Living and Learning

Forests; I have grown up in the tallest forests of the world. I believe on average, the forests of the Pacific Northwest tower around 200ft. These amazing freaks of nature are literally yards away from my house, but my life does not depend on their existence, nor do my neighbors and nor do most people living in the Portland Metropolitan area. The Karen tribes of Northern Thailand do depend on the forest in a way that is just as much primeval as ingenuous.

We were taking a bus up to the mountains of Thailand where there are long expanses of rainforest perched on some of the more dramatic precipices I have ever seen. The bus we were going to take was around seven hours but the roads were supposed to be less tortuous than the northern bus route. When we arrived at the bus station, this all changed. We would be taking the bad road in a very small bus that lack air conditioning with two-person seats that did not fit my foreign size. The morning was very, very cold and the afternoon was stifling. But armed with a Dramamine I was able to view this experience through a drowsy lens.

When we arrived in Mae Hong Son the air had a deep fog like quality with visibility limited to one hundred yards. This was not unexpected because the weather forecast of the day was “Smoke”. I had never heard of that as a forecast possibility but unfortunately it was too true. We all wore funny little masks that made us look like we were expecting a chemical terrorist attack. The smoke was coming from all the burning from slash and burn agriculture and other things to which I am still unaware. I have never experienced such pollution and it really has further ingrained the nascent environmental ethic I am nurturing while traveling in Thailand. Thankfully, we left this town for the villages the next day where smoke was still present but on a much more manageable scale.

The villages completely succeeded and at the same time failed my expectations. We literally were living in bamboo houses but some of the huts were equipped with telephones and television. Their power source was solar so it was not dependable at all. Also, most of the food we ate was locally foraged or raised. I ate many an egg and am still wary of my ability to stomach them after the pounds and pounds of it that I ate. Also, they had a knack for waste management. Any food that we didn’t eat, we dropped through the floorboards and the pigs underneath would eagerly gobble up the scraps. The bathrooms were all equipped with a squatty potty and a bucket shower. The squatty potty is an improved upon version of an American outhouse and a bucket shower is just a bucket filled with water that one uses a cup to douse smelly body parts. The best equivalent in America that I can think of is a sponge bath.

There were six villages that we traveled to: two Christian, one Buddhist, and the rest mixed between Christian, Buddhism, and Animism. It was really interesting to see how each religion changed the tone of the village. The Christians had church all day on Sunday and the Buddhists were much more inclined to enjoy an alcoholic beverage. The main mode, in fact the only mode of transportation was our own two legs. Some days we backpacked for 9+ hours through the oppressing heat. We walked through beautiful old growth forests, climbed tall peaks, witnessed extreme vistas, but also stomped through ashed over bamboo groves and monoculture stands. We saw the drama: there was beautiful pristine forest and there was disturbed man-degraded forest. It was really good to witness both sides as to build a more holistic view of what forests are like in Thailand.

I witnessed these tribes depend on the forest for food, shelter, and even spiritual needs. They were so much more connected to their forest than I am to mine. I like to look at mine; they like to live in theirs. But this does change how forests are treated. The villagers killed all the predators that came into contact with them; they have no more tigers. In America, we love to protect these charismatic carnivores but the Karen people value them as a nuisance and as a threat to their livelihood.

With this experience I also witnessed the generation gaps where the younger generation does not receive all the knowledge their elders have about the forest. I thought this silly because I was such an earnest student wanting to know everything about the forest but then I realized I do the same thing in my own context. My parents and grandparents have important knowledge that they can pass down. My dad knows how to train horses and build houses; I don’t. My mom knows how to cook and balance books; I don’t. I could learn these things; yet, just like the younger generation of the Karen tribes I choose different pursuits. I now though, value the opportunity I have from learning from those older than me.

So, in conclusion, Mom and Dad teach me!