Umphang Day 2

Somprasong took us rafting, then to the highest waterfall in Thailand Thee Loh Su. Here are some pictures.

Happy Birthday Mom

[I tried posting this last night and something was wrong. Then the electricity went out. After it came back on the internet didn't work anymore. But I saved it all in word and it seems to work. And my mom did email that the card and email arrived on time. But the time zones are just too far apart. She wasn't home when I called, then we went rafting and had no satellite connection.]

Today's my Mom's birthday. She's 85 years old today and I'm thousands of miles away in Thailand. But she still is working in the same doctor's office (well, the original doctor is long departed, but his partner is still practicing) she's been working in since 1948! We visited before we left for Thailand and we'll stop by again on our way home. Happy Birthday Mom. Here are some pictures of our ride to Umphang.


Mook, who drove us to Maesod, gets a cold latte drink at a stand at the gas station.









Somprasong's wife trying on a Meo skirt in a shop on the way.
















Some international volunteers. A Dutch woman, Somprasong, a man from London, and a Canadian we met while stopping for lunch.










Refugee camp, UN I believe. I was told there are 25,000 people here, refugess from Burma










This is the house of the Karen twins in the Umphang Dinner Post.










Somprasong's pickup on the road to Umphang.

Umphang Dinner

We came over to the dining hall as the sun was setting. All the students were there waiting for us.



We met Mark, an Irishman and his partner Noy. He was on vacation in Thailand when he fell into a teaching job in the south of Thailand. He is on vacation now visiting the student he is sponsoring here in Umphang.
Joan and I were also called on to come up and talk to the students. Because Joan had said there were Hmong students in Alaska, he asked the Hmong students to stay and meet us afterward.







This is a brother and sister. Next are twin Karen students (on the right) with their sister.

Umphang

I'm at a school in Umphang, a small community on the Burmese border. The headmaster, Somprasong, was one of my Peace Corps students about 38 years ago. The picture is his office and above the office is a room with mats on the floor where we will sleep and downstairs is modern bathroom. The school has students that are mostly from Karen hill tribe families, but also Hmong. About 200 of the students live in dorms because their homes are too far away. I was in Umphang about 18 years ago, back when it the road wasn't all paved (it's about 150 km south of Maesod, in the mountains). Back then it was a very sleepy little village with no electricity. So I was very surprised by how beautiful the school grounds are. Probably the nicest public school I've seen in Thailand. When Somprasong took the exam to be a headmastger, he scored the highest and had his pick of school to work at. He picked this one to the surprise of most - including his boss who was at the dinner last night in Kamphaengphet. But this is a special school - and he seems to have a mission to help these hill tribe kids. I'll put up some more pics and then do a few more posts to catch up while I have good computer access here.

Here's Joan inside with some of the kids she was talking to in English.





Playing basketball, football in the background. And next they are playing takraw - like volley ball, but with a small rattan ball, and you can use your feet and head only. If you look close you can see the takraw in the air. Well, maybe not.

Yellow Polo Shirts

At Chinese New years in Korat, almost everyone had on a yellow polo type shirt with a royal emblem on the chest. I thought it had something to do with Chinese New Years, but when we went back to Bangkok, I saw the same shirts all over. So I finally asked. These shirts celebrate the King's 60th year on the throne (last year) and his 80 th Birthday (this year). They are everywhere. And I thought maybe I should get one. Just before we went into the restaurant for dinner tonight, I saw some for sale and mentioned it to Mook. When Sutin and his wife came, they had presents for us - two yellow tshirts. Of course this post should have picture, but I'm not on a machine I can download my pictures on. So that will have to wait.

Kamphaengphet

Kamphaeng means wall. Phet means diamond. KPP was the southern town in the Sukhothai period. And I'm here, where I taught as a Peace Corps volunteer nearly 40 years ago. It was a long bus ride to Phitsanuloke (6.5 hours) then we were picked up there and brought to Mook's home, on the edge of the sugar cane fields. We had dinner at at Chinese restaurant in town, Mook invited some of my old students, a couple of old teacher friends, and some others. It is amazing seeing all these people again. I came back the first time about 20 years ago, then the following year, and then three years ago. What I've seen of the downtown is totally unrecognizable. This is just a quick post, got to get to bed, we leave tomorrow early for Maesod, where we get picked up by Somprasong and drive to Umphang.

Pictures later

Back in Korat. Finding time and decent computer links has been tight. I taught all day today and again tomorrow. We take the bus Monday to Phitsanulok where Mook will pick us up and takes us to Kamphaengphet. There will be a dinner at a Chinese restaurant with old students and friends invited. Tuesday morning we head for Maesod, on the Burmese border where Songprasong will pick us up and we head for Umpang. We'll stay there two nights, go back to Kamphaeng, and then Friday back to Korat for next weekend's class.



If you look in the upper right part of the map, you can see Khon Kaen and Ayuthaya. Korat is in between them, maybe the n in Thailand. Maesod is to the west, just above "Burma" on the map.

Goodbye Idiris

Mook – a former student – called to let us know that Idiris passed away on February 14, 2007. That was our first day in Bangkok. Idiris was one of the three young male faculty when I arrived in Kamphaengphet in 1967. But he was different. He was Muslim. He generally ate only fruit and obviously halal foods with other Thais; he bought meat from the Muslim butcher in town and usually cooked his own meals. He lived in a small room in the corner of the school, not far from the house I lived in on campus. We spent many evenings sitting and talking about the world. He taught French and English, but he was much better in French. Much later, after I had left Thailand, he was able to travel to France. I think he stayed six months or a year. He also read the Koran in Arabic. He was much more introspective and serious than most Thais. Idiris was one of the most decent, thoughtful, and caring people I have ever known. He was a good friend to me – both of us somewhat outsiders in this culture. And he had a smile as big as the sky. When we visited Thailand in 1988 with the kids, Monica slipped in with his three daughters so very easily. In summer 1989 he arranged for me to visit Umphang with one of his former students, a police captain. Umphang is a small village on the other side of nowhere. First you go to Maesod – a Thai town over the mountains on the Burmese border. Then on a small road, you go south about 3 hours. There was this sleepy little village. I stayed with the police captain. No electricity, no running water. Last time we saw Idiris was 2003. We stopped by for far too short a time. Even though he was having some health problems, we were talking as if we saw each other every day. We laughed a lot in the nicest sort of way. Mook was calling to arrange a time for us to visit on this trip. Idiris’ daughter told Mook the sad news. We’ll go by to visit Maliwan, Idiris’ wife, next week - on the way to Umphang, where Mook has arranged for us to visit with another former student – Songprasong – who, if I understood right, is the principal of a school there. Good bye Idiris. The world is a little dimmer because you are gone. My life is a lot dimmer knowing I will not see you again.

Doctoral Dissertations

We're back in Bangkok so I can sit in on doctoral dissertation defenses. Last night there was a really good one looking at perceptions of male and female 'leaders' in Thailand. The theoretical background of the dissertation was quite good. Then afterward we all went out for dinner.

Frank

Before we left Bangkok, we had dinner with Frank Gold who teaches at the same university here and is from Fairbanks - taught at UAF and has lived there since 1964. We'd met him briefly when I taught here three years ago.