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Tag: Thailand

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By LizGoodwin04

My program here in Thailand consists of five two-week academic units that we complete before beginning our research at the end of the semester. The first week is spent attending lectures, doing readings and participating in activities surrounding our topic. Then, for the last week we travel to a village in Thailand to live with a host family and participate in exchanges with different organizations. The units we will be studying this semester include Agriculture, Thai Politics, Chang Mai (a province in Thailand), Land Use/Forests, and Mining and Development. After spending the first month taking intensive Thai classes and immersing ourselves in Thai culture and history, we began our first unit on agriculture.

At the end of this unit, we stayed in a homestay in Yasothon province, where we lived with organic farmers. In Yasothon, we learned firsthand about the differences between organic and chemical farming and compared both the Thai and American agricultural systems. One thing I really enjoyed about the unit was learning about Thai perspectives on American agriculture.

On the last day of our stay in Yasothon, our group met with P. Ubon, the coordinator of the Alternative Agriculture Network in Thailand. The Alternative Agriculture Network is an organization that works with the Thai government and various NGOs to empower communities and farmers to move away from chemical-intensive monocropping.

Throughout the exchange with P. Ubon, we asked him a lot of questions about the future of Thailand’s agricultural system and the problems with the system as it is. In a lot of cases, he blamed the United States for the direction the Thai agricultural system is heading. He explained that because Thailand is developing so fast, the number of small-scale farms is decreasing and technology-based farming, like what is common in the U.S., is increasing. According to P. Ubon, this poses a large threat to the well being of the Thai people because it means there will be more health problems, debt and environmental degradation in Thailand. However, when we asked P. Ubon about how Thailand plans to address this shift in agricultural practices, he said it was the responsibility of the United States to solve.

P. Ubon’s answer really surprised me. While the United States may be able to reform the agricultural system of the U.S., it was difficult to understand how the U.S. would be able to change the future of Thailand’s farming practices. Though we ran out of time with P. Ubon, I would love to visit the province later in the semester and talk to him more about how the United States could help Thailand or why the United States might be interested in helping to preserve Thai farming practices.

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So fresh and so local, the food from my agrarian homestay.
So fresh and so local, the food from my agrarian homestay.

“Arroi maak, ka!” “Chan im maak ka!” I must have said these two Thai phrases hundreds of time this past week.

I was living in a MooBan (village) in Yosothon Province, about three hours northeast of where I am in Khon Kaen, learning about the agrarian life in Thailand. We lived with farming families, and had what CIEE calls ‘exchanges’ each day. Exchanges are essentially meetings where different groups will share their experiences and knowledge, and we will share a bit of our own. We met with groups like organic farmers, farmers who sell at a green market, chemical farmers, and contract farmers. We also visited a rice mill and a sugar plantation. However all these exchanges were far from the highlight of my time away from Khon Kaen. My highlight, you ask? It was the experiences that prompted me to exclaim “Arroi maak” and “Chan im maak.” (Very delicious, and I’m VERY full.)

The food. My Meh in this family was an organic farmer. When rice is in season she grows organic rice, and in the off-season (which is right now) she grows a wide variety cover crops that nourish the soil for the next rice season. The crops included an assortment of vegetables, watermelon, and corn. There were also a number of chickens that roamed the back yard and offered us fresh eggs each day. Everything that was placed before us to eat was fresh, organic, and grown by my Meh herself or by one of our neighbors.

There was an abundance of stir fried vegetables, fish, som tham (green papaya salad), and sticky rice (SO MUCH sticky rice!).

My two favorite dishes were a local Isaan variety of black sticky rice (cow neow see dam), soaked in coconut milk and topped with sweet egg and fresh coconut meat that came from the coconuts plucked from the trees in our yard. I had to slurp down the coconut water first before I could eat the meat of the fruit with our sticky rice. My second favorite was a dish of caramelized onions and whole cloves of garlic paired with boiled eggs that had then been fried so the outside was a little crispy. I dipped my sticky rice (plain white this time) in the sauce, scooping out caramelized onions and garlic, to eat with my bite of boiled/fried egg. A perfect blend of savory and sweet. My mouth waters as I write and reminisce. Arroi MAAK, ka.

Eating from such an intensely local food system was an incredible experience. The food was probably the best I will have in Thailand.

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By LizGoodwin04

Thailand is certainly very different from the United States and having been here three weeks now I’m picking up more and more on all of the little nuances and differences that make Thailand so unique. Below are three small, but significant observations about Thai culture.

  • They ride motorcycles, or as the Thais call them “morcyes,” everywhere. Walking anywhere in Thailand is extremely difficult. There are no sidewalks and when there are sidewalks they are completely uneven with huge drop offs. Also, there are giant holes on the side of the road that I’ve heard people do occasionally fall into. So it’s no surprise that Thais prefer to ride their motorcycles everywhere, even if it’s just down the street less than a quarter of a mile away to the local 7-11 or around the corner to the closest breakfast place which is only a two minute walk (something my Thai roommate does quite often).
  • The Thais love to take selfies and it seems there is never an inappropriate time to take a selfie. There is no such thing as “selfie-shame” in this country. In Thailand if you are at a coffee shop, the first thing you do is take a selfie with the coffee. If you go out with friends to the bar, the first thing you do is take a selfie. If you’re at the mall, you take a selfie. There isn’t really anywhere you wouldn’t take a selfie in Thailand.
  • Bagged drinks. If you order any type of drink in Thailand, you will receive the drink in a plastic bag with a straw. At first, I thought drinking out of a bag was extremely weird. It was hard to balance and I never knew how to set the drink on the table. However, once I figured out how to hold the bag properly and set it down, I realized that plastic bags make way more sense and are more convenient than to go cups. With bagged drinks, you can carry them on your wrists, thus freeing up your hands to carry other things. In addition, nothing spills out the top of a plastic bag and sloshes all over your hands the way overly filled cups do. Finally, the handles of the bag keep your hands from getting all wet and cold from the condensation that cold drinks produce. In my opinion, this is definitely a practice the United States should consider adopting.

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By LizGoodwin04

As part of my study abroad program, we stay with 6 different host families in various rural villages for a week each over the course of the semester. This past week, we stayed with a host family here in Khon Kaen, just 15 minutes away from where we are taking classes. While we spent the evenings and mornings with our families, we spent the day at classes here on campus. Though it wasn’t a complete immersion, this homestay was like a test-run to get us acclimated to staying with a family and improving our Thai.

I was paired with another American student in my program to stay with our host family, who lived in a neighborhood called the “4 Region Slum,” for four days. My family was huge and we spent most of the time trying to figure out just exactly how everyone was related. The other part of our time was spent desperately trying to understand what was going on. I thought I could understand basic Thai phrases until I realized I couldn’t even understand when our Meh (host mom) asked us “Chao mai?” (Early, no?). I just stared and went to my go to answer “Ka!” (Yes!); hoping of course it was an appropriate answer to respond yes to. In another embarrassing instance our Meh spent 10 minutes telling us to “Nang!” or in other words, sit down. Whereas, we spent those 10 minutes walking around the room asking “Nang?” while pointing at the garbage then “Nang?” while pointing at the food and finally after walking outside and noticing the bench “Oh, nang!”

On the last day of our homestay, the program arranged for an exchange with the students and our host families. There was a translator at the exchange so we could tell the families everything we had wanted to say, but didn’t know how and also so we could ask them questions about their community. During the exchange we were able to learn more in depth about how the community was founded, as well as how the community will progress into the future. Right now, a railroad track runs along side the community and during the exchange we learned that there are plans to expand these tracks 20 meters on either side to build a high-speed railway. By expanding the railway, every family in this community would be displaced and would lose everything they ever worked so hard to achieve. During our stay our family was so generous and kind. They had patience with us when we couldn’t understand anything they were saying, they took us to the market with them at 4 am and had a monk bless us, and then even invited us back to stay with them later in the semester. Although it was heartbreaking to learn that this development project could displace them in only a few months, it was inspiring to learn that they are currently in the process of organizing to send a representative to the Department of Transportation in Bangkok to fight and stop the expansion of the railroad.

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By practiceyogadistrict

I had been in Khon Kaen for less than a week, when Ajaan Dave, the program director, approached our class asking if anyone would be interested in covering a story about a community in Issan that was suffering from human rights violations as a result of a gas company’s activity in their community. The community had specifically reached out to CIEE asking for someone to come and bring light to their story. As a journalism major and a sustainability minor, I of course raised my hand along with a few other students in the program. It was in that moment that we were given the responsibility of being real advocates and telling a real story that actually impacted lives. This was no exercise in a classroom. This was real life.

We knew very little of the issue the community faced before we went to visit them. Before we left, we planned angles and wrote out a few questions that would be our springboard for the interview with a monk in the community, the community members, and the NGO. One half day of interviews and exchanges was all we had to work with. I was blown away during our exchange with the community by their tenacity in the face of a large corporation backed by the Thai Government. They were determined to have their voices heard and their plight known. Near the end of our time, they also asked our group what we knew about fracking, problems that have resulted from fracking, and how communities dealt with them in the US. The fact that we, mere college undergrads, became their primary source of knowledge on a subject that they were experiencing first hand astounded me. Not only was this community trusting my peers and I to tell their story, but they also saw us as an informant, useful to them. In all my years in the classroom, I have never had the privilege of such responsibility, like that which was handed to me in my first few days in Thailand. I am exited to see what other opportunities for advocacy are opened to me in the next few months.

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By LizGoodwin04

When I first told people I would be studying abroad in Thailand, I got almost the same reaction from everyone: “You’re going to eat so much great food!” Thailand is definitely known for its cuisine. Thai food is the perfect combination of spicy, sweet, sour and salty. While I’ve eaten some stranger things since I’ve been in Thailand like ant eggs and grasshoppers, I’ve also eaten some amazing things that I’ll miss when I go back to America. In no particular order, I’ve ranked by top 5 favorite foods in Thailand.

  • Tom Yum Goong (Spicy Shrimp Soup)
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Tom Yum Goong, or spicy shrimp soup

 

I’m not a big soup person, but this soup is so good I find myself ordering it at least once a week! The soup is made with lemongrass, chili, lime and shrimp.

  • Khao Niao (Sticky Rice)

I love sticky rice. It’s become an obsession since I’ve been in Thailand. The Thais eat rice with every single meal from breakfast to dinner. Regular rice is a core staple in Thailand, but in the Isaan province where I’m staying, sticky rice is the go-to. This glutinous rice sticks together so you can form a ball with the rice and mold it into a spoon to use to eat with your other dishes. Sticky rice is also used in a lot of Thai desserts. My favorite is Khao Lam, which is sticky rice that is roasted in a bamboo shoot and sweetened with coconut, sugar and red beans.

  • Som Tum (Spicy Green Papaya Salad)

Som Tum isn’t a dish that can be found in all of Thailand, but it is very popular in the Northeastern province where I am living and it is by far one of the spiciest foods I’ve had in Thailand. It’s made with shredded raw papaya, fish sauce, lime, chili and cherry tomato. This dish is one of those distinctive dishes that people either love or hate.

  • Khao Pad Tuna (Tuna Fried Rice)

As I mentioned before the rice in Thailand is really good and the fried rice is even better. I’m not used to eating fish in fried rice, but as a vegetarian in Thailand it can be hard to find protein so I try to incorporate as much fish into my meals as I can. This is a typical dish though and the fish in Thailand is much better than any fish I’ve ever had in the U.S. It’s super juicy and flavorful!

  • Fruit Smoothies

And finally, one of my favorite foods in Thailand isn’t really a food, but I will count it as such. Thailand has some of the best fresh fruit including dragon fruit, jackfruit, coconut, mango, banana, pineapple, watermelon, etc. The list goes on and on! Almost everyday I go to the fruit stand next to my classes and grab a fresh coconut, which they chop open for me and stick a straw in. If I’m not feeling the coconut, I go the smoothie stand next door to the fruit stand and get a fresh fruit smoothie. Just like everything else in Thailand, the smoothies are delicious and especially refreshing when it is 100 degrees out!

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My neighborhood of three days.

Homestay number one of six is complete. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to stay in a slum here in Khon Kaen for three nights. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

We rode song taows to the communities that we were staying in. As I prepared to go I tried not to think too hard about the fact that I was about to live in a slum with a family that I had never met that spoke a language that I hardly speak. If I did, and I’m honest, my stomach would drop a little bit. When I arrived, my nong sow (younger sister) named Som (which means orange in Thai), picked me up from the community center and used the few English phrases she knew to engage me in conversation, asking my name and age. She led me across a busy downtown Thai street to my home for the next three nights, right next to the train tracks. My Meh (which means mom in Thai) waited for me towards the front of the house which doubled as a store front, selling small snacks and drinks to the community. When I walked in, Meh immediately asked if I was hungry, practically before I set my bag down. She was making Som Tham, or green papaya salad. I sat on a mat on the floor with Som and was introduced to the many people coming in and out of the house to meet the farrang (me, the westerner). I started to get the impression that everyone was related, because each person who walked in was introduced to me with familial pronouns. ‘This is Yaye’ (grandmother) my Meh said about an older wrinkled woman who walked into the living space. She actually was related to the family next door, but would walk me around holding my hand all the same. Dinner was served to me on the floor, and we ate family style. My younger brother (nong chai) named Captain (a nickname), Som, Meh, and I ate, while Pa looked on. It seemed to be tradition that we would always eat before Pa. After dinner I watched a few minutes of Thai soap opera, and didn’t understand a second of it, while also making friendship bracelets with Som.

In Thai culture it is customary to shower often, however, our home didn’t really have a bathroom. We had a spigot in a very wet area of the house where dishes and laundry were done, and showers were had. I termed it the wet room, or the wet hallway because that is effectively what it was. There were no doors, so when my family asked me if I wanted to ‘ab nam’ (take a shower) before bed, I didn’t know what to do. I ended up wrapping myself in a sarong and splashing cold water on my feet. They gave me weird looks when I came out of the wet room with dry hair. Sheepishly I went to bed underneath my pink, quite hole-y mosquito net.

I woke up the next morning with four bug bites on my forehead, one on my cheek, and one on my right eyelid- which resulted in an eye that was swollen shut for the whole day. My Meh turned on the light in the room that I shared with my siblings, and pushed her face up against my mosquito net asking ‘Mah-gieeeee! You eat Breakfast?!’ I did, and she made these marvelous home made Thai doughnuts. Paw crouched in front of me with curiosity on his face as I read and journaled in the family’s living space.

kierstead 1
Meh weaving baskets out of recycled plastic

After classes that day, I returned for the second night with much less anxiety. I knew what to expect as I returned that evening to the community. My sisters both worked until late at night, and Paw was feeling sick, so he was asleep in the back room. It ended up being just meh, Captain, and I the whole evening. Because conversation was not an option, I resorted to pulling out my Thai textbook and asking my Meh ‘Pud yang nye’ which means ‘how do you say…?’ We spent about an hour like that, with her half watching the Thai soap opera and half responding to my question of ‘pud yang nye.’

The final night was full of tender moments. Though I had stayed with this family for only three nights, they had shared everything they had with me. It was really sweet to see how relationships were built around generosity, community and sincere thankfulness rather than language and other commonalities.

In the morning before I said goodbye for the final time, Meh chirped “Maggieee, forget me not?” and I certainly won’t. Both the family and the place will be remembered long after I leave Thailand because of their big, big hearts.

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By LizGoodwin04

I arrived a week and a half ago to “The Land of Smiles,” also known as Thailand, and its nickname has certainly lived up to its reputation. This past weekend, our program arranged a trip for the students to visit a mountain forest temple in rural Thailand. To get to the hidden temple, we piled into the typical mode of public transportation in Thailand, a Songthaew (pronounced song-tau.) A Songthaew acts as a cross between a bus and a taxi. This taxi/bus hybrid is a pick up truck with a covered bed and two rows of benches facing each other; in Thai, song is two and thaew is bench. After a very bumpy, but beautiful one and a half hour ride through small villages, past forests of rubber trees and through rice fields, we arrived at the temple.

Once we arrived, we were brought to the most serene garden, where we sat on straw mats and got a lesson from a Thai monk on Buddhism. Different perspectives on life and the continuity of life fascinate me, so I was very excited to hear what the monk had to share with us. It was difficult to understand everything the monk was trying to convey, as he spoke little English, but his main message was to let go of suffering and pain, because while the body may die, the mind lives on forever. After his beautiful lesson, he led us in a one hour meditation.

Feeling calm and renewed, we went to set up the area where we would be sleeping that night. There was an awning in part of the forest, with straw mats placed underneath it to sleep. We hung our mosquito nets and then tried to go to sleep. However, we quickly learned why the Thais refer to their 95-degree weather as the cold season. At nighttime, it is freezing! Imagine 25 students in nothing but t-shirts and jeans in the middle of the forest in Thailand without any blankets or pillows, trying to sleep on the ground…. Not fun, but kind of funny. Note to future study abroad students in Thailand, bring a sweater because it is not always 95+ degrees!

After momentarily questioning our decision to sign up to sleep on a cold, hard ground, we were reassured we made the right decision the following morning. At 6 am, a nun (the term for a female Buddhist monk) woke us up with three strikes of a gong to meditate and help prepare breakfast. As the morning wore on, more and more Thais were showing up from the village below the temple to meet the farang (foreigner in Thai) and offer the monk, as well as us, food.

Offering alms to the monks of the village is a daily practice in Thai life. Typically, Thais will line up at sunrise to give food to the monks. At 8 am, we each lined up with a plate of cooked sticky rice and offered the rice to the monk of the temple, who collected the alms in a large metal pot. The monk must collect a lot of food in the morning because he is only allowed to eat one meal a day. This is an act to practice self-control and self-discipline, two very important tenets in the Buddhist faith.

After giving alms to the monk, we sat and meditated with the monk longer before diving into a feast of food. At this point, there were at least 30 villagers, the monk and nuns, as well as about 25 American students and we were all very hiu, or hungry. We scarfed down sticky rice, bananas, tamarind, fish, green papaya salad, and some brave ones even tried chicken heart and liver. Even after eating as much as we could, it seemed we hadn’t even made a dent in the food!

Shortly after breakfast, we paid respects to the monk and the villagers one last time before climbing back into songthaews to go back to the university in Khon Kaen. It was overwhelming to see how accepting everyone was to welcome us to their temple and it was so kind to see a group of strangers have such an outpouring of affection to people they had just met. It was interesting to compare the teachings of Buddhism side-by-side with the values of Buddhism in action.

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Wat Arun Temple
Wat Arun Temple- From my first day in Bangkok

Hello (Sa wa dee ka) from Khon Kaen, Thailand! I have been in Thailand for nearly two weeks yet it has felt like I have been here for at least a month. Each day is jam-packed with activity and new experiences. I am studying with a small group of American students from Universities around the country, so we spend a fair amount of time together. We all live in the same dormitory building in the university district of Khon Kaen right on the edge of campus. This dorm building is my home for half the time I am here in Thailand, but the other half I spend in week long homestays every other week in rural communities. The first one starts this Monday (2/2)! I’m thrilled that I get both a homestay experience and a college student experience. This past Sunday after a three-day orientation at a site about an hour outside of the city we moved in with our Thai Roommates. I have yet to meet a Thai person that has been rude or unkind. My roommate included. Kim is a kind, thoughtful, energetic, and very sporty. She loves singing John Legend and playing basketball.

On my first night in Khon Kaen, Kim brought me to an Agriculture Fair on KKU’s (Khon Kaen University) campus. I rode to the fair on the back of Kim’s Motorcycle. Motorcycles, or what Thai’s call ‘Moterscies’ are the primary mode of transportation around Khon Kaen (Sorry, Mom. Be comforted-- I do wear a helmet!). This fair was a massive spread of tents and stalls sprawled out on what felt like a square mile of campus. If it wasn’t for Kim I would have gotten massively lost. The fair had everything from mango tree saplings, banana trees, flowers and small cacti plants, to cows, fighting roosters, bunnies, puppies, and goats. But that’s not nearly all. There were stalls and stalls of wild food and clothing vendors as well. I played it safe and only tried a few samples of food and then bought a fresh cold coconut. Buying fresh raw coconuts is going to become a weekly ritual for me at the fruit stand down the road from the apartments. They are so sweet and refreshing!

Food has been an adventure. I haven’t gotten sick yet (knock-on-wood), and everything that I have ordered has been delicious! I am able to order my food in Thai because my program has already led us through twenty hours of intensive Thai class. It’s incredible how much I am able to speak in such a short time! All the food is so cheap (on average, one American dollar can buy you a large meal)! My favorite dishes so far have been a traditional Issan pork dish, made with lots of lime and green onion- very spicy and eaten with sticky rice, as well as green curry and morning glory greens (kindof like stir-fried kale). Every dish I try has been pretty fabulous.

In Thailand coffee is generally of the hyper-sweet powdered instant variety. Not my favorite. This past week, motivated by my caffeine headaches, I have managed to find a few cafes around my apartment that have real coffee! Cafes open no earlier than 9am, and some open at three. Coffee is not a morning necessity for some reason. When ordering, I always have to be very intentional about saying ‘mai sai juan’ or ‘don’t add sweet.’ Otherwise they will pour a shot of condensed milk in with the coffee.

This next week I will be living with a family in a slum in Khon Kaen for four days. It is the first of our six home stays in different communities around Issan (the northeast of Thailand). I am excited to experience their way of life, gain a new perspective, and practice my Thai.

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By lizzhart

The program is complete. The health intervention has been implemented. We decided on an informative flyer about the importance if food separation, free compostable bags, and a report of our research findings to the municipality office. The health volunteers  at the village expressed a need to encourage villagers to separate food waste which would reduce waste overflowing in the trash bins, reduce insects and animals scavenging in the bins, an help the environment by putting that waste toward use as feed and farm fertilizer. The municipal office requested we share our findings with them because they rarely receive feedback from villagers who are often wary of government workers. We hope sharing our research will improve communication between the municipality and the village and help with future measures to address waste management.

I am happy with my time spent in the community and am happy that the village health volunteers seemed satisfied with our project despite its minor impact. I am disappointed overall in how limited we were with only one intervention day. A semester leading up to a community project was met with an anticlimactic ending. The Thailand CIEE program has a lot o room for growth.

Ultimately I survived the semester, despite the frustrations, limitations, and manipulation a of a program that doesn't give its students the freedom to create an experience independent of the program. I met great people, made a lot of personal growth, and have planned a kickass post program travel plan. If I could go back I would not have chosen this program and I would not advise anyone to do this program, but if I could have the perfect experience it would still be in this country with these people.

CIEE SPRING 2014"Break my spirit not my team"

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