April 7, 2002, circa 6:30am:
The entire Heifer staff had a 3 1/2 day retreat/workshop planned (Sunday to Wednesday) and graciously invited us to come along. The workshop was to be held at a forest service retreat in the mountains north of Chiang Mai, near the Burmese border.
We got picked up Sunday at 6:30am from our condo (yawn!) and headed to the Heifer office where packing for the journey was already underway. The staff here often visits remote sites, and has all the requisite supplies - sleeping bags, flash lights, mosquito nets, etc. Then there were the workshop supplies — flip charts, PC projector, notebook computers. An odd combination of going to camp and attending a corporate meeting. There was a sturdy tarp to put over it all, to protect it from the thick red dust coats everything once you go off paved roads. We were a bit puzzled by all the food and cooking supplies that were also packed — we hadn't gotten a real understanding of the accommodations, and it seems as though they were to be a bit more "rustic" than we'd planned for. We'd been expecting a low-end resort kind of place (read: "hot water, soap, shampoo, toilets"). Mai pen rai (no worries) - we'd go with the flow.
We had two extended cab pickups for 10 people - it was going to be tight. Around 7:30 we got into the more comfortable of the two trucks. As always the Heifer staff were gracious to put us in the fancier truck. I named it the farangmobile. It's true that we're bigger than most of the Thais, but really they sacrificed their comfort for ours. The Staff are very sweet.
We headed off for the two hour drive to Chiang Rai to pick up Yotsawin, a staff member who lives in this northern city. It was also an excuse for the whole staff to meet his month-old son. With Yotsawin onboard, we headed off to spend the day visiting project sites that were in the neighborhood of our final destination.
Another hour or two drive and we arrived at an Akha village, Mo-Long. It turns out this was one of the villages we had visited last November, so we knew some of the people in the village. We were to have lunch at the village, and they had a big spread awaiting our arrival.
Curious what an Akha luncheon consists of? First of all, what we were served was a banquet - extremely generous servings of meat, fish and eggs (protein sources are prized in these impoverished villages). We went to the village leader's house, sitting outside on the floor on an open-air covered porch. We were joined by village notables and Heifer project recipients. The meals were served on big round raised serving trays; we each had a rice bowl onto which we served ourselves various dishes. The utensil most commonly used in these villages is a spoon (the Chinese soup variety of spoon usually). The dishes are spicy to start with, but there are always big bowls of very hot chili paste which is liberally mixed into the rice by all (except Kathy). Various greens are picked from the kitchen garden and served in piles on the table - they are eaten more as condiments than a salad - just pick up a sprig and chew. We had pea tendrils and some other unknown green.
The main dishes are a mixture of meat and vegetables in a tasty sauce. Quite tasty. The meat sources take a bit of getting used to - large pieces of pork fat are valued; the scrawny animals results in a few shreds of stringy meat on a hunk of bone; and unexpected organs and appendages are mixed in. Nothing is wasted - protein is very valuable. In the end, though, it actually all tastes very good, once you get over your hang-ups and become adept at parsing meet from bones in your mouth.
At this point, you might be wondering, shouldn't they be worried about sanitation and possible intestinal problems? The rice is safe because it's cooked. The rest of the meat and vegetable dishes have also been recently cooked. All safe. We bring our own water (Scott partook of some of the village water, offered by Heifer staff, and didn't have any bad reaction), but it's safe to drink the hot tea they provide. Eating the greens straight from the garden could potentially be an issue, as could the fresh fruits — but their washed, and most are organically grown. In general sanitation seems very good in the villages, so we accept the minor risk. (Cipro and other antibiotics are available over-the-counter here, so there is a fallback). We've eaten quite a number of village meals and never gotten the least bit ill. Scott's been eating street food and everything else around for almost 3 months, so his guts are probably more "bio-diverse" than Kathy's; although his system gets a bit out of whack when he eats inordinately spicy food in any quantity...
To be continued...