Fang Area
A year before I came here to the village I call the "Teak Village". Because it is in a large lowland forest. Most of the land was sandy in nature, you couldn't even see the village because of the immense stand of trees for miles around. A small road snaked in through the forest.

Gneeh Pah Moeuh Leh used to live in the upper village on the mountain but moved down. I wasn't sure why. I had some pictures of her that I wanted her to see..

So this time I brought her back the second Akha Journal so that she could have a copy and see her pictures.

She was touched by the process and I spent as much time as I could in the village listening to problems and stories of daily struggle.

This village had a girl whose eye went bad and I paid for the surgery to remove it, but now she is growing up and needs donors to buy her a good glass eye. Currently she only has some kind of temporary plug put in by Chiangrai doctors since she didn't have money for a real glass eye. It is painful and weeps, prone to infection.

The villagers told me that a policeman had come and taken a field near the village that they farmed for corn, tore it all up, and planted orange trees, then fenced it with barbed wire and concrete posts.

The local government doesn't want any more oranges planted because of insecticide problem. However this out of the way village, the oranges were planted right next to the village. We can only guess who the policeman intends to do the work to "care" for the oranges as well.

The villagers also told me that they need about $800 in 2inch water pipe to bring water to the village. Now all they have is a small spring near to the village that is not adequate. The pipe will cost more than that but they already have part of the money.