Rice planting: In August, for sale I went to a rice planting party in Mae Rim, orthopedist just 30 minutes north of Chiang Mai.  We planted upland rice and sticky rice, and sampled rice harvested from last year’s planting.

 

Takraw: This being rainy season, we haven’t played football in a while.  But the boys constructed a takraw net and started playing in July.  It requires gymnastic skills, which Pi Singkam, although in his 40s, still has.  I, on the other hand, am as clumsy and lead-footed as an oaf!

Huay Mak Lium: I visited this village with Pi Singkam and Ajan Tui – it’s a Palaung village located near orange groves about 45 minutes from UHDP.  The owners of the land decided to pave the only road through the village, so there is this glorious stretch of tarmac running through the middle (see the pic with the chillies drying on the road) of a village which UHDP has been helping for several years.  We visited two men to give them loans to start haircutting and blacksmith businessness.  The Palaung are the most recent migrants into Northern Thailand from Burma – many don’t speak and write Thai so they are not aware of how to apply for ID cards which could grant them access to employment opportunities and social benefits.  The photocopied paper is an example of legal identification they could possess…if they were present at the time when Thai officials were registering the villagers.