Brodie Henry: Peace Corps Kazakhstan, Photography, Thailand, India

Peace Corps Volunteers Leave Kazakhstan

2011-12-03T18:10:00.000+06:00

All Peace Corps Volunteers (including myself) left Kazakhstan the last week in November. In mid-Nov, all volunteers received a phone call from our kazakh managers telling us the Kaz program was being closed and we had one week to say goodbye to our friends and family, finish any running projects, and pack all our things.

I was in disbelief and it did not seem real that all of us would really have to leave our schools and towns. It was very difficult to say goodbye to everyone especially since volunteers had been working in Ust-Kamenogorsk since 1995. I wrote this in next sentence in an email to friends shortly after I found out about us leaving "I am devastated, upset, and sad like many people here in Kazakhstan. Basically we have been told that in 7 days we have to say goodbye to many friends and coworkers we may never see again. "

I still had about a year left in my scheduled 27 month service. Peace Corps has given us the option to re-enroll in another program in another country. But at this point it is something I am not interested in for personal reasons.

Right now the Kazakhstan program is currently "suspended" so it is possible for Peace Corps to reopen like other countries have in the past. But Kazakhstan couldn't really open back up for at least one year.

Why? Is the question a lot of people ask. There are two big reasons: 1) Some elements of the Kazakhstan government did not want Peace Corps in their country. In the last year, those elements have grown stronger to the point where over the last 6 months it was very difficult for volunteers to work and live normal lives. 2) In the last year there was a spike in the number of sexual assaults against female volunteers. Nobody is really able to explain why this happened. For 18 years, volunteers worked in Kazakhstan without major problems, but then this past year a big number of female volunteers were attacked.

What I am doing next in my life? Well today I am going to get a Christmas tree with my family to celebrate my first Christmas at home since 2008.

Halloween-3 days of parties/events

2011-11-03T19:30:00.012+06:00

On Saturday I had a small Halloween event at a university with 10 students. I did the event with another PCV. On Sunday I was part of a large halloween party with 50+ people at the local library. On Monday I ran and organized a halloween event for 30 students at a university by myself.

At most of the events there was a mummy wrap, bobbing for apples, and carving pumpkins plus some other activities including a pinata with candy

Mummy Wrap

Carving Pumpkin

everyone at the big library party

this halloween I was the Pajama Bandit!

Photos from September and October 2011

2011-11-01T17:23:00.003+06:00

In early September, Ust had an International Honey Festival! Two weeks later I was taking the train to Almaty and met 3 bee/honey managers who run a company in Ust. They were actually going to Almaty to take an airplane to Argentina for a honey convention there! no joke

Sean buying some honey

A few weeks later, I went on a excursion with teachers from my university to a place called Ak-Baur. It is a site where people lived a few thousand years ago about 20 miles outside the city. There are cave paintings, and some other astronomical devices in this area

guide showing cave paintings

lunch!

In the Ust-Kamenogorsk city square in front of the government building there was huge statue of Lenin. However, in 2009, Lenin was replaced by Abai(he is a Kazakh poet.)So now the Lenin statue now sits in a nearby park. I should remind you that this Lenin statue was atop a 25 foot stone foundation--making him look even bigger!

we went on a day work trip to a town a few hours from the city

a mural from inside the school

Here is the full gallery on my photo website. Link

Here is a photo from my 1st apartment. You can see what my apartment looks like in this gallery (6 photos)

World Food Day #BAD11

2011-10-16T21:18:00.000+06:00

Today, October 16th is World Food Day

World Food Day 2011 PSA

video link

Today is also Blog Action Day. every year "BAD" an issue and encourages people to all write about the same issue on the same day. In 2008 the topic was poverty. In 2009, the topic was climate change. In 2010, I didn't write a post! because I was in Peace Corps training and didn't have much free time or access to the internet.

Today I have 4 pictures of food taken in Kazakhstan in this most-recent summer. But most importantly today I will be leading the Pushkin Library discussion club for 20-40 people. Every week a different PCV picks a topic for an hour-long dicussion and today the topic will be FOOD.

at a korean restaurant

the dinner we cooked for my birthday

at a cafe---we were so surprised the chefs had the heart to do this, so we took a photo

picnic near some lakes outside of Ust

Summer Spent Traveling around Kazakhstan

2011-07-20T12:00:00.000+06:00

My last few posts were from a month ago before I set off on my 3 week trip around Kazakhstan. This new photo gallery has been created with photo captions.

First Jenny and I took a 25 hour train and spent a week at a friend’s site. The nearby national park which people refer to as the “Switzerland of Kazakshtan” because it is so nice. I’ve never been to Switzerland so I can’t comment on this idea but it was a really nice place. It is 3 hours from the fancy city of Astana, so the idea that lots of rich families go there for the weekend. Almost everyone in Kazakhstan has heard of it and thinks that it is a wonderful place.

Next we went to Astana for the July 4th party at the USA Embassy which was awesome. The staff members of the embassy were very nice and hosted us in their apartments so we got to live like Americans on Independence Day. Also, Astana had a short fireworks display that night! Not for USA, but to signal the start of the 3-day holiday for the President’s birthday on July 6-which is also “Capital Day”. Here is some information about July 6 in Astana

Next we headed out to a PCV’s site that is in the middle of the steppe. The closest volunteer to him is 2 hours away and his town/village is very small. Outside his bedroom window is a chicken coop and a 10 minute walk and you find yourself in the steppe. With his youth organization we headed out farer into the countryside and camped next to a lake for his birthday. The youth camp is an annual event that is in its 4th year and involves actual tents and youth activities-like an American summer camp. We meet a Russian hermit who lives alone out there with a dog that has been named Hillary by the youth center director. The dog is named in honor of Hillary Clinton—in a good way, not in a bitchy way.

Then we took 2 shared taxis a few hours all the way to Petropavlovsk which is only 60 miles from the Russian border and very different than southern Kazakhstan. There we had a week of Russian-language learning camp organized by a PCV with 3 different teachers. After the camp, we took a 35 hour train ride back to Almaty.

Matt's Presidential School Camp and Almaty

2011-06-19T10:09:00.001+06:00

After the Kazakhstan World Series I spent the next week helping two teachers prepare an application for a program to teach at a university in America for 1 semester. The application was extremely long and required a curriculum vitae and a 3 page personal statement--all in english. Then a few PCVs were in Ust for training on how to write and complete a Small Project Assistance grant from USAID..... Next it was June 1st and summer.

The first two weeks of summer began on June 1st-which is "children's day" in Kazakhstan and a working holiday. Every morning at Matt's school there was a one hour lesson by a science teacher followed by PCVs English practice followed by lunch and then 2 hours of research/project time followed by sports.

The research project is to create a botanical garden. The school wanted one before the camp, so the aim of the camp was for the students to research and plan a garden for the school. There was about 80 kids broken up into 8 groups and each group had a different topic. I think the camp was very successful because the kids had a good time and their projects were well-done. "President school" in Kazakhstan are a new idea and this was the first ever summer camp in Kazakhstan at one of these schools. President schools have more resources available to them and students must score high in math, science, or english to gain entrance.

New Photos Here

One student working on the project

On Saturday the camp had a field trip on a boat on the lake above the Ust dam.

The second to last day of the camp was Matt's birthday!

Interesting New Photos

2011-06-18T16:01:00.001+06:00

I have uploaded some older photos into a few random galleries in the Kazakhstan section of my website. Here are some of my favorites with links to their respective galleries.

From Almaty Gallery

Can you guess what this is? This is a place you can pay to have your teeth cleaned (just like in a dentist office)!!!!! It is located in a shopping mall right next to the big supermarket.

From Astana Gallery

this is the golden handprint of the President of Kaz. everyone puts their hand inside the print for this classic photo

From Almaty Gallery

From Spring gallery

From Summer gallery

Random Photos from the Winter and Spring

2011-06-17T09:54:00.000+06:00

Hello!
Here are some photos from the past few months that I just got from a friend's memory card. I uploaded a few others in older galleries (winter, spring, astana) but i thought these were the best.

Now I am at Jenny's town for a summer camp. My university is closed for the summer so I'm going to different towns and cities in Kazakhstan for summer camps that other PCVs create with local partners.

News article

2011-05-30T10:37:00.000+06:00

New York Times article about US Congress and Kazakhstan

I took some great new photos, they will be included in the next blog post

World Series in Kazakhstan!

2011-05-25T12:06:00.001+06:00

Two volunteers who LOVE baseball gathered baseball equipment from USA over the past year and had it shipped to Kaz. For two days, there was the a competition of three teams in Ust. One from Ust, one from a town 4 hours away and the other team traveled 48 HOURS BY TRAIN TO PLAY BASEBALL (for only two days in Ust.) To play a decent game of baseball you need at least 18 people who know what they are doing which is why they had to travel so far.

There is a new photo gallery for Summer '11

This was from a training seminar a few weeks ago.

American Music Live in Ust!

2011-05-22T11:40:00.003+06:00

"Shammar Allen and the Underdogs" came to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan by the US Embassy for a "musical cultural event." And this was quite a cultural event for many citizens of Ust. The band went to the 2 largest cities in Kazakhstan (everyone goes there) BUT they also came to Ust. This was a very big deal!

The concert was in the "Palace of Miners Concert Hall" which is an extremely Soviet building by name and by its physical appearance.

Here is a photo from the outside of the building:

And this glorious picture showing the strength of various citizens of Kazakh USSR

Some of the music instruments used are not common here. Towards the end of the concert the band asked everyone to stand up (which rarely happens at the Palace of Miners) and also asked people to come up and dance in front of the stage--(this NEVER happens). What you see is from the end of the show, when they started playing covers of popular American music. For most of the show they played their own music. Here is the youtube video link if you can't see the video below

Weekend in Astana

2011-05-14T17:37:00.000+06:00

Last weekend I went with my MBA students to Astana. We went there because they had to take the TOEFL English language exam in order to go to Korea in September. The MBA program is 1 year here in Ust and then the following year at a Korean university where the classes are taught in English. Anyways I have been working with them since I arrived in Ust and they wanted me to come.

On Thursday afternoon I got on the 17 hour bus ride to Astana and arrived in the morning. I rented an apartment with a student. (Usually people rent an apartment for a short-period of time from the owner or an agency because hotels rooms are more expensive and don’t include things like a kitchen.) Then we walked all around the city and I saw the downtown new part of Astana.

For those of you don’t know Astana’s history. When Kazakhstan broke away from the USSR, Almaty located in the deep south was the capital. The president wanted to move the capital and start a new capital. And when you have absolute control, you can do that as president. Astana became the capital in the middle of the country in the middle of the steppe. And then city planning was done quickly because if the president wants to do anything here, then it will happen. The result after about 10-15 years later is a incredibly nice looking somewhat-lacking-of-enough-people capital.

I had a very nice time in Astana and it was great to go with my students who got to show me around. Here is the photo gallery with captions. Below are a few photos from the gallery.

The building behind me is the Government of Kazakhstan Gas/Petrol building

There is actually a mall inside. on the 5th floor there is an indoor beach with temps in the 70-90s, swimming pools, and a small water park. the 1-day entry fee would be 10% of middle class person's monthly salary

Spring Concert at My University

2011-05-04T21:41:00.000+06:00

Last week was the Spring Concert at my university. Each faculty/major presents a 1-hour grand show that includes lots of choreographed dances and comedy stand-up routines. It is a big deal and students have been practicing for 2 months and missing class a few days a week for this annual tradition that has been happening since 1970 (i think). On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday there were 2 concerts each day from a different faculty and on Friday was the grand finale where the winner was declared.

Here are a 3 photos:

Here is a 1-minute video on youtube of a dance-it is impressive

My next blog post will have pictures from the capital...Astana! I'm headed there tomorrow with my MBA students because they have their big TOEFL english language test on Saturday.

What I Did Nov-March in only 140 words

2011-04-24T11:46:00.003+06:00

Here is what I did Nov-March in only 140 words

November
1. Host family
2. University students
3. So many city buses
4. Sick
5. Russian lessons
6. Meeting lots of people
December
1. Lack of supervisor/direction
2. Lack of work
3. Night club
4. Sick
5. Rumble in Almaty
6. Visit Jenny
7. Stress
8. Apathy
January
1. -40 degrees outside
2. Sick
3. No work
4. Going to museums and cafes
5. Movie club starts
6. Computer games
7. Cold weather
8. New Years!
February
1. Work/university opens
2. I organize student clubs myself
3. Regular work schedule
4. Teacher club starts
5. Cold weather
6. More local friends
7. Regular work weeks
8. Countdown to Jenny visit
March
1. Kazakhstan Election
2. My clubs attendance down
3. Many students in dance practice
4. Move out of host family
5. New apartment!
6. Jenny visits Ust!
7. Nauryz holiday

23rd Birthday Blog Post

2011-04-17T13:37:00.000+06:00

I've uploaded new photos with captions

A few days ago was my 23rd birthday and it has been almost two months since my last blog post. Since my last blog post on February 27th I will try to update as much as possible

First—Peace Corps turned 50 years old on March 1st! Yes that right, 50 years ago JFK announced the official creation of Peace Corps. PC has been in Kazakhstan since 1993-a full 18 years. And to celebrate this, PC Kaz has created a website http://pc50.kz/. Friends and family can take a photo and upload to this website. Instructions are here.

The first week of March is a weeklong Russian holiday celebrating spring. Families get together or call on telephone to forget problems of the past. And the best part is everyone eats crepes/thin pancakes dipped in strawberry jam or honey.

March 8th was International Women’s Day. You may ask—what is international women’s day? Well it is a non-working holiday that started in the Soviet Union and today many post-soviet countries celebrate this day. I cut out pieces of pink paper as flowers and gave them too many women at the university. Usually men give real flowers, but I couldn’t give out 20+ sets of real flowers. In many western countries the holiday is celebrated to promote gender equality but is a normal working day. For the record, my host mother still did all the cooking and regular housework even on this day.

The 1932 Soviet poster dedicated to the 8th of March holiday. The text reads: "8th of March is the day of rebellion of the working women against kitchen slavery" and "Down with the oppression and narrow-mindedness of household work!". Originally in the USSR the holiday had a clear political character, emphasizing the role of the Soviet state in the liberation of women from their second-class-citizen status. Wikipedia

A few days after Women’s Day I moved into my new apartment! I now live in the city (before I was in the suburbs) on a main street and by the river. My apartment is one huge room with kitchen and I also have a 5th floor balcony. The wall is about 50% windows so I get lots of natural light. And also, the apartment came with a small tree/bush, and 3 other green plants.

Jenny (my girlfriend) arrived from Almaty after the 25 hour train. She was in Ust for one week because it was Nauryz Holiday on March 22nd. Nauryz is every March 22nd and is the Kazakh New Year (because spring is coming) and is usually a three-day holiday but including the weekend lasted about 5 days. In the city square there is a concert stage, a giant wooden pole that men in underwear climb, yurts serving free food, horse wrestling, and cotton candy. See pictures with captions here.

City Central Square during Nauryz

In 2011, I have celebrated the New Year 3 times. 1st-January 1, 2nd-around January 8th for the Julian Caesar calendar’s new year. 3rd-March 22 for Kazakh New Year

A week later Jenny and I both took the train to Almaty for a training event with all the volunteers in my group. It was the first time we had seen each other since we left to go to our individual sites on November 7th. The training lasted a week and we went out to eat at different restaurants most nights. You might not believe it but Almaty (and for that matter most cities in Kazakhstan) are similar to European cities—but Almaty especially.

Then there was Kazakhstan’s election. The current president has been the president since 1991. He received 95% of the vote and 90% of the population voted. Isn’t it pretty amazing that 90% of the country voted when there was in reality only one candidate? You might wonder—why would any go to the polling station-what is the point? NYTimes article

In April the snow melted and Ust got really pretty all of a sudden. It is strange because now it feels like I live in a new city because everything looks totally different. For my birthday, one group of friends and I rented a private sauna for one hour that included a sauna, living room with sofas, shower, and swimming pool-it was really cool. And then with another group of friends came over to my apartment and we made French fries and crispy chicken and brownies for a dinner party.

And I did not fall on the snow/ice even once this entire winter

Six months in Kazakhstan

2011-02-27T14:19:00.001+06:00

Six months in Kazakhstan
So now I’ve been in Kazakhstan for six months. I’ve met lots of people and learned lots about a different culture and lifestyle. I’ve uploaded new photos to the Ust gallery here.

The past month of February I’ve been very busy at work, which was the complete opposite of January. Often I leave my house at 9am and return at 7 in the evening. For example, small discussion club from 10-11am, then my Russian tutor from 11-12, then 1-2pm teacher club, 2-3pm students chat with me informally, 3-430 my club with students, then 430-530 I team-teach a MBA class and then go home which is a 45 minute trip by bus. This example is my Mondays when I am so busy that I usually don’t eat lunch and I’m constantly speaking to someone. When I get home I eat with my host family and then usually retreat into my room and either plan for the next day, talk on the phone, or read. In Kazakhstan I’ve read about 4 books. For some PCVs, they read tons of books but others don’t read at all, I imagine I am somewhere in the middle. I read the NYTimes every day, I’ve got a digital subscription which I can download every evening don’t have to browse their website. I’ve also created a gallery that is supposed to show my average day in Kazakhstan. This gallery is still a work in progress. Another PCV Matt visited my work last week and he took some photos of me during a normal day.

When I moved to Ust and started working I had a coworker but she quickly left because she was pregnant and since then it has been up to me to make my own work with students and teachers. My regional manger came and said she was pleased with everything I had been doing in spite of having little support from my work site. I’ve been able to attract students to my clubs, create my own work schedule and in general be proactive and productive.

Everyday I get the same questions from new people about why I am here in Ust, if I like Kazakhstan, questions about America, etc. This is something that all Peace Corps Volunteers worldwide experience on a daily basis. This is the part where we are grassroots ambassadors for America. I had explain that Americans don’t eat pizza everyday to someone recently. People often think or expect me to be able to summarize all of America into a simple to understand single sentence. But America is a country of 300 million people that has immigrants from many other countries and the differences between north and south are difficult to explain. I talk on a regular basis to two students who attend my clubs frequently who have never been more than 50 miles outside of this city.

Last night my girlfriend was on national television in Kazakhstan! The episode has a short segment about her work at the youth center and her family back in America. Then she speaks about different languages, cultures, and how she teaches children English through games and fun activities. I recorded in and posted it on youtube so her family and friends in America could she her national television debut…in Kazakhstan. The TV channel here is similar in size and scope as NBC or ABC in America.

Sunday February 6th

2011-02-06T19:07:00.000+06:00

New Photos

Yesterday we meet up with a PC volunteer who finished his service a few years ago in another central asia country. And then today I got to read Egypt and I'm reading NYTimes new eBook called "Open Secrets" about wikileaks. I'm also reading a few other books, but that is what I read today. And in the evening I went with 3 friends from my university ice skating. It was the first time ice skating in many years, maybe in 10 years, I'm not quite sure.

ice skating

playing the game Telephone in English club

people in front of town hall day after president announced early elections

Asian Olympics and Olympic Hike to Kaz Hollywood Sign

2011-01-31T19:43:00.000+06:00

New Photos in Ust Gallery

Some recent events and highlights:
Last week the torch for the Asian Olympic Games came to the city of Ust. Yes, I promise there is such a thing, just google it. It arrived by airplane from another city in Kaz and then was run from the airport with cars and vans surrounding the torch holer to the town hall. There are some photos in the photo gallery.
My university has opened again. It was closed from Jan 8-Jan 24. But the first week of January isn’t really a working time and the university just had exams. So basically after 3 weeks without constant work, I’m back at it.
And since my last blog post I have survived -40F for 3 days and several others that were -30F. The last few days it has been incredibly warm and I love it. And yesterday IT WAS 37F. NO JOKE. It was awesome. And today it was 20F.
On Sunday it was 37F and a free day. (You work Monday-Saturday here). I convinced my brother that we should go outside and do something…this was like pulling teeth. After all, why would you want to go walk in the park? We head out in his car with no destination in mind and he says we should go climb up to the Kazakhstan Hollywood sign overlooking Ust. So we did. But this was no easy feat. We climbed up on the best surface we could find, which consisted of hard snow, ice, mushy snow, and some patches of earth. The wind here has been insane the last few days, so the higher you go, the more intense it gets. We didn’t have a camera since hiking to the Kazakhstan Hollywood sign wasn’t at all in our original intentions for the day. At the top of the mountain, I climbed a little bit further than the giant sign to the flag pole and felt the strongest winds I have ever felt in my whole life. We then went back down the mountain and I got to slide on my butt and ski jacket for a good 25 feet. It is worth a mention that I think the hike could have been a North Face jacket commercial.

This is the Kazakhstan Hollywood sign from Ust-Kamenogorsk! (photo taken in November before snow)

New Years

2011-01-03T14:18:00.002+06:00

New Years is a big holiday in Kazakhstan and Russia. Christmas is on January 7^th but isn't a big holiday like it is in the USA. New Years is spent with the family here and I spent the evening with my host family. New Years Eve also happens to be my host grandmother's birthday so earlier in the day we celebrated her 74^th birthday at her nearby apartment with traditional Kazakh food. In the evening we ate all the food my host mother had cooked during the day and watched TV with the all the New Years specials. Around 11:50pm, President Nursultan Nazarbayev comes onto all the television channels and delivers his address to the Nation of Kazakhstan. First he speaks in Kazakh language for a few minutes and then Russian language for a few minutes, and about 15 seconds before midnight he ends his address and a clock comes onto the television screen and champagne is opened at midnight. A toast is then made to good health and then outside the fireworks start. Host mother goes into her bedroom and comes back with two huge fireworks and tells me and my host brother to go outside and light them. Everyone in the country is doing the same thing at 12:01am. Outside among the hundreds of apartment buildings there are lots and lots of fireworks going off from regular citizens. There are lots of fireworks that are illegal in the Northeast USA and all of these types of fireworks were being fired off at this time. This was the warmest I have ever felt at -24 C and midnight. Later my host brother and I have to drive our grandmother home, she lives about a 5 minute walk away but it better to drive because it is so cold. We drop her off at her apartment and realize that the front left tire is completely flat. My host brother immediately goes to find the flat tire in the truck, but I know that he doesn't have any clue how to fix it, and its 1am and -24 C. I suggest we park the car and walk the 5 minutes back to our house. But some friendly drunk guy comes and helps fix the flat tire. I don't have any clue how to change a flat tire in middle of the night, in the snow, in the cold, and in Russian, so I sit in the car. An hour later we get the tire fixed and go back home.

Also, 6 new photos with captions LINK

Shopping on Independence Day

2010-12-16T14:44:00.001+06:00

Today in Kazakhstan is independence day-19 years after independence from the Soviet Union. Most people don't work today but some stores/restaurants/movie theaters are open. So my family went shopping because Christmas and New Years is right around the corner. First we went to a children's store to buy things for some little cousins which was fun because I could actually understand the little children books and other games in Russian.

Then we went to a big store that sold anything from men shavers, small heaters, TVs, washing machines, water heaters, electronics, kitchen stuff, etc. Here is where the culture shock happened: So it is incredibly busy and not enough sales people which is a big problem because many of the items are locked behind glass. Although display items you can touch and play with. Once you finally get a salesperson, they have to retrieve the boxed item for you, then they take it over to the front near the cashiers and proceed to open your item and plug it into a electricity outlet to make sure it is working. Then they take out the warranty papers and record information off that into a computer which is then used to form an invoice to take to the cashier and pay them.

Now the amount of paperwork and stamps isn't new to me, but the fact that each salesperson had to take out of the packaging each item and test it to make sure it would turn on was astounding. First, I saw a men's shaver being taken out of the packaging, then a full sized microwave, and THEN a full sized washing machine. Yes, a 4 foot by 4 foot washing machine was taken out of its box and unwrapped to make sure it works. Also imagine all the wrapping and packaging that goes into the box of a men's shaver …. and then imagine a washing machine, so all this packaging is all over the floor and on tables while the salespeople do everything and customers just stand and watch. Then once the item is proven to work, all the packaging must be put back into the original box (also difficult). The more I watched this, the more ridiculous I got in my mind. So I asked my host brother about it. He doesn't know exactly why they do this, but think of it as a no-refund policy type thing. If the item is tested before it leaves and the store and is in good condition, then next week someone can't bring it back and say that is was broken when they opened the box at home. Maybe you wonder if many of these items do not work correctly, but this is a very nice store and many nice companies like LG, Panasonic, Sony, etc and the same exact products that you would see in USA and Europe.

New Photos from Ust with captions

2010-12-01T21:05:00.001+06:00

here is the start of my Ust photo gallery, with captions

http://brodiehenry.smugmug.com/Kazakhstan/Ust-Kamenogorsk

NPR-Kaz and USA successfully transport enough highly radioactive material for 800 nukes across country

2010-11-19T18:07:00.002+06:00

A three part series from NPR. (here are two parts)

Kazakhstan Completes Move, Storage Of Nuclear Stash

Moving Kazakh Nuclear Cache A Massive Undertaking

This article is further proof of the close relationship between the people of America and Kazakhstan

The radioactive material used to be close to Iran, now it is close me! not sure if I feel safer now. :)

--
Brodie Henry

First week in Ust

2010-11-16T10:54:00.000+06:00

First week in Ust

Sunday the 7th I arrived by train to Ust. That night I stayed in a family’s apartment and I later choose that host family to be my permanent host family (for at least 4 months). The next day, Monday I went to the University mid-morning with my host brother. I met lots of different people and wore a sport jacket and tie for my 1st day. I met a lot of different directors and managers. The title of someone’s job is very important here but it can sometimes be difficult to actually figure out how important than person is in the overall scheme of things. They might tell you “I’m the director of the economics department” but you find out later that they are really an assistant to someone, but their actual title is director and then you have to ask someone else how much power they really have in every-day work.

I then found out where my desk/work area will be. I’m working in the “European Center.” The EU center was built with a grant 5 years ago as a resource center for Kazakhstan students to find out how to study abroad in European, from what I can tell, it has sat mostly unused by the students. All the paper resources are out of date. It looks like a grant project that was built but not followed up on or maybe wanted by some people but not by the students. Whatever the case, I will find out over time. It is called the EU center but actually it is supposed to be a study abroad office and is technically under the “Office of International Cooperation.” This university has an exchange program with a Korean university and my coworker in this center processes visa information and translates documents from Russian to English.

This EU center/study abroad office is a perfect situation for me because I can do whatever me and my coworkers decide to do to it. In the future I want to improve it and make it the European and American Center with various activities like English club, Career Club, International Club, and various training seminars.
Monday night I introduced myself to the small class of MBA English-language students at the university. The hour and half class was pretty much devoted to Brodie talking about myself, Kazakhstan, and questions the students had about why I was here and where I’ve been. I will continue to go to this class 3 times a week because I will help team-teach this MBA class with another teacher.
Tuesday morning, myself, the 2 other new volunteers and 2 locals took a trip to get registered with the immigration police. We need more documentation and will go back later. I then went to the EU center and did various types of work and found that I had lots of work in the next few days. At this time I realized that I really needed a calendar to keep track of everything I was planning on doing because many different people where asking me to do various projects with them and I can only do so much in a single day. At mid-day I went to the new presidential school which is still under construction and located very close to my house. PCV (peace corps volunteers) who are in the teaching program were holding a training there for about 15 local English teachers about fun and effective English games that they can use in their classrooms. Their training seminar lasted for a few hours and of course included a tea break. I drink A LOT of tea in Kazakhstan every day.

After the training ended, we met the director of the new presidential school. The president of Kazakhstan recently made a new executive order to build 20 or so presidential schools throughout Kazakhstan. All the classrooms have a smart board and projector and a desktop computer for each student. The school opened in September and in the director’s large office there is a huge LCD TV that can connect to skype or something and she can in theory talk to whoever in a office conference video chat. This school is for the smartest children in Kazakhstan and they travel from all over the province I live in. That night we went with some teachers to this arcade place with video games and laser tag.

The next day I went to the Pushkin library to meet the director and see the American corner. What is an American corner? They are found in many countries in many libraries around the world and are a resource center about America funded by the US Embassy or State Department or USAID-I’m not quite sure. I’ve also seen one in Thailand.

Also on this day I was asked to give a training to about 20 English teachers about how to use web technologies and the internet for their personal lives and for the classes they teach. The next day, the presentation went well and I mostly talked about Wikipedia, google docs, google news, and flickr. I talked about how each of these were collaborative websites and built from a variety of sources. I was also interviewed by the university TV station about what I’m doing here and what I think of Ust so far. In a few days the segment will air. The university TV station has a new program once or twice a week and then it repeats.

Friday and Saturday I had the day off because a commission from the government ministry of education was at the school and there were many exams on Friday and Saturday. This was actually a much needed break for me and I was finally able to unpack my luggage and get some sleep.

What I do-Summarized version. Youth Development in Kazakhstan Peace Corps

2010-11-15T10:39:00.000+06:00

Here is a summarized version of my current job. Check back for a new long blog post about my first week at work.
• I work in the international and student center inside a large state university
• promote international education
• Lead English club
• Work with student self government
• Hold trainings/seminars for teachers
• Try to speak Russian
• Do some events at the American corner at city library
• Team-teach a MBA class at my university
• Presentations about America, Peace Corps and international education/traveling
• Career club
• Encourage youth to become leaders

many new PHOTOS and videos!

2010-11-14T21:00:00.001+06:00

LOTS of new photos!!! The new photos that you will find are from mostly from October at training in the town of Talgar. http://brodiehenry.smugmug.com/Kazakhstan I may add captions in a few days

Also, I've uploaded about 5 short videos to youtube from our school in Talgar where we spent Monday-Friday every week for 3 months. http://www.youtube.com/user/brodieNH

Where I Live

2010-11-14T10:33:00.001+06:00

I live in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk. I live in the suburbs called КЩТ. Which is a 30 minute bus ride south from the city center. Living in КЩТ is nice because I am away from the pollution of this industrial city. I live with my host brother and my host mother and father. We live on the second floor of a 6 floor apartment building. We are building number 20, there are probably 60-100 of this exact apartment buildings all around us. I think they were all built in the soviet union times, most have been refurnished and are very nice. I live in a very nice apartment that is just like one you could find in America, but everything is smaller. TV is smaller, bathroom is smaller, closet is smaller, etc. My host father is a manager at one of the 3 movie theaters in the city. The mother is a doctor but I’m sure what kind of doctor yet. My brother went to America in summer 2010 on a work visa and one was of the BP contractors cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico-his English is good so I can communicate with him about complicated tasks. This evening my host mother said “come talk to me while I cook dinner.” So I had a 30 minute discussion with her about me, what I do and America. This was a very slow 30 minute discussion about basic concepts but none the less—it is progress on Russian language.

In Ust there is a chain of restaurants called “Pizza Blues.” One of these is located a 10 minute walk from my apartment building. I have not experienced the Pizza Blues yet but I hope it is tasty. Everything about this city is Russian. Everything is written in Russian people speak much more Russian than Kazakh language. In the south part of Kazakhstan, someone can only speak Kazakh and minimal Russia and live fine. This is not the case in Ust and the exact opposite.
To get to work or the downtown area I take a 20-30 minute bus ride. The city is modern and has many different services and stores. No skyscrapers, I think those are just in Almaty and Astana. And in the winter it gets to -40 degrees. Also, fun fact -40 degree C is the same as -40 degree F!

site is:....Ust-Kamenogorsk

2010-10-23T16:52:00.000+06:00

I will be living in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk in the state of East Kazakhstan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskemen It is a 25 hr train from Almaty. which sounds far but isn't in Kazakhstan terms.

In Jan 2010 a youth center opened as part of the East Kazakhstan Technical University. I will be working for this new youth center promoting youth development, like healthy lifestyles, increasing volunteerism and developing and supporting student activities.

the university website is www.ektu.kz (on the right side about 1 inch down there is a English (EN) button.)

Not much to report

2010-10-21T13:34:00.002+06:00

I have not gotten sick and i generally like the food here. I bought bananas at the market yesterday and had peanut butter, banana, and bread. Also apple and peanut butter. It has started to get colder. Russian is getting better. It is amazing to look back at my Russian notebook from a month ago, i've progressed a lot since then. My English had gotten worse. Saturday we find out our individual site placement. Training is finished the 7th of November. On Sunday Peace Corps is taking us to a opera or theater type performance in Almaty. There is lots of work the next few weeks. Next week we met our "counterparts"-our contact person at our organization we will be working at. Some speak English, many speak only Russian. I have pictures to upload but can't do it at the internet cafe. Once I get to site I'm going to get an internet connection in my bedroom as long as I'm not in a remote village.

finding out site placement soon

2010-10-13T17:38:00.001+06:00

In 10 days or so all the volunteers find out our site placement. This means we will find out where we will be living for the next 2 years. And on Nov 7th we swear in as full Peace Corps Volunteers

new photos uploaded!

2010-09-24T13:42:00.002+06:00

http://brodiehenry.smugmug.com/Kazakhstan/Almaty

http://brodiehenry.smugmug.com/Kazakhstan/Talgar/

Sept 14, 2010

2010-09-15T16:33:00.001+06:00

Sept 14, 2010

I have a bunch of photos that I was planning on uploading but this computer can't do that for some reason. but i was able to upload to youtube. so photos some other time

here is a short video from one of the first clubs we held. the first time we had a presentation about ourselves but now we do art, drama, and english club every week where we have different actitivies. link

Two Sundays ago, Kodi, Jenny, and I went on a hike with the group and went swimming in a river from the glaciers in the mountains. It was the coldest water any of us had ever felt before and we filmed our attempts in submersion. See the youtube video

Russian is going well. I am getting better each week and phrases that were difficult last week are now part of my daily conversation. Our small 4-person Russian class gets along well but there are some problems in the afternoon when we have technical training with a larger group of 9 people, conflicting personalities are becoming more apparent by the day.

A typical day is something as follows:

6am Wake up

645 breakfast

7am Take the bus to school. The bus ride is only 15 minutes

8am Russian class starts

1pm Russian class ends

2pm Technical training starts (PC training stuff)

530 Technical training ends

630 Take bus home

730 Dinner

10 Sleep

The above schedule seems simple right? Well it is not for many reasons. The bus can sometimes be extremely crowded to the point that there isn't any more space for even a small child, but somehow 3 adults manage to squeeze on anyways. I sometimes try to talk to the students before the 8am start of school…. so this involves lots of language miscommunication and confusion. Teachers trying to talk to us in Russian only to realize we don't know what they are talking about. And 5 hours of Russian each day…exhausting but necessary. Students constantly come by our classroom to say "Hello, how are you" and then run down the hall. Or they come by to see when the next English club is we are leading. During the day there is sometimes a trip to the bazaar to buy something. The food is different and takes some getting-used to. Kazakh people are very nice and help me every day with something even though they are strangers.

We went to Almaty (former capital) to try to learn our way around the city. The people in Almaty were super nice on the street when I asked for directions, which was often. In Panfilov Park, there is a Russian Orthodox cathedral, in addition, look in the Almaty photo gallery and find the photo of the giant statue with the soldiers surging forward. There is some text below the massive soldiers: велка россия а отсупать некуда позади москва! Google translate that!

Week 3

2010-09-06T18:56:00.001+06:00

Today is the second time with Internet since PC began on August 17th. I could go to the internet cafe more often if A)I wanted too B) If I had more time. I like not using the internet and thinking about it everyday. And the addiction to internet that I had to America was quickly dropped and I don't miss it. Today I was able to upload some pictures from Kazakhstan. This is a very basic photo galleries....and I don't think there is a single Kazakh person in this photos, I apologize!

here is a gallery called "Talgar". Talgar is the town I currently live where training last until Halloween. some pictures from around town. I actually have more photos on my camera but there is a process of taking from camera to laptop to USB drive, blah, blah, blah.

Here is a gallery called Ak Bula Mountain. Ak Bula (spelling slightly incorrect) is a ski mountain which has a chair lift open for the summer and Jenny and I went to 1 week ago. If you google the name you may find the correct spelling and I'm sure they have a website, but it may be in Russian link to gallery.

and here is the root directory to Kazakhstan photo galleries http://brodiehenry.smugmug.com/Kazakhstan

What have I been doing? Living day-to-day and its great. In training lost of stuff is planned so I can go with the flow and don't need to plan for tomorrow until generally the night before (as apposed to getting stressed out about something days ahead of time)

Sept 1st is first day of school in K-Stan. And the school me and the 3 other trainineess in my class introduced outselves to a crowd of 150 kids/parents with a microphone....in Russian! wohoo.

Writing from Kazakhstan

2010-08-28T16:51:00.003+06:00

my cell phone number in Kazakhstan is +7-7055754528 and my email is brodiehenry [at] gmailcom

I am in a town about 1 hour east of Almaty. right next to the mountains. I have been here for a week.I stay with a host family, but only a host mother in a nice apartment. The apartment is on the 5th floor of an old concrete soviet apartment complex. From the outside, it looks scary and like something from a movie, but inside it is very nice. I take the bus to our training everyday, which is 4 hours of Russian langauge, followed by a 1-2 hour break for lunch and walking to next training location for 4 hours of training We have classes 6 days a week, with Sunday off. Tomorrow is Sunday and a friend and I have a fun activity planned--hopefullying hiking. Most days I leave the house at 715am and return about 10-12 hours later,...depending on the day. well now I must go, maybe next week I will have more internet time.

Headed to Washington DC for Peace Corps

2010-08-18T03:20:00.003+06:00

today I'm headed to Washington, DC for a quick 1 day session of Peace Corps training/staging. And Wednesday we all fly to Kazakhstan

Lots of Photos, from summer 2010

2010-08-16T07:49:00.000+06:00

New Gallery: People of Summer 2010 Gallery

updated gallery: photography 2010

Anne Leibovitz-the famous photographer

Going to Kazakhstan in 11 days

2010-08-07T00:22:00.000+06:00

Hello world wide web,

In 11 days I will traveling to Kazakhstan with the Peace Corps as a trainee in Youth Development

What will I actually be doing? That isn't clear for any volunteers at this point. I'm in the youth development sector so I will be working with youth on various projects

Where will I be living? Anywhere, but I hope to be primarily in the southern part of the country. What does anywhere mean?--somewhere between a village of 500 people to a city of 500,000 people. So yes, anywhere. The country is 1/3 the size of the continental USA.

Russian and Kazakh are the two languages of the country.

A few new photos galleries

2010-07-29T02:16:00.000+06:00

Check it out! 2010 Photography Gallery

and some new photos in the Spring 2010 Gallery

John Butler @ Central Park

2010-06-16T08:50:00.011+06:00

Morgan and I went into NYC. We arrived in the morning and walked around in the sun around southern tip of Manhattan. Modes of transport today: subway, ferry, train, taxi, walked. In the afternoon we went to see Dad at the strange, fast moving, corporate, colorful office of Bloomberg journalism. After Morgan and I scalped concert tickets for the evening performance of John Butler/State Radio at Summerstage @ Central Park. Took a expensive taxi to a liquor store, bought rum and coke, took bus ...kinda the wrong way back to the concert. OK show. The two of us lost cell phone battery and we lost each other but reconnected for the late night train home to CT.

June Music

2010-06-06T08:57:00.000+06:00

Went to the weekend campout music festival called Mountain Jam on Hunter Ski Mt in Catskills, NY. (ezz, that was a long address description). Camped on steep ski run. Turned my feet black from walking in dirt. Danced and jammed. Saw interesting things. Best performance was Michael Franti.: free streaming audio from the show.

Mumford and Sons has a great album that was excellent for the month of April, for me at least. Their music is good all months of the year.

Life in Connecticut

2010-05-24T08:48:00.000+06:00

In the past week,
I've been sail boat racing on 13 meter boat. I went to a minor league baseball game. When to a jazz concert. Rode my bicycle to the beach and carnival. laid in green grass on a sunny day

life in Connecticut.....and next weekend I'm going to a Dave Mathews concert

Connecticut, usa

2010-05-12T09:21:00.002+06:00

now I'm living in Connecticut, usa. i'm spending time here to recoup and save. working for the census. and looking forward to the summer

Bagamoyo, Tanzania Photo Slideshow

2010-03-30T20:29:00.000+06:00

I went with 7 other volunteers to Tanzania in May 2009. We took some photos then but I just put together this video slideshow last week. Enjoy

I've been making pizza

2010-03-28T20:14:00.000+06:00

I haven't been updating the blog at all lately, sorry!

I have 4 different part time jobs in the Fairfield County, CT area. One of them is on weekends working with Jeff's Portable Brick Oven Pizza. Connecticut News Channel 12 did a short story about us....below is the video!

Gold Mining and Cyanide Water

2010-03-10T09:10:00.000+06:00

this same story is something I found in Thailand. same exact story from villagers and the gold mining corporation

Photos taken a year ago, newly uploaded

2010-02-19T06:48:00.000+06:00

new photos

South India Photos Online

2010-01-21T01:22:00.001+06:00

The day after Christmas '09 I started out on a 15 day trip to South India with my Indian friend Rishi.

South India Photo Gallery

the southern-most tip of the Indian subcontinent

A live holy elephant inside a Hindu temple

Burma (Myanmar) Photos online

2010-01-19T04:40:00.000+06:00

Burma photos are now online. I've created 2 galleries. The "selected gallery" is the best selected photos and the "all photo gallery" has all the photos taken in Burma for people more interested. captions are going onto the selected photo gallery.

Before you view this photos make sure you are aware of the political and human rights situation in Burma. if not, here are some links:
Human Rights in Burma (wiki).
and Freedom House report on Burma, which gives Burma the worst possible rating for civil liberties and political rights.

Burma (Myanmar) Selected Photo Gallery 113 photos

All Photo Gallery 254 photos (includes the selected gallery)

Asia Trip Coming to An End

2010-01-08T17:25:00.000+06:00

On Sunday I'm flying back to America after 5 months in Asia. I left America at the end of summer and I will return in the middle of winter. Four months in Thailand, a week in Burma, and 2 weeks in India.

Once I get home I will be able to edit and upload photos from the past 3 weeks (Burma + India). so within a week or so there will be brand new blog posts with lots of photos!

Where in the World? - India

2009-12-30T19:41:00.000+06:00

I'm in India! traveling around south India with my Rishi. My flight back to USA is Jan 10

Back from Burma

2009-12-25T15:28:00.000+06:00

I'm back safe from Burma. it was great and I took a lot of photos. no time to upload though.

Christmas in Bangkok today and then headed to South India for Dec 26-Jan 7.

Jan 10th I've got a flight back to America.

Burma and India pictures after Jan 10th

Where in the World? Burma (Myanmar)

2009-12-18T19:40:00.002+06:00

I'm in Burma (Myanmar) until Christmas day

yes, the Burma with the horrible military dictatorship and crimes against humanity.

Vermont #1 in per-capita Peace Corps Volunteers

2009-12-10T11:52:00.000+06:00

I'm not surprised but it is nice to see Vermont #1 and Burlington #7 in terms of per-capita Peace Corps Volunteers.

Peace Corps Press Release with all the numbers

and here is a video by a New England news network

I received full medical clearance for my Peace Corps application last week.

What I Have Been Doing

2009-12-04T19:35:00.001+06:00

Three other students and I are working on a project for the NGO called International Rivers. They asked CIEE Thailand to find out information about the electricity transmission lines from a newly constructed hydropower dam in Laos. Our group said yes to the project.

To summarize; we drove around Roi-Et province for 3 days talking to villagers where the transmissions lines went through rice fields. There was one family who's house lay under the proposed path of the power lines and was destroyed along with their livelihood/source of income. We have been trying to sort through all of this out in at the office for a few days. Then this morning we were in Bangkok for a meeting with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) to find out their side of the story, since they are the ones who built the power lines.

I am certainly learning a lot during this final project time and this is some of the best "education" I have ever received.....(Remember I'm on study abroad and receiving college credit for all of this!) Every thing we ask for; CIEE Thailand will get for us: do we want a van to go drive around Roi-Et province?-got it, Can we have a meeting with EGAT officials in Bangkok?-got it.

This morning my small group was in a meeting with 4 EGAT employees and our teacher as the translator. We spent 2.5 hours asking questions and talking to them. I learned a lot about the transmission line project but even more about development projects, gov organizations, and people.

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." --Mark Twain

Random Photos

2009-12-01T11:06:00.000+06:00

Hillary

Skyline of Roi-Et

Burma Visa in Bangkok and Ayutthaya

2009-11-29T18:16:00.003+06:00

On Nov 20-21 me and a group of friends headed to Bangkok to get our visa for Myanmar (Burma). We arrived at 6:3am and were the first people in line for the embassy that opened at 8:30am. By 7:30 there was 10 people in line. We successfully got our visa after a stressful embassy visit. We returned at 3pm to pick up our passport and found the embassy filled with people.

SUCCESS! we got the visas

showing off my Myanmar visa, Sagar reading "Rules for Rebels" and Dan is reading George Orwell's book about Burma

christmas tree in Bangkok--in mid-November

That night we stayed in Bangkok and the next morning went to Ayutthaya, a UNESCO world heritage site. Here is the photo gallery

Student Newsletter #2 CIEE Thailand

2009-11-22T11:58:00.000+06:00

Here is the Student Newsletter about our semester in Thailand. I do not have an article in this newsletter.

Here is the link to CIEE Thailand Newsletter #2

Here is the newsletter #1 blog post from September 24

Visa in Bangkok, ancient city of Ayuthaya

2009-11-19T19:55:00.000+06:00

tomorrow I will be in Bangkok to get a visa and to sight see maybe. The next day I'm headed to the ancient city of Ayuthaya. Be back on Sunday

No Nong Bong Mining Community

2009-11-17T18:14:00.004+06:00

On November 7th we got in the van and headed to our last homestay in Thailand. A gold mine was built a few years ago and now the farming village can't grow vegetables or fruit, only rice can grow now. The water is unfit to bath in and you should never drink the water from the local river. Drinking water is trucked in but you must still bathe with water containing heavy metals, cyanide and arsenic.

The first day Andy, Dan, and I spent with our host father. We harvested rice for a few hours in the morning and then spent the afternoon relaxing and drinking rice whiskey. For the next few days we had exchanges with a local NGO working on the issue, the Provincial Health Office, the Office of Industry, and another village 10 km away that lives on a potential copper mining site.

This unit I was in charge of everything along with 5 other students. The program aims for students to teach ourselves and our peers. We had to plan the briefing meeting before we left for the community, and run all exchanges throughout the week and make sure everything goes well in the group of 27 students. Did I mention this was the longest homestay in the same village?..... a week in No Nong Bong Village.

Last week I dropped my backpack with my big camera and as a result, my camera isn't working properly. So this unit I took pictures when my camera was working(sometimes). Also I noticed my picture taking style has changed, at least during this trip. I took a lot more pictures of my classmates and the natural surrounding.

Here is the full No Nong Bong Photo Gallery

these farmers are working in rice fields. in the background is the gold mine that has seriously harmed their way of life

Thai Tourism Hit by Instability-Video

2009-11-16T11:59:00.001+06:00

Ko Phangan for an Island Vacation

2009-11-13T16:41:00.000+06:00

First Real New Post in 3 Weeks
Wow- I knew that I hadn't blogged in a while but my last good content-filled blog post was 3 weeks ago! I'm going to try to cover everything that has happened since then.

On Halloween night our only vacation of the program began. 10 of us got on a overnight bus to the Bangkok airport for a flight to Ko Samui and Ko Phangan==tropical islands of paradise.

On the bus ride to Bangkok started at 11pm and 1 hour later, Jon turned 21 years old. Our vacation had begun. The first day we spent the afternoon in Ko Samui with a little time on a beach and then played Soccer Golf? What is Soccer Golf; well its like golf or Frisbee golf; only with soccer balls.

Then we managed to catch the last ferry boat to Ko Phangan island where I found a hotel for all 10 of us to stay at that was nicely situated in the center of the island's main activity.

The next day we went snorkeling boat tour but the ocean was rough so we didn't snorkel that much and spent some talking to the guy who ran the boat tour; a 35 year old who fled from Burma about 15 years ago and has lived in many different places in Thailand and has many different occupations. It was a fun and relaxing boat ride.

The next day was the Full Moon party and we partied from 10pm till the sun came up. Thousands of people on the beach. They say during the high season (Jan/Feb) there are 30,000 people on the beach during the Full Moon. We were somewhere at the Full Moon with between the 8,000 (low season) and 30,000 on one big beach. It was an great experience and a once in a lifetime experience. Everyone should try to experience something like this: imagine thousands of people from all over the world together for 1 night on a beach with music and colorful lights all around. The party stops around noon the next day. If you go, you must stay till the sun comes up.

There is also professionals who dance with fire sticks and a FIRE JUMP ROPE. Anyone daring enough can try to jump in. But they use a special type of fuel, so nobody actually gets burned.

We left the island to take the ferry back to the other bigger island with the airport. However on our departure day, the ocean was very rough and had lots of big waves. Because of this, the morning ferry was canceled and the noon ferry was overcrowded. The ferry ride was scary and there was big big wave that made the boat tip way over, and everyone on the boat gasped at the same time out of fear.

Because of the rough seas, the boat couldn't properly land on the extremely small dock, and the picture shows what happened; people were forced to jump off the boat when wave pushed the boat towards the dock.

We made it back to Khon Kaen later that night.

no time to blog

2009-11-06T21:20:00.002+06:00

sorry, but don't have time to write any blog posts for a while

I will be staying in a community affected by a huge mining operation until Nov 13 and will not have internet until then

1 year ago-The Night Obama Won

2009-11-04T16:51:00.001+06:00

Photo galley of Nov 4, 2008; the night Obama won the election. photos taken in Burlington, VT

Where in the World? Ko Phangan

2009-11-01T16:48:00.005+06:00

When this is posted, I will be in Ko Phangan going to the beach and on a vacation with friends until Nov 5th

View Larger Map

Photographs from USA and Thailand

2009-10-26T19:28:00.002+06:00

I dont have any news to report.
These 2 photos are from October of 2008 in Vermont, USA

These photos taken recently in Thailand:

Landfill Community in Khon Kaen City

2009-10-25T15:58:00.002+06:00

The drive from the university to Khon Kaen city landfill was one of nervous laughter and uncertainly of what lay ahead. We were to spend two days living in a community of 220 people who live directly next to the city’s landfill. The villagers live next to the landfill because they are scavengers; they search through the trash to find recyclables. The first day we took a tour around the huge area led by the community leader who explained how the landfill worked and what everyday life was like. The next morning I awoke at 6AM thinking about the trash that we would soon be scavenging through to find recyclables and other things of value.

A group of students and I prepared for the dirty job ahead with long pants, boots, gloves, hats, and scarves to cover our faces from the smelly fumes. Many of the workers only have boots and long pants. We were given rakes and baskets for the valuables we would discover and headed down the road. We arrived to find many people already working on the landfill, as many start the day at sunrise because of the cooler temperatures. A full-loaded garbage truck arrived and we all attacked the trash looking for plastic, glass, cardboard, and electronics. Diapers, rotting food, plastic food wrappers, toys, shoes, DVDs, toothbrushes, clothes, paper, and purses were some of the things found during our relatively short time scavenging. I thought to myself; this toothpaste or this plastic potato chip bag could have easily been mine.

The life of a scavenger is dangerous because you can easily step on glass or a needle from the bags of medical waste that arrive every day. Most of the scavengers have at least one story of a time they were seriously injured from something they stepped on while working in the landfill. Hazardous gas from the massive trash pile and contaminated ground water are part of everyday life. During the rainy season they drink rain water but during the dry season they have to buy water because of the dangerous chemicals in the groundwater. The community water for showering and cleaning is pumped about 100 feet from the edge of the landfill. They have been told there is arsenic in the water but were never told the levels of arsenic and what other chemicals the water contains. They keep working here because this is the only thing they know how to do and they are comfortable with this kind of lifestyle. During our exchange, I asked “What do you want for your children?” and they immediately replied that they want their children to be educated so they don’t have to work at the landfill like their parents.

During our exchange with the community we learned that the current community of 60 households started with a few individuals who started picking through the city’s trash and eventually moved to the landfill to live permanently. The economic downturn has made life more difficult for the community for two reasons; a decrease in consumption and therefore trash and increased unemployment which had led to more scavengers working at the landfill. More scavengers means increased competition in the landfill. However I was glad to hear that the villagers have an agreement not to steal or grab objects discovered while working alongside each other.
Before the economic downturn, villagers could earn 30,000 baht a person per month ($900USD). Today they earn 5,000-6,000 baht a person per month($150-$180USD). The economic downturn means less consumption and therefore less waste but also the price of recyclables has decreased as well. Today they earn 10 baht/kg of plastic water bottles or 28 baht/kg for glass bottles. Today most villagers work 15 hours a day and do not have time free time, but it wasn’t always this way. Before the economic downtown they were able to work fewer hours which left them with more free time to spend time with friends and family as well as organize together in an attempt to try to get equipment like gloves and boots from the local government municipality.

Modern capitalism coupled with consumerism encourages us to buy more stuff to make ourselves happy and to make our lives more comfortable without thought of the negative consequences. It is expected that we all take part in the massive consumption that depletes the planet’s resources. After we put something in the trash we never see it again; but it goes somewhere and the scavengers of Khon Kaen landfill will be the last humans to see it before it is buried under the tons of new trash that arrive every day.

I took pictures at the landfill even though I wasn’t sure if it was morally right to take photographs of the workers in the landfill. I did take pictures because I knew I would never have an opportunity like this again but I wasn’t sure if I would ever show the pictures to anyone. I'm worried that people in America will look at these pictures and think to themselves "those dirty poor people." This people have been marginalized by powerful external forces like globalized economies, government policy, capitalism, poor education, etc. One of your friends or family could easily have been born into a landfill community like this anywhere in the world. One billion of the world's population lives in slums and any of us could have been born there instead of a wealthy family in America. So think of the things you throw away everyday and don't take your comfortable life for granted.

For this reason you can view these pictures on this blog post and with this direct link to a hidden photo gallery. The photo gallery is only available by direct link above and is hidden on my website.

scavenging

mountains of trash

students scavenging

I climbed to the top of a trash mountain for this picture

our student group and some members of the landfill community

here is a video of a truck dumping trash. the same thing happens in every country of the world every single day!

Nong Khai and Sala Kaew Ku Sculpture Park, with Haley

2009-10-24T16:23:00.004+06:00

We had a two day break; so Haley and I headed to Nong Khai which is a border-crossing town on the Thailand/Laos border. Class ended at 6pm so we we headed directly to the bus station hoping to catch the last bus of the night from Khon Kaen to Nong Khai. When we got to the bus station we found that there were no more direct buses until the next day. With our map and quick thinking, we hoped on the bus to Ubon Tani city. Ubon Tani about 2/3 of the way to Nong Khai.

We wanted to get a bus from Ubon Tani to Nong Khai that night but when we arrived we found that we would have to spend the night in Ubon Tani. This was no biggie except we quickly found that there is a good amount of foreigners in Ubon Tani,..........and nearly all of them are old-men sex tourists. And it was Saturday night so almost everywhere we went there were old white men and young Thai women. It was gross, creepy, and uncomfortable.

I didn't take any pictures of the old creepy guys that night but this picture/poster was outside a bar. This is what you can expect to find in the downtown of Ubon Tani on the weekend; old white guys and young Thai women.

We searched long and hard for a cheap hotel and this was the last budget room left in the city and cost $6!

On Sunday morning we took the first bus to Nong Khai to get the hell out of Ubon Tani. Nong Khai was the wonderful river and border town we had dreamed about....

We spent 1 and a half days in Nong Khai but the Sala Kaew Ku Sculpture Park was the obvious highlight and one of the main reasons we choose to go to Nong Khai.

What is this sculpture park? Well Lonely Planet has the best possible description of the place: The park is a surreal, sculptural journey into the mind of a mystic shaman. Built over the period of 20 years by Luang Sourirat, the park features a weird and wonderful array of gigantic sculptures ablaze with Hindu-Buddhist imagery. As the story goes, Luang tumbled into a hole where he met an ascetic named Kaewkoo who introduced him to the mysteries of the underworld and set him on a course to become a Brahmanic yogi-priest-shaman.

The pictures speak for themselves; this place was awesome.

Here is the full photo album

The next we took the train back to Khon Kaen

Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park, with Andy

2009-10-23T15:08:00.002+06:00

Our busy schedule doesn't have many free days so when some free time does arrive, I try to make the most of it. Andy and I woke up at 5am with the plan of going to a national park west of Khon Kaen. We had a map of Thailand, a Lonely Planet travel guide, and a Thai-English dictionary. Our goal was Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park but were unsure he we would be able to get there. Our backup plan was to go to another national park about 100 km closer to Khon Kaen that could be easier to reach.

Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park Photo Gallery

Description from Lonely Planet:
Between 1967-1982 the mountain served as the strategic headquarters for the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) and its tactical arm of the People's Liberation Army of Thailand (PLAT). The remote, easily defendable summit was perfect and is only 50km from the Laos border. CPT comrades received there training here. This CPT camp became extremely active after the Thai military killed hundreds of students ini Bangkok during the October 6, 1976 student uprising for democracy.

Photo of the Thai military crackdown from the October 1976 student movement for democracy

One of the program's mentors is P Decha. He is an old wise Thai man well-versed in Buddhism and he is involved with social justice and human rights issues. In the 1970s he was a student demanding democracy in Bangkok. He told us how after the violent military crackdown many of his friends went into the jungle up north to train with the communists. He had told us this stories, and now this was my chance to actually go to one of the jungle training areas and headquarters of the communist party.

Early in the morning, Andy and I got on the first bus to Lom Sak. The drive took 4.5 hours with the last hour being through big mountrain passes where the bus could only drive 10-20km per hour.

View Larger Map

We arrived in Lom Sak at noon and saw that the police station was right next to the bus station. So we headed there and asked how to get to the national park. There was one guy who could speak English and we quickly discovered that we couldn't reach the national park with a tuk-tuk (taxi) or a bus our current location. We were going to have to take another bus to another town and then arrange details from there; however this was getting extremely difficult because there aren't any tourists in these towns and we don't speak enough Thai to talk about this type of subject matter. We can say we want to go somewhere this afternoon for example; but can't understand the long complicated reply in Thai most of the time.

We go outside with the cop who talks to a taxi driver on the road and we are told to wait. Wait for what? I don't know but thats all we can do at this point. Then a cell phone is handed to us with a guy on the other end saying that he can take us to the national park today. Andy talks on the cell phone in half-Thai and half-English. Speaking Thai on a phone is SO HARD because of all the different tones of the language. But almost magically an hour later Ake, our driver arrives with a songtaew (minibus) with the understanding that he will drive us to the national park, spend the night with us and bring us back to the bus station the next day and all for 75$ total. We say yes and get on board:

^starting our magical adventure^

It takes us over 3 hours driving straight up a mountain to reach the main part of the massive 300 sq km park. we stopped halfway for this picture.

a housing center and education center for the CPT

here is an old picture from the CPT days in the 1970s

this is Red Flag Cliff. Where the CPT would raise their red flag after a victory. Today the national flag of Thailand flies here instead

this is a basic video I put together from our time at the park. there were incredible rock formations, rainbows, green valleys, and a waterfall:...............

that night we camped out

we camped out with rented tents and sleeping bags

us with one of the guys at the park campgrounds

in the morning

this is our amazing driver and companion for our amazing time at the park

Thai bus schedule! We got on the bus back to Khon Kaen for a highly successful trip.

In short; Andy and I researched our plan for about 1 hour the night before then packed our backpacks and got on a bus the next morning. We figured things out on the way and had a wonderful time.

Urban Community Homestay, Buddhist Lent Festival-Part 2

2009-10-22T15:06:00.002+06:00

Here is part one of my urban community homestay. This post is about the Buddhist Lent Festival that we went to during our homestay at the local temple. Full photo gallery is here.

We got to the temple to find a parade around the temple beginning. After that there was a service inside followed by lunch. Very new interesting experience which I was able to experience very-hand.

buddhist temple

preparing for a parade around the temple

part of the parade around the outside of the temple walls

waiting for the cue to start dancing again

here is a short video of the celebration outside the temple:

inside the temple for the service: after the parade around the outside

lunch at the temple

Urban Community Homestay-Part 1

2009-10-21T15:00:00.001+06:00

Last week was the urban unit and these pictures are from the homestay that 6 of us stayed. The group was broken up into different communities so it was nice to be in a small group in a smaller Thai community.

Here is the full photo gallery. Also the next post will be about a festival we all went to during our homestay!

Kara walking down the road with kids

the community is right next to a golf course. Our house got hit by a golf ball when we were eating dinner!

Thai snacks

we also lived right next to the gas company

they aren't playing pool. They are playing snooker

I talked with this guy for a while and then later that day our translator came and I got to talk to him even more and ask him in-depth questions. very cool cross-cultural conversations.

Slideshow of Pornsawan Urban Community in Khon Kaen

2009-10-17T07:09:00.005+06:00

Last week I stayed at a urban community in Khon Kaen called Pornsawan. One of my assignments for class is to create a photo essay on our food or urban unit. Here is my photo essay on family life and a temple festival.

I've got lots of content and photos to upload; I hope to post them on this blog soon

Climate Change on Mekong River Delta: Blog Action Day

2009-10-15T10:55:00.003+06:00

This is my second year participating in Blog Action Day. The topic is year is Climate Change. What is Blog Action Day?... Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.
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Since I'm writing from Thailand near the Mekong River Delta: rice, fish, rivers, and the environment are very important daily issues.

Vietnam Finds Itself Vulnerable if Sea Rises-NY Times

CAI RANG, Vietnam — For centuries, as monsoon rains, typhoons and wars have swept over them and disappeared into the sunshine, the farmers and fishermen of the Mekong Delta have drawn life from the water and fertile fields where the great river ends its 2,700-mile journey to the sea.

Last year the topic was Poverty. Here is my post from 1 year ago.

Mekong River Panorama Photo

2009-10-13T21:14:00.004+06:00

This panorama photo was taken at Pha Taem National Park from a cliff overlooking the Mekong River in Ubon Provience in Thailand. Looking towards Laos on Oct 4, 2009 10:30am

click the picture for a larger version on www.BrodieHenryPhotography.com

Burlington, VT Sunset from Spring 2008

2009-10-12T10:48:00.000+06:00

This video was filmed over about 45 minutes and then sped up into a 4 minute video.

This is taken from my old Burlington, VT apartment porch looking towards Lake Champlain. It was recorded on February 16, 2008. I've had the video sitting on my hard drive since then and now I finally uploaded to youtube

Jumping for Joy By The Mekong River

2009-10-11T21:10:00.003+06:00

This series of photos was taken on the cliffs of Pha Taem National Park overlooking the Mekong River between Thailand and Laos.

Kon Son Protest Village Video Slideshow

2009-10-09T10:19:00.002+06:00

On September 29 I wrote about Kon Son Protest Village. Original post here. read that post before you watch this video slide show

Jon put together a slide show to show to the rest of our 27 person group. I've uploaded the slide show to youtube which you can now view:

The music on the video comes from the Assembly of the Poor; which is part of a compilation CD that speaks of the injustices in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

Khao Phansa on the Mighty Mekong River

2009-10-09T10:00:00.001+06:00

A few days ago we celebrated the end of Khao Phansa which is Buddhist Lent. We drove 7 hours to the Thailand/Laos border to a small village right next to Pha Taem National Park.

View Larger Map

We spent the 1st evening with our host families and then awoke the next morning and headed to Pha Taem National Park. In the park, there are 3,000 year old painting on some of the cliffs....

3,000 year old cliff/cave paintings

After the national park we headed back to the village and found a sort of Fourth of July celebration in progress.... fireworks and firecrackers making loud noises all through-out the village and people preparing food for a big dinner. Tonight was the night to see the Nagai's fireballs-The Nagai is the dragon snake that lives in the Mekong River. The Nagai snake protected the Buddha from rain when Buddha was deep in meditation and about too reach nirvana. We were told repeatability that the Nagai would shoot small fireballs that evening above the river and that we would see them. Keep in mind that we are in the middle of huge forests of Laos and Thailand and not near anything artificial that could shoot fireballs from underwater.

Photo Gallery of Khao Phansa on Mekong River

The evening began with many Thai families arriving from cities by cars and setting up dinner picnics on the river bank.

Then as night arrived; people released small wooden boats down the river with a candle, incenses and some flowers.

Then the huge boats with many small fires on-board arrived on our section of the river.

The Nagai's fireballs were never seen and I stayed on the river bank from 5pm till 11pm and never saw a single fireball. I was disappointed but I also saw disappointment on the Thai's faces and from their body language. I had talked to P Joy the night before and he said he has seen the Nagai fireballs many times on a different part of the Mekong River. I could tell that he wasn't lying and had actually seen balls of fire; maybe from a snake or something else. But regardless, these fireballs do happen. And I found out two days later; that the Nagai's fireballs had been seen that night on another part of the Mekong.

This is a video I recorded on one of the fireboats on the river. Listen to the music in the background. There were some Thai's playing musical instruments which I had never seen before.

For those interested this blog about Thailand has more detailed information about Buddhist Lent in Thailand.

One in four is Muslim, study says - BBC News

2009-10-08T20:02:00.003+06:00

A report from an American think-tank has estimated 1.57 billion Muslims populate the world - with 60% in Asia.

Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University, told the AP news agency: "This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report."

The report, published on Wednesday, found that Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.

BBC article link

The American education system better incorporate more information about Islam and other regions or else we might be in for more wars between "us and them".

Profile on Mr. Bunsong Mathkao-Organic Farmer in Yasothon, Thailand

2009-10-08T16:26:00.004+06:00

Three weeks ago we went to a organic farming community and I posted these 2 posts on the topic.
Day on a Organic Farm in Thailand blog post
Organic Farmers Market blog post
Also here is the photo gallery for Organic Farming in Yasothon

This profile is about Bunsong Mathkao; who is the president of the Isaan chapter of the Alternative Agriculture Network..........

Mr. Bunsong Mathkao was born 52 years ago in Nago village 5 km away from his current residence. Mathkao and his wife have been farmers in the Yasothon area of Thailand for their whole lives. Today Mathkao is an independent worker who farms to provide fresh organic food for his family and is able to sell the excess on the market. Most days he wakes up at 4 AM to start his labor-intensive day at the farm a few km from his house. In the early morning he catches fish and frogs and then as the sun rises begins farming or tending some of the livestock he owns. He returns home for a late breakfast with his wife before completing other tasks. Before returning to the farm in the evening, he takes an afternoon nap in a hammock to avoid the hot sun.
This may sound like a scheduled standard routine life, and it is in some ways; but Mathkao says that every day is not the same. He is independent from corporate farming contracts and works how and when he wants. He starts each day with a set of tasks in his head and if he completes all the tasks then that’s great, but if he doesn’t then it is not a big deal.

In 1989, Mathkao entered a farming contract with a corporation to grow only sugarcane and cassava. Like everyone else in the village, he followed the advice from the company and used chemical fertilizer and pesticides to increase his yields which he thought would increase his profits. The first few years, his yields soared because of the chemicals but he found that every year he had to keep using more and more chemicals. Mathkao went into debt because of the low payments by the company for the sugarcane and cassava and the high input costs of the chemicals. Mathkao spoke about the system created by the company, where you must use their chemicals and you must sell directly to them. Since he was in debt to the company, he was forced to keep producing for them and had to do what they told him to do. After 6 years of this kind of life and debt, Mathkao decided something needed to be changed and his pioneering spirit took hold.
Mathkao was the first farmer in the village to begin the transition back to the old ways of life and to become self-reliant. When Mathkao was monocropping sugarcane and cassava, he was a farmer who didn’t eat his produce. The transition back to organic farming of rice, fruit, and vegetables took five years because of the remaining chemicals in the environment and soil. Because Mathkao initiated this positive change in his life to organic sustainable agriculture, he is now out of debt, doesn’t have health problems from the daily chemical use, and is back in touch with the natural origins of farming.

Mathkao and his wife were the first ones in the village to switch back to organic agriculture and as a result of hard work and determination, are now completely out of debt. Mathkao started working with the Alternative Agriculture Network (AAN) in 1997 and is now the President of the Isaan chapter. The AAN is part of the Assembly of the Poor and works with famers to develop sustainable agriculture techniques based on the local ecology and expand their positive impacts by training and educating other members of their communities. Mathkao was one of the protesters against the local government and demanded funding for a pilot project in 2000. The pilot project was a success and started getting serious attention from other farmers. During the pilot program, AAN and farmers planned all aspects of the program with a few NGOs supervising the program and distributing funds from the government. Mathkao began working and is continuing on working on all aspects and inputs of farming like ownership of seeds and compost.
Bunsong Mathkao is a pioneer of sustainable farming and living. He is well educated in the agriculture field from years of hard work and a desire to learn more and improve the lives of his local community and the natural environment. As a result of his forerunning work in organic farming, his farm makes a profit every year after feeding his family and in addition has a great family and friends in a village community that he loves.

When looking to the future, Mathkao is concerned about Free Trade Agreements between Thailand and other countries in Asia. An FTA would hurt and destroy many small-scale farmers in his village. With the help from Mathkao; AAN educates farmers about FTA and other trade agreements regarding food. Small-scale farmers will fight FTAs but if protests fail then Mathkao knows that he will have to adapt and evolve with the changing times, just like he has done successfully for his entire life.

Spelunking into Payanakarad Cave at Nong Jang Village

2009-10-06T18:23:00.006+06:00

My entire day was amazing, fun, and exciting. I will try to explain......Today Dalya and I headed out at 8am to explore some caves we had heard about, but didn't have many details. We knew we had to take a bus to Loei and get off at "Ha Nok Cow" (whatever that is?) and then somehow get to Nong Jang Village which is in anational park. Nong Jang village was the first homestay the whole student group stayed at 1 month ago. Here is my original blog post about our short time there. This is the photo gallery for Nong Jang

In order to get to these caves we had to use our basic Thai and nonverbal communication which was challenging. Even having my Thai/English dictionary doesn't help much because of the small tonal differences in Thai and Isaan languages.

We got on the correct bus in Khon Kaen and then I annoyed the ticket collector enough to make sure he would tell us when to get off at "Ha Nok Cow" 2 hours later. We approached some people on the side of the road and told them we wanted to go to Nong Jang village but were having problems with that so I called PJoy to try to get him to speak some Thai to them over the telephone. That worked and we arranged to have 2 motorcycles take us up to the village and to pick us up 4 hours later to get a return bus home.

In order to get to the caves, we needed another ride; so we got on one of these fun vehicles........

We took a 20 minute bumpy ride on a dirt road....

towards these mountains...

We then saw a sign for Payanakarad Cave....

Dalya, our guide, and I headed down a very slippery wooden ladder into the cave. We each had a headlamp and moved very slowly until the ground wasn't so wet.

Then we proceed to explore the cave for an hour, but it felt like much longer. We saw and touched stalagmites, stalactites, small pools of water, remains of old underground waterfalls and other amazing sights and rocks. Some massive stalagmites were 40 feet tall and 15 feet wide!! At our deepest point I think we were probably 150 feet underground and 250 feet from the cave entrance. At one point all 3 of us turned off our headlamps and experienced total complete darkness and silence: Wonderful.

This was the first time I've never been in a cave before. The underground rock formations looked like beautiful art in a museum, but this art was formed over millions of years from the Earth.

I didn't bring my camera into the cave, it was too difficult to carry and also very dark and muddy. I did take this picture from the entrance, right before you climb down the wooden ladder. You can get some idea from this picture:

Dalya and I successfully survived our caving adventure! (picture taken at entrance to the cave)

After all that fun caving experience we headed back to the village on the tractor, then had a normal Isaan village lunch with SomTum, eggs, sticky rice, and green beans. Except this time I finally tried a bug! I ate some small crickets that were offered to us.

At 4pm, the motorcycles came back to the village to pick us up. We headed back to the bus are and managed to get on the correct bus back to Khon Kaen! woohoo! After a 2 hour bus ride, it started to absolutely pour rain right as we had to get off the bus! We ran in the pouring rain to a shelter; made a game plan and then jumped on the next local bus and made it back to our apartment safe and wet.

Where in the World?-Fireballs on Mekong River

2009-10-04T16:19:00.000+06:00

when this is posted I will be celebrating the end of Buddhist lent on the Mekong river, watching fireballs shot out of the river by spirits. and then me and a few others are traveling in the region for 2 days before heading back to the university. The rest of the student group is going to Bangkok for a quick trip for World Habitat Day.

Video: How to Make Frog Soup in Rural Thailand

2009-10-02T10:12:00.005+06:00

During our organic farming homestay about 2 weeks ago there was great and interesting food. The food of Isaan, Thailand is delicious and one-of-a-kind and during the homestays you have home-cooked food that you really can't buy at a restaurant.

Our homestay father was a farmer who caught frogs out of streams and even his own rice patty, to be used for frog soup. All parts of the frogs are used except for one or two organs. This is a little different than my Indian cooking classes!

So I present a video on making frog soup in rural Thailand:

Video of Khon Kaen Day Market

2009-09-30T18:46:00.002+06:00

Here is a quick 20 second video I made from the day market in Khon Kaen

Khon Son Protest Village

2009-09-29T16:22:00.004+06:00

Yesterday was a personal day so a few of us went to Khon Son Village, about 2 hours from Khon Kaen. The government and forest industry took their farming land 30 years ago to produce eucalyptus trees. So today they live in a protest village on their former farming land surrounded by thousands of eucalyptus trees. Their village with regular houses, tvs, and running water is about 1 mile away.

eucalyptus trees^^

Khon Son Protest Village Picture Gallery. look at the captions!

protest village

regular houses at village 1 mile away from protest village

When you are driving into the village, you see the camp of 10 black shirt security guards who will take your picture. They work for the forest company/government. If you are on the eucalyptus tree land, then you are legally trespassing and are subject to arrest because the villagers don't have an official land title. So I could techinally have a warrant out for my arrest in Thailand for visiting the community. (but don't worry family, they dont have a picture of my face and they wouldn't actually arrest any of us!)

On October 19, there is a huge court case for the community. 31 randomly selected villagers will face trial for trespassing and could be put in jail. Others have been put in jail in the past and we spoke to a 84 year old man who was arrested and spent 3 months in jail about 20 years ago. If they lose the court case, they could go to jail. But if they win the court case, then that means that they legally own the land and the forest company "should" be forced to leave. A few years ago, the forest company agreed to give them back a tiny portion of land for farming, but they have not followed up on that promise.

picture of a black shirt guards from our moving van

The protest village is in a real battle with the forest company with black shirts. The villagers showed us a platform they built about 50 feet off the ground in a tree. Why do they have this? Different villagers will stay up in the platform to watch for black shirts trying to sneak up on the protest village. If they see black shirts, they will scream to get the villagers attention.

see the villager up in the tree?

Student Newsletter #1

2009-09-24T12:31:00.002+06:00

If you have been reading this blog at least semi-frequently then I HIGHLY recommend that you read the first student newsletter. All of us wrote about different topics about our first 3 weeks of Thailand.

Here is the link

Sugarcane and Monocropping Cash Crops

2009-09-22T09:32:00.000+06:00

Today was a little different from our past few days with organic family farming. We went to a village that grows sugarcane and cassava using monocropping with chemical fertilizer. All this is for a Thai company that sells the chemicals to the farmers and then buys their produce at a low price. The result is that all the farmers are in debt to the company and can't get out of the contract till they get out of debt. They are trying organic farming techniques in a few fields now and hope to switch the whole village area to organic within 10 years. Switching from chemical to organic takes about 3 years since the chemicals stay in the soil for such a long time.

working pulling a cassava plant out of the field

me in a organic cassava field

cutting sugarcane

Herbal Medicine and Exchange with Organic Farmers

2009-09-21T09:24:00.003+06:00

Today we had an exchange with the village herbal medicine man. Very cool and interesting and very hippy. We even got to make our own device for easing body/pain pains out of plants!

In the afternoon we had an exchange with the women of the village, all of which are farmers with their husbands. The best way to describe them is healthy and content with organic farming and the positive change it has had on their lives. About 50% of their food is for their family and they sell the remaining 50% on the market. The biggest challenge with rice farming is the rain, so rain=rice=livelihood.

And tonight I was walking down the street and came across a neighborhood cock fight!

Organic Farmers Market

2009-09-20T08:56:00.002+06:00

Woke up at 4am to drive 1 hour to the Green Market. This farmers market is smaller than the normal city market and has about 10 different vendors/stands. The market started a year ago and has grown a lot since its creation. We had an exchange with the leaders of the Green Market and some consumers who buy from the market. The easiest way to describe the farmers market in Thailand is this: the organic and local food movement that has been gaining speed in the USA is just beginning in Thailand. However in Thailand there is more at stake since Thailand still has small-scale farmers, unlike the US. But Thailand is moving towards mega farming operations which is wiping out small-scale farmers; organic farming might be a way to stop this.

The farmers switched from chemical to organic farming because of the health problems caused by farming chemicals, the destruction to the local ecosystem, the high cost of chemical inputs, and they enjoy farming once again since they can grow food for their entire family and sell the remaining amount for profit.

All the farmers started using chemical many years ago but many fell into debt and had health problems. In the past 5-10 years the farmers in this region have begun switching back to organic farming methods. One farmer had this to say about farmers and fishermen who live in a chemical farming area: “Farmers don’t eat their rice anymore. Fishermen don’t eat their fish anymore.” The food and fish are produced on a massive scale to be sold on the market, so overuse of chemical is common, since high yield means more profit; same as in the USA.

In the afternoon we meet with the Alternative Agriculture Network. (AAN) Self-reliance for farmers is the primary goal of the AAN. Second, they help educate farmers about organic vs chemical, government policies like Free Trade Agreements, and try to gain more support for fair-trade and organic food. Here is the website of the AAN. That night I went back to my host-family and ate another amazing Thai dinner. And of course, all the food we ate was from their fields.

A Day on an Organic Farm in Thailand

2009-09-19T08:28:00.003+06:00

Today I woke up with sunrise for the first of five days of our Food and Farming Unit. The night before all 27 of us plus staff settled in with our host families in three different villages. Morgan, Mike, Bennett, and I went out to our family’s farm. Bennett is a former CIEE student who now works on a community food security research project and lives in the village, so he has tons of information about farming and could explain everything very well and he is great translator.

Rice!

Passion fruit

Water Buffalo

I walked in a rice field and got a hands-on explanation about how rice grows, how it is harvested, how the water systems work, and other bits of important information. We picked beans and fruit and vegetables from the field and ate some on the spot but brought back most to the house for lunch/dinner. Our host father was already working at the farm by the time we got there; he goes to the farm at 4am everyday.

Frogs and fish that my host-father caught. This would become dinner for the family.

Later that day I went to a Buddhist temple for the daily food offering to the monks. The villagers gave food to the monks, the monks chanted, and then we all ate. What usually happens is: female villagers bring food to the temple, the food is passed around to the monks (this is usually their only meal each day), then the remaining food (there is always lots of it) is spread equally among the villagers. And there is always some monks chanting during this process. But I really enjoy it because the female villagers all come together and share food together with everyone. There are usually only a few males at the temple during this time because they might be working and because of Thai social structure.

Lunch at the temple

Sagar working on a wooden spoon

Where In the World? -- Yasothon, Thailand

2009-09-18T18:14:00.000+06:00

when this messages gets automatically posted on thursday I will be in Yasothon, Thailand. We are spending 5 days there in a organic farming village. I think the first day we spend the whole day with our homestay family and learn a little bit about rice farming with hands on experiences

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Some new photos from the past week in Khon Kaen

2009-09-15T10:28:00.004+06:00

Here is a gallery with Khon Kaen snapshots. all of the photos in the gallery currently are from the last week or so

in a police station (i wasn't arrested or anything)

Sept 13th-Thai Massage, Thai Language

2009-09-13T10:52:00.003+06:00

A few days ago I went for my first Thai massage at a place near my dorm. They don't speak a word of English which makes the entire process hilarious. The 1 hour massage starts at your feet and works up to your head. The first time she got up to stand on my leg I was worried. But she put all of her body weight on each of my legs, and my back and I survived. 30 minutes after the massage ended my body started to feel great and that feeling continued for the next few days.
How much did it cost? $6 for one hour; which is about the cost of dinner at an Western restaurant. (which is something i don't do)

Our Thai language midterm was this morning and I'm happy with how my Thai skills have been progressing. The midterm was about 15 minutes face-to-face with the teacher and entirely in Thai. In homestays after 5 minutes of talking with a Thai, I run out of things to say. But I'm getting better.

Here is a blog post titled "What is Issan?" from another Thailand blog. Khon Kaen is in the Issan region of Thailand, so this post gives you some information about where I live. My entire school time in Thailand is spent in Issan.

Guest Post from Scott Pulido

2009-09-08T12:40:00.005+06:00

Yesterday in class Marwan Macan-Markar came for a writing and journalism seminar. He is a journalist originally from Sri Lanka who has been working in SouthEast Asia for over 15 years. He writes about and on behalf of marginalized people without a voice in the region. He cover human rights issues, violent conflicts, abuses by governments....lots of topics.

The full day was a seminar with a exercise during the middle of the day. For the exercise each of us got a partner and had to interview them and then write a short story with a personal angle. The topic was arrival or departure so Scott interviewed me and wrote about my departure from USA to Thailand. And I liked this essay a lot, so I've included it in this post.

Scott's essay is below:

Scott Pulido

CIEE, Marwan Macan-Markar

Brodie Henry – Departure Profile

September 7, 2009

Tanzania, Connecticut, Vermont, Boston, South America, the Caribbean, Montreal, New York City, Mumbai and Bangkok. All share a similarity with each other. In this instance the cities and countries all come together in a CIEE individual, Brodie Henry. Brodie is a 21 year old American male who grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut. He attends Champlain College in Vermont. Brodie’s adventures, planned and unplanned, this past 2009 summer has connected all of these diverse places together for one amazing experience.

These adventures started in May 2009 when Brodie departed from New York City to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania for a 3 week volunteer effort in an orphanage. Following this he returned to Connecticut to visit with family and have knee surgery. In the next few months, Brodie’s widespread travels took him to an internship in Vermont and a Peace Corps interview in Boston. Two unplanned escapades during this same summer took Brodie to a Fleet Foxes concert in Montréal, and another concert featuring Animal Collective in New York City. Nearing the end of a summer filled with work and outside activities, a flight landed Brodie in Mumbai, India to visit friends. Brodie’s most recent international flight has taken him to Bangkok, Thailand where he has begun an embarkation on a study-abroad project through CIEE, the Center for International Educational Exchange. He is currently studying through CIEE with 26 university students from America.

Brodie’s travels, while not always planed in advance, have nonetheless bridged continents, countries and cities around the world. While Brodie has often visited these places in person, he also has plans in theory to connect more locations in the near future. While in Boston, Massachusetts for his Peace Corps interview this summer, Brodie was accepted into the Peace Corps and has plans to work on a Peace Corps community development project in South America and/or the Caribbean in August 2010.

If one were to mark the locations on a map of the world and draw lines connecting these sites of Brodie Henry’s summer, a spider-web of crisscrossing streaks would portray an amazingly connected globe. Brodie says that while some of these plans were planned and others unplanned, “it really is amazing to see that it all worked out and that I had a great time.”

Girl and Candlelight Dinner

2009-09-08T08:20:00.000+06:00

A few different people have mentioned that they really like this picture. if you feel the same way, leave a comment!

updated photo captions and other details

2009-09-06T16:01:00.002+06:00

Today I went back to some of the recent photos I've added of Mumbai and Thailand and added captions and keywords. So if you go to those photo galleries, you can read a caption and have a better idea of what is going on. In the blog posts from last week the links to the photo gallery were very small and you might have missed it. So I enlarged all the photo gallery links so you can easily see them when reading a post.

Also if you like what you read and you enjoy the pictures, click on some of the advertisements on the top or right side of my blog. those clicks add up into dollars for me. so if you like what you read, click an advertisement every once in a while. This blog takes up a lot of time and effort on my part.

Nongwaeng School Homestay

2009-09-05T15:23:00.001+06:00

On the morning of August 31. The group of 27 students broke up to live in a Thai family homestay for 5 days. Each of us were alone when we were with our family, usually in the mornings and evenings. My basic Thai can only communicate topics like, name, where I'm from, food, family, directions, numbers, and other general vocab. Lots of body language and misunderstandings happened but both me and my host family connected and were able to communicate both basic things to each other with patience and laughs.

Nongwaeng School Homestay Photo Gallery

When I arrived at the house my family had a litter bottle of Coca Cola waiting for me. I guess this was the way to welcome an American: with a bottle of Coke. I told them in Thai that I wanted to help cook dinner and we had rice, eggs, and green beans for dinner that night. During the next few days I would have different types of food that the mother cooked, but every meal had sticky rice.

their house

I fell asleep that night next to my nung-chai - younger brother on a comfortable bed under a mosquito net at 9pm. When the sun goes down, that usually means bedtime. That also means we wake up at 530am.

During the middle of day the rest of the students and I would meet up with staff members to continue our 3 week long orientation or 3 hour long Thai classes. On one of the days we went to a hospital that has a HIV/AIDS ward for an exchange. Beforehand we decided topics and themes about HIV that we wanted to ask the nurses and the PLWHIV (people living with HIV). After an hour and half of questions and discussions we broke up in 4 groups. My group left the hospital to talk to a man living with HIV who is healthy now because of the ARV drugs. He runs a motorcycle repair shop and we talked with him about his life before and after he found out he had HIV. This HIV/AIDS unit is just a short test unit. We will be doing these sort of exchanges on other topics in the future that will last 2-4 weeks at a time and will be a lot more in depth.

On day we all got a bus and headed to an unknown location. We spent 5 hours at a Buddhist temple in the forest discussing our group's different learning styles and personalities. We also had a group meditation led by a yogi that was very enjoyable.

My Life is Filled With One Great Thing After Another

2009-09-03T16:42:00.000+06:00

Basically I do amazing cool stuff every single day to the point where the great becomes just ordinary and the extraordinary becomes just awesome.
On August 30, I woke up on a bamboo floor and prepared food for monks; in the evening I was on the back of a motorcycle driving through Khon Kaen looking at a street stand selling an entire bloody horse leg/calf. And I do all this with my friends in the group and Thai people. And all the signs are in a foreign language with a different alphabet.

Thailand Photo Gallery Link

2009-09-02T11:47:00.000+06:00

Here are all my Thailand photo galleries

individual galleries:
Best Photography of Thailand

Best Photo Portraits of Thailand

Best Rural Photos of Thailand

Thoughts on Nohn Jang Village

2009-08-30T16:41:00.006+06:00

I didn’t know quite what to expect with our first homestay but I think Nohn Jang was pretty close to what I thought. Everyone in the village is a farmer and lives off the land. It is a very close-knit community and during the exchange the leader said they had to be close-knit in order to survive. They help each other when needed and set up an emergency fund in case one family falls on hard times. Most of their food is self-produced except some things like salt which they get from the nearest town. Any extra food they produce, they sell in the town to buy the things they can’t product themselves. All the houses are made out of bamboo, wood, or mud. Most families have one motorcycle for the father to travel to their rice field. They don’t allow outside families to move into their town. The entire community is self-contained for the most part. They have cell phones and received a few solar panels from the past government. The electricity is used to charge cell phones or charge radios.
This might sound like horrible poverty but it was quite the opposite. On the surface it seemed like they had everything they needed and maybe even a bit more. They can live comfortably because each family has their own land (which is shared among the village). They don’t need handouts and money from the rich Americans and would never steal anything from us. During the exchange we asked about health care and they said that a doctor comes into the village and provides health care and health information. Most families only have one or two children. At the exchange I asked if younger people are leaving the village to go to cities and they said no everyone is staying in the village as they grow older.
Nohn Jang Photo Gallery

Moving to Khon Kaen-August 29

2009-08-30T16:41:00.004+06:00

I met my Thai roommate and settled into my apartment. My roomate’s nickname in English is pronounced “Tom.” It spelled differently in Thai of course. Tom took me into the main part of the city to buy a cell phone. He took me to a huge mall with rows and rows of cell phones, I got the cheapest Nokia phone. The mall was interesting: it’s mostly like an American mall but with extremely cheap prices and lots of Thai people. A computer headset in the USA would cost $20, but here costs $2.50. They even had a Dunkin Donuts. We went to this park type place that had some sort of concert going on and ate some crazy Thai food stands. There is so much unknown Thai food everywhere. Went back to our apartment and finally got on the internet for the first time in 10 days or so. Tomorrow is our first “personal day.” In four months we have a grand total of 14 personal days! So we get about 4 personal days a month. Weekends aren’t weekends, and we follow an intense schedule where we see our entire group nearly every single day for 8-10 hours at a time. We wake up at 7am most days and aren’t free until 6pm.