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| photo by Jake Paron |
Our goal was to
create positive energy, or at least that was the motto of our community service
program. As we mixed freshly collected sand and rock with cheap bags of
concrete using primitive hoes and shovels, the mood was far from positive. The
concrete was needed to create a “wedding lot,” which was used by the small Thai
village to hold weddings and other ceremonies. Now I had never heard of a
wedding lot, but if that is what the villagers asked for, I was determined to
help create it. Before we began constructing the lot, two days were spent
taking nearly one hundred buckets of rock and sand from a nearby river.
Collecting this amount of rock and sand with four shovels and fifteen people
took much longer than I thought. Nevertheless, we completed it after many long
hours of work and complaining and could finally start mixing the cement.
If
someone had asked me how to mix cement before this experience I would have said
with a cement truck. It turns out they don’t have those in Thailand, at least not
in this remote village. Our process was much slower. Fifteen buckets of sand,
one bag of concrete, six buckets of rocks, and water. What do you get? One
batch of lumpy concrete that covers about three square feet. So we mixed a lot
of concrete.
“This
work is pointless!” “Why do we have to do this?” “Why can’t we build a school?”
The complaints go on. These kids really did want to help the village, but they
could not see how this slab of concrete was going to make a difference in the
lives of the villagers. We asked the village elders what needed to be done, and
they told us. And although the final product was a lumpy slab of concrete, it
was going to help by providing a space free of mud, in a very rainy climate,
where important ceremonies could be held. This was probably not the heroic work
many people had envisioned, but it is what the community needed.
After
the project was complete we left for the next village. That was the first of
three villages we would stay in over the course of our month spent in Thailand.
The group packed up in the back of two pickups and set off for the second
village. Everybody hoped the next project would not involve mixing concrete and
that we would be more culturally integrated with the community. Only half of
that was true. We spent several hours of driving up winding, muddy roads and
finally arrived. There were no cement bags or tools in sight, so we thought we
were in the clear. Unfortunately we learned that we would be mixing cement this
week as well to construct a tank to collect excess water. We then learned that
this tank was located on top of a mountain only accessible by a steep muddy
path and the bags of cement were at the bottom. The project required us to
carry these bags, weighing around one hundred pounds per bag, up the path and
then mix them at the top of the mountain.
After
the difficult task of carrying the bags to the work site was complete, we began
mixing. The work was much harder than I had thought. We all sat down after a
couple hours of work, sweaty and exhausted, and relaxed at the top. As we
rested, a group of Thai men approached us. Many of them had a bottle in one
hand and a chicken cradled in the other. I had met one of the men the previous
night and he acknowledged my presence with a, “Hello Harry Potter!” He insisted
that I was Harry Potter, and that another girl was Lady Gaga. They proceeded by
us toward a small temple. As we began working again, the men began drinking.
They were laughing and yelling, all the while holding these chickens. I started
to piece everything together and figured out our group was about to experience
something very cultural.
BAM!
BAM! Gunshots rang through the air. I quickly got behind one of the large water
tanks for cover. Our group was frantically running around trying to figure out
who had the guns and more importantly, who they were shooting at. We soon
learned that the villagers were firing the guns to call up to the gods. Once
they got their attention, they sacrificed the chickens in their honor. When I
peeked out, I saw the chickens, which were previously being treated with much
respect, running around headless in a crazed frenzy. Shovels were thrown down,
buckets were kicked over and people began pacing around in distress. These
chickens jumped and stumbled their way into our work site. Blood spurted out
onto three of the girls working, all of them unfortunately vegetarians. “Don’t
they have the respect to wait until we are done?” The Thai culture was clearly
different than our own, but these comments, deliberate or not, showed that some of us
thought we were more important than the native people. We were guests in
their home. They were not required to help us, although many did. I recognized
that the sacrifices were disturbing, and I would agree that I could
have done without them, but this was their way of life. They should not be
expected to change it for our convenience. We came to Thailand as visitors.
These men lived here.
Many
community service organizations do not aid the direct needs of the people.
However I believe our group was different. We asked the elders of each village
what needed to be done and they told us. Simple projects, like constructing a
concrete slab, may not be heroic work, but they are essential for the growth of
these communities.
