Roywan Phan Pha
Hello Strangers and Familiars,
This post will be about my project in general, its goals and my first impressions. As it has various aspects it is quite difficult to explain what it really is about. In addition I am just here for almost two weeks and I am sure I will discover a lot more about its meaning and intentions. I will try to write about my project and impressions more often so it might be like a development.
As I mentioned before it is about food autonomy and alternative school. The founder of the project is my host-father P-Ju and his wife P-Nong. Together with their son Roy they live in the mountain area of the Cha-Uat district of southern Thailand. Most of the villagers near Roywan and local people living on the countryside of Thailand are rubber farmers as it is the number one export the country.
It is important to know as local people play the central role in the project. P-Ju’s idea is to come back to the roots of life and to make use of the fertile nature of Thailand so people are not longer addicted to the rubber prices and can care for themselves. Healthy living and non-chemical agriculture are also one of the main goals of Roywan. Together with locals, local kids and international volunteers the project is about the idea to create a new thinking and to exchange, share each other’s experiences and cultures and to do something for the next generation.
The Roywan School is located at the house of P-Ju’s family as well as the volunteer accommodation. On Saturdays the school is open for local kids and volunteers are teaching English. The children who come have different ages and therefore the volunteers are free to create the Saturday program. It is less about a strict English lesson; you can play games, sing songs and have fun with the kids. Sometimes there will also be worcamps and activities in the garden. The teaching is more about getting to know each other, making friends with people from other countries and sharing your knowledge. For the activities on Saturdays volunteers have limitless opportunities. As I haven’t been teaching English until now because the kids have holiday in Thailand at the moment I will write more about the school and teaching soon.
Daily life
Of course I was prepared that there will be some difference between the theory and the real daily work on the project, therefore I tried to have only few expectations. The way I described the Roywan project is just my personal understanding, nevertheless the real life in here looks a bit different than I thought it would be.
Normally we get up very early in the morning between 5 and 6 o clock as it is very hot during the day and we try to avoid working in the sunniest hours. The first thing I do in morning is cleaning the dishes from the day before together with Nono. Afterwards we start cooking together with P-Nong, sometimes if we have time we work around the garden and pick up some eatable leaves and vegetables for breakfast. Unfortunately I didn’t learn so much about cooking yet as my host mother just gives me very simple tasks like cleaning vegetables. Though Nono told me I will be able to do more with the time. Sometimes it can be very frustrating, because our host family does not explain a lot of things so I just do something but I do not understand why. If I wouldn’t ask many questions I think I wouldn’t be able to understand what I am doing in here.
After breakfast our host father tells what we will be doing in day so on some days I get up before breakfast I don’t know what is going to happen. Everyday someone has to stay in Roywan in case there will arrive people to visit. It means you will stay alone for sometimes 12 hours, which can be a very long time, and you will be so happy to see people in the evening. Though it can also be very nice and relaxing and we see it as a day off to do the laundry, to sleep, read, write or maybe do sports (just in case you didn’t feel exhausted enough from work). Personally I have no problem with being on my own and I use the time to reflex and enjoy the beautiful view from the library.
At the moment the work is all about potatoes. Planting potatoes, cutting potato trees and picking them up. In general the work itself is not too hard, however the condition can be very exhausting as it is very hot and humid in southern Thailand. Especially if we work on sunny days we start to sweat after minimum 5 minutes. Between 11 and 12 a clock we take a break for lunch and we have time to sleep or just relax afterwards. In the afternoon we start to work again around 2 or 3 o clock and altogether we never work longer than 6 hours per day.
During the working time we can take a break whenever we want and sometimes there are local people who bring delicious rice candy. I really like when we work together with local people and kids from the village because I feel more motivated and it is more fun. But the language barrier is still a problem. In our host family we usually speak English even if we asked to speak more Thai and explained we want to learn the language. On some days I feel very separated from the community life as our host family just chats with local people during the work and I almost understand no word. The good thing is I started to remember most of the names of the people we work with and I try to speak with them as much as I can. It can be very funny because we make jokes and people in here laugh about a lot of things and don’t take life too serious in general.
After work we normally wait for more then 2 hours until our host father P-Ju finished drinking a couple of beers together with other men. For us volunteers it is very frustrating and confusing because we never know what they speak about all the time and we are not invited to be part of their conversation. Also P-Ju does not tell us about his plans and ideas for the project. I hope we will be able to improve the relation between our host family and us because at the moment I feel like the exchange is very one-sided. I am here to learn about a very different way of living and to exchange ideas and culture but on some days I just feel like a working craft. Of course work is part of my life in here but it is not the only thing I expected from volunteering. I have a lot of open questions and until today I do not know exactly why we plant so many potatoes because it is hard for me to see a link to food autonomy. I miss to exchange thoughts and problems after we worked together or just to have more conversation. Fortunately I have a very good time with the other volunteers on the project and they made it easy for me to find my place in a completely new life. Also they explained me the potato planting is to earn money to create a foundation for local kids who cannot afford to go to school.
Even if I am very tired after working the whole day, I sit together with the French couple on some days to exchange ideas or problems or just to play cards, eat candy and make jokes about our life far away from Wi-Fi and showers with hot water.Between the working days se sometimes take part on activities with locals or go to a weeding. These days are interesting to learn more about Thai culture and the life on the country side.
I think some days are better than others and I hope it will happen and change a lot in 5 month. I think dealing with difficulties is also part of my experience in here and as long as I am not unhappy with my choice I will not give up to try to make things better and to find answers to my questions. And of course to learn Thai …. 😀
stay free
(more information about DaLaa: http://www.dalaa-thailand.com/wordpress/)
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