Greetings,
apologies on the lateness of this message as well. A week and a half or so ago, seasia traveled to Pun Pun organic farm to learn about organic farming (obviously). There we learned from nightly slideshows the importance of seed saving and the ease of earthen building.
We did a variety of different tasks every day. One day we made compost, a mixture of manure, old straw, banana leaves, and EM (a multipurpose substance that is incredibly easy to make, you just take fruit or old food and cover it in sugar then leave it for 2 weeks et voila! You either have yourself a delicious drink or something to pour on your compost to boost its ability to help the plants it will be put on… end of tangent). We watched videos on the importance of variety in food and how horrible monocropping is. It was very inspiring. Team Seasia is definitely going to return to the states with a bigger awareness on the importance of shopping organic.
We also learned about earthen building. It’s so sad that people spend 30+ years of their lives saving up to buy a house when all you need is dirt, rice husk, and water. So easy. With just a little bit of effort you can build your very own earthen home, exactly as you want your home to be for ridiculously inexpensive costs. We watched a slideshow with different photos showing examples of the countless posibilities for earthen building.
With minds filled with hope for the future we headed back to Chiang Mai where we started our language and massage schools. However, we lost 1/4 of our Seasia team on the second day back. Something that was incredibly difficult to deal with and accept. His presence is sorely missed by all of us. We managed to try and start up our normal routine again, definitely with a missing presense. In the morning from 10-12 we studied Thai. Afternoons from 1-4:30 we studied Nerve Touch Massage, a technique designed by the famous Mamma Lek. It’s incredible how quickly we were all able to pick up on language and massage. After a short 5 afternoons we got our certificates in Thai Massage. And our notebooks fill up more and more daily with information that helps us speak Thai to locals. We’re going to have much more time to practice when we’re staying with our homestays, which we’re all looking forward to.
Now off to our afternoon session at the International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice. To talk about our country’s victory. Yay Obama!!
