The return from the forest

Hello again, everyone!

I am back in Chiang Mai after my second three-week expedition course, Political Ecology of Forests: Upland People and Natural Resources—which is a mouthful, so we call it the Forests course J

            So much happened in what seems like so little time, but I am going to do my best to relay the most important details to you all. We visited six villages in northern Thailand, so I will tell you about each village (and the hike to get to it), instead of telling you week-by-week like I did for my last course. First, I’m going to give you some general definitions/disclaimers/helpful pointers.

- We traveled on foot, so we hiked to all but the first village—yes, I learned the real meaning of packing lightly. We started at the top, in Huay Tong Kaw, and hiked our way down (down on the map, at least) back to Maehongson.

- We had village meetings at each village, where we got to ask them everything we wanted to know about their village J

- All six villages are Karen villages; the Karen are an upland ethnic group in Thailand. They also speak their own language (Bakagnaw), and Thai as a second language. We learned some Bakagnaw before leaving and on the field as we spent time with our families.  

- We had a family day in most villages, where we did whatever our family wanted or had planned for that day. For me, this meant working on the rai, going to church, going to a waterfall and a cave, and weaving (each in a different village)

- The Karen practice swidden agriculture, which most people know as “slash-and-burn.” Swidden, in the Karen culture, is the technique of cultivating on a plot of land by burning it, cutting down most trees in it, and then using that to grow the crops for a year. Once the year is over, they move to a second plot and do the same; and then again and again. The Karen eventually (depending on the number of plots they own) return to that first plot of land and begin the cycle again.

- Rai: the plot of land they use

- Fallow: the time that a rai has to regrow into a forest while the villagers use a different rai

- Most families, although very welcoming, served us (the guests) our meals first, left us to eat alone, and ate in the same place as we did once we were done; they often ate whatever it was that we didn’t finish.

- The Karen eat mountain rice (different, and perhaps more filling, than city rice)…and they eat a lot of it.

- Instead of “mae” and “paw” used in most of Thailand, the Karen use “Muga” and “Pati,” which are endearing terms for “aunt” and “uncle” or something along those lines…so that’s what we called them.  

- I will have less and less to say about each village because the time we spent in each was less and less as we progressed (four nights in the first two, two nights in the next two, and one night in the last two).

Ready for the rest? Here goes.

Maehongson

            This is a town—more like a small city—in northwestern Thailand, very close to the border with Burma. I guess it’s a pretty popular spot in northern Thailand for tourists to travel into the mountains to visit hill tribes—let’s not get started on that whole business. We took eight-hour buses on a very windy road to Maehongson and spent our first night there. The next day we met with the Royal Forestry Department (RFD), which was set up, among many other reasons, to conserve forests in Thailand. Later in the afternoon we met with the administrator for the Maehongson district. Both of these meetings are pretty high up there (power-wise) in comparison with our following meetings. It was interesting to learn from them and then go live in the villages they were talking about.

Village one: Huay Tong Kaw

            I stayed with Jean in a family of six: grandma, mom, dad, brother (15), sister (12), and little cuddly brother (7). Our first afternoon and night with them was pretty uneventful, but our next day was an adventure. We headed up to our family’s rai with Muga and met up with Pati Prasuu, grandma, and about eight other people. The rai was owned by five different families, and representatives of each were present to cut down the trees. It had been burned the day before, so Jean and I had the honor of being present on the day they began clearing. We got to build a fence around the rai from the trees we cut down. To put it simply: we got dirty at work. Everything was black in the rai—duh, it was burned—and by the end of the day, everything on our bodies was black as well. It was really meaningful to be part of a regular day in the dry season. We got the chance to go back two days later and do the same type of work. Their rai is, however, on the side of a hill, which makes dragging logs to the top very challenging.

            In Huay Tong Kaw, I learned about traditional Tahs (Karen melodies) and in what occasions they are usually sang, and learned to sing one of them, which was very beautiful. I learned to weave a basket out of bamboo and weaved my own basket, which made it all the way through the rest of my trip and now sits happily in my room. We visited a blacksmith and helped him make a knife. And we learned about traditional herbal medicine from the one and only medicine man in the village—he claims to be the best in any village, which I believe just by watching him. We also had a gender meeting (so the boys met with the men and the girls met with the women in the village), which was incredibly funny and insightful. On our last night, we had a culture exchange, in which we went back and forth sharing things that were part of our culture—transcending language barriers! The villagers showed us sword dances, which are incredible, and sang some traditional songs. The list of things we did is endless, so I will not go there. But it was fun to share with the villagers.

Village two: Huay Hee

            The hike was incredible, one of the most difficult ones of the trip. We had a long descent into a river valley, crossed the river three or four times, and made our way back up into the mountains. It lasted about seven or eight hours, and it was tiring!

            In Huay Hee we conducted studies on rai that had been fallow for two, four, ten, and twenty years. We looked at 10m by 10m plots within each rai and took an inventory of the trees species present as seedlings, saplings, and trees. It took an incredibly long time, but it was well worth it. We also took a day to hike to Doi Pui, which is the highest point in the Maehongson area. That means that the trail to Doi Pui was always uphill—that was quite a challenge! We spent the morning and afternoon (hiking there and back, and) reviewing what we had done up to this point—because it was already the middle of our field course—and talking about the issues we had learned about thus far.

            Huay Hee was a predominantly-Christian village—a huge change from our previous predominantly-Buddhist Huay Tong Kaw—so we got to go to church with them. On Sundays, they have church five different times; so it’s a whole-day celebration. They also spoke more English than we expected (which was none, so obviously we were surprised) because they have lots of tourists come through to hike to Doi Pui and visit the orchid conservation—which we got to see on our hike and it was beautiful. We also had a culture exchange with this village. It was fun to bond with them through church hymns that they sang in their language and us in ours.

Village three: Nam Hoo

            The hike was easier than the last because the long ascent (really, it lasted a long part of the day) was more gradual as well as the descent, and there were no river crossings this time. On this hike we conducted a forest transect, which consisted of stopping every 200 meters (in elevation, which, when you’re going up a mountain are not as often as you’d think) and taking note of the temperature, wind speed, humidity level, dominant tree species, dominant bird calls, insects, forest type, percentage of each forest level (emergent, canopy, understory, shrub layer, herb layer, and forest floor), and soil analysis. Once our course was over, we created a map using all the data we collected.

            In Nam Hoo we learned about the whole weaving process. We learned how to make cotton into string, how to dye the string (and what plants they use and how for what colors!), how to set the loom, and how to weave! After our morning was spent doing this, Nicole (who I was rooming with in this village) went to a small waterfall with our two host sisters. They were Nong Mai (a different tone than my “Mai”) and Nong Mieu and they were 11 and 10. The waterfall was small (small enough to jump off of it, but I guess you’ll never know if I did it or not, huh?) and yet so incredibly beautiful. We took a little hike to the top of it, which was a beautiful little pool under another little waterfall. Nicole and I our host sisters just had the best time there—I really love these two girls, we all really bonded! After a few hours at the waterfall we went to a bat cave, which was also incredible. On the second half of the day (the waterfall and the cave), I did not have my camera, so you all will have to ask me for the details of this day if you want to know just how beautiful it was J

            It was in the village that I had the most fun family photo-shoot, which we think allowed for the family to feel comfortable having a meal with us! Really, this was a huge deal…and it was awesome! It was also in this village that, since minutes after arriving, I met a one-eyed white dog, the skinniest of them all. I petted her and told her she was beautiful—and Nicole and I sang her “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera every time we saw her—which brought her back to life. She’s the most loving dog I’ve met in Thailand—and I’ve met a lot of dogs!

Village four: Hua Nam Maehongson

            The hike was the second hardest hike, where it seemed that we’d never stop going uphill. We walked by a forest fire this time, and it was just incredible how fast it spreads through the forest. Also, the white dog I met in the last village, which everyone eventually named Sally, followed us on this hike.

            Our group learned about the foods that they grow/raise in the village in each month and season and how much they buy from the city in each month and season. By this point in our trip, we were close enough to the city that the villagers had more access to packaged goods and such. We met with small groups with the intent of creating a food calendar for vegetables, meats, fruits, and packaged goods. It was a success, and at the end of the field course we created a food calendar and discussed the implications of being close to the city.

Village five: Pakalo

            This hike was the most incredible one. It had a lot of ascents and descents, but much shorter than the other hikes. But the coolest part was that we crossed the river 30 times. Your eyes don’t lie and that is not a typo: we crossed the river 30 times. The trail was so sneaky that, in order to stay on it, we had to go back in forth through the river. We saw lots of huge rocks and trees growing at the top of them or around them. Incredibly tall trees, too! Sally came, too.

            This village is only five kilometers from Maehongson (about 20 minutes), so it had lots of cemented roads, cement houses, stores (with ice cream!), electricity (as opposed to solar panels, like the other villages), cars, less agriculture, more city commuters, and lots of people. This wvuas a definite change from the feeling of disconnectedness to technology and the city that we had been feeling in the rest of the villages—and it felt very strange.

Village six: Hua Nam MaeSaGud

            This was our shortest hike, lasting only four or five hours, and it was also our last one of the course. It was a breeze compared to the previous ones! Oh, and Sally is still with us at this point.

            We had a whole afternoon to be with our host families on this day, but we only had a host mom that was in her sixties and preferred to have us relax. Danielle, Nicole, and I were told to simply lay down and rest while our host mom, Muga Epaw brought us snacks, cold drinks, and a very strange yet delicious mixture of tea and coffee. When we asked her if it was good, she said “Delicious? I don’t know!” We all burst out laughing at how experienced she looked mixing from different cups (seriously, she was like a scientist) and yet had never tried it before. Of course, she didn’t even actually try it, since she only prepared three cups. She brought us strange snacks all day and fed us strange drinks and that was that. She was super fun—and we couldn’t even understand her for most of the time. This day is tied with my day with Nicole and the girls in Nam Hoo as the most meaningful days of the trip—maybe even of my whole semester.

Back to Maehongson

            Sally stayed in the last village, where someone will (hopefully) take her back to Nam Hoo. It was a sad goodbye in the morning.

            We enjoyed a nice group dinner in a fancy restaurant (although maybe it wasn’t as fancy, we just hadn’t been in one in three weeks) and were treated to a smoothie, as much food as we wanted, and ice cream, by our P’s and ajaan. We dined like queens and kings that night!

            We made our way down the windy road the next morning and returned to Chiang Mai.     

Conclusions after the field course:

- I can’t learn a fourth language yet.

- I have mastered bucket showers.

- I have mastered the squatty potty.

- Spiders and I learned to get along—they like houses as much as I do.

- I have forgotten what it is like to be in a river with no shoes on and with only a bathing suit.

- If you come to northern Thailand and quiz me on it, I can tell you the type of forest we’re in!

Now I am back in Chiang Mai for two weeks. This next week is our spring break. The Sonkrang celebration is happening in Chiang Mai at the end of the week: days and days of getting wet wherever you go in the city. Really, this is the ultimate water-fest. People celebrate the Thai New Year by splashing water on each other wherever they go. Also, the water they use is that one of the mote around the old city, which is nasty. But we have showers, so it’s doable J I cannot say much more now because I haven’t lived it yet. But you will know about it soon.

Thanks for reading! And thank you for keeping me in your thoughts! I hope this finds you well wherever you may be! All my love J