Things Are Good

I’ve been trying to keep my posts specific, but I’m gonna switch things up a bit with this one. I’d just like to say that life here is great. And in case you’ve been worried about me, I gotta say, don’t worry. I’m happy. I wake up looking forward to my days and when I lie down to go to sleep I’ve got no worries. It’s not all perfect. And I spend a lot of time missing all kinds of crazy things. Last night while Gai, Tuk’s friend who now lives in the UK, was cooking dinner, someone put on a Billy Joel CD and it filled me with a comforting sense of familiarity that I haven’t felt in while. But I feel fulfilled by what I am doing here in a way I’ve never felt. I think I’ve been looking for something like this since I graduated from college, except that wasn’t really looking, in a deliberate kind of way. I learn tons every day and my work is engaging and challenging and the people are great. I feel that my energies are helping, in a tangible way, people who need help. I believe in SDF, its goals and methods and its energy. We have a presentation to organize on December 18. Several officials from the forestry department will be there. The point is to display the valuable ways in which traditional hill tribe knowledge maintains the health of the forest. We have begun to collect the information that will be presented and train the villagers in making the presentations. It’s amazing how much they know and how they don’t know that they know it. They’ve never had to express all the information that floats around their heads. They learn by doing, not by reading or talking.

During my last trip to the hills we spent the day collecting plants from plots the villagers use to grow taro, cabbage, lychee, coffee and bananas. The harvest is over so all these weeds are coming in, except some of them are quite useful. We talked about each plant and the role it plays in the ecosystem. Except they didn't use the word ecosystem. We made a big chart. Plant samples were taped along the left edge of the paper. For each one we wrote down the Thai name, the Keren name, its benefit, its harm, how it propagates, its physical description and its growth cycle. Some of the plants are food for people or pigs, some are medicine for coughing or for constipation and some plants help aerate the soil or fertilize it. I collected GPS data on the plots and recorded their locations on our map. I also took notes on how to begin to categorize the villagers’ land use practices for the database SDF wants to build. Tuk and I translated the charts into English. Later there was a big meeting in the school to review our field work and make demo presentations. Lisa took some of the children outside and they made a chalk mural. After a long hot day I got to dip my feet into the river 20 feet from a waterfall. At night my coworkers and I roasted bananas over a fire. Later I sat on a log under a giant full moon and listened to the sounds of the jungle. I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be.