Living
Stories : Tamariki & Global Village School's Journey through Siam November 21-December 1st 2004 |
 Bath time at Moo Baan Dek, Children's Village School |
| During the cool months of November and December in Thailand, 11 students, staff and parents from Tamariki School in New Zealand along with Sally Carless, the Director of Global Village School for Peace and Diversity Studies in the USA joined us for a twelve day cultural immersion program before traveling on to India for the 12th International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC). Our journey began at Pathom Chedi in Nakhon Pathom. Here everyone was able to have their first experience in a Buddhist temple and experience some of the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of Thailand. This stupa is thought to be the first place in Thailand where Buddhism was introduced to into the country. |
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 Lisa and little one witnessing the spectacle of bath time!!! |
Moo Baan Dek, Children's Village School From there, we went to Moo Baan Dek, Children’s Village School, a democratic school for 150 children coming from orphaned and abusive backgrounds. While there we had the chance to play and bath with the children at the river (truly our favorite time!!), learn about weaving, batik, wood working and sewing. We also had the chance to take and herbal sauna and spend time with the kids in the kindergarten. We had so much fun we stayed an extra day!!! |
 Bath time!!! |
 Lindsay learning about wooden toys |
 Josh making batik |
 Weeding the garden in the early morning |
The Whispering Seed
Then we went up to the Whispering Seed, where everyone had a chance to live at the farm for four days, sleeping in the bamboo hut, living without running water and electricity. We started making the first bricks on the land which will be used to build our first house!!! In the local area we also visited Ban Thor Phan and another children’s home.
 Making Loi Kratong |
“The most remarkable part of the whole experience
is that I have a connection with children, without speaking their language.
I learned that the thing I want to do the most is that I want to help
people.” Elana
“The most fun is swim with children. At The Whispering Seed
there is a lot we can do and help with, making mud bricks, getting dirty,
having a mud fight and getting to wash in the river. I learn how much
I take when I live in New Zealand, how spoiled I am. I want to come
back to help with children. I am learning how to deal with the ants.
I really appreciated the Loi Krathong festival. The children thought
me to make the Krathong. I like the idea of Loi Krathong, to make the
beautiful krathong and then we float it out in the river, to give something
back after we use the river, to show our gratefulness and appreciation.”-Emma |
 Fun at Ban Thor Phan |
 Chop, chop for breakfast!! |
 Teaching Maori song & dance at local school for Mon & Karen children |
"I am up at sunrise, a wash and Tai Chi with Wit. It is cool and the sky is tinted a pale orange and the far hills are covered in mist. I saw a double headed butterfly. Nao is keen to start on making mud bricks so she can build a mud brick oven to cook bread. Jim asks for volunteers for making a sheet mulch garden from lots of compost that we had. Then in the afternoon we walked up to a dam on the river, collected wild vegetables from the bush, swam, went for a short hike to collect edible snails from river up north the dam. Saw an amazing big spider, watched some local go out on the river to fish from a bamboo raft with a small net."-Bob “It is life change experience for me. I always wanted to be nanny but never felt very pleases to take care of rich children. But here it feels more meaningful, to help take care of children that really need care and have nothing, not even parents. I also learn about myself, how easy it is to connect with children and feel attached with them and how hard it is to leave that connection behind” - Tui |
 Bob with Karen & Mon children at local school |
 Cold water, in Thailand??? |
 Painting the sala |
 Three Pagodas Pass, Burma is just behind us!!! |
While at the The Whispering Seed, everyone had a chance to live at the farm for four days, sleeping in the bamboo hut, living without running water and electricity. We started making the first bricks on the land which will be used to build our first house!!! In the local area we also visited Ban Thor Phan and another children’s home. We also went to Three Pagoda Pass at the border of Burma.
We learned a little about the daily struggles of the local Hill Tribe groups and of the situation with refugees coming into Thailand from neighboring Burma. We also spend time walking up the river where we swam and played with lots of children from the village and harvested wild vegetables to eat.
 Together at the Mon temple in Sangklaburi across the lake from the office |
“The reason I came on this trip is because I got
out of the system 3 years ago. I got bored with the work that I do. I
want to reconnect with alternative education again. It is very important
to see more than one way to do things. I realized that education is the
way to change the future and create a better environment. I felt I got
back to this set of mind. This is an amazing trip and experience in my life. It is hard to express in words what it is about. We met these children that live very hard lives and met amazing Jim and Nao who were there to help. In New Zealand you don’t see sort of this stuff, it is very quiet society there. Hearing about hill tribe people, they will not eat with guest until the third days cause then they believe they get to know you already. In NZ it takes years before people will eat with you. This trip made me realize how much alternative schools and communities are in Thailand and it inspired me to do more with my community, alternative education and children.” – Josh Moir |
| “I hope we can come back soon. I have never seen the kind of generosity as in the Thai people. I love the physical open space and buildings in Thailand. I have been upset at the times I have seen kids that I want to take home with me but I cannot, I wander what their future will be. How will I go back to live my comfortable life? It is hard to bring two worlds together. I want a simple and richer life, like I have seen here. I have seen my students that came together on this trip changed. They are starting to talk about other people, more than just themselves. They see that there are people living hard lives everyday, “What can I do to help them?” They said they want to come back. “I know what I want to do with my life.” One of the students said it will be easier this time to choose to not buy the chocolate bar, instead to save the money to come back sooner. They are having real life experiences, finding their strength and ability to make something different in this world. When the children here look into your eyes, it teaches you more than any learning in the classroom. Hours and hours spent in the classroom cannot teach as much as when you are here, and a child looks into your eyes.”-Lisa |  Muddy fun making bricks!! |
 At the office over the lake |
“The most fun on the trip was swimming with the little children, they just clung on you, and jump on you Washing ourselves in the freezing river in the early morning, sleeping in bamboo hut in an open space on the floor. What I see here is that people can use stuff around them, natural stuff, bamboo to make house, mud to make house, long drop composing toilet, more open and close to nature.”- Isabella
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Bangkok, Moo Baan Dek & Wongsanit Ashram
At this point, the group split up, half went to Bangkok for a discussion with the public at Suan Sang Arun Library in the city and the others went to participate in a conference on alternative education and schools from the north of Thailand. The talk in Bangkok went very well and we were featured in the newspaper a few days later!!!
Following this we travelled to Wongsanit Ashram to learn about the programs they are offering and to paint a mud brick house. We painted a small sala at the ashram using a natural paint made from tapioca flour and local clay.
 Painting with tapioca flour & clay |
“Make mud is really fun and
connect with earth. I can not wait to go back and make one at school
and one of the teachers house.” - Lucy |
 Community mud house building at Wongsanit Ashram |
 Floating House at Wongsanit Ashram |
“It was really amazing trip, I think everybody should have an experience to go to another country and see how other people live, see what they do. We went to visit several alternative schools and orphaned learning how they take care of children from abusive backgrounds. At The Whispering Seed we lived in bamboo huts, to see how completely traditional people the Karen Hill Tribes and Burmese live. Helping to make the mud house, swimming in the river, eating good food. We went to the Thai-Burmese border, we laughed a lot, and play, play, play with the children, especially taking a bath in the river. I really like the way Jim and Nao help to take care of us, make sure we have enough to eat, safe drinking water, what to see and where to go, making themselves tired.” – Sally |