Lampang, Ban Samkha, Seymour Papert, and an inspiration!

1/17
Jit's dad is wearing five amulets, but we still had to bug him to wear shoes in the garden. He is going to be fine. He will get a checkup for the next few days to check his condition.

We go to catch the train. At the Hua Lamphong station everybody stands at 6:00 PM for the Thai national anthem, this is the first time I have seen people stand for the anthem in Thailand. The railroad station is interesting and well organized. It is a great place to people watch.

Some families are sitting on the floor, there are not enough seats, they are not blocking traffic, a man in a uniform comes out and whistles for them to get up, this happens a couple times, Some Canadian girls sit down, they do not know the previous warnings, the whistling and warnings stop

We meet Stewart and get on the train, there is a Chinese man who speaks excellent English sitting with us. He is going to Lampang to check on a gold mine, I think he is the supervisor. He told me it is hard rock or underground mining. There was also a women from South Africa in our area.

The toilets are the Asian squat toilets, I just do not understand how they work, I have even looked it up on the Internet. The toilets are a mystery. I would lose everything in my pocket and get all wet if I used the toilet the way I think it should work, I must be missing something!

1/18
The train is restful to sleep on, the bed is comfortable, I get the upper bunk. We arrive in Lampang about 6:30 in the morning and go to our hotel to check in. The rooms are nice and we have breakfast. We then go to meet Suchin Petcharugsa with the Northern Region Non-formal education center. Suchin gave us a book, "Ban Samkha, Community that Learns" to explain the project in detail. The meeting was excellent. Suchin has worked with Seymour Papert and Constructivism. The project is called the Light House Project. The project was designed with and was inspired by the Constuctivism project at MIT. The recently retired head of Siam Cement is also involved. For the first time I understand the implications of micro-worlds and Logo as an educational tool. Micro-worlds are a means to start the self-actualization process of question, or idea, action, reflection, and revision. The micro-world experience of learning how to learn becomes a self-generalizing process that leads to understanding and growth. I was deeply impressed by our conversation, we were talking about the essential issues of education and community development.

In 1967, when I was a VISTA Volunteer, I learned about community development. I lived for a year in a village of 120 people in Alaska. The values and skils I learned in Shaktoolik have continued with me in my career. I use the ideas of community development in my teaching and counseling. Talking with Suchin Petcharugsa re-awakened and clarified some basic insights that have motivated my life.

We also talked about e-learning. In Thailand e-learning seems to be anything that is not face to face. I really think that the concept of e-learning tangles up and confuses many essential concepts. A few of the more fertile distinctions that are subsumed and hidden by the general e-learning concepts are: synchronous and asynchronous learning; distance and face to face learning; how course material is delivered; and the role or the instructor as facilitator or as presentor of information. For me e-learning is about using the Internet to teach and learn, it includes communication, student submission of work, teacher to student and student to student communication, content delivery and enrichment, using the Internet as a research tool, and using the Internet as a publishing tool. E-Learning is a tool, like writing and speaking, that is used to teach and learn. The Internet provides a huge array of evolving tools that can enhance the teaching process, using these tools, is the key to e-learning.

During our meeting we discussed the MIT $100 laptop project. Thailand is going to make a major commitment to implementing the project, but the issue of training, appropriate use, software, and how the laptops will be embedded in the educational process are a little murky. Dr Suchin talks about people bombing communities with their ideas and projects, it is a good analogy for top down projects.

After our meeting we got to visit an absolutely beautiful Wat. Wat Phra That Lampang Luang is over a 1000 years old. The cream color sand, the golden brown bricks, weathered wood, and form and shape of the structures are beautiful. It was sunset and we walked around and took pictures.

We went to our hotel and then took a horse buggy for dinner. The meal was good.

1/19
We go to Ban Samkha today, I was a little nervous. I am introspective and shy by nature. We drive for about 45 minutes and arrive at the community. It is beautiful. We meet the teacher Srinuan Wongtrakul and also meet with our guide and helper Thim. Both people were awesome in their presence and sparkle. We were meeting people that were a joy to get to know.

We got to see a small manufacturing building that was making dried banana snacks, sort of like fruit leather. The process was well organized and the product was very good. We also go to see a cooperative store that returns the yearly profits to the community. Many people have projects, we saw a man who was carving wood horses, Thim's family is growing Japanese pumpkins. The people are productive, creative and industrious.

The Ban Samkha community has an excellent leadership structure based on a committee of community members. The community is so organized that cow herders are expected to pick up after the cows when the are herded on the community streets. The community has created check dams in the mountains to trap water so that it can enrich the forests and also be saved for irrigation. We got to go on a long hike to see the mountains and also to see the check dams. The community is working with other communities in the vicinity to help prevent fire and to build check dams.

The community has developed an individual accounting system so people can see their financial situation. They also have a clear idea of dept in the entire community. Seeing the community debt has inspired many small money making projects sovthat people can reduce their debt. There are about 600 people registered in the community. There are about 40 students in the elementary school. The older students go to school in Lampang, but come home in the evening. Students are expected to share their ideas and talents with the community and to participate in community meetings. As we walk around the community we see no-smoking signs on many homes. There is a sign by the Wat that says Drugs and AIDS equal Death.

The teacher and school are an inspiration. I would have loved my daughter to be taught in the school. The school is built on community development and micro-world principles. Students are using lessons that are deeply embedded in and relevant to the community. There is a student teacher from Chula University at the school, she has been there for three months, she says she loves it

We went to a meeting at the Wat where two bus loads of people from Nakhow Sawan were learning about the community leadership and community projects.

There is a statue of a community hero in the village. He fought for Thailand against Burma. He had the opportunity to stay with the King but he chose to come home. It is a large statue near the library. Somehow honoring a person who returns to the community seems appropriate.

The NECTEC people are in the school helping to revise the configuration for the Internet connection. They are adding VOIP to the configuration. The students and community use the Internet for community projects.

In our walk up the mountains we see check dams, rice fields that are being used for vegetable gardens, crabs that live under rocks, a large snake skin from a poisonous snake, and a young man coming down the trail with a rifle and a traditional orange sash. He had been hunting. It was very dry in the woods, but beautiful. The women we walk with, Thim is a joy, she brings light and laughter wherever she goes. Thim is responsible for the home stay. She is also responsible for the women's check dam team and represents the community in forest fire prevention planning

We had a wonderful dinner with meat cooked over charcoal. A student joined us. She is in 11th grade and spoke English with excellent pronunciation and great spirit and confidence. She wants to be a tour guide for the community, she would also be an excellent teacher. She says she spends as much time with the teacher as she can!
There were some younger English speaking students who were also with us.

1/20
We go for a walk in the morning, the light is beautiful, there are many roosters and hens, I am surprised by how colorful and beautiful chickens can be. The bird flu is a tragedy, not only because of the human deaths, but also because chickens are an important part of community life. I hear cattle bells and roosters, watching the sun come over the mountains and seeing the mountain haze is beautiful.

Jit talks with one of the Monks, he is a little skeptical about technology. He would like to see the community focus on local problems like drinking.

We visit a old man who has knowledge about Lanna traditional healing and herbs. He has a library of very old texts on banana leaves that describes medicinal plants in the Lanna language. The school students are working with the man to translate the material to Thai and to create a computer archive to save and share the information. The Lanna herb project is an example of community based education. One student demonstrates how the Lanna script works on a computer, he points out the difficulty with one of the letters, he is in elementary school. I am impressed.

We leave the community, I will never forget my experience here. Driving from Lampang to Chiang Mai we pass a sign that points to the Lampang Volcano. I need to look this up on the Internet.

We stop at Lamphoo and visit another ancient Wat, Wat Phra That Haripunjana Lamphun. There are many people meditating at the Wat, it seems very active spiritually. There is a large school for young monks next to the Wat.

Crossing the pass between Lampang and Chiang Mai there were many, hundreds, of Spirit Houses at the summit. Going up the hill to the summit there were many stalled trucks, other trucks were crawling at less then a walking pace.

We get to Chiang Mai and check it to the "Airport Resident" a serviced apartment that Stewart arranged with a friend. It is an excellent value. All the hotel rooms in Chiang Mai are full, we are lucky to find a place to stay. We are tired and take a nap.

We go to the Night Bazaar and Pantip Plaza in downtown Chiang Mai. The Pantip Plaza is half vacant, sort of like it was in 2004. It does not have the energy of the Pantip Plaza in Bangkok. The Night Bazaar is not as interesting as it was in 2004. I think being in Thailand for a long time makes me see how superficial and touristy it is. We ate some great huge wonderful tasting corn on the cob and a fresh strawberry smoothie. Going back to our room I won a T Shirt at the Toyota dealership because I wore a red shirt. As we were walking by they wanted anybody with a red shirt to come and claim a prize, Jit heard the announcement and made me go over to win!