What the heck am I doing here??

My favorite village picture

Overall, I have been here almost 6 weeks but only last week did I finally start my first academic unit about food and agriculture. We have 5 units total. Every unit we have a trip to the village or community where we stay in home stays. The trip is 5-7 days long. Then we return to the city for reflection days on what we learned and further activities on where we are at. We then have 2-3 days off and then start a new unit all over again.

This past unit we stayed with farmers. They mostly farm organic now because they had health problems and experienced environmental problems from chemical use. We met with an herbal medicine doctor and NGO representative from the Alternative Agriculture Network.

Below are some pictures of my host family. I stayed in what we'd consider to be a shack (but for them is a house). There were chickens, dogs, ducks, cows running all over the place. They have a huge vegetable garden so I got to eat fresh delicious food!

(My dad, and mom and little sister named Fanta. They have an older son named Pepsi. Their puppy is named Soda! Thai names can't get any better. See the house in the background)

It was incredible to have the opportunity to stay with this family and see how they live. We can only begin to acknowledge our privilege when we understand how others live. Being there made me consider whether I was seeing/experiencing poverty. No, they do not live in the luxury I come from. Their shack was dilapidated on stilts. But when it comes down to it, this family had home grown food, shelter, clothes and the basic essentials to live (even a TV and refrigerator). And they are happy too... So was this rural poverty?? I'm not so sure anymore.

(Monk boys playing games at a carnival I went to. Couldn't help but sneak a picture. Yes, that's a toy gun in hand.)