Saturday, March 13, 2010

NAKHON SI THAMMARAT

This morning began in fine style as my hosts took me to an outdoor market to select our breakfast. Although the market opens at 5:30 am, we mercifully did not get there until about 7:45. As we walked among a seemingly endless collection of food stalls, the wonderful aroma of known and unknown scents filled the air. Not knowing what to select, I left the choices up to my hosts -- and they certainly did not fail me.

One of the things about having no idea about what you are putting in your mouth, especially when it looks a bit strange, is that you have to have blind faith that your host/guide is not trying to poison you. This was one of the assets that I looked for when the team was selected back in October and, as a result we have all had a lot of fun trying new delicious dishes which, because of the language barrier, we still don't know what some of them were.

Our first stop of the morning was to a farm that was established as part of a project started by the Royal Throne, to assist poor farmers learn more about sustainable development. Everything grown on the farm is used to enrich the soil for future growth. Pigs grown on the farm are not used for food but rather as a source of manure forfertilizer. We noted that the farmer did not yet have a supply of water to irrigate his crops in the event of drought. In this part of Thailand the water table lies only a few meters below the surface, and the farmer was in the process of digging a collection pool for water, which will help ensure the success of his endeavors.

After touring the farm, the farmer entertained us with natives songs and demonstrated some native instruments. Kip had a try at playing a two stringed cello-like instrument. Though not quite a Yo-Yo-Ma, he was at least able to produce several recognizable tones.

Lunch was at an outdoor seafood house right on the Gulf of Thailand. I hate to keep writing about food, but the fresh seafood that we had for lunch was perhaps the best that we have yet eaten. To make the lunch even more pleasant, the fresh sea breezes were a blessed relief from the endless assault of 98+ degree weather that we've had a steady dose of for three weeks. As we ate, children pranced in the surf, enjoying themselves as only children can anywhere in the world.

The masked quartet that you see in the above photos was youer GSE team at a parawood factory.

Parawood is what is left of rubber trees after they are no longer able to produce sap for rubber.

The 10 to 15 year-old trees are then cut down, sliced into planks, dried, and eventually sold to furniture manufacturers. The work to produce the planks is extremely dangerous, with the workers using huge band saws. We wore the masks as protection against the small partcles of wood in trhe air - a byproduct of the sawing process.

We were appalled to witness the lack of safety devices at the plant. OSHA would be having a field day -- no guards on the saws, few of the workers wearing goggles and even fewer with ear protectors. I asked one supervisor who was wearing a jacket market "Safety" what the rate of accidents were at the plant. He surely must have misunderstood me (perhaps he thought "accidents" meant "fatalities", since his answer was that they had only one accident this year. I've more accidents than that in a single week in plants that had a full compliment of accident prevention measures.

Our last stop of the day took us up an arduous climb to a lovely waterfall. As boys slid down the smooth rocks into pools of water below, we were tempted (just tempted mind you) to strip off our clothes and join them. Ah, how nice it was to be young.