Posted: Aug.2010, Written: Nov.2008
In November 2008 I spent two weeks volunteering in the mountains of Chiang Rai, Thailand. A handful of us from America, New Zealand and Australia came together and despite the fact that not one of us were engineers or construction efficionados, we built a community center for a Lahu Hill Tribe community living high above the Mae Kok river.
The work was hard, grueling, and most of us were dead on our feet every day by 4pm...but the community was so warm and so inviting, and there's a high you get when you volunteer and really help people who are in need. I would do it all again, in a heartbeat.
Mornings start at 4:30 am every day. If the roosters don't wake you, the pigs, the cows, the dogs, the cats, the children, the rice pounding, the news blaring from loudspeakers from trucks driving by will. The temp has to be as low as 50 degrees in the morning, so I tend to wear everything I own when I trek down to breakfast.
Our bungalows are basic, bamboo thatched huts, with squat toilets and showers, but there is hot water!! Which is a godsend in the winter season! Our bungalows are located in the heart of a Karen village, so working elephants are a common sight as we walk to work every morning.
We walk to work, in the nearby Lahu village and our mission is to create a town meeting hall...with concrete! So, we're digging holes (dip enough for me to stand waist deep in), carving foundations, mixing cement with hand plucked river gravel to make our own homemade cement....We're building this concrete building from the ground up, and on day 3 we see that there's a lot to be done before the next 2 weeks is up! My group is made up of 9 girls and 2 boys...so we're doing our best!
Everyday the villagers come by to lend a hand, stare, laugh and mock...but in a very loving way. They have a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea that this crazy group of 'farang' (foreigners) have paid money to come out and do this hard work. The scenery is beautiful. Our village is definitely full of energy.
The kids come down to the river with us and play games by throwing rice paddy crabs into our gravel bags...so when we reach in to scoop out the gravel we get pinched! Sneaky punks!! The other day I caught a bunch of kids playing with a newborn dead rat. It was so gross. When they weren't looking I snatched the rat and gave it a funeral...they spent the rest of the afternoon looking for the body.
Today we had to fight off the cows and the piglets. We took some snacks to the worksite, and when we weren't looking the cows would run up to the water and drink our supply while the pigs and their hundreds of babies, dogs and chickens stole our rice. It's like a circus sometimes with all the roaming livestock.
It's hard work, the days are long, the village is rustic and the living conditions are bare...but I love it. I'm in love with my group too. They're all so fun and eager to learn.
No comments:
Post a Comment