At Home

Hey Friends!

So I've been back in the US for a month now. It's chilly! I was used to trying find my seat on the couch that's closest to the fan! Not anymore.

So I think I'm going to continue this blog here I'm home with my thoughts and adventures. I hate taking the time to sit down and write, and I also think that the blogosphere has created a cultural mindset of narcissism where everyone thinks that they have something important to say, when actually a lot of people don't. Including myself. But at the same time, I think it would be nice to have a venue to practice writing, flesh out thoughts, and share a lot interesting articles I read, podcasts I listen to, and websites and groups I come across.

So I'll probably actually write more here at home than I did in Thailand!

So keep checking this blog out Ryan's thoughts....

Breaking the Silence

Hey friends, family, and supporters!

I'm so sorry for quite the prolonged silence! I'm not very good at making myself sit down and write. In the past two months, I've been busy traveling, working, and in my free time having as much fun as possible by enjoying the area!

I've done some traveling in the region, visiting some other workers in the field.

We did some research interviewing minority hill tribe farmers. All across Southeast Asia, hill tribe minorities are the most poor, most marginalized, and most exploited people. Many of the dominant ethnicities (Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodians, etc) live in the lower elevations, where farming is more productive. Hill tribe people like the Hmong, Karen, Lahu, and others remain marginalized and exploited across Southeast Asia.

We did some interviewing to gain a better understanding of what some of these communities are facing. We found numerous issues.

For one, many of the farmers have a limited elementary education and their understanding of math is minimal. Because of this, they are often exploited in market transactions and loans. For example, they are given outrageous rates of interest in their loans. These terms are bad enough, but then the interest they are actually required to pay back is even higher than the outrageous terms that they were quoted! Because they have little understanding of math, they simply accept these terms without questioning them or seeking loans elsewhere.

The agricultural economics is a complex situation in which farmers become tied to middlemen who exploit them. The middlemen act as links between the farmer and the market, buying from the farmer and selling to "retailers" in the market. Oftentimes the farmers run out of money before harvest time. They borrow money and supplies like fertilizer from the middleman who then requires them to guarantee that they will sell their crops to him at harvest time. Because the farmers are locked into this guarantee, the middleman forces them to sell to him at an unfairly low price. Because they get less money than they should, they run out of money again before the next harvest. And the whole thing repeats itself again.

Farmers also become entrapped in the use of fertilizer. They're told by educated people outside the community to use fertilizer. But they have no understanding of how it works or how to use it and therefore apply it indiscriminately. The fertilizer ultimately degrades the soil and it becomes less nutritious and therefore more in need of fertilizer.

Also, these communities are largely communities based around seasonal harvests and have very little cash, or even experience with using cash. Being used to a subsistence agricultural system, their communities are suddenly being inundated with products and the materialism that manufactured goods inevitably bring with them. Everyone wants a big, new TV or a motorbike, even though they can't afford it. They take out loans to buy it and again, end up running out of money before harvest time.

If you were to diagram all of the causes and effects of these decisions and actions, you would see a vicious cycle of choices that leads to a poverty trap that is very hard to break. There are numerous decisions that lead to poverty that further perpetuate those decisions. To break one bad habit, requires breaking another bad decision, which requires breaking another bad choice, which is probably caused by some external factor. It's a very complicated mess.

So we have been working on several curriculum which will be implemented in training sessions that the farmers are in. The goal is to equip them with the correct tools to bring themselves out of poverty, through new knowledge and new understanding. We are seeking to help them gain a better understanding of math to avoid exploitation, teach them new agricultural methods that are organic, sustainable, cheap, and productive, and teach them how to budget their income and expenditures.

The hope is to walk alongside these farmers in an effort to break this vicious cycle of poverty through attacking the agricultural, economical, and social issues that these communities are facing.

Many of them have already gone through trainings that involve changing their worldview and what it means to be a Christian, live in community, etc. These trainings have brought significant transformation to entire villages - both spiritually and physically.

Our hope and prayer is that the curriculum that we develop will add to the work already done and will continue to help transform the communities and individual lives and that through each small step at a time, the Kingdom of God would be brought to this earth through spiritual, economic, and social transformation.

Most of my workdays have consisted of me sitting at my computer working on the curriculum, so there's not many inspiring stories to tell or interesting pictures to show.

In my free time though, I have had some opportunities to enjoy what Southeast Asia has to offer! I'll put up some pictures fairly soon from some of my adventures!

Traveling

Hey everyone! I'm traveling in the region for the next 10 days, and I can't really blog where I'm gonna be, so I'll blog when I get back!

Playing in the Mud and Family Bike Rides

So today Jordan and I (with the help of Go-ED student Bianca!), worked much of the day building our rocket stove - a stove that has numerous health and environmental benefits, as well as being more efficient. It's built entirely out of local materials, so that it will be easy for villagers to use. We still have some work to do, but this is what it looks like so far!

That means I got to play in the mud.

For some reason I'm not wearing my awesome Thai farmer hat, but you can see that in the story picture series below! (sorry for the harsh sunlight and shadows in the pictures)

So last week, Jordan and I were working on the stove, digging up clay and sifting it into finer pieces. It was a very hot day, and the heat was zapping our energy, as you can see in our defeated faces under the blazing sun in this picture.

However, Boss Kenny, and Fellow Intern Anna soon showed up with Thai farmer hats and delicious iced coffee!

Our spirits were rejuvenated, our bodies replenished and we were able to continue our work, unimpeded by the physical hardships of the midday Thai sun.



So at the end of the day, we were greeted with a pickup truck of our new stylish bicycles for all the interns and students! Yes, that's a Playboy bunny on the basket. There's an apparent fascination with it, and I'm sure nobody knows what it actually means, because EVERYONE has it on their vehicles, bikes, etc.

Shortly before dinner, we all went on a peaceful, enjoyable "family bike ride." Every Thai we passed looked at us with funny looks and clearly thought, "What is up with that whole group of farang riding ridiculous bicycles?" (as seen below)

This said bike ride consisted of riding through the local villages with vistas like these:

Actually, these two pictures are a view from my room, because I didn't take any pictures of the view on my bike ride today. But our view was quite similar.

Absolutely beautiful.

Posts

Sorry I've been lacking in posts and suddenly inundated you all with posts. I'm sure it's too much too read all at once. I had been working on numerous posts simultaneously and hadn't got any of them finished to post until now.

Coming up soon, hopefully:
-pictures!
-my weekend trip (including a few hours in Burma!)
-and some thoughts on suffering

My Projects

Kenny, Jordan and I have been working on building a stove. Yes, a stove. In Southeast Asia, whole communities are being destroyed due to rapid deforestation. (I couldn’t find any good satellite imagery, but the same thing is happening in Africa too, as seen here)

Agricultural expansion (transforming forest to agricultural land) is one of the main reasons, but another cause includes the simple over-use by the local population. Traditionally, villagers might simply put their cooking pots on three rocks that form a triangle, and in the middle of that triangle is a fire below the pot. This is highly ineffective in terms of heat use, and requires much firewood. A stove has been invented which uses all local materials and is significantly more effective in the use of heat and uses significantly less firewood. One hope of using such a stove is that a decreased demand of firewood will ease up on straining the land and its resources and create more sustainable practices.

As Kenny, Jordan and I are building the stove (a Ugandan example of it that I pulled off of the web here is pictured left), we will take pictures and create a curriculum or handbook that can be used to teach villagers how to make these stoves. We hope to include Lahu students in the pictures so it looks more natural to villagers in SE Asia, instead of having a bunch of white people building the stove in the picture. Once we have the curriculum written, we will share it with other workers in the region who can teach it to the locals they have relationships with.

I’m also working on an agricultural market development project. I’ll be interviewing people to gain a better understanding of the local economy of selling agricultural products. Through the research we hope to find with the farmers more beneficial and efficient ways for them to access markets and sell their produce for a higher profit.

For now I’m working on these two projects while also sitting in on two classes with Kenny and Jordan that the students are taking. Through these classes we aim to gain a better understanding of the region to make our work more effective. The first class I’m sitting in on is about the exclusion and exploitation of ethnic groups in the region. People are trafficked for sex and labor, people are driven into prostitution, and many people are victims of land exploitation, slaughter, and even ethnic cleansing by their own government. This class is taught by Christa Crawford, an American woman who runs an organization in Chiang Mai called Garden of Hope which aims towards ministering to the women and children exploited in the red light district of Chiang Mai. The second class is a class on Thai history and religion which taught by a fantastic old Thai man named Dr. Amnuoy. For my Go-ED Africa friends, he’s the Thai version of Dr. Mpagi.

Settling In

Well friends, I’ve been in Chiang Mai for a little over a week now. Kenny, my supervisor, picked me up Saturday morning from the train station. When I studied abroad in Uganda last semester, Kenny’s wife Julia was my Student Life Coordinator, and Kenny worked in the Kampala office for Food for the Hungry. FH is opening a new study abroad program here in Chiang Mai this semester, so Julia moved here to be the SLC and Kenny came too, of course, and is working on projects here in the region.

It’s been a great joy to see Kenny and Julia again and I look forward to the next 4 months with them. I grew to love them a lot while I was in Uganda. There was one other intern here – Roshanda – when I arrived. For the next three days, it was just the four of us. Kenny and Julia took us out to numerous places – a Thai curry restaurant, a Thai BBQ restaurant, and others. The food here is amazing and ridiculously cheap. A meal that people would easily pay 10+ bucks for at home could cost a dollar or even less here. Apparently most Thais eat out because it’s so cheap and to prepare Thai meals is very time intensive.

Sunday night we went to the Sunday Night Market in Chiang Mai. It’s a good mix of Thai and farang (foreigners). There’s a daily night market which is mostly farang and a Saturday night market where it’s mostly Thai locals and not much that farang would be interested in. At the market Kenny and I got full body Thai massages for an hour for only 4 bucks! It was celestial.

Those first three days, particularly, we had some great stimulating conversation. I was thoroughly excited to find out that Kenny and Julia have been long-time fans of This American Life and Roe has just recently been getting into it, too. We had numerous discussions about various episodes. Kenny, Roe and I also had some great conversations on theology and the Christian life. It was comforting and encouraging to know that the next few months I will have some great stimulating conversations with some great people.

On Tuesday, the two other interns arrived, as well as the five students who will be studying abroad. One of the interns is Jordan Smith, who I’ve been friends with since freshman year when he lived on my floor. We went to Africa together last semester. He and I are interning with Kenny, supporting him in his work in the region while Roe and Anna are TAs for two of the classes here.

We live on the TLCC (Thai Lahu Christian Church) Bi-vocational Training Center. The Lahu are an ethnic minority group that are located in China, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. (On a side note, the Thai often refer to them as “Mussur” which means “hunter”!). The Lahu people are a very shy people at first, but once they are comfortable around you they open up and are extremely warm and loving. This often seems to be the case with traditional peoples. The Lahu love to hunt and fish, and I’m hoping to get them to take me on a hunting trip! Most of the Lahu here are training to be pastors in their communities, while at the same time learning useful skills to help support them. I had the opportunity to help out with an English class for the Lahu and assist in teaching them. I hope to have more opportunities to do this. For those of you from the E-Free Church, the TLCC training center was actually funded and built by E-Free churches. Diana Landis told me that Hershey actually helped contribute to the funds to build it. The two missionaries here teaching English are from an E-Free church in Minnesota!

The Lahu guys play this really cool game that's like volleyball, except you can't use your hands. You mainly use you're feet and head. It's 3 vs. 3. And I've seen some amazingly sweet bicycle kicks, and other acrobatics to get that ball over the net. I've played this game with them, as well as some football (soccer). They're not as good at football as a lot of the Africans I've played with, but it was still a blast.

The compound is actually located about 20+ minutes northwest of Chiang Mai in a town called Doi Saket. It’s kind of inconvenient – the public transportation (pickup trucks known as soerng taos with benches in the back) quick running into the city around 7PM and out of the city at 10PM. But the semi-rural location is also beautiful. We are surrounded by lush green rice paddies with mountains in the close distance. I don’t know which is more awe-inspiring: on the morning, when the mountains stick out from the fog, or in the afternoon when the sun shines brilliantly down upon the rice paddies in front of the mountains. I will soon post a picture of the postcard vista. Kenny and I went on a beautiful bike ride through numerous little villages and rice paddies.

The nice thing about being attached with a study abroad program is that I get to leech off of all the cool things the students do. So for example, the second day the students were here, I got to go along with all of them to an elephant show. We got to watch elephants play soccer and paint better than I can. I also got to feed them let them take my hat off and put it back on again. Oh elephants.

My job description changed a little upon arriving here. Kenny – my supervisor – his job description has changed as well, so ipso facto, mine too. Whereas before we both thought that we would be creating our own programs, we’ve now discovered that our job will be to support other workers in the region. I sincerely thought that I was going to be working with Burmese refugees and directly on issues of human trafficking, but I don't think that's going to be the case anymore. I told all my supporters that this is what I would be doing. I want to have integrity in raising support, so I sincerely mean this when I say the following: Because I told people I would be working with Burmese refugees and human trafficking victims, and many of you gave me money for that, if you find that you are not happy with the work I am doing over here, by all means, please contact me and I will return your money to you. I don't want to mislead anyone in giving me support for my ministry. I sincerely thought I was going to doing one thing and I've now gotten here and found out that that's not really the case. As my work and projects unfold, I'll report on them, so you can know what I'm doing. However, due to the sensitivity of the politics in some of the countries, I can’t give detail about where in Southeast Asia some of these people are, and when I travel I can not be specific as to where I am going.

For my Go-ED friends who have been to Africa: the development circle is entirely different here than in Africa, particularly for this organization. Money flows into Africa like snow falls in Houghton. Here, things are much more modest – sometimes because the projects are under the radar, other times, simply because the philosophy here is to work on a small-scale, grass-roots level with the local churches. They seek private donations instead of aid from Western governments and the UN. It’s kind of a refreshing model but I think both have their pros and cons.

Things here have been slow-starting in terms of doing things and serving. But right now they’ve asked me to sit in on some classes so I can learn about the region and gain a better understanding. Eventually my work will pick up more, but until then I’m learning as much as I can so that work I do will be more effective.