowledge out there?
What's my educational experience been?
Traditional, public elementary, middle and high school. Private musical education but much of my education was at home and church - I taught myself math, english, reading comprehension and whatnot with workbooks and booklets. Summer camps I attended were supposed to be taught on a " college level" and I got more learning-by-doing in a Civic Leadership Institute program.
Perhaps in my human rights class - the mock trials and the tabling really showed me a proactive education. I've found some educational spaces frustrating when they try to change the little things to make you think the content has become cooler or more meaningful. Things I don't find useful - calculus, some sciences, sociology (because of the teacher) and simply dull experiments.
When do you learn about things that matter?
Is formal education sometimes necessary? I meet a lot of people who like formal education, love to learn but don't want to see it as a means to a career.
Am I really oppressed about my education and do I feel angry about it?
Ooh I'm the man in the cave like Plato says....
Random thoughts:
Education is most valuable if you seek answers to your own questions - then you have the biggest investment in your education.
Education also depends a lot on what your parents want for you - I love my dad for proving that you do what is best for others, not what's best for you.
Is alternative education really alternative education?? It's scary because you have to find what you're really interested in without people telling you what to learn.
Alternative and traditional education doesn't have to be black and white. It could even limit the opportunities within alternative education to completely reject the traditional.
I'm not studying to be something. I'm studying to be someone.
----
What do you think education means?
Have you felt ownership over your education?
How much do you think grades have mattered in your education?
Thursday, November 24, 2011
side note.
also wtf. i haven't changed the background picture of this blog since the pre-orientation 3 MONTHS AGO.
tsk, how sad.
i'm such a slacker.
I suppose since I'm still talking about Unit 1 (which also happened about 3 months ago), I should add a picture relevant to such...
** now that I've added one, I give the credit to my friend Sara Stiehl because I forgot to bring my camera on the entire unit.
This picture was taken at a organic agriculture village called Ban Dong Dip.
tsk, how sad.
i'm such a slacker.
I suppose since I'm still talking about Unit 1 (which also happened about 3 months ago), I should add a picture relevant to such...
** now that I've added one, I give the credit to my friend Sara Stiehl because I forgot to bring my camera on the entire unit.
This picture was taken at a organic agriculture village called Ban Dong Dip.
More UFac-ing - A Peek into the Process
So i dug up some of my notes from my time as UFac for Unit 1 and since I get to decide what to blog about, I'm going to document some of the more boring (but important?) aspects of the experience.
Hopefully, if one were to read this, they would understand just a little bit more of how this worked. And when I look back, I could remember this too.
One of the first things that UFac-ing revealed to me was the huge importance of goals and planning. It was ridiculous how many things we micromanaged and microplanned - we planned how long it would take to plan an activity. Then we would make goals -goals for us, goals for the entire student group, goals for our planning process, and goals for each activity.
For example: Our goals for the student group were -
1.Students understand the role of UFacs.
2. Each student increases their understanding of agricultural issues.
3. Maintain posimotihesion atmosphere in the group.
4. Students build connections with homestay families, communities, etc.
5. Students represent CIEE and American culture well.
Then we had our own UFac goals -
1. Maintain posimotihesion
2. Create an honest and open space.
3. Improve facilitation skills.
4. Be thorough and efficient.
5. Deepen understanding of content.
Then we had our goals for each activity. Here are the goals for the Reading And Discussions (RAD) -
1. Students are engaged in sessions.
2. Students understand material
3. Students have equal opportunities for participation.
4. Students will be well-prepared for unit.
Then we had about 3 or 4 "how-tos" for every goal. Whee. Once we did that, then we would actually start the planning and make sure that everything follows the goals we set. It helped later on as well when we had to analyze the positives/negatives/necessary changes because we would decide how well we did on whether we achieved our goals.
This is probably why our planning sessions for 1.5-3hour long activities took at least 6 hours. We took things really seriously and thought everything out super-thoroughly. It really makes a difference when everything you do is intentional - to be able to explain your actions and anticipate the reactions and effects of your actions as well.
Of course, not all UFacs took this approach and it was probably for the best that they didn't - every UFac group had their own style of planning things. Some had a stronger internal process that never seemed to show any conflicts in front of the student group and some had stronger creativity to introduce new activities.
I have to admit, coming right out of Unit 1 into Unit 2 was a little difficult for me. Making the transition from unit facilitator to student group member was weird - I kept making comparisons with my unit and the second unit's facilitators - were we better? were they rejecting our ideas or building off of them? do they think we're overstepping our bounds if we try to help or oppose?
Either way, those thoughts weren't necessary to dwell on and it was part of the process of figuring out what the heck UFac-ing meant. We did have a different role within the student group but eventually we learned that it wasn't a box we were supposed to put each other into. We needed to have the same expectations and standards for each other as if we were always part of the student group so we had to challenge each other, push each other and voice our opinions. It was a long but fulfilling process - one I felt happy to be a part of.
Hopefully, if one were to read this, they would understand just a little bit more of how this worked. And when I look back, I could remember this too.
One of the first things that UFac-ing revealed to me was the huge importance of goals and planning. It was ridiculous how many things we micromanaged and microplanned - we planned how long it would take to plan an activity. Then we would make goals -goals for us, goals for the entire student group, goals for our planning process, and goals for each activity.
For example: Our goals for the student group were -
1.Students understand the role of UFacs.
2. Each student increases their understanding of agricultural issues.
3. Maintain posimotihesion atmosphere in the group.
4. Students build connections with homestay families, communities, etc.
5. Students represent CIEE and American culture well.
Then we had our own UFac goals -
1. Maintain posimotihesion
2. Create an honest and open space.
3. Improve facilitation skills.
4. Be thorough and efficient.
5. Deepen understanding of content.
Then we had our goals for each activity. Here are the goals for the Reading And Discussions (RAD) -
1. Students are engaged in sessions.
2. Students understand material
3. Students have equal opportunities for participation.
4. Students will be well-prepared for unit.
Then we had about 3 or 4 "how-tos" for every goal. Whee. Once we did that, then we would actually start the planning and make sure that everything follows the goals we set. It helped later on as well when we had to analyze the positives/negatives/necessary changes because we would decide how well we did on whether we achieved our goals.
This is probably why our planning sessions for 1.5-3hour long activities took at least 6 hours. We took things really seriously and thought everything out super-thoroughly. It really makes a difference when everything you do is intentional - to be able to explain your actions and anticipate the reactions and effects of your actions as well.
Of course, not all UFacs took this approach and it was probably for the best that they didn't - every UFac group had their own style of planning things. Some had a stronger internal process that never seemed to show any conflicts in front of the student group and some had stronger creativity to introduce new activities.
I have to admit, coming right out of Unit 1 into Unit 2 was a little difficult for me. Making the transition from unit facilitator to student group member was weird - I kept making comparisons with my unit and the second unit's facilitators - were we better? were they rejecting our ideas or building off of them? do they think we're overstepping our bounds if we try to help or oppose?
Either way, those thoughts weren't necessary to dwell on and it was part of the process of figuring out what the heck UFac-ing meant. We did have a different role within the student group but eventually we learned that it wasn't a box we were supposed to put each other into. We needed to have the same expectations and standards for each other as if we were always part of the student group so we had to challenge each other, push each other and voice our opinions. It was a long but fulfilling process - one I felt happy to be a part of.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Unit 1 Facilitator Time
I facilitated the first unit out of five - the Agriculture Unit. I chose to do the first unit because I wasn't particularly interested in any one topic and I wanted to get the facilitating responsibilities out of the way and really immerse myself into the rest of the semester.
There were five people in my facilitation group - Eileen, Kati, Julie and Sara Weber. I was already pretty close friends with Eileen and Kati - we had bonded quite a lot through our senses of humor during orientation, but I wasn't too close with Julie and Sara.
Before we started facilitating, I had no idea what we were doing, what we were supposed to do and what the group wanted us to do. We were going in quite literally blind. Two out of the four program facilitators were going to help us through the unit and they started by holding a meeting for us so we could share our strengths and weaknesses. While the meeting was relatively useful in terms of accurately defining my own strengths and weaknesses, I have to admit that I found out a lot more through my actual experiences of working with my fellow uFacs.
I'm afraid I'm kind of falling asleep right now and I'm about to go on my last unit trip (Unit 5) tomorrow - so I'm having trouble remembering everything right now.
Ultimately, I just wanted to note how different it is to be facilitating and then to be a regular group member. When you're facilitating, you have to make sure your fellow students in the group are getting the most of the unit and the exchanges during our homestays. Before we go into the villages, we read our reading packets with several different articles so we know the global and national context before going to the villages. We as facilitators plan for the reading discussions and the briefings and what roles we would play. We spent a good amount of time trying to come up with creative activities and deeply engaging questions so the group would be excited or passionate about the unit all on an equal level. Then, with each exchange, we talk to villagers, NGOs, government officials, and community leaders - all on different days, different times. With at least four exchanges per unit, you have to be sure that each exchange is unique in the information it offers - it shouldn't get repetitive or dull.
Being a facilitator didn't mean that we were big "leaders" of the group. We were there to learn just as much as the student group and we were constantly group members just as we were unit facilitators, so it wasn't as if we were to separate ourselves from the group. That's why the term is "facilitator" and not "leader" - I value the difference now that I've been in both roles before and now I realize that what I thought was previously a leadership role was probably more a facilitator role.
For example, being a choreographer for FlipDis FunkDat might be considered a leadership role but I see it more as a facilitator role - a role in which I learned just as much as my group did. I think a leader is slightly separated from his/her group - they are there to teach or lead based on what they already know and the leadership skills they possess. But facilitating involves more group skills - skills that involve conflict resolution, honesty, teamwork and self-analysis - and I learned more about facilitation through working with the group than before. My role was very dependent on how the group was feeling or what direction the group was supposed to take, while taking into my account my own learning. So perhaps what I'm trying to say is that facilitation is more dependent on the group than leading.
I'll have to flesh that out later.
Nevertheless, it was eye-opening - I thought I would get sick of the word facilitation, but I see that the word's usage is very intentional and accurate in describing exactly how students fit into the program....
Now I wonder...
what else am I going to facilitate and will I continue to know the difference between leadership and facilitation in the future?
There were five people in my facilitation group - Eileen, Kati, Julie and Sara Weber. I was already pretty close friends with Eileen and Kati - we had bonded quite a lot through our senses of humor during orientation, but I wasn't too close with Julie and Sara.
Before we started facilitating, I had no idea what we were doing, what we were supposed to do and what the group wanted us to do. We were going in quite literally blind. Two out of the four program facilitators were going to help us through the unit and they started by holding a meeting for us so we could share our strengths and weaknesses. While the meeting was relatively useful in terms of accurately defining my own strengths and weaknesses, I have to admit that I found out a lot more through my actual experiences of working with my fellow uFacs.
I'm afraid I'm kind of falling asleep right now and I'm about to go on my last unit trip (Unit 5) tomorrow - so I'm having trouble remembering everything right now.
Ultimately, I just wanted to note how different it is to be facilitating and then to be a regular group member. When you're facilitating, you have to make sure your fellow students in the group are getting the most of the unit and the exchanges during our homestays. Before we go into the villages, we read our reading packets with several different articles so we know the global and national context before going to the villages. We as facilitators plan for the reading discussions and the briefings and what roles we would play. We spent a good amount of time trying to come up with creative activities and deeply engaging questions so the group would be excited or passionate about the unit all on an equal level. Then, with each exchange, we talk to villagers, NGOs, government officials, and community leaders - all on different days, different times. With at least four exchanges per unit, you have to be sure that each exchange is unique in the information it offers - it shouldn't get repetitive or dull.
Being a facilitator didn't mean that we were big "leaders" of the group. We were there to learn just as much as the student group and we were constantly group members just as we were unit facilitators, so it wasn't as if we were to separate ourselves from the group. That's why the term is "facilitator" and not "leader" - I value the difference now that I've been in both roles before and now I realize that what I thought was previously a leadership role was probably more a facilitator role.
For example, being a choreographer for FlipDis FunkDat might be considered a leadership role but I see it more as a facilitator role - a role in which I learned just as much as my group did. I think a leader is slightly separated from his/her group - they are there to teach or lead based on what they already know and the leadership skills they possess. But facilitating involves more group skills - skills that involve conflict resolution, honesty, teamwork and self-analysis - and I learned more about facilitation through working with the group than before. My role was very dependent on how the group was feeling or what direction the group was supposed to take, while taking into my account my own learning. So perhaps what I'm trying to say is that facilitation is more dependent on the group than leading.
I'll have to flesh that out later.
Nevertheless, it was eye-opening - I thought I would get sick of the word facilitation, but I see that the word's usage is very intentional and accurate in describing exactly how students fit into the program....
Now I wonder...
what else am I going to facilitate and will I continue to know the difference between leadership and facilitation in the future?
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Open Your Mind
I'm a little too lazy right now to want to be thinking about the deeper things so here is my second newsletter submission that has some of my deeper thoughts in a cohesive piece.
This blog is definitely going to be all over the place - the previously intended chronological order is in shambles. But not to worry, it'll still make sense and it'll all still be blogged about!
This blog is definitely going to be all over the place - the previously intended chronological order is in shambles. But not to worry, it'll still make sense and it'll all still be blogged about!
During the Unit 2 homestay trip to forest communities, I found myself worn out from the thorough and content-heavy exchanges we tackled throughout the day. Every time I came back to my host mother’s house in Toong Lui Lai village, however, I discovered there was always something more to talk about, always something more to discuss. Whether we were half distracted by Thai soaps playing in the background or mindlessly chewing on leftover kao niao (sticky rice) after an amazing dinner, my peers and I would end up talking about things like politics, cultural differences, group process and religion. Nights when I expected to simply settle down on a full stomach instead became discussion-filled evenings that opened up whole new perspectives to me. Because the 3 other students staying in the house and I had such varying experiences and opinions, we often struggled to understand each other’s views. I consider myself a conservative and religious individual, so sharing my personal opinion on subjects like Christianity and Buddhism amongst my liberal, agnostic peers wasn’t always easy. I became very much more aware of the words I said and the words I heard. One commend a pper made struck me in particular: “I don’t know if I’m being close-minded or if I just have strong values…” she mused.
We often hear the words “open-minded” or “close-minded” to describe a person when it comes to sensitive topics of fundamental differences. With that, there exists pressure to appear open-minded so one does not seem stubborn or intolerant. But I often struggled with whether that also pressured us to give up or silence our own values for the sake of demonstrating that we could be flexible or accepting of everyone else’s values if ours weren’t good enough or in the minority. Because many of the students on this program have ardent values, like eating vegetarian and supporting organic agriculture, there were many times when different perspectives certainly challenged us to question the foundational strength and validity of our beliefs.
So far, my interactions with the people in this program have led me to this conclusion: there is a fundamental difference between having a strong set of values and being “close-minded”. One should never have to compromise strong values in order to appear open-minded because strong values incorporate acknowledgment, awareness and understanding of other points of view. Developing a set of strong values through an understanding of multiple perspectives is only achieved by trial by fire. The process of challenging and being challenged by others refines and reinforces our values; it doesn’t close our mind to all else. I’ve come to appreciate the program more by discovering the foundation behind the values of my peers and I possess a newfound respect for them and how they interact with the development of my own. Here’s to kao niao and late-night conversation.
Monday, October 17, 2011
The Structure
Two months now and I've finally figured out how the program works enough to explain it.
Sorry I've been so MIA.
The program's certainly very different from any other study abroad program I've heard of. In my opinion, its focus is on contemplative/alternative education and activism. The first - contemplative education sounds kinda hinky, I know. Now that I think about it, it's hard to describe what exactly it might be. It's education combined with a constant sense of awareness, contemplation and perspective (says Wikipedia). For example, our group once had a reflection on education and what our definition of education was, whether we had ownership over our education, etc. It means constant reflection, discussion, evaluation and meditation - A LOT OF IT.
The second part is about active learning - taking action drawing from the things you learn or research. But it's not necessarily doing as you see fit but being interactive with those you get information from and making sure it's always in accordance with what they've said or suggested. Hence a class on Social Research Methods - I have yet to figure out what that exactly means.
The program themes that we always try to tie into are - human rights, anti-oppression, development, globalization, grassroots and community.
So with that in mind, there are 5 different units/subjects they're having us learn about. Units include a reading packet, discussions on readings, a briefing to prepare for exchanges with different people, homestays, a workshop to discuss what we've learned and Next Steps to decide what we want to do with the experiences we had. We've already completed the first two - Agriculture and Land. The next is a Collaborative Community Consultation - which basically means it's open to whatever we collaborate with the communities on. The next two are Water and Mining. For the Agriculture Unit, we learned about organic sustainable agriculture on a global and Thai context - basically the Thai government was pushing for a lot of herbicide and pesticide use but some villages are going organic and integrated. Which means their food was delicious.
For the Land Unit, we learned about national parks and land preservation in conflict with forest villages who had land taken away from the government. Long story short, the Thai government was unaware of villagers living in the forests they were attempting to preserve and the process of getting community land titles has been a struggle for the villagers. So in a lot of ways, we were seeing a lot of program theme connections - violations of human rights, communities involved in grassroots movements, etc.
Now for the roles: program facilitators, teachers (ajaans), process facilitators, and unit facilitators.
yay for facilitation. IT'S EVERYWHERE.
Program facilitators are the interns - past CIEE students who come back as part of the program and take part in how the student group participates. They're not necessarily in charge once the student group knows how the program structures work. We've got 4 female P'Facs this year - they've all already graduated from undergrad. They're awesome because they recognize much of our experiences and they get to live in their own house and drive motorcycles with an international license.
Teachers (ajaans) - We've got 3 Thai Ajaans - they're all awesome and adorable. Then we've got Ajaan Dave - the director of the program - he gives us lectures and cultural exercises on Thailand. He's awesome because he has a PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison (right where my family used to live) and because he's lived in Thailand long enough to be rather fluent and be a monk for some time. We've also got a translator, Aj. John, who's half Thai and half Filipino. He graduated from KKU, likes wearing green shirts and plays the electric guitar LIKE A BEAST. Along with that, we have a lot of other professors come in for guest lectures from other universities or NGOs.
Process Facilitators: These are fellow students - my peers. Because group process is such a huge thing (that's gonna be explained soon), five of the students in our group have this role to basically make sure we don't kill each other in discussions or create drama like its our own Glee show. They improve on facilitation and communication skills within the group. It was quite the process to decide who these people would be. So far they've held workshops on constructive feedback and accountability. They're awesome because they're fun, honest, patient and creative - so far,they've done great jobs being process facilitators and peers.
Unit Facilitators: Again, fellow students. Everyone who isn't a ProFac has to be a UFac for one unit at some point. UFacs have the academic responsibility during units - their job is to organize all the unit-relevant activities like the reading discussions, exchanges and workshops so the student group gets the most out of each unit and has a complete understanding of the issues and themes.
I was UFac for Unit 1 - advantage: getting it over with quickly before the assignments pile up. disadvantage: going in blind - no models or examples to draw from. That experience will be left for another blog post.
Hope this made a little more sense - it's quite the unique program. :)
Sorry I've been so MIA.
The program's certainly very different from any other study abroad program I've heard of. In my opinion, its focus is on contemplative/alternative education and activism. The first - contemplative education sounds kinda hinky, I know. Now that I think about it, it's hard to describe what exactly it might be. It's education combined with a constant sense of awareness, contemplation and perspective (says Wikipedia). For example, our group once had a reflection on education and what our definition of education was, whether we had ownership over our education, etc. It means constant reflection, discussion, evaluation and meditation - A LOT OF IT.
The second part is about active learning - taking action drawing from the things you learn or research. But it's not necessarily doing as you see fit but being interactive with those you get information from and making sure it's always in accordance with what they've said or suggested. Hence a class on Social Research Methods - I have yet to figure out what that exactly means.
The program themes that we always try to tie into are - human rights, anti-oppression, development, globalization, grassroots and community.
So with that in mind, there are 5 different units/subjects they're having us learn about. Units include a reading packet, discussions on readings, a briefing to prepare for exchanges with different people, homestays, a workshop to discuss what we've learned and Next Steps to decide what we want to do with the experiences we had. We've already completed the first two - Agriculture and Land. The next is a Collaborative Community Consultation - which basically means it's open to whatever we collaborate with the communities on. The next two are Water and Mining. For the Agriculture Unit, we learned about organic sustainable agriculture on a global and Thai context - basically the Thai government was pushing for a lot of herbicide and pesticide use but some villages are going organic and integrated. Which means their food was delicious.
For the Land Unit, we learned about national parks and land preservation in conflict with forest villages who had land taken away from the government. Long story short, the Thai government was unaware of villagers living in the forests they were attempting to preserve and the process of getting community land titles has been a struggle for the villagers. So in a lot of ways, we were seeing a lot of program theme connections - violations of human rights, communities involved in grassroots movements, etc.
Now for the roles: program facilitators, teachers (ajaans), process facilitators, and unit facilitators.
yay for facilitation. IT'S EVERYWHERE.
Program facilitators are the interns - past CIEE students who come back as part of the program and take part in how the student group participates. They're not necessarily in charge once the student group knows how the program structures work. We've got 4 female P'Facs this year - they've all already graduated from undergrad. They're awesome because they recognize much of our experiences and they get to live in their own house and drive motorcycles with an international license.
Teachers (ajaans) - We've got 3 Thai Ajaans - they're all awesome and adorable. Then we've got Ajaan Dave - the director of the program - he gives us lectures and cultural exercises on Thailand. He's awesome because he has a PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison (right where my family used to live) and because he's lived in Thailand long enough to be rather fluent and be a monk for some time. We've also got a translator, Aj. John, who's half Thai and half Filipino. He graduated from KKU, likes wearing green shirts and plays the electric guitar LIKE A BEAST. Along with that, we have a lot of other professors come in for guest lectures from other universities or NGOs.
Process Facilitators: These are fellow students - my peers. Because group process is such a huge thing (that's gonna be explained soon), five of the students in our group have this role to basically make sure we don't kill each other in discussions or create drama like its our own Glee show. They improve on facilitation and communication skills within the group. It was quite the process to decide who these people would be. So far they've held workshops on constructive feedback and accountability. They're awesome because they're fun, honest, patient and creative - so far,they've done great jobs being process facilitators and peers.
Unit Facilitators: Again, fellow students. Everyone who isn't a ProFac has to be a UFac for one unit at some point. UFacs have the academic responsibility during units - their job is to organize all the unit-relevant activities like the reading discussions, exchanges and workshops so the student group gets the most out of each unit and has a complete understanding of the issues and themes.
I was UFac for Unit 1 - advantage: getting it over with quickly before the assignments pile up. disadvantage: going in blind - no models or examples to draw from. That experience will be left for another blog post.
Hope this made a little more sense - it's quite the unique program. :)
Friday, September 16, 2011
Mock Unit. Real Life.
I always have trouble trying to decide what to blog. I realize that I still need to clarify how the whole program actually works but at the same time, we're exposed to so many different experiences that I feel I have to record those before the initial emotions fade away...
So I'll have to write about the program structure later - that's less meaningful and interesting than this.
It's interesting that I go to school in one of the most HIV/AIDS prevalent cities in the US and yet, I am most consciously aware of the issue when I'm an ocean away in a country that suffers from the same disease. We started a "mock unit" on HIV/AIDS and this involved visiting a hospital to meet with volunteers of TNP+ - Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS. I don't think I've ever consciously been in a room with so many HIV/AIDS victims who regularly talk about their personal struggles, their roles in a greater organization and their efforts in communities and governments.
Their struggle is a unique one, considering the national culture and traditions that surround and challenge them. Since it's such taboo to talk about sex and drug use, it's just as difficult for people to talk about preventing HIV/AIDS or dealing with it. The TNP+ volunteers all went through some sort of discrimination, isolation, depression, judgment or loneliness because their community or hospitals were uneducated about the disease. It's terrible to hear how often these victims have considered suicide before finding support in TNP+.
But it isn't the exchange with TNP+ workers I want to blog about...
It was the home of a villager with HIV/AIDS that really opened my eyes.
Different groups visited different individuals and my group visited an older woman - her name was Meh (mother) Tong Sai. She was probably a little older than my own mother - she looked fragile, tired and her cheekbones were sunk in as a side effect of the medication she was taking.
She told us she had just gotten back from a religious ceremony and she was a bit worn out.
That's quite a shock considering that 15 years ago, her community didn't allow her to attend religious ceremonies because she had HIV.
Her community also wouldn't let her make food. She had to wash dishes with gloves because she had HIV.
Her community condemned her because she had HIV but her husband and children didn't.
Her community never stopped by her home to visit her when she was too sick to work and laid in her dark room alone because she had HIV.
Her community wouldn't buy food from her because she had HIV so she had to travel to other markets where they would't recognize her and she could tell observant strangers she just had diabetes.
She had no idea until her fourth and last child was born with a cleft lip and the doctors had her tested. Once her village found out, the discrimination was instantaneous. She quietly cried as she told us her children were bullied, abused and harassed in school. She didn't care that her alcoholic husband gave her nothing from the money he made, she didn't care that the house was still spinning while she told us her story, she didn't care that she could die tomorrow - all she cared was that she would live for her children. She is staying in her marriage and she is still struggling to travel and sell her goods at different markets for her kids - so that they'd grow up and find happiness. Without TNP+, she wouldn't have had the strong medical and moral support she needed to get her though this. Her older children still pay the tuition for their younger siblings and they often send money back to her - they have been her strongest lifeline these 15 years.
There's nothing we could really say for a story like this and at some point, I didn't know if I wanted to cry out of pure sadness, empathy or outrage. Ignorance couldn't possibly be bliss - not if it meant an entire community would ostracize an innocent woman and her children. I think a lot of us just felt helpless in that situation - how could we show empathy or support? We couldn't do anything but tell her how much we admired her for her strength and wished her and her children the best.
In response, she told us that she wanted to be an example for the younger HIV/AIDS victims - to show them how to survive.
how your heart will survive.
I took away from that experience a humbling lesson.
Even as privileged Americans, there was nothing we could ever offer her, but we had everything to learn from such a life - you could really see such solid strength and calm hope in her fragile body and her silent tears. An incurable disease, an entire community of ignorance and discrimination and a neglectful husband couldn't break her down - not when she had her children to love.
I don't think I would've been so lucky to have such an experience had I learned about HIV/AIDS in DC. To be surrounded by what we would classify as poverty and yet, be blind to all of that in comparison to this woman of unshakable faith and strength...
this must be how you really live and learn.
There's much more about HIV/AIDS I learned that day that I could write shamefully long blog entries about but I'll save that for a rainy day...For now, this was what mattered.
So I'll have to write about the program structure later - that's less meaningful and interesting than this.
It's interesting that I go to school in one of the most HIV/AIDS prevalent cities in the US and yet, I am most consciously aware of the issue when I'm an ocean away in a country that suffers from the same disease. We started a "mock unit" on HIV/AIDS and this involved visiting a hospital to meet with volunteers of TNP+ - Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS. I don't think I've ever consciously been in a room with so many HIV/AIDS victims who regularly talk about their personal struggles, their roles in a greater organization and their efforts in communities and governments.
Their struggle is a unique one, considering the national culture and traditions that surround and challenge them. Since it's such taboo to talk about sex and drug use, it's just as difficult for people to talk about preventing HIV/AIDS or dealing with it. The TNP+ volunteers all went through some sort of discrimination, isolation, depression, judgment or loneliness because their community or hospitals were uneducated about the disease. It's terrible to hear how often these victims have considered suicide before finding support in TNP+.
But it isn't the exchange with TNP+ workers I want to blog about...
It was the home of a villager with HIV/AIDS that really opened my eyes.
Different groups visited different individuals and my group visited an older woman - her name was Meh (mother) Tong Sai. She was probably a little older than my own mother - she looked fragile, tired and her cheekbones were sunk in as a side effect of the medication she was taking.
She told us she had just gotten back from a religious ceremony and she was a bit worn out.
That's quite a shock considering that 15 years ago, her community didn't allow her to attend religious ceremonies because she had HIV.
Her community also wouldn't let her make food. She had to wash dishes with gloves because she had HIV.
Her community condemned her because she had HIV but her husband and children didn't.
Her community never stopped by her home to visit her when she was too sick to work and laid in her dark room alone because she had HIV.
Her community wouldn't buy food from her because she had HIV so she had to travel to other markets where they would't recognize her and she could tell observant strangers she just had diabetes.
She had no idea until her fourth and last child was born with a cleft lip and the doctors had her tested. Once her village found out, the discrimination was instantaneous. She quietly cried as she told us her children were bullied, abused and harassed in school. She didn't care that her alcoholic husband gave her nothing from the money he made, she didn't care that the house was still spinning while she told us her story, she didn't care that she could die tomorrow - all she cared was that she would live for her children. She is staying in her marriage and she is still struggling to travel and sell her goods at different markets for her kids - so that they'd grow up and find happiness. Without TNP+, she wouldn't have had the strong medical and moral support she needed to get her though this. Her older children still pay the tuition for their younger siblings and they often send money back to her - they have been her strongest lifeline these 15 years.
There's nothing we could really say for a story like this and at some point, I didn't know if I wanted to cry out of pure sadness, empathy or outrage. Ignorance couldn't possibly be bliss - not if it meant an entire community would ostracize an innocent woman and her children. I think a lot of us just felt helpless in that situation - how could we show empathy or support? We couldn't do anything but tell her how much we admired her for her strength and wished her and her children the best.
In response, she told us that she wanted to be an example for the younger HIV/AIDS victims - to show them how to survive.
how your heart will survive.
I took away from that experience a humbling lesson.
Even as privileged Americans, there was nothing we could ever offer her, but we had everything to learn from such a life - you could really see such solid strength and calm hope in her fragile body and her silent tears. An incurable disease, an entire community of ignorance and discrimination and a neglectful husband couldn't break her down - not when she had her children to love.
I don't think I would've been so lucky to have such an experience had I learned about HIV/AIDS in DC. To be surrounded by what we would classify as poverty and yet, be blind to all of that in comparison to this woman of unshakable faith and strength...
this must be how you really live and learn.
There's much more about HIV/AIDS I learned that day that I could write shamefully long blog entries about but I'll save that for a rainy day...For now, this was what mattered.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Cauc[Asian] Comparisons: A Korean-American's Take on Thai Culture
This was a short submission I wrote for the newsletter we put together. A compilation of our perspectives and observations will be put together into a pdf and sent to family and CIEE members.
This was my chosen topic.
This was my chosen topic.
I’ll always remember our first exposures to American culture in Thailand. The group would excitedly point out the first McDonald’s and KFC or marvel at the stores that screamed Abercrombie & Fitch or Express in every way but the name. But no one will remember as well as I do when we see traditional Korean clothing (hanboks) sold at the night markets or hear Korean music playing in coffee shops and electronic stores. The prevalence of Korean entertainment and culture is much more extensive than I realized. Almost everyone I meet has asked me where I’m from though I plainly speak English and I have yet to meet a Thai unfamiliar with at least one Korean word or a popular Korean music group.
It isn’t something I can explain but it is something I can feel and describe everyday. I never expected my Korean-American upbringing to present itself as an advantage in so many ways. I’m not gawked at as often as my friend with blond hair and blue eyes. I order spicy food without fear and eat strange cuts of meat at homestays without questioning. Being a smaller, shorter Korean-American, I shop much more comfortably in Thai boutiques and for the first time in a long time, I don’t struggle to find shoes to fit my 5 ½ size feet. I’ve assimilated to the new culture relatively easily compared to my white American friends as well. Whereas the Caucasian-Americans in my class see a cultural contradiction, I see its similarities to the Korean culture I’ve grown up around. The polite greeting wai comes more naturally to me when I greet elders because my Korean heritage intrinsically has me bowing in respect. Additionally, learning Thai isn’t as difficult when my Korean speaking, reading, and writing abilities helps me accurately pronounce Thai phonetics and numbers.
All the same, being Asian in a Southeast Asian country will still have its limitations because I am also an American, a farang. It’s as if the cultural connection is crystal clear one moment and fuzzy the next. I’m not used to eating rice with my hands and the family structure within villages still confuses me. My roommate watches more Korean dramas than I do and I’ve yet to find a Protestant church to attend on Sundays. I’ve noticed that the Thai’s traditional perception of an American has yet to include an Asian-American who found most of her heritage growing up in small Korean communities in small American towns and not the mother country itself. Thais I meet find it a little difficult to understand that I’m not completely integrated with the Asian culture I was born into. At the same time, I find myself wondering whether I’d understand more or less if I had been raised in Korea my whole life. But I realize that the differences between Korean and Thai culture can be just as gaping as that between American and Thai culture. It’s simply that the little things I understand come to me naturally and I’m grateful that I have a small cultural foundation to build my new experiences upon.
Hence, I count myself as lucky. Thailand, I hear you loud and clear.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
A Day in Comparison
A Typical Day in Khon Kaen University
With Thai class at 9 am, I get up around 8 to get ready and meet my friends for breakfast around 8:40am. My shower is warm enough to soothe me but cool enough to wake me up because there's a little water heater attached to the bathroom wall but there isn't any stall. It's just a bathroom sink, toilet, towel rack and a showerhead with a drain on the tiled floor. I change, get ready, walk down from the third floor and meet my friends in front of the apartment located 500 feet away from the CIEE office and classrooms. Within a 500 feet range of that CIEE office, there are stationary shops, multiple food and fruit vendors, a 7-11 (they're like Starbucks. EVERYWHERE), and a "cafeteria" that offers a variety of food stalls. A lot of stores and stalls aren't open yet and we still have yet to figure out what opening and closing hours are for Thai workers. Some of us get cut pineapple pieces or crunchy guava with cold sweetened coffee but I get these fried dough balls covered in sesame seeds and potato inside from a friendly vendor who waits outside the 7-11. Sometimes I'll get one little bag of sticky rice and three sticks of chicken skewers that were grilled earlier this morning. In total, it costs about 15 baht for breakfast - half a dollar.
Three hours of Thai includes review, new vocabulary, repetition and basic writing/reading skills. Sometimes we'll play games at the start of class and the ajaans will bring us bread from the bakery as prizes to share with each other. They teach using a sort of Rosetta-Stone method and we aren't allowed to speak English or take any notes while we're learning.
Then I'll go out to eat lunch with a couple of friends. We've found a noodle place to put on our top list of favorite and easiest places to eat. Since a lot of us have dietary restrictions or preferences, we've learned that ordering vegetarian by saying "jai" (like the letter J) can be relatively complications-free. Ordering at new restaurants is hard since we can't yet read and understand so we look for the pad thai and smoothie stalls in the cafeteria.
Next, we'll have another Program Facilitator Activity or a session for ROO (Resources for Ongoing Orientation). That usually means we'll talk about being global citizens, meditation, personalities types and traits or globalization. This can go on for 3 hours while we brainstorm, reflect, draw our reflections or thoughts and hen share our caveman-like illustrations. It's like elementary school all over again! But deep. Very deep.
Afterwards, we've got free time so we'll find another place to eat dinner and do the reading for the next day. We haven't had a lot of assignments yet since we have yet to go into our "units" that last about 2 weeks. Laundry in the apartments is free so we'll wash our clothes or we'll walk and shop around one of the adorable-looking boutiques that offer dresses for less than $10. Somehow, the last 5 or 6 hours of the day is spent just running errands, buying more food/clothes and...just doing nothing.
Oh, and it rains almost everyday for at least 2 hours. It's truly monsoon season.
A Day in the Railroad Community
I'll wake up around 7am but my host mother and my little host sister has already been up since at least 6am. She's dressed in her school uniform and ready to go to school. I wake up and my friend Alex is living with another family nearby so we eat breakfast together - usually some sort of chicken, egg or pork dishes with rice. Once we're ready to go, my little host sister Ehm will hold my hand to follow the rest of the CIEE students to the elementary school about 5 blocks away. The dirt roads leading to the school are surrounded with huge puddles because of the rain from the night before. For two of the three days we were there, we have our own Thai class to attend, but one day the CIEE students and I attended a fun activity session held for the children and they taught us cute dances sung in English and Thai. One was a fruit dance including bananas, oranges, papayas, and apples. We drew pictures together and played animal charades that the teachers organized for us. When the kids aren't guessing during charades, they're trying to hold our hands, talk to us in English and play clapping games. Later on, we taught them camp songs nostalgically reminding me of our childhood like the baby shark song and the go bananas song. We eat lunch with the children and it's so amusing that the children won't let us walk around without making sure our hands are full with theirs.
Then, there's another program facilitator activity - something that'll help us learn about meditation or about our own personality styles, of course. So, for a moment, all the CIEE students are together but after a while, we're going back to our own host families with one or two other classmates. Alex has a little host brother who named himself Champ because that's what he wants to be in life. He will write words he learned in English while Ehm will draw her mom and a house and trees with the notebook and pens I bought for her as a gift. I'll do readings but I'm mostly distracted by Ehm and her hand games or her little two-year-old brother we call monkey (ling) who crawls and hangs around the couches in the house. The headman's son also lives very close to us and he'll watch the children play while he slowly puts some English sentences together and have a conversation with us. We learned that he took two years of English a while back so it helps a little. Champ and Ehm's mom have prepared dinner for us so the children, Alex and I eat but the adults wait til we're done to eat later - we're treated so special as guests in the families. After dinner, I tried to help my host mother make chicken skewers that she would sell at school/university the next day but I failed terribly at it. A for effort though. At night, I shower for the first time without electricity in the bathroom because there is no lightbulb in the small bathroom that only consists of a squat toilet and a big bucket of cold, unheated water. It's a little hard to see and I'm afraid of getting bit by a mosquito but the shower feels really good after a hot, humid day. My host mother lets me sleep in another part of the living room sectioned off by some cabinets. There are some blankets and a pillow on the floor surrounded by a mosquito net and a little fan. They give me these small luxuries while the mother, Ehm and her monkey brother sleep in another room under a different mosquito net.
I love mosquito nets. They don't exactly prevent ant bites though. I'll wake up in the middle of the night because I've itched myself awake and I try to fall asleep again with some anti-itch medicine. I'll hear the train pass by at least 5 times throughout the day and it's nice to hear it passing through the night. I'll fall asleep to the train until the sound of roosters crowing wakes me up again in the morning.
Time flies.
With Thai class at 9 am, I get up around 8 to get ready and meet my friends for breakfast around 8:40am. My shower is warm enough to soothe me but cool enough to wake me up because there's a little water heater attached to the bathroom wall but there isn't any stall. It's just a bathroom sink, toilet, towel rack and a showerhead with a drain on the tiled floor. I change, get ready, walk down from the third floor and meet my friends in front of the apartment located 500 feet away from the CIEE office and classrooms. Within a 500 feet range of that CIEE office, there are stationary shops, multiple food and fruit vendors, a 7-11 (they're like Starbucks. EVERYWHERE), and a "cafeteria" that offers a variety of food stalls. A lot of stores and stalls aren't open yet and we still have yet to figure out what opening and closing hours are for Thai workers. Some of us get cut pineapple pieces or crunchy guava with cold sweetened coffee but I get these fried dough balls covered in sesame seeds and potato inside from a friendly vendor who waits outside the 7-11. Sometimes I'll get one little bag of sticky rice and three sticks of chicken skewers that were grilled earlier this morning. In total, it costs about 15 baht for breakfast - half a dollar.
Three hours of Thai includes review, new vocabulary, repetition and basic writing/reading skills. Sometimes we'll play games at the start of class and the ajaans will bring us bread from the bakery as prizes to share with each other. They teach using a sort of Rosetta-Stone method and we aren't allowed to speak English or take any notes while we're learning.
Then I'll go out to eat lunch with a couple of friends. We've found a noodle place to put on our top list of favorite and easiest places to eat. Since a lot of us have dietary restrictions or preferences, we've learned that ordering vegetarian by saying "jai" (like the letter J) can be relatively complications-free. Ordering at new restaurants is hard since we can't yet read and understand so we look for the pad thai and smoothie stalls in the cafeteria.
Next, we'll have another Program Facilitator Activity or a session for ROO (Resources for Ongoing Orientation). That usually means we'll talk about being global citizens, meditation, personalities types and traits or globalization. This can go on for 3 hours while we brainstorm, reflect, draw our reflections or thoughts and hen share our caveman-like illustrations. It's like elementary school all over again! But deep. Very deep.
Afterwards, we've got free time so we'll find another place to eat dinner and do the reading for the next day. We haven't had a lot of assignments yet since we have yet to go into our "units" that last about 2 weeks. Laundry in the apartments is free so we'll wash our clothes or we'll walk and shop around one of the adorable-looking boutiques that offer dresses for less than $10. Somehow, the last 5 or 6 hours of the day is spent just running errands, buying more food/clothes and...just doing nothing.
Oh, and it rains almost everyday for at least 2 hours. It's truly monsoon season.
A Day in the Railroad Community
I'll wake up around 7am but my host mother and my little host sister has already been up since at least 6am. She's dressed in her school uniform and ready to go to school. I wake up and my friend Alex is living with another family nearby so we eat breakfast together - usually some sort of chicken, egg or pork dishes with rice. Once we're ready to go, my little host sister Ehm will hold my hand to follow the rest of the CIEE students to the elementary school about 5 blocks away. The dirt roads leading to the school are surrounded with huge puddles because of the rain from the night before. For two of the three days we were there, we have our own Thai class to attend, but one day the CIEE students and I attended a fun activity session held for the children and they taught us cute dances sung in English and Thai. One was a fruit dance including bananas, oranges, papayas, and apples. We drew pictures together and played animal charades that the teachers organized for us. When the kids aren't guessing during charades, they're trying to hold our hands, talk to us in English and play clapping games. Later on, we taught them camp songs nostalgically reminding me of our childhood like the baby shark song and the go bananas song. We eat lunch with the children and it's so amusing that the children won't let us walk around without making sure our hands are full with theirs.
Then, there's another program facilitator activity - something that'll help us learn about meditation or about our own personality styles, of course. So, for a moment, all the CIEE students are together but after a while, we're going back to our own host families with one or two other classmates. Alex has a little host brother who named himself Champ because that's what he wants to be in life. He will write words he learned in English while Ehm will draw her mom and a house and trees with the notebook and pens I bought for her as a gift. I'll do readings but I'm mostly distracted by Ehm and her hand games or her little two-year-old brother we call monkey (ling) who crawls and hangs around the couches in the house. The headman's son also lives very close to us and he'll watch the children play while he slowly puts some English sentences together and have a conversation with us. We learned that he took two years of English a while back so it helps a little. Champ and Ehm's mom have prepared dinner for us so the children, Alex and I eat but the adults wait til we're done to eat later - we're treated so special as guests in the families. After dinner, I tried to help my host mother make chicken skewers that she would sell at school/university the next day but I failed terribly at it. A for effort though. At night, I shower for the first time without electricity in the bathroom because there is no lightbulb in the small bathroom that only consists of a squat toilet and a big bucket of cold, unheated water. It's a little hard to see and I'm afraid of getting bit by a mosquito but the shower feels really good after a hot, humid day. My host mother lets me sleep in another part of the living room sectioned off by some cabinets. There are some blankets and a pillow on the floor surrounded by a mosquito net and a little fan. They give me these small luxuries while the mother, Ehm and her monkey brother sleep in another room under a different mosquito net.
I love mosquito nets. They don't exactly prevent ant bites though. I'll wake up in the middle of the night because I've itched myself awake and I try to fall asleep again with some anti-itch medicine. I'll hear the train pass by at least 5 times throughout the day and it's nice to hear it passing through the night. I'll fall asleep to the train until the sound of roosters crowing wakes me up again in the morning.
Time flies.
my little host sister, Ehm <3
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Intro to Thai Culture
Thai Culture 101:
1. Wai-ing is the traditional way to greet others. For someone who is older than you, you bring both hands together and bend your head down to touch your nose to your thumbs. But it doesn't always go for street vendors or other careers considered "lowly".
2. Pointing your feet towards an elder is considered to be very rude so you sit with your feet tucked behind you.
3. It is customary to eat kao-niao (sticky rice) by rolling it in your hands and forming it into a ball.
4. Thai people don't really eat beef. Most of their dishes are egg, chicken or pork.
5. Students who went in the past said I shouldn't bring jeans or nice clothes but it's ironic because Thais place a lot of importance on physical appearances.
6. Then again, it is disrespectful to wear clothing showing the shoulders or the knees.
7. The smile is a natural part of life. :)
8. You don't use your left hand for much. It is usually the hand that wipes the butt after using the squat toilets D:
9. Pointing or putting your hands in your pockets is considered rude.
10. There is no tipping in restaurants or cover charges in clubs :)
1. Wai-ing is the traditional way to greet others. For someone who is older than you, you bring both hands together and bend your head down to touch your nose to your thumbs. But it doesn't always go for street vendors or other careers considered "lowly".
2. Pointing your feet towards an elder is considered to be very rude so you sit with your feet tucked behind you.
3. It is customary to eat kao-niao (sticky rice) by rolling it in your hands and forming it into a ball.
4. Thai people don't really eat beef. Most of their dishes are egg, chicken or pork.
5. Students who went in the past said I shouldn't bring jeans or nice clothes but it's ironic because Thais place a lot of importance on physical appearances.
6. Then again, it is disrespectful to wear clothing showing the shoulders or the knees.
7. The smile is a natural part of life. :)
8. You don't use your left hand for much. It is usually the hand that wipes the butt after using the squat toilets D:
9. Pointing or putting your hands in your pockets is considered rude.
10. There is no tipping in restaurants or cover charges in clubs :)
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Journey of Pictures
So I don't have the best camera but I've aimed to try and take good pictures and maybe even post them at the UG coffee shops once I come back.
I'm posting these somewhat chronologically to show you what my schedule has been looking like. It's been quite chaotic and lovely.
Bangkok/Royal Palace
So the second day at Bangkok, they took us to the Royal Palace that the King used to live in [I think he lives somewhere else right now] but the place is surrounded by several different temples.
The background of this blog is a picture I took of the Palace.
I'm posting these somewhat chronologically to show you what my schedule has been looking like. It's been quite chaotic and lovely.
Bangkok/Royal Palace
So the second day at Bangkok, they took us to the Royal Palace that the King used to live in [I think he lives somewhere else right now] but the place is surrounded by several different temples.
The background of this blog is a picture I took of the Palace.
The city of Bangkok from outside our hotel. I like the massage sign. We stayed in Bangkok for three days, then left for the resort by the countryside.
I think this one had Cambodian/Laos influence. The tour guide was kinda hard to understand. D:
I think this was called Wat Suoy - meaning Beautiful Temple.
The group! Severely dominated by the females.
We were already bonding :)
I call these albino watermelon and sea urchin. Thai people call them dragonfruit and rambutan.
The nature walk after leaving Bangkok and heading for the resort. More like mud trek seeing as how it rained up a storm the night before. Therefore - leeches. But it was beautiful!
Part of the resort. They had small lakes (ponds?) with fish and gazebos. We stayed here for a week focusing on group process and four hours of Thai O_o
After a week at the resort, I'm at the university now, living with a Thai roommate. I'm headed off to spend four days at another village/railroad community so I need to sleep. Check out the rest of my pictures on Facebook!
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Pad Thai, Crocs, Mud and Leeches
So it's almost been a week here [whoa, I'm in Thailand] and I'll just summarize things since updating a blog on an iTouch isn't too fun-I'll explain why.
I think I can sum up what I've learned in 10 random points
1. Pad thai doesnt taste much different from Mai Thai's. It's less salty as the popular street food you buy for a dollar. Yum.
2. It's fun to see crocs on a nature trek but not really to trek thru mud and mud and MUD only to find thumb-sized leeches on your ankles when you take off your shoes. (Didn't happen to me but my classmates found some)
3. A Thai journalist told us that the obelisk in DC is covered in aluminum, not gold, because aluminum was considered YOUNG MONEY.(the Europeans used gold, a thing of the past but aluminum had just been discovered as some fad).
4. The new friends I'm making totally seem to understand the jokes I make about raging uteruses and yawn-gasms (Dale and Jan) so these things have led to nicknames like K-Rage for a Katie, AyBayBay for an Aiden and Future PastandPresent for a Daniel Pastan haha.
5. Taking four hours of Thai language everyday has led me to learn that farang means both guava and foreigner & eem (Korean pronunciation of my last name) means full -which is what I always aim for when I eat :)
6. After abruptly suffering from acute gastroenteritis [basically my intestines hurt a lot], I found that the private hospitals here are very nice - almost like a hotel room for a single person with a hospital bed. I took a shower, got free wiFi and yummy soft Thai food. The only terrible thing was the IV in my hand - that wasn't pleasant.
7.Villagers know more about happiness in simplicity and yet their children leave the local hospitality and love that promises you can always find food in the forest to instead fight for money in the pushy, uncaring streets of Bangkok.
8. Chewing on sugarcane straight from the fields tastes amazing and not excessively sweet at all.
9. Rice planting is done all over Korea and yet the first time I plant rice is in a Thai field with my village mother and other women laughing at my fumbling in the mud.
10. Getting at least two mosquito bites a day SUCKS. But buying shirts and shoes for 100 baht (US$3) is something I'm never gonna get sick of.
I really have to update the blog sooner - I'm forgetting the little details that matter.
I'll be uploading pictures soon!
[And as a bonus for those who read my blog, tell me what you'd like for me to buy you and I'll do my best to get it for you!]
Missing you all.
I think I can sum up what I've learned in 10 random points
1. Pad thai doesnt taste much different from Mai Thai's. It's less salty as the popular street food you buy for a dollar. Yum.
2. It's fun to see crocs on a nature trek but not really to trek thru mud and mud and MUD only to find thumb-sized leeches on your ankles when you take off your shoes. (Didn't happen to me but my classmates found some)
3. A Thai journalist told us that the obelisk in DC is covered in aluminum, not gold, because aluminum was considered YOUNG MONEY.(the Europeans used gold, a thing of the past but aluminum had just been discovered as some fad).
4. The new friends I'm making totally seem to understand the jokes I make about raging uteruses and yawn-gasms (Dale and Jan) so these things have led to nicknames like K-Rage for a Katie, AyBayBay for an Aiden and Future PastandPresent for a Daniel Pastan haha.
5. Taking four hours of Thai language everyday has led me to learn that farang means both guava and foreigner & eem (Korean pronunciation of my last name) means full -which is what I always aim for when I eat :)
6. After abruptly suffering from acute gastroenteritis [basically my intestines hurt a lot], I found that the private hospitals here are very nice - almost like a hotel room for a single person with a hospital bed. I took a shower, got free wiFi and yummy soft Thai food. The only terrible thing was the IV in my hand - that wasn't pleasant.
7.Villagers know more about happiness in simplicity and yet their children leave the local hospitality and love that promises you can always find food in the forest to instead fight for money in the pushy, uncaring streets of Bangkok.
8. Chewing on sugarcane straight from the fields tastes amazing and not excessively sweet at all.
9. Rice planting is done all over Korea and yet the first time I plant rice is in a Thai field with my village mother and other women laughing at my fumbling in the mud.
10. Getting at least two mosquito bites a day SUCKS. But buying shirts and shoes for 100 baht (US$3) is something I'm never gonna get sick of.
I really have to update the blog sooner - I'm forgetting the little details that matter.
I'll be uploading pictures soon!
[And as a bonus for those who read my blog, tell me what you'd like for me to buy you and I'll do my best to get it for you!]
Missing you all.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
the beginning
so how do you like it?
it's simple really. mostly because I can't figure out how to make some epic blog layout. I think this is pretty nice considering how many buttons I clicked on to get to this point.
To tell you a little more about the title...
It was all thanks to HAESEON CHANG'S genius mind.
David Chin was over at my place and I was trying to brainstorm some titles like I had earlier with Dale. David wasn't as helpful. He was coming up with things like THAI-lenol, THAI-ger, Thai-me-up, and whatnot until Haeseon saved the day.
I really love it because it explains a little bit about why I decided to go abroad.
Of course I went to travel - everyone's been everywhere in Georgetown so I really gotta get on this ridiculous level (still need to hit up Europe).
But I also just needed a little time away from Georgetown and the timing couldn't be better.
Not that I don't love Georgetown and all the people in it (see, don't cry about it) but it's such a bubble - everybody knows it. To leave such a wonderful comfort circle would have to be for a dramatically new experience so I've chosen to go - but only for a little bit :)
Therefore, it's about time and it's about me - time for me to be a little selfish and figure out what I want, what I can do, what I need, and what I'll be.
I'm hoping Thailand helps me figure that out.
That's one of the things I'm scared of, quite frankly. I'm infinitely nervous about whether I'll measure up to my future classmates or the assignments or the experience. I'm not absolutely positive that my career will always and permanently be in public service, like some of these students have already decided. Now that I'm some 15 hours away from my destination, I keep wondering - what if I don't get enough out of this? what if I don't learn enough or leave not having done enough or created something on my own? what if this is what Thailand expects and what Thailand will give and I'll have nothing to give back?
I don't know who has higher expectations for an amazing experience - me or the program haha.
you know?
Anyway, I'm currently at the Incheon Airport. Monday, a family friend drove me up to Houston and from there, I went to Los Angeles for a 12-hour flight to Korea. Turns out I still can't sleep on a friggin' plane, even with one of those plushy donut pillows. It's just a different type of uncomfortable - I think it's because I'm short, sigh. Now I've got a good 7 hours before my last flight to Bangkok (and this is after I've done a substantial amount of wandering and getting lost).
Oh and they lost my suitcase. It was supposed to be dropped off at Incheon and it wasn't at baggage claim D:
sooo I have no outlet converter for my laptop (thank god for my ipod touch. thanks esther!) and i will have no clothes if my suitcase is not found. wheeeee. Hopefully they'll find it and drop it off at Bangkok because this is the lightest I've ever packed for a semester [one medium suitcase, duffel bag and backpack) so that's less of the nothing that I brought lol. So now I'm sitting at the "internet lounge" to write this blog and the mouse acts like it's moving drunk with one blind eye, one functional leg, and a concussion.
There is one plus though - Incheon has a relaxation area that offers free showers soooo spending 48 hours in planes and airports shouldn't be as gross now.
I miss everyone incredibly - I haven't spent nearly enough time with my family and I've gotten quite attached to all the people I've bonded with over the summer [David, Frank, Fagel, ShAleena] I still think about the friends in New York and if I think hard enough about Monica, Dale, Mia or Jan, I swear I'll cry so don't make me do it!
I think it's that, once again, I'm alone for a new journey - one that I feel will hold much more meaning for me than past journies - and I already feel like a stranger in a Korean airport. [I'm so whitewashed.]
I realize this is just the awkward part for now - that slow transition. Maybe it'll just be like summer camp all over again [shout out to my CTY nerdpeeps].
Looking forward to it.
it's simple really. mostly because I can't figure out how to make some epic blog layout. I think this is pretty nice considering how many buttons I clicked on to get to this point.
To tell you a little more about the title...
It was all thanks to HAESEON CHANG'S genius mind.
David Chin was over at my place and I was trying to brainstorm some titles like I had earlier with Dale. David wasn't as helpful. He was coming up with things like THAI-lenol, THAI-ger, Thai-me-up, and whatnot until Haeseon saved the day.
I really love it because it explains a little bit about why I decided to go abroad.
Of course I went to travel - everyone's been everywhere in Georgetown so I really gotta get on this ridiculous level (still need to hit up Europe).
But I also just needed a little time away from Georgetown and the timing couldn't be better.
Not that I don't love Georgetown and all the people in it (see, don't cry about it) but it's such a bubble - everybody knows it. To leave such a wonderful comfort circle would have to be for a dramatically new experience so I've chosen to go - but only for a little bit :)
Therefore, it's about time and it's about me - time for me to be a little selfish and figure out what I want, what I can do, what I need, and what I'll be.
I'm hoping Thailand helps me figure that out.
That's one of the things I'm scared of, quite frankly. I'm infinitely nervous about whether I'll measure up to my future classmates or the assignments or the experience. I'm not absolutely positive that my career will always and permanently be in public service, like some of these students have already decided. Now that I'm some 15 hours away from my destination, I keep wondering - what if I don't get enough out of this? what if I don't learn enough or leave not having done enough or created something on my own? what if this is what Thailand expects and what Thailand will give and I'll have nothing to give back?
I don't know who has higher expectations for an amazing experience - me or the program haha.
you know?
Anyway, I'm currently at the Incheon Airport. Monday, a family friend drove me up to Houston and from there, I went to Los Angeles for a 12-hour flight to Korea. Turns out I still can't sleep on a friggin' plane, even with one of those plushy donut pillows. It's just a different type of uncomfortable - I think it's because I'm short, sigh. Now I've got a good 7 hours before my last flight to Bangkok (and this is after I've done a substantial amount of wandering and getting lost).
Oh and they lost my suitcase. It was supposed to be dropped off at Incheon and it wasn't at baggage claim D:
sooo I have no outlet converter for my laptop (thank god for my ipod touch. thanks esther!) and i will have no clothes if my suitcase is not found. wheeeee. Hopefully they'll find it and drop it off at Bangkok because this is the lightest I've ever packed for a semester [one medium suitcase, duffel bag and backpack) so that's less of the nothing that I brought lol. So now I'm sitting at the "internet lounge" to write this blog and the mouse acts like it's moving drunk with one blind eye, one functional leg, and a concussion.
There is one plus though - Incheon has a relaxation area that offers free showers soooo spending 48 hours in planes and airports shouldn't be as gross now.
I miss everyone incredibly - I haven't spent nearly enough time with my family and I've gotten quite attached to all the people I've bonded with over the summer [David, Frank, Fagel, ShAleena] I still think about the friends in New York and if I think hard enough about Monica, Dale, Mia or Jan, I swear I'll cry so don't make me do it!
I think it's that, once again, I'm alone for a new journey - one that I feel will hold much more meaning for me than past journies - and I already feel like a stranger in a Korean airport. [I'm so whitewashed.]
I realize this is just the awkward part for now - that slow transition. Maybe it'll just be like summer camp all over again [shout out to my CTY nerdpeeps].
Looking forward to it.
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