And The Days Roll On

We have about ten more days until the students land on Thai soil after their little 12 hour flight from the States. We (the Program Facilitator team) have been huddled in our office for the last few days preparing reading packets, program guides and the program schedule for the next four months. Late one night as we drove our motorsai home Lindy and I realized that we had spent 30 of the last 48 hours in the office hunched over our computers or running to meetings with the Thai staff.

Yet, it should be all worth it. We have a well-thought out schedule for the students:

Orientation: Two days in Bangkok, introductions to staff and a short tour of the city. Orientation continues at a small resort in the mountains of Loei Province. Here students will go through "Thai language boot camp", a few contemplative educational exercises to learn about their group process and informational sessions on how the program works.

Baw Kaew: Students get their first taste of village life at Baw Kaew, a protest village in Chaiyaphum Province. The villagers here are squatting land stolen from them by the government for a development scheme.

SRM Course: Human Rights 101, How to Write a Human Rights Report 102

Mock Unit: First exchange with TNP+, a grassroots network focusing on holistic care and advocacy for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Unit1: Homestays in Yasothorn Province with farmers transitioning away from industrial agriculture to small-scale, organic traditional practices with a focus on becoming self sufficient (and therefore off the industrial grid).

Unit 2: Homestays in urban slum and landfill communities who are organizing for land titles.

Collaborative Community Consultation (Unit 3): Students will begin dialogue with villagers on possible projects they can take on which can forward their movement's strategy. This is where they begin to (hopefully) understand the meaning of reciprocity and their role as outsiders in Thai grassroots struggles. See? Education=social change.

Unit 4: Dam affected communities.

Unit 5: Mine (gold, copper and potash) affected communities.

Final Project Time: This is when the reciprocal projects from the CCC Unit will be completed.

Look's good doesn't it?


It feels good to be so productive. Things are happening so fast. Tomorrow I have a meeting with the mayor and one of our mentors, P'Decha. It sounds like a possible project will arise out of that meeting. Updates on that soon! Maybe Pictures too.