Life in Phana

A Litter Anecdote

While collecting litter in Don Chao Poo forest last Friday, Pensri's friend told us a little story:

'When my children were young (they are now adult and parents themselves) I used to take them to the forest early in the morning to gather mushrooms. When we found some I would say, "Hush, keep your voices down. If people know we have found mushrooms they will come in and join us and we won't get very many." Now we are collecting litter and we call out loudly to everybody who passes, but nobody comes to pick up litter with us!'

Other times, other ways.

Phana's Pride or Shame?

The people of Phana have much to be proud of. And they are right to feel pride in the cleanliness of the streets, the 'zero waste' campaign that recycles large quantities of waste; the community spirit and community action that enables campaigns such as this, initiated by the tetsaban, to succeed. And the tetsaban is rightly proud of the prizes and the national exposure and acclaim it has won.

The people of Phana are also proud of Don Chao Poo, a conservation site for more than 50 years. And proud of the long-tailed macaque monkeys that live in the forest, some 500-600 of them. The monkeys attract tourists, mostly from the surrounding villages and towns but some from further afield. After the famous Buddha image in Wat Phra Lao Thepnimit, they are what puts Phana on the map.

But there's the rub: put monkeys and tourists together and one of the things you get is litter. Tourists bring food for the monkeys, or buy it in the stalls outside the forest, and much of the food is in plastic bags. Monkeys grab plastic bags; the wind blows them around; the waste bins are a waste of time because the monkeys raid them and scatter the contents. But you can't blame the monkeys; and if the tourists should take more care and take home their litter whenever possible, at least they are being thoughtful and generous in providing food for the monkeys.

Recent trips Pensri and I have made into the forest have dismayed us both: the amount of litter is, quite frankly, disgusting. It makes a mockery of the forest as a conservation area, and it makes a mockery of Phana considering itself a clean place. Here are some pictures I have taken recently.

This one shows plastic bags that have been discarded and blown into the forest close to the track. This degree of litter should be easy to deal with if it is removed quickly, by which I mean daily or at least every other day.

 

But the accumulation of rubbish such as this is on another scale altogether. It is not wind-blown. It is not deposited by monkeys. Some of it is embedded in the soil, so it has been here for years, not days. 

This litter has  been quite deliberately collected here and it is easy to work out WHEN and WHY and WHO by. 

Don Chao Poo forest is used by the tetsban and the amphur to hold official 'opening ceremonies' for a variety of occasions. Before the Governor or his representative or some other dignitary is whisked into the forest in a motorcade, the roads are  'cleaned up' -- a euphemism for brushing all the litter into the undergrowth, out of sight. Cliches, maybe, but relevant and accurate: brushing the problem under the carpet; out  of sight, out of mind.

So what is to be done? Well, it is a long-term problem that will only get worse if plans to encourage more tourists to visit Phana come to anything. In the short term, Pensri and I went to the forest last Wednesday and spent about 90 minutes collecting litter. We filled 5 black bin bags in that time. We filled the first one twice because some monkeys came along and ripped it open and re-scattered the litter.  A good demonstration of part of the problem. But we also saw lots of evidence that the monkeys are only part of the problem. It is not, I think, the monkeys who are drinking beer, milk, fruit juice, eating sweets, smoking cigarettes or reading and and discarding magazines full of pictures of naked women. I hope the monkeys know better than to do any of that, though I know they learn fast.

On Thursday we were joined by a friend of Pensri's and three young students from Phana Suksa. On Friday there were five young students from Phana Suksa. On those two days we collected more than 30 bags full of litter and then went to have duck noodle soup together in Ban Don Kwan.

The man in the picture here is employed by the tetsaban to spend a couple of hours a day in the forest, putting down tetsaban-provided rice for them, sweeping up some of the leaves. There is no blame attached to him for the litter: there is far too much of it for one person to deal with.

The youngsters here all wanted to continue working on the weekend but we oldies needed a rest. We will be back in the forest on Monday, but by then the weekend feeding by tourists will have introduced a lot more plastic bags. Never mind, it is likely that we will have removed the biggest proportion of the long-term litter in another two mornings of work. Then it will be up to the community to decide how to tackle the problem in a way that will make a blitz such as ours unnecessary again.

For the rest of this week I will post blogs with some of my thoughts about the 'monkey/litter problem' in Phana. I hope readers will offer some suggestions, too.

Model Agriculture Centre, Phana -- Livestock Update

Life at the Model Agriculture Centre in Phana goes on. And how. We re-visited a few days ago and in the few months since we were last there we found the following new arrivals:

31 piglets, 3 geese, 1 foal, all of them born there. New donations (nobody seemed to know exactly why they had been donated or whether they had a place there other than as pets) were 4 rabbits and 1 guinea-pig.

It also seems that a more accurate rendering of the Centre's name would be something like:

Centre for Training and Distribution for Self-Sufficient Agriculture

But that seems a bit of a mouthful so for the purpose of updating my previous posts, I have stuck with the first name.

The photos are large on this post, partly because I like them that way but also because they more or less speak for themselves so there will be very little text.

My favourite, and the one I went back hoping to see; born a month ago:

 

 

These piglets are a couple of months old, but it seems quite a small litter ...

 

... especially when compared to these 11 one-month olds ...

 

... or the 14 little ones here, less than a week old.

 

The two geese strutting about in the previous post are the parents of these three, but they have been separated so that the little ones can receive special care in a safer environment. 

 

The staff of the centre are preparing for the frog breeding season by building nursery ponds (anuban!) since frogs tend to cannibalise their offspring, or some of them.

 

And here are some of the other newcomers. Click on the pics to enlarge them if you want to see a rabbit and a guinea-pig. They are not that often seen in Thailand.

 

 

And finally ... here's a pig that would like to be taken for an Asiatic Black Bear:

 

Appliance of Science at the Model Agriculture Centre, Phana

The appliance of science was the tag-line on a series of advertisements in the UK some years back. I think it was used by a company producing fridges and freezers. The phrase came back to me when I visited the Model Agriculture Centre in Tambon Phra Lao, Phana. It seems that this piece of equipment is proving of interest to lots of local farmers. It is only of use to them if they are keeping pigs, however. That is because it relies on a good quantity of pig dung to be produced and collected as often as possible. Here are Pensri and  the young man in charge explaining to each other how it works. He explained the day-to-day running and Pensri explained a bit of the practical chemistry behind it. The dog found it all very interesting but made no comment.

The first step is to collect as much pig dung as possible. That is not a problem here as my next post updating the post about livestock will show. The dung is washed into the strong plastic storage tank through this aperture:

The tank is filled to about half its capacity with the slurry of pig dung mixed with water. Methane gas is given off and rises to fill the tank. A pipe connects the tank with a gas cooker through this pipe arching over the water containers. An offshoot of the pipe leads into the inverted plastic bottle which has water in the bottom and a hole cut into the top. The short piece of pipe going into the bottle has a valve which allows gas into the bottle if the pressure is too great. The gas then bubbles through the water and escapes into the air through the hole in the bottle. The purpose of the water is so that if bubbles are seen then it is apparent that the gas pressure is too high. Ingeneous, eh?

Here you see the gas ring, actually a double ring, hence the divided pipe and the two taps. Depending on how much heat you require, you open one or both of the taps. Of course, the gas supply could be attached to a more sophisticated cooker if required.

 

 

About 10 kgs of pig dung is collected here each day and fed into the tank. Enough methane gas is produced to provide all the fuel the half dozen or so workers need in order to cook their food and heat water for tea.

 

The tank is emptied every few days by running off liquid from the end of the tank. Bacterial action inside the tank destroys the fecal matter and there is no smell from the run-off. However, the tank that collects the run-off is normally covered.

Phana Garden Resort

Phana Garden Resort is the only place of its kind in Amphur Phana. It opened in September 2009 in spacious grounds which have been well-maintained as  the 'garden' in the name of the resort.

The frontage is welcoming by day ...

... and by night.

The building nearest to the road is this open-air restaurant:

 As with many things in Phana, the town's iconic monkeys are represented. Here they figure behind the bar.

As well as the open-air restaurant, there is another room, air-conditioned, which can be used for entertaining large groups to lunch or evening meal, or as a meeting room seating up to 80 people. The resort has only a small number of rooms available for accommodation, and most of their business seems to be providing spaces for meetings and celebrations. There are two snooker rooms which seem to be well patronised and so do the two karaoke rooms, of course.

The sleeping accommodation consists of five small one-bed units like these, three of them with air-conditioning and two of them with a fan only. All have a toilet and hot and cold showers. With air-con the price is 470 Baht per day, and with a fan it is 310 Baht per day.

Two larger units with veranda and carpeted floor are 630 Baht a day, and there is one two-bedroom unit with veranda at 960 Baht a day. Breakfast is not included in the price, but it can be provided if ordered the previous night.

This karaoke room can seat 15 people:

The resort is about 1 km from the amphur office, 2 kms from the new market and bus station. The area where the resort is situated is still green and pleasant as this view looking out to the road from the open-air restaurant shows.

At present, the resort is used mainly by people returning to Phana usually  for some sort of family ceremony that means more people attending than the local family members can accommodate. If some of the ideas being proposed as part of the Community Based Tourism initiative in Amnat Charoen Province came to fruition, then Phana Garden Resort will play an important role. People staying there can be sure of friendly and helpful service and a comfortable night's sleep.

Livestock at the Model Agriculture Centre, Phana

Self-sufficiency has been a buzz-word in Thailand for several years now, popularized by HM the King's promotion of his ideas on the subject. At least one farm in Phana is run along lines advocated by His Majesty. The Model Agriculture Centre just outside Ban Pathum Kaew in Tambon Phra Lao is a further example and it sets out to give assistance to local farmers who wish to pursue a more sustainable way of working. To this end they have gathererd a collection of livestock and are advising farmers on the selection, care and breeding of livestock. In at least one case, they are providing breeding samples, and it is likely that they are doing so, or plan to, in every case.

For purely sentimental reasons, my favourites are these most recent additions. The one on the right was heavily pregnant when I last visited about a month ago, so I will be making another visit soon to see whether she has foaled.  Ponies such as these used to be used quite a lot in this part of the country. My father-in-law, for instance, was a school inspector/advisor for several years in the 1950s and travelled from school to school on just such a pony. There are still quite a few specimens in Champassak Province in southern Lao and last year I saw a monk riding one in neighbouring Ubon Ratchathani Province. These two were purchased by Tetsaban Phra Lao from the market in Warin Chamrap.

 You might wonder what this specimen has to look so smug about ...

 ... and now you know.

 He doesn't seem destined for the pot but a long and happy life doing what I'm sure he does best.

This fine specimen of brahmin cattle is in fine condition and also looks proud of himself, I'd say.

And what is that about sauce for the gander also being sauce for the goose? One of these doesn't look so sure.

Now when I first saw these enclosures I jumped to the conclusion that some little vegetables were being grown behind the protection of the fine-mesh netting, safe from the prying beaks of marauding birds. I may have been partly right about the need for the netting, but very wrong about the vegetables. What is under here is pure protein!

See what I mean? Unfortunately the photo doesn't do justice to what I saw in the enclosures: hundreds of frogs like this one. They all hopped for cover under the lotus leaves in the pools as soon as I approached, and taking pictures through the netting proved pretty unsuccessful anyway. But what happens to these frogs is a good example of the sustainable agriculture idea. Farmers are shown how to prevent them from hopping away and falling prey to predators by building secure enclosures, and also how to provide a suitable environment and food for them to grow well and keep breeding. They are also shown when to cull the population and to what extent, and hey presto! Suddenly there are lots more frogs in the market for the frog-hungry residents of Phana. And nobody has to wade through ponds and flooded paddy fields to catch them.

 

 

Model Agriculture Centre, Phana

The Model Agriculture Centre in Phana more often goes by the name on this sign at the entrance: Fai Rong Hin. But many people don't seem to know about it at all. I suppose if you have to work for a living, you don't have the time or the inclination to go exploring the countryside. I have plenty of time and inclination for that sort of thing.

As you can see from the lower part of the sign, you are welcome here.

  Fai Rong Hin has been developed over the last four or five years by Tetsaban Tambon Phra Lao. I would guess that it has been their major project. The 'fai' or reservoir is of course a source of water to irrigate the fields, as well as contributing to the piped water supply to houses in Phana. But the tetsaban saw the possibilities of developing the area as a leisure resource and as a place for officials and others to come for seminars, short courses, meetings and that sort of thing. And latterly, it has been developed as a centre for providing advice and practical assistance to farmers and others who wish to develop a sustainable, more self-sufficient lifestyle.

 This sala looks like a good place to have a picnic, though it is already in need of some repair:

The first part of the model agriculture centre to be developed was the fish breeding ponds. Different kinds of fish are kept in separate ponds and are supplied to farmers to stock their own ponds.

This is very much a pilot program, but it seems very promising and the take-up from local people is reported to be good.

I will have more on this place in my next couple of posts.

 

Community-Based Tourism

I am not sure I fully understand what the Thai Tourism Authority understands by Community-Based Tourism. But Amnat Charoen is one of two provinces (the other is in the south of Thailand) that is going to run a CBT pilot project. I need to understand what is meant because I have been co-opted onto the Provincial committee that is to draw up plans for the different amphur in the province. My job is to 'collect data'. I wasn't at the original committee meeting (though Pensri is one of the Phana representatives and she was there) so I can interpret data collection pretty much as I please, I think.

Tourists already come to Phana, almost all of them Thais coming from other parts of the country. They  visit Wat Phra Lao and sometimes Don Chao Poo Forest Park. On average, they spend no more than 30 minutes in Phana before getting back into their big tour bus or private car and heading off to the next stop on their itinerary.

These tourists are in no way based in our community. They donate to the wat, no doubt, and those going to Don Chao Poo purchase some food (not necessarily appropriate food) for the monkeys there. But Phana gains little or nothing from their visit

What I have done so far is produced  a document outlining what Amphur Phana has to offer to tourists so that they might spend more time here and provide some income-generating opportunities for Phana people.

SITES TOURISTS COULD VISIT IN AMPHUR PHANA

• Wat Phra Lao -- 300-year-old temple and famous Buddha image
• Wat Ban I-Keng -- attractive wat in a nearby village 
• Wat Ban Sao-Ree --village wat with school for novices 12 - 18 years old
• Wat Don Kwan --new(ish) wat in Tambon Phana; largest black Buddha image in Isan; 2nd tallest Phra That under construction
• Don Chao Poo Forest Park -- Buddha images, Chao Poo shrine, monkeys
• Weaving groups: Ban Phana, Ban Pathum Kaew; Ban Soi (silk production from mulberry leaves to cloth)
• Traditional Medicine Centre: Traditional Massage (treatment and training); herbal medicine production and sales
•  Model Agricultural Centre, at Fai Rong Hin, Phra Lao Municipality
•  School visit(s)
•  Noodle-shops and restaurants

ACCOMMODATION: at Phana Garden Resort

INCOME-GENERATING OPPORTUNITIES: Phana Garden Resort, Noodle-shops and Restaurants, Taxi and bus services, Hire of bicycles, Purchase of woven products, Purchase of herbal medicines, Purchase of traditional massage services, Invitations to donate for site visits:

REQUIREMENTS BEFORE IMPLEMENTATION:

• “Come to Phana” brochure produced, in Thai and in English

• “Come to Phana” brochure to be made available at TAT offices in Amnat Charoen, Ubon Ratchathani, Yassothon, Si Sa Ket, Bangkok, etc. And on TAT web-site.

• Production of bi-lingual informational guide leaflets to individual sites; to be made available at the sites, and at Phana Garden Resort, Amphur Offices, Tetsaban offices and OPT offices

• Production of map of Phana district showing facilities, routes and distances; to be made available as guide leaflets above

• English-language menus compiled and made available in noodle-shops and restaurants

• Purchase of bicycles for hire; to be made available at a central location where they are easily available and can be checked for repair, etc. (eg Tetsaban Phana IT Centre at the Old Market)

I suspect that 'Home-Stay' might be part of the TAT definition of CBT, but to me there seems little point in  making all the arrangements that would entail until it becomes clear that there is demand for it from tourists. It would be different if there were not already somewhere to stay. But a visit I recently made to a 'Cultural Village' in Kalasin Province suggests that what might be envisaged is putting on some sort of  cultural performance for large groups of tourists who would be put up in village homes. But this means inspecting and certifying the homes, and preparing to entertain groups which might never materialise. That seems to me a recipe for disillusionment and cynicism. To be fair, at the village in Kalasin it did seem to be working to a certain extent, but that is down to the village being entirely populated by an ethnic group that is sufficiently 'different' to create interest, and whose culture is sufficiently well-maintained that there is likely to be little about it that is specially put on for tourists. I am not sure that Amphur Phana is sufficiently different in that respect, but it does have enough to interest someone for a stay of, say, two days. We shall see what, if anything, comes of this initiative.

 

(No photos with this post, but I expect to be posting about the various sites as I go about 'collecting data'.)

Making History in Phana

Phana has just celebrated the third-month festival which is the annual festival for Wat Phra Lao. This year was a bit special because it is three hundred years since villagers began building the wat. The exhibition of words and pictures to mark the 300-year history of Phana (see my previous post) was visited by hundreds of people during the three days of the festival and many of them recorded complimentary comments on the boards we  provided.

Several people had also suggested that Phana could hold a bicycle rally (the first ever in Phana, although the Tour de Thailand came through a couple of years ago) and the idea was taken up enthusiastically by the director of Phana Hospital, Dr Pathompong Prupong and by the District Officer (Nai Amphur -- นายอำเภอ). A committee was formed that included them both together with people from Tetsaban Phana and Tetsaban Phra Lao plus Pensri, who was to combine the rally with the celebration of the 300th anniversary. The result was a rally that informed people of the story behind several sites in Phana and involved the collection of little snippets of information, some fun activities, some cultural activities -- and some traditional hospitality.

The rally was well advertised, by word of mouth to begin with, but posters appeared shortly before the big day.

Hundreds of people turned up and everyone had to register and be issued with a T-shirt, a 'passport' / question-sheet, an official entrance number to pin on the T-shirt and a leaflet outlining the aims of the rally and so on.

Who said Thais can't form an orderly queue?

I was a little startled to find this professional-looking competitor, but beneath it all was Acharn Kanok, retired teacher. Did he think fancy dress was required?

There was no fancy dress category, in fact, but there was a lot to compete for, including some impressive-looking trophies and cash prizes of Baht 2,500, 2,000 and 1,500.

These students from Phanasuksa School gave us some historical information (in Thai and English) relating to Don Chao Poo, where the rally was gathering and preparing to start.

 

People were getting a little impatient to get going, but naturally there were also some official opening speeches to hear first.

But finally the rally began, with small groups setting off at about 10-minute intervals.

Some people had an easier ride than others:

The monkeys of Don Chao Poo had been given a fruit and nuts banquet before the rally began, probably as compensation for so many people invading their territory so early in the morning. There were  lots of security men to make sure none of us got run over by  bigger vehicles. The organisers had also  provided helpful signs like this one to make sure nobody got lost or missed a checkpoint. I love the rally logo.

At several points along the route people had set up refreshment stops such as this one, offering much-needed liquid and some food, too. I saw several people trying to pay, but this was offered freely.

 

When riders reached a check-point they had to present their passport for stamping ...

 

and here at Wat Don Khual they had to take part in this activity and have their score recorded. Who would cheat under such watchful eyes? I was told that I would have to 'play hula hoop' here so I was pretty relieved to find I only had to throw a rubber ring. At two wats we got a stamp for going to 'wai phra' and at Wat Phra Lao everyone visited the exhibition.

 

 At Wat Burapha these young guides from Samaraki School told us about the history of this wat, the second oldest in Phana.

 

On leaving this wat, we were issued with a plastic bag containing a bottle of water and a straw, and three banana-leaf packages containing sticky rice, a chicken leg and some beef, and some chilli sauce. This was provided free by the organisers, Changwat, Amphur or Tetsaban funds, I'm not sure which.

 

Then it was out onto the open road again. The route took us behind the village along this track used to get to some of the rice fields. The gentleman you see here was the oldest rider, 76 years old, I am told.

 

The Phana Thai Traditional Medicine Centre was the last stop before we doubled back to the Amphur Office (ที่ว่าการอำเภอ) for the finish. The Mediicine Centre doesn't usually provide live music but a specially-composed mor lam about the rally was sung and played, and riders with any energy left were invited to dance ...
 

... or to watch these men at work on traditional crafts ...

 

... or invited to drink some of the herbal tea produced here.

 

Finally, after what was a fairly short ride but a very long day (what with the passport checking, finding clues, taking part in activities, taking refreshments and so on) I made it through the finishing arch with my team.

 

But it was this young man who claimed first prize in the individual event for youngsters, and his obvious pride in his achievement will make sure he remembers the day that he and Phana made history together in the first ever Phana Bicycle Rally.

 

My thanks go to Tetsaban Phana and their photographer on the day, Mr Tong, for allowing me to use their pictures.

It's all new in Phana

When you go home you expect to find things as they were when you left. I remember that as a small (and presumably insecure) boy I would sometimes dream of coming home from school to find the house and my family had all disappeared. So when we leave England each winter we hope that everything in Phana will be as idyllic as it was when we left six months earlier. But always we also find ourselves expecting some changes and hoping that they will not diminish our love of living here. The changes that have taken place in the last few years have all turned out to be positive ones, though thinking about them in advance did not always suggest they would be. What that says is probably that the decision-makers in Phana have a much clearer and more positive vision of development than I have.

A good example of this is the new market, which is situated less than half a km from our house. Between us and the market there is one house, two side roads, a bridge over a small steam, and you are there. I had thought it unnecessary, a nuisnace to me personally, and of no great benefit to anyone. A white elephant in English terms, if not in Thai. I was wrong on all counts. So you can expect a post dedicated to the new market before long.

A change I had known about was the arrival of the two new volunteers from Project Trust and we were looking forward to meeting them but when we got here they were on holiday (the schools they teach in were closed) and we only met them when the Desk Officer for Thailand arrived with his asistant for the annual monitoring visit. This involved us accompanying them and the tetsaban representatives to all three schools for meetings with directors and teachers. The volunteers, Billie andRosie, arrived in Phana at the end of August and when I reported that here (I was in UK then) a commenter suggested that they be inteviewed for this blog. I hope they will agree to that. They certainly seem to be first-class volunteers, keeping up the tradition which is now firmly established in Phana.

On our first day back our friend and neighbour Add (deputy mayor of Tetsaban Phana) came round to co-opt Pensri onto a small delegation going to Amnat Charoen the next day to discuss a pilot project on Community-Based Tourism being set up by TAT in two provinces, Amnat Charoen (in the north-east, inland, rural, little visted by tourists, on the Lao border) and Surat Thani, (in the south, on the coast, including Koh Samui, already a major tourist destination). Pensri duly attended the meeting, and now I too have been co-opted onto the provincial committee, adding a 'foreign' perspective and a little expertise in the English language and experience in producing brochures, etc. The next meeting is sometime next week (I think, this is Thailand, so it may not be), and here in Phana we are very excited by the idea and have already formulated some plans. I will be keeping readers up to date on this in this blog -- and even inviting some of you to visit as guinea-pigs!

Less exciting was finding that our water-storage tank which collects roof run-off and provides us with drinking water was empty. Our 'helper' had not made the necessary adjustments to the pipe after allowing a few weeks of rain to clear the gutters. So off we went to the small village of Ban Nong Ka, where water is pumped from a deep well in the wat, treated, bottled and delivered to customers all over Amphur Phana. The facility was very impressive and I will feature it in a later post.

The wat where the well is located is one which I had never visited before and it turned out to be rather unusual. It is a typical small-village wat, no grand buildings, no ubosot (ordination hall), very simple kutis for the few monks who stay there, an old wooden preaching hall with very little decoration, and lots of trees.

But outside the wat was this sign:

 

It seems that the senior monk here is a computer wizard! Possibly more of this another time.

Across the road is a small forest, and here is the Phu Ta, the guardian 'grandfather' of the place (a little hand-shake or out of focus, sorry):

 

And inside the forest, something was going on! More of that, too, another time.

Perhaps the strangest thing we find when we return each year to this quiet, unknown little back-water that is Phana, is how much is going on and how much there is for us to do and to get involved in. I always think there will be nothing of the sort, that I have seen and done everything there is to do here, but that is far from the reality. It's in England, really, where we live an uneventful life. I am not complaining: we still need both kinds of life and still enjoy living in both places. But it is definitely in Phana that we are much more involved in social and community activities. That doesn't seem to change, and we are glad of it.