Baan Saam Kha (Three Leg Village)
Posted by Stuart at 09:50 PM on January 19, 2006It's been a wonderful day in Baan Saam Kha, or "Three Leg Village". When we first arrived, the kids of the village at the school all ran out to welcome us, giving us a wai and saying hello. We were then greeted by the energetic head of the elemenatary school, Khun Srimuan, who "checked us in" to the small homestay.
Our first scheduled event was to attend a meeting with villager leaders from Nakorn Sawan Province. One hundred village leaders from one amphoe (district) in Nakorn Sawan province had driven several hours to hear how the people of Baan Saam Kha had worked together to improve their lives. One big problem in Thailand is that many of the poor rural people have been given loans by the government and the banks, but now their expenses far outweigh their income. So much of the presentation by the village of Baan Saam Kha was about how villages can work together to reduce their debt -- both the debt of the individual families as well as the debt of the village itself.
After the meeting and a delicious lunch of pumpkin curry, glass noodles with pork, and fruit, we headed back to the school to learn more about the Internet pilot project that is going on in Baan Saam Kha. The project is being developed by the Wireless communication System Research group under the Telecommunication and Network Research and Development Division of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC).
Although the elementary school now has a high-speed connection to the Internet, that is not the main purpose of the technology. Instead, it is a project sponsored by the Thai telecom companies trying to figure out how to best give phone service to the isolated rural villages. So it wasn't a project to use the Internet for education as I thought, but instead it was a VOIP (voice over Internet) project. In any case, it was still cool to be able to check my email on a fast connection in such a remote location.
Steven and I also went on a hike with a villager named Dtim. She pointed out many of the wildlife to us and explained about the different edible plants and animals that can be found in the forested mountains. The village has also built "check dams" to help collect water for the dry season, and she proudly pointed out the villagers handiwork. Unfortunately, she didn't speak English! But I could make out some of what she was talking about, like "the students built this dam" and "the crabs that live in the river are purple but the crabs that live in the rocks are green".
We finished the day with one of my favorite meals: mu ga-ta. Tomorrow we will spend some more time in the village and then head to Chiang Mai in the afternoon.
