The prospect of going up the mountains of ChangRai, Thailand excites me!!! For those who have not yet known of my plans for the December holidays, I will be visiting the Akha tribe in Thailand with one of my friend, a humanitarian aid worker to help them. The details have not been finalised yet but I am determined to make this trip a success!

Just some prelimary information about the akha tribe to those who are interested in finding out more about the AKha tribe... THe Akha tribe lives on the mountain tops, north of Thailand, near the fringes of Thailand and Yunnan. Their plight is somewhat like the Kurds who have yet to obtain autonomy from the Thai government.there is a quiet policy of cultural genocide, where as little is done to help these minorities who are dying quickly of Aids,
drug addiction, illiteracy etc. They are not allowed to work without an ID card, cannot go to Thai schools etc.so there is virtually nothing for them except being trapped in the mountains.

It seems the Israelis have been buying fields and farmlands
from minorities hard up for cash. And now owning almost the
entire ridge and valleys, they are now growing grapes and
vineyards,using > > up all the water from the rivers. What is the greatest
disgrace is that they are employing the self
same folks who sold them the lands in the first place at
the exploitative rate of 100 baht a day to work in fields sold
for next to nothing. If you take USD1= 42 baht, you can imagine,
they are being paid a little more than
USD2 per day.


Basically I will be going there for a period of eighteen days.... The tentative plans are

1) Teaching the kids English
2) playing with the kids
3)together with another NGO, teach them how to grow other crops!!!

The soil they have is very fertile. Unfortunately, they do not know how to grow other crops besides rice! Currently, logan and poppy seeds have been grown... Though, I am not sure why they need poppy seed????