STOU, Alaska Exchange Program, and OTOP City

It is cool and grey today, sort of like a cloudy summer day in Alaska. People are wearing jackets, huddling up, and shivering.

We went to STOU today. Nothing much happening. We talked with International Relations. I looked at their web site and talked with the person who is creating and maintaining the web site. He is doing a good job and is motivated and knowledgeable. He showed me an excellent web site for web development. Check out www.webhang.co.uk .

We also talked about having an exchange program with Alaska. Maybe creating a summer school course for students to go to Thailand. We also would like to set up a reciprocal arrangement for Thai people to come to Alaska. When I return to Alaska I can start to sound out people about the possibilities.

Next Monday afternoon I will meet with the International Relations office to discuss the idea of an exchange program in more detail. Anne will also arrange a meeting with the Office of Continuing Education for my remaining assignment at STOU.

We got a call from the Non-Formal Education Office to confirm our meeting on December 29th. I have emailed Keith, my partner in Fairbanks, for current degree information and competencies. I am not sure how this new opportunity to share knowledge will evolve, but I am glad to be able to share our knowledge and resources.

After our time at STOU we went to OTOP City at the Impact Center. What a place, two huge halls filled with booths of OTOP products arranged by location. Each booth indicated the location of the items on sale. There were many items of high quality and excellent design. There were also generic and predictable items for sale that did not seem to really relate to the OTOP idea. If I ran a gift shop in the United States I would schedule a yearly trip to OTOP City to buy goods for my shop. I especially was attracted to the items from southern Thailand. To see everything in both halls would take two to three days, there were some repeating and similar items, but there were also items of real quality.

The OTOP idea would work in Alaska, in fact the old cooperative movement and ANICA were similar in intention.

As we came in to the hall there was a group of people playing temple music, music like we heard at the Kathin ceremony, drums, bells, saxophone, dancing, great music, I mean really great, I love it. I wanted to dance. The music is like band music and jazz all mixed together. It is music to celebrate with. Anyway the band was playing in front of the hall. Amazing music. I would love to get a CD of it.

I saw cloth being dyed and batik being made. There were different kinds of Thai music being played. There was a group of blind musicians playing classical Thai music. The Batik was interesting. They used a brass tool, with a cup of melted wax, to make the patterns on the cloth. Another person then painted in the colors. The design was beautiful and organic. I loved it.

Some of the items I saw were textiles, clothes of many types, lamps, wood sculpture, different kinds of hand made paper, too many kinds of imitation flowers (they were beautiful but there were too many booths with similar items) woven baskets, many kinds of food, fresh and packaged, wall hangings, there were different kinds of coffee, grass weaving, cowboy hats, embossed paper with gold inlay, porcelain, cosmetics, oils, herbs, juice, soap and shampoo, knives, fish, wine, sausages, cowgirls, and a man in a Confederate Army Hat! And this is just a small part of the variety and depth of the items on sale.

In one hall there were many policemen and soldiers in uniform. The policemen had uniforms on and somewhat redundantly had badges that said POLICE.

There was a booth called Net and Tent Paradise that sold a sort of mosquito net tent.

My understanding is that there is no fee for the booths, it is a major event. Sort of like a Christmas bazaar that it beyond imagination.

In Thailand people eat with sticks, sort of like tall large tooth picks. If you get fruit it will come in a plastic bag with a stick so you can spear the fruit and eat it. Meat and even bread is served with the sticks. I have not seen a similar thing in the United States, but it is a good idea.

We bought some different fabrics and wall hangings. We also got a reed mat and pillow. I think we can haul all the stuff home to Alaska. Our plan is to go again this Saturday with Nuck and Nick. If we go in the morning we should be able to explore before it gets too crowded.

Tomorrow we might go into Bangkok to look around.