S a w a s d e e N e w s l e t t e r V o l u m e I : f a l l 2 0 0 5 O r i e n t a t i o n

Note: All of the organizations and institutions we work with have expressed their sadness over what has happened in New Orleans. Our entire staff would like to express condolences for any of you who have friends or family in the area devastated by Katrina.

Greetings from Thailand! If any of you received our newsletter from the past semester, welcome back! For those new to our newsletter, welcome! We think this is the first group of students we have ever had where a considerable number of them said that they came on this program specifically because of our emphasis on

group process and the alternative educational model we offer. Students coming with such an understanding of the program and ready to work as a group makes a real difference. So far, this group has been fantastic!

Two weeks ago, we finished what we call a “long orientation,” Students arrived in mid-August and then spent a good three of four days learning intensive Thai, receiving an academic and cultural orientation, going over safety issues, and learning the basics of group process.

Two Weeks of Village Stays

Then they were whisked out to village stays. The first five days were spent in a semi-agricultural/semi-urban village near Khon Kaen. The first evening students were there, what seemed to be half the village showed up at the temple to perform the “Bai Ci” ceremony, an Northeastern practice where a community comes together to welcome others. A Brahmin specialist, dressed in white, invoked the spirit to come down and be among us, and then each member of the community tied strings on the wrists of their new guests. In the mornings, students continued to learn Thai which they could then practice with their families in the evening. The students had their first substantial break over the weekend. On Sunday evening, the students split up and departed for a one week stay in three different slum communities located along the railroad tracks in Khon Kaen City. They continued language study, and took one afternoon

break to visit a snake village and climb up to a mountaintop Buddhist temple. The main activity of the week was for them to prepare questions for the community members of each slum community they were staying in. None of the three groups of students was given any information on the community they were staying in except to say “There is something going on in each community and between them.” So each group had to come up with a set of questions that would help them to know what is going on, from scratch, so to speak. That evening, each group had its own exchange with members of its community. On the last day of orientation, we broke the students into four groups that had representatives of each community. They had to discuss and come up with the answer of what is going on with the slum communities in Khon Kaen as a whole. Each group then shared its narrative storyline.

Did any of the three groups “get it right”? Each presentation had been translated for an NGO worker that has been working with the slum communities for ten years. He was amazed at how much students had learned. There had been a single exchange with each of the communities and a sharing among the students. All of the groups had alluded to a single key issue—a scheme with the Thai government to get long-term leasing for their communities that would in effect give these communities housing security for the first time in their lives. What none of the four groups got was that there was a conflict among slum communities in Khon Kaen over the advisability of the leasing scheme. In fact, villagers in one community almost came to blows with another community just the day before students arrived. There is often discussion about how a “community-based” program like ours comes to effect the communities it places students in. We have, as a staff, seen both positive and negative effects. In this case, the fact that the students were there helped heal the wounds of the conflict between the different slums. This came about for a few reasons. First, having students in the communities helped villagers overcome their conflict to a certain degree simply because they wanted to make a good impression on students. But more it was because in one community—the one against the leasing scheme—an old woman had died. Students attended her cremation and expressed their condolences to the grieving family. The headman in this community asked if students could come a bit late to class the next day, as the entire community was going to come out and make merit on behalf of the family. Community members wanted students to be part of that, for there is a belief that if you make merit in this life together, next life you will be born together. As it turns out, the other community in the conflict is right on the opposite side of the tracks, and when invited, their families came to make merit, too. Partially because the students were there, the two communities had come back together again, after years of conflict. In any case, we then asked the students as a whole how their exchanges had gone and what they would have done differently had they to do it again. We also asked them to think about the kind of rapport they built with community members during the exchange. What had worked? What hadn’t? This helped the group as a whole think about how they were working together, how, in essence, they worked as a community. It also helped them to think about what kinds of relationships they were building as a community with other communities. We then had lunch together on a riverside raft and floated for the afternoon while we had students fill out orientation evaluation forms. The students then had a “Where we’re at” session where they have a space for any issues that the group is facing and needs to address. This particular group is broken into four “liaison groups.” Each group chooses its own “liaison.” The four liaisons for this group discussed the day before if there were any issues they should address. To help them think through any such matters, we have three program interns who are all former students and are here for a year to work with the group process. Throughout the semester, we will have three or four “Where we’re at’s.” Staff can use the space to address non-academic issues, and students can use the structure if they are experiencing problems. If need be, group liaisons can call an emergency “Where we’re at.”

Where the Students….. ……seem to be at

Thai Language: Last time we did a “long orientation,” students complained that they got too much language too fast. This group is truly extraordinary. On their first free weekend, they demanded to have extra Thai classes. Although the staff was pretty tired, if students are ready for it, then we are, too. The language teachers have commented this is the most engaged group they have ever taught!

Here are some of their comments……. …….on the language component of the program

“Within the 2 weeks of orientation I feel I

have reached a comfortable level of Thai where I can express myself surprisingly well.” “It took me five years to learn as much Spanish as the Thai I have learned, and I live less than an hour from Mexico.”

B u d d h i s m i n T h a i S o c i e t y On two afternoons for a total of seven hours, students experienced a vigorous orientation to Thai society and Buddhism with Sulak Sivaraksa. Sulak, the 1995 winner of the Right Livelihood Award and a current Nobel Peace Prize candidate, is at once one of the founders of the Engaged Buddhism movement, as well as a fierce social and political critic. Needless to say, students were overwhelmed.

W h e n s t u d e n t s w e r e a s k e d … i f t h e p r o g r a m h a d m e t t h e i r e x p e c t a t i o n s s o f a r … “Overwhelmingly yes. The level of energy that the staff and interns put into the program activities, classes, and homestays was beyond my expectations.” “I don’t know what my expectations were, but they have been exceeded. I am impressed with the organization, communication, and the staff.” “Yes, unbelievably! I am just amazed at how well we have been taken care of and provided for. We are fed so well! I feel like this program has gone above and beyond the call… I think I am getting much more education and life experience than I bargained for. The structure outside of the classroom, ‘hands-on’ learning immediate integration with communities, group process, and individual needs met at all times, all prove this program to be unique and exceptional.” “It has been over and beyond my expectations. …it really pushes my personal abilities and opened interests that I may have dreamed of but never thought I could own up to.”

U n i t 1 : F o o d

Students then began their first unit: food. It began with a lecture on agriculture, how it has changed in the past 50 years, distinctions between “food security” and “food sovereignty,” and the right to food as outlined in the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. They also had a lecture on the dynamics of trade, particularly the role of the World Trade Organization and Free Trade Agreements. We have had four very sharp student facilitators overseeing this unit. They are responsible for the 3-hour briefing before the trips begin, the dynamics of exchanges during the trips, and the workshop at the end. Usually the first student facilitation runs a bit bumpy, but this group, on the contrary, did so well that they may have set the standard too high for facilitators of the next Unit! After the lectures, students learned what we call “issue-based” Thai—in this case it was on agriculture, and the hope is that they will be able to hold a fairly substantive dialogue with their host families. Then the facilitators ran the briefing, and the next day they were off to Surin province where they spent two days transplanting rice, collecting mushrooms, and working in their host family’s gardens. They then had an exchange with the governor of Surin province who has, in his past eight years, turned a fair portion of the province organic. Later that same day, students visited a cooperative rice mill that produces organic rice for European markets, and is now just in the process of initiating a fair-trade system of organic jasmine rice in the US. The following week, students broke into four groups and visited four agricultural situations: a sugar mill and sugar growers, heavy chemical-use farmers, organic jasmine rice growers who also do a lot with herbal medicine and once issued their own currency, and an integrated organic farm. The unit ended with an evening exchange with Bamrung Khayotha and Ubon Yuwah. Bamrung is a member of Via Campesina, a worldwide peasant organization, and a lead member of the Assembly of the Poor, a dynamic

coalition of poor groups in Thailand who for the last ten years have challenged the powers that be. Ubon is an NGO worker on the issue of agriculture. The exchange was one of the most moving and depressing the students have experienced—the fate of more than half of the world—small-

scale farmers—is increasingly precarious as agriculture, the food we eat and the way it is grown, falls more and more into the hands of corporate interests. After a day to write papers, students met for a final workshop of the unit. That five-hour session, organized and carried out by the facilitators, was one

of the best yet we’ve seen. One of the highlights of this unit was the exchange at the rice mill. There students met two farmers and an NGO who will be traveling throughout the US over the next three weeks to kick off the Fair Trade Jasmine Rice Campaign (FTJRC). Students were able to help these three practice what they will be saying to hundreds if not thousands of Americans throughout the US.

The FTJRC was arranged by the Educational Network for Global and Grassroots Exchange (ENGAGE) which is a nonprofit set up by former students of CIEE-Thailand to bring issues facing Thai villagers to American audiences. Bamrung and Ubon went on the first OXFAM USA-funded tour in 2003, and this tour will involve tens of former students helping to set up events for the tour in their local area.

After the students did their workshop, they had a whole afternoon to talk with Chris Westcott, the coordinator of ENGAGE (in the Bay area) who will be accompanying the three Thais through the US and translating for them. Students got into the session very much because they identified during orientation that they want to get involved, that they want to make a difference. So after the ENGAGE session, they set up a press squad who will write stories and press releases for the Thai team in the cities where they will be appearing. If you are lucky, the tour will be coming near you. If so, you should attend! If you are interested in learning more about the Fair Trade Jasmine Rice Campaign Tour, or what former CIEE-Thailand students are up to, check out ENGAGE’s website at www.engage-humanity.org

Note: Photos by Shintaro Doi, student, Fall 2005

That’s about it from here. Students have been here about a month and we have to say that it is only in a blue moon that we get such a vigorous, engaged, and considerate group. Although exhausting, it has been a real joy working with them so far.

If you have any questions, please send them to us. If not, then we will see you in late October/early November for the next installment of Sawasdee Newsletter! Sincerely yours, David, Arunee, Adisak Dr. David Streckfuss, Resident Director Tel. (66)-1-708-1852 E-mail: dstreckfuss@yahoo.com, dstreckfuss@ciee.org Arunee Chupkhuntod Language Coordinator, Office Manager Tel. (66)-1-965-3400 E-mail: aruneee@yahoo.com Adisak Kaewrakmuk Field Study Coordinator Tel. (66)-1-974-0290 E-mail: numerosak@gmail.com CIEE-Thailand P.O. Box 91, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, 40002 THAILAND Tel/ Fax: (66)-43-347-922