ࡱ>  c ;@jbjbSS t11<]LLLL8 $8($$$$$$$,&(z$$aLLaaaL8$LLLL$aaW#V3$T$, ca$ Chapter 11 San Chai Mai Summary: San Chai Village was a village that I spent a lot of time in while working on an Akha book. This village was illustrative of the worst exchanges with the Thai world and low lands as well as the diminishing ends of mountain culture as though it had overextended itself. Leadership was of the worst despotic sort, if there was a good to choose, the evil was always chosen and the people paid the price. Elders and children were forced to suffer for the evil leadership of this village. Outside police, missions and NGO's preyed on the difficult position of this village with no one making any effort to assist it in any true way. Drug addiction, prostitution, crime and prostitution was at its worst with AIDS being a resultant factor. Many of the Akha in this village died, there were many murders and many of its people ended up in prison. Drugs contributed significantly to the death and imprisonment factor, the leadership being blind, arrogant and without vision for a future. Little to no good thing ever came out of this village. San Chai Mai Nimit and San Chai Nimit's Dark Side One man said the other day, here in October of 98 that Nimit had planted drugs on a sister because she wouldnt loan him heroin and she just got out or is getting out this month for doing six years after he set the cops on her. You would never know that to meet Nimit. Yet I knew his mean ness a time or two. I remember the time I took Meeh Suur the girl who had been burned badly to see him. While we were there a pretty girl invited me outside to talk and while we were gone out under the light, sitting on the bench talking, Nimit became angry at me with envy I suppose and told the burned girl many cruel things to discourage her. John Gunther AUA director chiangmai, don't tell him that asoh sent me Nimit sent me to talk to John Gunther. Asked me not to mention his name, maybe he had pissed some money in the past. Lots of people had tried to help the Akha through Nimit. But he ate the money and the good will. San Chai had been a good man, and the village had lots of options as well as lots of bad luck. But Nimit would not do that part that was good, and so the village missed much good will and opportunity. Nimit's involvement with drugs, along with his brothers, had corrupted the leadership that was there. Missionaries who had come had often been into other going's on that took away from those good opportunities as well. In the end, Nimit squandered a lot of good time where his people could have used honesty, integrity, and good leadership. It appeared his sons were repeating his errors. Nimit and San Chai Nimit is his search, as all of us, for the meaning and substance not by definition in life, but by our existence, to live our lives in meaning, to have events, to be engaged, and so often missing the mark, and that is much the story of Nimit. For Nimit's side there is the problem that his surrender to drugs, and a surrender it must be called, repeated surrender, despite the effort of many friends, pulled his heart and the habits of his heart, far over to one side. Now in latter years he had once again dried out, but the habits of his mouth and heart, did not particularly stop. The most noteable thing was that he did not have a positive reputation, and this didn't leave much to build on once the drugs were gone, it always pulling at him. As well, many years of feeding the evil side left a very dark patch on his heart even after the heroin was gone, and one could feel the pull of this. If he would stand up past it was hard to know. There was often no bone in his tongue. But Nimit also had a good heart, and he was an excellent singer, and had deep feeling for his people. In the west we make people to be either good or bad, so we can judge and speak of them quickly, with the Akha and Akha language this is not so much so, and for myself personally I allow people at least 15 sides to their personality, and frankly don't care how much bad they have in some of them, because that can be spoken for all of us. It is particularly important to note that some of us are not nearly as bad as we could be, merely because we didn't get the opportunity to be as corrupt as we might have had the heart and will for. This can not be overlooked. Living In San Chai Sometimes the Akha can be such a pain, especially in a heroin household, and then they will do something that really endears themselves to you. One such case was where all I heard about was money, all Phillip heard about was money, and then Phillip left. Asoh said that it was Fucked up. And in such a way that maybe he meant it was sad to see someone doing so much for the Akha by way of filming, go away. Then the first thing out of his mouth was that he got up early for the Buffalo kill and didnt make enough money for his time. But what he said first was what stuck in my mind, and I think that he meant that there was hope when Phillip was there, and that it would immediately drop off an disappear when he was gone, because then none of the promises would be fulfilled, and everyone would feel used. This of course was true as it turned out, much hope is given to get what the westerners want, then when it is over the poor get much of nothing. I had watched this western self serving habit many times, and thus no longer worked with film makers. Then Asoh says to me that they dont just think about money, him and Mee Yoh, but that they have to keep eating. I thought of all the money they went through for their heroin habit and yet something rang gentle about his voice. He never could explain to me why every time he saw me he asked for money. Although villages and people in them had ways of sharing, as general Akha never helped each other with money, or for free, not expecting to get back again, this was Asia not just Akha. But it rubbed me raw sometimes when out of one side they spoke evil of me, that I was cheap, then the next time I was helping them, and then the next time not and they were speaking bad again. Hearing the Akha speak bad of me was very common. Some of it was just meaness. Some of it was envy, pain, failed hope, or all three. Then the Akha wife of Nimit's one son said that I should go home to see my mother and then come back in one month. She was from nearby in Burma, an Akha village called Malipaco. She was from near to there, but not in that village itself. On the road before you got there. She told me that her mother, father, brother and sister died of malaria, as well as her sisters husband. So she got married and brought her sisters and son down with her to San Chai Mai. She appreciated me being here in San Chai Mai. Not having family she knew some of what I felt there. But Nimit's son was a brash fellow. He was now in prison for heroin. He took some bad yah bah one time and his wife asked him why he was "drunk" and he claimed that I, the "falang" gave him some bad medicine. Blaming the foreigner for many things was also one thing a person learned when they came to understand the language. It was very common to hear Akha trying to persuade their child to come home or behave by telling them that if they didn't the foreigner would hit them. I could give out $50 of medicine in the village one night, and then the next morning when I needed a ride to the corner they would charge me for it. The Akha themselves said that Akha were incredibly cheap people. It was true, they never gave back, in a direct way. I got plenty of knowledge of them and life living in their villages, but my survival was up to me, to live long enough to do so. This experience varied depending on the villages of course. I don't know that I am so hard on them, about their selfishness, the mountain environment is extremely tough, and certainly the selfishness of the Akha is readily outdone by what we see with the Chinese, the Thai and of course the west. But possibly in the west we see more exceptions. Household hospitality among the Akha was on the other hand very good. Yet in all these years I had not found one volunteer who was interested to work together on the Akha language to the benefit of all. They always wanted to be paid to help their own people. Certainly I grew tired of this. If it wasn't that I very much wanted the project completed, I would have quit on this single attitude that I experienced alone, from all my other work. On the other hand, I found it consistently true, that foreigners categorized the Akha much more harshly than when faced with the same ill behaviors in the west. There was very much a double standard applied to these people. Fish Tank San Chai I hadnt been in the Akha village all that long when it was necessary for me to pull out the tools and fix the fish tank pump of all things. You see, on a rickety metal stool in the center of the hut sits a fish tank, gift of someone of course. If it isnt given, it doesnt exist in this hut of Nimit's. One big gold fish is left, the other one dead and quite humorously pitched out into the yard by Ah Bay, the grand son, with great anouncement at its death. So I ended up fixing the wires inside the pump, fine copper fillaments that were impossible to solder because I didnt have any flux. But winding the wires and stripping off the varnish I was able to get it going for the moment. The small aquarium was not much bigger than a car battery, tapes, the glass chipped along one edge, a piece of life here in this shabby place, an attempt to embrace life, here on the hut floor, the woven bamboo matt, all the people passed out in post heroin sleep, or sitting about talking. The hut was the center of a form of life in the village, always there was someone different coming and going, or here when you got here. Eventually yah bah became popular and then the one side of the room, Nimit with his back against the wall, became an evolving litter of guords, pvc, plastic water bottles, tubing of any kind, any means by which to construct a bong, candles burning, melting plastic pipes to weld them together, some little wood here, some metal there, a rod down through the middle to clean it out, like they were finally burnishing wood, the job never done. Once I had even tried to inspire a hutside garden, it helped a little, until Meeh Oh died, but the weight on this place was too heavy for much to grow up. But in the end days there were not so many people around, the joy rides were over. July 7, 95 This Bump on My Back The Akha often got these cysts under the skin, a plugged pore, and it kept growing. I Just finished cleaning out one from one mans cheek the size of a grape and the he asks me if I can get the one off his back, well, actually two. I look at the first one, right on the spine the size of a nut, but then the second one is the size of a fist. He said he had it for seven years. Suffice it to say, it needed cleaning was such a disgusting job that the guy on the camera couldn't cope with it any more and had to leave. The Girl From Japan I had no sooner taken care of the one fellow than a woman came with her daughter to talk to Phillip. Nimit translated, and the girl told her story. She was Akha, and only twenty five. Her arm was all swollen from a recent motorcycle accident which had broken her collar bone as well, and it had not healed well or completely yet. She was dressed in pajamas and her over all appearance was of a young person who was quite early on wearing out. A sad picture at best. She had come back after 8 years working in Japan as a you know what. She came back with nothing, 25 years old, worn out, tired, no one caring for her or wanting to and a story to tell that all the young ones heading in the same direction need to hear. She pulled up her pajama top and showed a huge scar from her belly button to her crotch. She had been pregnant and her boyfriend in Japan beat her, and she had to have surgery, lost the baby. She was casting this story of sympathy. We asked her what she would say to her pimp boyfriend if she went back? We thought maybe she would be angry. But no, instead her face lit up at the suggestion, and as if the interview was over, she asked us if we would take her back? We were surprised at her eagerness and then she commented that now she really knew the ropes there and could make some righteous money. So much for having learned any kind of lesson or having a story to tell warning others. Nimit Nimit smokes lots of meth. At least he spends a lot of time doing it. His wife is green and dying. Probably organ failure. Still smoking the ole heroin though. Then I visit and nimit says, I dont know what happen, she get sick again. When you see music of the modern pop variety forced on young people, coming from the tap of commericalism, you see how soul less it really is. Compared to Akha songs about their lives it is nothing. Nimits Mother Dies Nimits mother is dead . Nimits wife is next to dead, probably back pain from liver failure. She lays there piercing herself with a needle hammer, stick of bamboo with two syringes that are stuck through its end just far enough to use as a hammer to puncture the skin, then this draws blood. She got excessive massage Nimit says. A spirit man sits there like a cross between Fu Man Chu and the court jester, gotee hanging down, a sort of howl on his old face. Not a man I would trust for a cure of any kind. Nimits Wife Dies Nimit, his wife died. She was a heroin addict like he was and in the end he got a second wife, a Thai woman, and moved down to another shack at the bottom of the village. H is wife couldn't get food or help with the heroin like before, started injecting into her hands and I knew it was the end for her. She was gone in a few months. I had spent many a day talking to her and near the end she had grown dark and withered, unable now to outrun internal problems that were eating her. In the heat, the dust and the poverty it was hard to see such a thing, as if on an island yet with no water, to pass away in a kind of deep abandoned loneliness. I went up to see Nimit after she was dead and he didn't seem to have a clue that probably within a year or two he would be in the same grave so to speak. But many had thought this of him often, that he always looked on his last leg, but pulled through somehow. I had warned Meeh Oh and hoped she had heeded that she needed to make her peace with Jesus Christ. I added this onto what I told Nimit as well but I doubted he would do it. I could not change what had been done in their lives, yet I felt great compassion for them. So much had happened at their village and at their hand. All around were the signs of neglect and lack of care. Much money had been made off these people, little had been put back in. I had lived in that village before, San Chai. I had been there in some happy times amid all the despair but they continued be involved with drugs and entertain the users and go no where. They wanted handouts all the time, taking everything for nothing and not doing the things that they could do that would really help themselves. But this is the cycle of poverty. I could not speak or know what it was to be like them. I was not, by comparison I was utterly rich with priveledge. There was no joking about that and if they had been I they would no longer be there but in the US enjoying the good life. Nimit knew a lot about the culture, he knew what the missionaries were up to, what they had done, and it had made its mark on him. The missionaries could have had an ally. They had an enemy instead I think. In the end no one won. They never made an inroad to the village and really weren't that effectual in the next one either. One could not blame Nimit for that, but he should have got on and past it, but often humans don't get on and past their hurdles and so it goes. I remember going to a dance with him and he looked so pathetically shriveled up as a human being, like the Devil had eaten all the man away leaving the last shred of life only. I say the Devil because it was so negative in appearance and that is the best what defines what comes to mind in what I saw. It was not a nice thing, I felt sorry for him. He was a worthwhile human being, he had a lot to contribute but it was becoming worth less and less all the time. I had tried to encourage them to refurbish their village, gardens, ecology, composting, replanting bamboo, etc. I had yet to get my grinders back that I had loaned him or square the deal about the carvings and hut that he had made for me. But Nimit was part of my process too. I learned about the Akha from him, a little about corruption. But sometimes I learned real things from him and had good talks. But people said of Nimit that he was a person who could talk and make you feel good but his heart was pure evil. I don't know. I know he did his share of real bad things to people. Hadnt we all. But in a way he represented the tragedies that were occuring among the Akha. He felt passed over by some of the people that worked with the Akha. Yet he knew much of what had gone on, it was up to me to sort it all out. Nimit was one of the few people interested in the script I worked on. I had nearly gone to quit when I met him and with his encouragement continued on and that was the completion of the beginning of a dream and work on Akha literature. Even if it was strictly to gain money and an angle, it still was a stage it progressed through and that is what helped the script to its point today and at that time no one else helped or believed except Nimit. Nimit He has a story. He had a story. Maybe some time I will get to write it all down. Nimits one brother was a madman. They all were involved with drugs it seemed and they all lost their shirts, got shot, went to jail, lost their motorbikes and trucks and lived in poverty when it was all done in the stereotypic battle with the country sherriff as it were. Many people died at Nimit's house as well, by last count Meeh Oh told me more than 24 direct at the hands of heroin. Opium is child's play compared to heroin and what can go wrong. One young man fell over dead right there on the floor when they were all tokin and smokin and died. Nobody flinched. Eventually the family came and got him but no one moved even then. I didn't see it but my friend did and he said it was quite the thing, real unnerving how detatched they all were. Heroin, besides it being illegal, dangerous, contaminated and all of that, sure won't help you get the work done. They did not much more than sleep all day. I was hoping Nimit would go in for rehabilitation but it became more and more unlikely, don't know if you can even communicate some things to some people let alone get them to change their ways. At the same time I noted that often those with the greatest trouble, are also the ones who kept the culture the strongest. Surely this could be said of Nimit. I have Nimit to thank for his encouragement keeping the book project alive even if there were self serving parts, he did agree that it was an attempt to help all Akhas. He sure has a story to tell, wish that he would tell it. Ah Saws Son This was the son who spent three years in Prison for Dad. Now how that happened was like this. Dad was pretty well known for heroin, so on the day of the raid, Dad wasnt home but the cops found some heroin in the house after a good search and since the son was the only one in the house, someone was going to do the time and it was going to be him. His son was born while he was in prison. After he got out, well, he worked with a drug rehab agency for a while till he got tired of it, Jenny Greys operation. That was a carnival in itself, one village had her operation, she was dating a Thai cop it was said, and funny enough there were continuous drug raids on San Chai right next door. She had big grant bucks, which it was said got spent mostly flying her family back and forth to Thailand, as with most projects it was very hard to find out what was actually going on. She ran a methadone project for a while, maybe still does, who knows, but didnt appear to be a methadone project, but hell, with the Akha one would think people could get money for just about anything. Need a grant, do it with the Akha and go to Thailand. Course I had heard of Universities that allowed any course work except with the hill tribe. Then Ah Saws son worked his way up to being head man of the village. He was a hard guy to figure, always happy for the most part but one often wondered about dark goings on in the background of his face. He was said to have more than three wives and to be an excellent hand at gambling. Course they said he had killed a lot of people too. All makes you wonder. His wife, nice woman, and the kids real good. Then there was the time that the younger brother went either by himself or with some others and killed a Thai man and his wife who were building a house in San Chai Gow, not sure how this all occurred, but they got dead, then younger brother went and got older brother and older brother came and shot the two dead boys, I mean the couple, and they were dead or not dead yet, not sure, then hauled and burned their bodies, and then after that the uncles son went to jail, the younger brother went to prison for the killings, and the older brother got quite sad having shot these two and the whole mess of it, he wasnt the same after that, I could see it. Then his younger sister, his only sister it would seem, Ah May, ran away to Chiang Mai at 17, having dropped out of school after they kicked her out for chasing the boys too much, teacher didnt have time for it or something, but she wanted a lift one day and the house she wanted me to drop her off at turned out to be a place where lots of Akha girls who were busy selling themselves stayed. I told her I couldnt do that and dropped her off at Nimits place, that is Ah Saws other name, the one we know him by most. Blood Butt One and Blood Butt Two Then there is blood butt one and blood butt two. The first is some kin to Asoh who went to Bangkok and got caught and spent 10 days in jail with no heroin and came back hemoraging from the ass, nearly dead. Phillip doing a film. Boy and didnt he really come through for the Akha, good ole Kiwi, got what he wanted and we never saw him again. Then there is the brothers son, life squared away for the moment, then off to prison. Gotta Go Back to Japan Then there is the hard core Akha woman and her daughter who had so much fun in 8 years of brutal work in Japan that she wants to go back , good money, once you get to know the Yakuza she says, abdomen scarred from some surgery she blames to her boyfriend. Says she was pregnant and he kicked her and the baby died, or something like that. By the time it got around to where she told how she wanted to go back I forgot a lot of the details. nimit mother dead, wife and son nearly, daughter, one son in prison, one booh seh, and nimit had a whore in his house last time I was there. Phillip A gomer from kiwi land with a camera Nimit, fertilizer, meeh suur So I was talking to this pretty Akha whore and nimit was mad so he told the Akha girl, sorry no face Nimit Kept the Money? Word was anyway that people gave lots to nimit for the village, for votes, you name it and he ripped it off for himself. I believe it absolutely, I have not met more of a pig of a man in my life, and he ends up without jack shit. Well then then there is Jim Andersoon Money from Germany through joseph matin luther yohanz nimit signed the papers according to joseph lets check it out Joseph said that German people gave money and the Thai ate it and the Akha got none. Genny Grey Genny Grey, Mae chan Ah Yoh village offf road west of maeschan betwen maechan and Doe Mae salong near San chai. She was running the methadone program. It was said that she told a bunch of Akha women that their husbands had AIDS and they left their husbands so their husbands went and got tested and when it turned out that they didnt then she paid them money under the table because of the mess it caused. But this story came from Nimit, who will tell about any kind of story right to your face, right behind your face. I havent known very many more corrupted human beings in my life than he. Methadone the project we know a little of, nimits input here about loose teeth and double dosing on Joseph married Akha girl in mountain. Visitors to San Chai There are a couple regulars who visit San Chai Mai. Foreigners. One German man has a wife and has built a house next door that is built like a bunker, with a concrete roof, but then the windows are the standard wood, so one wonders why the ceiling of cement slab? Very humid as a result. He has only come here once in two months and the relationship to the village tends to be typically sleazy. They get money out of it and that is about the limit of the relationship. Then there is Martin and Goi. They have a guest house a few metres from the intersection at Ban Basang with the highway to Maesai and Chiangrai. He is Swedish I believe or German, married to a Thai, and pleasant in someways but overall I get an arrogant supperior impression from him that leaves me no longer interested in passing one moment in conversation with him. What foreigners know about the area usually isnt worth going through to learn or it is grossly inaccurate, based on perception more than fact. The foreigners are very quick to have a heavy predjudice about how something is especially to show that they are the local expert on information and knowledge. Especially when their sign says Information Then there is Ande from Switzerland, who just arrived back. He had been gone two months. He has advanced AIDS with a heroin addiction on top of it, more than likely connected. He is pleasant and mellow. Aids and mosquitos buzzing about. Coming on Friday or the next few days is another German, also married to an Akha woman from some village over. He is supposedly interested in helping with some kind of AIDS and Drug information program, although a user of the stuff himself. Phillip, the photographer, is gone. Back to New Zealand. A jovial guy, one of his chief means to keep in good spirits. He did a lot of filming of the Akha and was the person who I gave the information about the sterilizations to. He dug into it and got a lot of information which he shared with me and then in turn I was able to clarify some of it for him also. He also filmed a lot of cultural events as they occured and related to his basic story about how so many people dealt the Akha out. It was as a result of his encouragement that I finished the Childrens book, at a time when I was basically going to move on, but I sensed that I might also gain more information by way of what he was doing, which I did to some degree. There are many characters here in the village. One of the most grating I find, be it justified so much or not, is the old granny in the back room. Good hearted that she is I still call her spider woman because she usually sits in her cove, behind the netting and in a deep, grating, hollow voice bellows and blithers on about things as to nobody. The pigs squealing about is more pleasant. Great scenes, like a piglet dangled down through an opening in the porch, a foot in its gut to cause its testicles to protrude and then the old man slits the skin with a razor and squeezes the testicles out through the small slit and cuts their cords. Disgusting but sort of standard in any farmyard, and actually much more exact and surgical than what I have seen in the west. Then there was the skinny, dark, funny old fellow with the burgundy sky cap, and the long tassle of hair, who had this huge black head deposit on his lip and I cut it and cleaned it out and then he asked me to get the two on his back which were big, like a large walnut the one, and like a lemon, the one below it. Seven years in the saving he said. I cleaned them both which was a horrible job, debri squirting far across the path from where he sat on the front porch, the chickens greedily gobbling every morsel up as they also loved to do with baby shit. All animals will eat disgusting things. Just a reminder. San Chais other son and his son next, I like. A big fellow, he doesnt do drugs, but drinks a little is all. He has two good looking kids and seems responsible. The one son of Asoh, is in prison for cutting in on one bull womans business by selling to people just as they came up the driveway. She took him out immediately. Then her daughter was here, and told her story of woe from being a whore in Japan and when she was all done and told how she got nothing out of it in the end, she exclaimed, Can you take me back?. She had a massive scar on her lower abdomen from the groin to the navel and in general looked in shitty health for twenty five. A big bruise and clot of blood still in her leg from a motorcycle wreck and a broken, mishealed collarbone. Her Thai lay in tow, she looked a wreck. Asohs other son was young and just married not so long with one son when the police came to the house one day looking for what they could find and they found some heroin. Since he was the only one there he went to prison for five years for that event. Naturally he has nothing to do with any of it now, not that he did then. Asoh doesnt seem to think this was any big deal, and there doesnt seem to be any remorse on his part. Not much can be said about character on that. The cops are frequent visitors, sometimes to do raids, other times to use the candy. Once they came in like gangbusters, zooming right up to the house in the truck and jumping out in a hurry, racing around and through the house. Asoh had just left to some political event, where the politician was buying votes in the traditional way and Asoh directed traffic and got his cut, filling out 250 some ballots in one day himself. Other cops come to get smacked up themselves, usually leaving their guns behind, just in case there is a run in with other cops. However one cop came once and as Asoh ate, he was laying down behind Asoh and pulled out his 9mm and jacked it up while he was sitting directly behind Asoh. I was wondering what was being gotten across. It was a shoulder holster under his shirt. Asoh some years before had been shot in the neck from behind by a cop while waiting to be picked up after a movie at Doi Mae Salong. His brother went up there and talked to much about it and someone killed him a week later. Maybe they dont tend to be so wreckless these days. Another brother was shot and killed also, some say over guns. The father, San Chai, was a friend of the King. He died 15 to 17 years ago. By the way, last night the Kings mother died, she headed up the Doi Tung project for hilltribe, if one believes it really helped them, I dont know, but it appeared to do some good and they have a clinic up there local. I see a lot of good intention for the hilltribe by the government and the Royal Family but individuals and the army all seem to have other plans. I recently got a letter from Dorothy Ulrich who is a missionary who holds to the old school of authoritarian fundamentalists and anti-communists, do what you will to the people. San Chais wife is still alive at 85. She hobbles over to Asohs hut and smokes her toot and babbles on in her gravelly voice about this and that, nobody listening. Short and impressively wide but not fat. Probably from hauling too many bamboo trunks up the hill for the pigs. In this village the pigs probably destroy far more than they produce as do the chickens as well. No plants surviving their scourge. Few and junky gardens at that. I tried to suggest that they do otherwise but on deaf ears as the saying goes. Mee Yoh, Asohs wife, is generally pleasant. She takes care of his injections, he walking about as though some here when he plays the fool to everyone but himself. Huge needle tracks up his arm from years of being on the candy. Regularly Akha and Thai boys die from shooting the stuff up and it goes bad for them, once four boys in one hut at one time, Thais, or Meecham, as the Akha here call them. The television runs here from about eight oclock in the morning till 1am. devils shit. Phillip Phillip is back in the Chiangrai area after his trip to the phillipines to check into the prostitution story there. He said the phillipines around subic was really bad with a lot of out of work whores and weird western guys who stayed on. He is digging into a lot of different things and it is good that we are developing an ongoing friendship and spirit of cooperation and information sharing because he comes across a lot of information that is good for me to know about as well. Right now he is still digging into the Paul Lewis sterilizations but the focus is turning more on the Thais who are the real villains in all this, trying to deal the Akha out, off their land and the whole works. One of the stories that he has found is how the doctors told a woman her baby was sick so go home and come back in a few days. When she came back she was told that the baby died. No records, corpse burned, etc. Quite obviously 91/2 month Akha babies dont just up and die, so it can be suspected now that the Thai hospitals may also be in the baby racket. Where it could all lead? Who knows but the more digging the better. And better that Phil do it than I since I have to live here and go on with more long term work. But it gives me many ideas. There is also word that the leader in Pah Meeh village near Maesai is in a position in the cultural society. This we are going to check into as this would be a great improvement over other present options. Luka is working on a school, rehab and ag project. Good for him, he is a good man. The childrens book is finished and I am looking for ways to print it in large quantities. I also want to run it by the fellow at Pami because it would be good to know that there is still not any major cultural resistence. I also want to go out to Paih ah Paih village, a traditional Lomi village and see what their village is like and what they have to say about things these days. Yesterday, the generosity of San Chai Mai increased. One pleasant fellow came down and gave me a ride all the way to Pasang. Halfway off the mountain before San Sook, the rain hit us, the mountains mostly engulfed anyway. Then it was getting soaked all the way down the mountain. I had no protection for the computer case but to tuck my rag in the front edge exposed so no water shot back in, but otherwise we were both drenched. He asked me if I was worried about the computer and I said just go on. We got soaked. The computer stayed dry even though I continued to get soaked till the bus came. Then I made it to Chiangrai about six pm and met Phillip where we caught up on all that was going on. Nimit He used to pick up anything he could steal at my house, a little of this and that, a junkie, a meth man now and quite repulsive. He borrowed two grinders which I never saw again but it was on the tail end of my dealings with him and never saw him much after that. He basically stole them, I knew that at the time. Why I let him have them I will never know. A real dumb thing to do, but at the time I had a lot going on. I filed it away with my general overall contempt for the useless piece of shit. He had ripped off more people in his life to keep his fix. More people had try to help him than most and he just pissed it all, proud of who he would never be as if he was that person. Problem with addicts is that they can never admit that they need help. So they never get any. He could have had a much better life than most but he used all his advantages to feel sorry for himself and be a piss poor human being. You could do a few things with him but you were soon dragged into a whole of one sort or another where you getting ripped off was the only outcome. Hey give me five hundred baht. His young son was a complete idiot. You loaned him the bike for thirty minutes and he came back in three hours. Word was from Cary to Sompop that Nimit sold his daughter to a brothel. Just Cary hearsay maybe, but if it was true, why was Sompop passing on client confidential information to other people? Defamation at best, sad if true, but nobodys business. Killing him from the back side, Nimit called it. But no one had come up with a way to help nimit. He was so corrupt. Even when he came to the school he asked the cook if he could take her 13 year old daughter off to some job he knew of for her. God, what a soulless snake. Night Mountain Trip To find Nimit May 97 There were problems of communication at the school here in Maesai going on, and some of the older children were making it hard on the smaller street children who wanted to attend, telling them that basically it was their school and that the younger kids should stay away. This probem was intensified by the fact that the chief donor handled money in such a way as to insure that the kids knew there was lots of it, which was not good. (Eventually this brought this particular school to an end, as it was impossible to function in this fashion.) I was going to need some help on this, since I could not say what all needed to be explained in Akha language so I would take the evening off and go into the mountains to get my friend to come in and help with the translation of it all. Finding Nimit might be another story. I realized I had better get a move on it so I went next door to hire a bike. She said it was too late in the day. Across the street was closed. Up the street the American owner who recently moved to Maesai was back in Bangkok, his little motorcycle rent shop closed because he left his girl friend no keys for some odd reason. I went to Chads guest house, he was in chiangrai and the staff didnt want to rent while he was gone. So back to square one. I went to the northern guest house and a couple more places. No luck. Finally I gave the security guard at the Maesai Plaza Guest House 200 baht and took his motorbike for a few hours. I rode 47 kilometers up to one village but the headman was gone, he was off in some other village, called Bala, actually over on the Burma side. Same as last night when I stopped in. But I would have to go and find him this time. His wife insisted that someone go with me to such a remote place. At night. So she got her husband;s brother to go with me to show directions and whatever else. We loaded up and took the ridge road, winding and slow to the next mountain and then some. Finally we got to where I thought we were supposed to be and the brother still didnt know. Expecting him to holler, we were almost to Maesai before I discovered that he was more than a little drunk. By this time we didnt have enough fuel to go back so down the mountain to the main highway and an open fuel station by 11:30PM. Full tank and it was all the way up the mountain again. On the way we stopped for a pickup truck that had looked in trouble. The man lay drunk against the front axle and the wife tended to him. The back wheel and spring shackle had dropped into a culvert ditch of concrete along the road somehow. We tried to get it out. Finally, I, the old man, the driver who was drunk and six Akha women all lifted up the back end of the truck and placed it on the road. Then up to the right road and the cutoff which took us to the village on the mountainside. Now we were on the Burma side. The village always had tension to it. Lots of things went on there. It hung steep on the side of the mountain, so there were huts a long ways down. Down through these we walked in the dark, dogs barking, myself nervous, the brother telling a few why we were there. My friend was at the bottom of the village, the last hut. I told him the situation and he said he would come in sometime in the morning. This would be most helpful. We then left and down the mountain to the highway, down to Maechan and back up to the old mans village. I wasnt about to do that twisting road twice in one night. Then back to Maesai. More than 200 kilometers all told. A couple of hours later all the kids showed up. Despite these repeated visits on my friends part, keeping all the students in harmony was an endless problem as the poverty that they came from was so intense as to create a sense of competition among them. Some of the characters in San Chai Mai There are lots of different great characters in San Chai. I start tying together other Akha I know already who come here to visit. There is Asaw Nimit. He is from a leadership family but also an irresponible heroin adict taking many Akha with him. Then there is his brother, only a smack smoker, who is really funny. The funniest man is the Pima. He has this great laugh. Then there is BB two, wasted away but a pleasant man, yet two unkept kids and not much life left. Other characters, but I enjoy Asaws brother most. The son married the daughter of the family with the shop in the village. Then there is the 85 year old wife of San Chai. Ah Sors mother. Fog releases mountain island from the chambers of its heat July 5 or something San Chai Mai There are all kinds of things to write about and if I really think about it, it doesnt matter what it is that I am writing about, the point is that I must write. For me, this is a hard conclusion, because I am a person who feels that I must go and that I must do, and writing is something that isnt so far removed from music one might think, the notes played and then gone. Often writing is like this. And when I write I am not thinking so much of publishing but it is just the process of the moment that is of import. Good thing that I read that part about poverty of writers in DIsraeliss Curiosities of literature. It is a little encouragement, where I might otherwise abandon it all together. I look at my life at this moment and I ask myself the hardest question for me, what is it that I want? Right now I would like to finish at least printing 5,000 of the childrens books. But beyond that. My parents are old. I owe them lots of money. I try to think what I could cash in on over here that I have already done a lot of and use to solve that problem. Computers could be part of that, language and writing another part. All of it adds up to growth, being able to grasp new opportunities from new life situations as one moves along. Now I have some connection on the Chiang Mai Net, as I call it, with the computer. Maybe there is some other computer things I could do in Chiang Mai. The plan is to collect these letters of recommendation and get the embassies to help out with the childrens books and an ever growing budget to get more and more of it done. Then spider woman got up, creaking out of her lair, babbling on about something that got horribly unimportant as soon as she started in on it. (who was spider woman in San Chai?) San Chai Bread The woven basket rice dish, half gone from use and apparently abandoned to the bugs was wedged against the bamboo wall next to the fire hearth. As she baked the sticks of bread she hid most of them in a second basket behind her because she said she did all the work and all the people came to eat, but never gave her respect and never fed her when she went to their house. San Chai 2 The thing that ruins much of the flavor of San Chai is the television. The Akha dont know about the television and most of all cultures will be well finished before the people figure it out. The television is the most intrusive, God like divice ever invented. Devils Shit, I call it. I am trying to gain a clear idea of what it is that I am going to do. I think that full time work for the Akha is not possible. In the end I have nothing for myself and there are many personal affairs that I must take care of. The next best thing that I can think of is to work on a book about the region. This will be fun and there is much that I must do to accomplish that. I am not completely sure but I think that the Maesai story will be about all of the region with a second theme being a close look at the Akha, as from personal preference, all though I admit that may change with time. What I have sensed as I work here is that I must reserve something for myself. I must feel that I am bringing money as a result of improved skills and competency in this area. One of the things that I would like to continue with is my system for multiple languages. I have noted that in working with multiple languages, if you work on two languages it seems to work faster as if you get some kind of mental ping pong going on, tossing two different words back and forth which have the same meaning but are in different languages, for instance Akha and Thai. Also a book would allow me to do the writing that I like to do and to get more travel and specific study done in this region. There are a lot of places in Burma, Laos and China that I will still need to learn about and spend some time there. Hopefully I can come back with a camera, which will improve my collection of information. What I plan to accomplish when I go back to the US is to get sponsors for my writing, the work with the Akha and my research into the languages as well. What I have to be most careful about is to not spend too much energy on the Akha, as they can take and take and take and then when you are spent you are a bad person because you dont spend more on them. That of course is part of my story here, part of the way that the people are. These days of late, writing has not been fun for me. I am planning on pulling out of the village and going back to the United States for a rest and to get sponsors for what it is I am trying to do. There is a lot of uncertainty in this for the moment, because I am not sure how it will all work out. I dont want to be gone for a long time but other questions must also be answered as where it is that I will finally settle. Most certainly I will not settle in Thailand, and probably not in China. Burma is the most likely with China being a second choice. In writing one must have observations, but it is very important to also go after specific information that can cost light on the situation. This is the investigative aspect, of finding out what the power structure is, what the economics of the region is, and so forth. Below is a possible list of areas to check out: Power Source of money and economics Language Aspects of the Culture Food Clothes Music marriage and dating current problems A lot of questions are only to take me in the general direction and then I find out more when I get there. For me I am interested more for the stories that come to mind, the human interaction, the unspoken, than what is scientific. This requires the ability to pull back from the situation or move on and check out something else, which I am not particularly able to do at this time. As well, I think that I will find a limit of scope for the book, and a practical cut off point for the first book, such that I will learn how to get books behind me. San Chai, July 12, 95 Akha families coasting down the hill in Akha dreams, in neutral, engines off, silently as wayfarers to the world below. When I came off the hill to basang at the maesai chingrai jct. the cops waved for me to come over across the highway where they were stopping every freight truck of interest, and person of interest, but I ignored them and went and got an ice cram. As I waited for the bus I figured they could get more interested, Thai police always looking for a way to snag a buck. If the government made it against the law to litter the police could collect infinite money. On the way down from the san Sook jct on the song tow and akha woman wanted me to marry her friend. She was fluent in Akha,lahu, lisaw, labu and palow, whterver that is and thai, not bad. I enjoy the akha I meet on the song tows. as soon as they know that I understand some akha they become a lot of fun. I always try to spot symptoms of the common illnesses. From my few number of rides up the hill I know that there are many who are very poor and a good quantity of illness about the Terd Thai area. One girl has a seized elbow from a reversal fracture. San Chai Mai 1 Clip this hard. I am living here at San Chai Mai for the time being while I wait for money to come and then I shall return to the United States. I have much writing to do. San Chai Mai is one of the oldest villages in Thailand and supposedly the first village that the King of Thailand made contact with. One would hardly know it now. The place is rife with heroin, like a candy shop is with candy. Where there should be leadership there is a drug induced haze which goes hand in hand with hours of watching television, the perfect partner for mindless drugs. Drugs and television! What a combination! The village is located on a ridge crest. The land is valuable, rich with opportunity but the people making use of it are poor of ideas. Soil erosion and deforestation are massive. Mountain rice is one crop, and then a few vegetables, pigs, ducks, chickens and things which grow in the jungle, what is left of it. Most huts have small fenced plots for vegetables, if you can call them that, all of which is ravaged by the pigs and chickens. The pigs destroy far more useful vegetation than what they produce in meat. In the woods it is very difficult to find any mushrooms and ground herbs near to the villlage because the pigs have rooted it all out. Everywhere you look in the jungle the villagers have scarred the trees, cut branches off, girdled trees for making charcoal and just plain cut them down. There is not much of a system to it and certainly nothing you could refer to as a respect for nature in the process. Similar to the american logging scene no doubt. One of the greatest opportunities lost to the village is soil conservation, soil building and erosion control. All of these animals are crapping in the village. And then the chickens come along and spread it out and it gets well trampled. Shortly there after the rains will come and then all of it is swept out of the village. Lost. The village consists of water swept redish clay dirt and stub grass. The problem that I see with many of the Akha is that they want the easy answer, the one that provides no future. Sure they have problems over identity cards and land rights. Yet they are missing the point. The only way to maintain any claim to the land is to respect it and care for it as one would a child. If the land was conserved and taken care of very well, for anyone to take it away would be very difficult. This would give credence to their need for identity cards as well. Stewardship brings with it power. The earth appears a big refrigerator and when the food is all gone humans will be gone as well, which appears to be a very joyous day for the creation, mankind being such a bastard race. Then there was this one woman character, big, boisterous and ox like. All that one would not want in a ballet dancer or valedictorian. Dog carts come through the village regularly, selling small dogs for 15 to 20 baht a kilo on the paw. The Akha make short work of a dog and use every part of it except maybe the last foot of intestine. Starting out by smacking the dog over the head with a blunt object, they bleed it out with an incision and knife thrust to the heart from the throat. Then they throw the dog on the fire, burning off all of the hair and scraping the hide for anything on it. Then it is gutted and chopped up. The bile gland is saved and used in some ceremonies as a seasoning. Sometimes the brains of the dog are mixed with the brains of a small pig and eaten raw in the same ceremony. At any rate it is good to see a place and a people which know the use of a dog in a productive way that helps feed humanity. San Chai has two small shops that sell odds and ends, and dried fish, oil, canned milk, and all the little goodies people need and like, the plastic wrappers littering the village. The manufacturer not bearing any responsibility for the littering in the process of making a profit. There are a couple bathing points in the village, concrete pads with a water spicket. The women and men bathe in the open with no thought given to western concepts of nudity and such. The body doesnt appear to be near the item to be hid as it is in the west. In the Akha village and Akha life as a whole, there doesnt appear to be much that is in need of hiding. Where the Akha have sex is not well known, but this is about it. I remember one insident when the Akha children told me that there was this burmese boy screwing a Chan girl right along side the trail, about two feet away in the grass. I asked them what they did. They said they watched. I asked what the couple did. They said they just kept at it. Or take the one girl who took a baht a piece from the young boys in the village for her services. A pretty rough and tumble life but really not much different than the stories that were common in the west, with much higher levels of denial. And this reminds me of a point, from what I can tell there are two kinds of people and two different ways in which those people lie. Non religious people lie at random when it profits them with no particular pattern or great effort to it. Religious people on the other hand seem to be motivated to lie to a much greater degree in order to keep up face with their religious belief. In other words they dont just lie off the cuff because it is convenient as the non religious do. This convenient lying is always quite transparent and there is never much effort given to conceal it. If one looks for long there are all kinds of holes in it and the individual doesnt seem to follow it up much in order to cover the first lie. But the religious, having to keep up an image consistent with a religious agenda that they have been using to control people for their ends, must continue to construct intricate lies about what is really going on such that the entire matter can be perpetuated. One way to trace the lies, is to discover their particular agenda and then try to pereceive what lies need to go along with that. Then there are the funny lies. I was sitting in this hut in the evening. A swallow was roosting in the rafters over head and shit on the back of my shirt as I was just beginning to eat at the round basket table in front of me. I asked the wife of the household if there was shit on the back of my shirt. She looked and said no. Later I discovered that there was a massive turd there. All I could figure is that she was embarassed that it happended in her house. Most Akha houses were well constructed of bamboo, being raised above the ground on posts, there being enough rooom for the pigs and chickens to house underneath. I had never noticed lice in the huts, except that some households have a problem with head lice in the bedding. The kitchen has a hutch hung above the fire bed. The fire bed is a framed patch of dirt added on top of the floor. This is suspended as well as the rest of the house so it is sort of neat. The smoke from the fire laquers all of the bamboo and gourd utensils that are stored in the kitchen with a black laquer that is very nice. All of the grass shingles of the kitchen are also laquered in such a fashion. Houses have a room devider for men and women if they are small houses and some have rooms if they are bigger houses. The house walls are sometimes made of wood, leaning out, in Chan style, but mostly of spit or woven bamboo. In the north like Cheng Tung area, many of the houses are made of sun baked mud bricks which get so hard in the sun baking process that when you tweak them with your finger you get a pottery sound from them. Elsewhere in the valley actual brick ovens are in process baking bricks from bottom clay. This is mostly a bad process as it uses huge amounts of deforested wood in order to fire even one batch of bricks. The brick mounds appear as trunkated piramids, steam rising from them out in the valley rice fields. The grass roofs of the huts leak enough to get the wrong things wet but dont leak for long, even in a good raging rain storm. The beauty of them is that they breathe the air well for such a humid and foggy mountain position. The upper walls are usually open, hence the swallows. Some households have even but up gourds in the roof to attrack swallows to their house. Certainly the swallows are nice. Beneath their roosts, woven bamboo has been laid on the cross members to catch the droppings. Board floors may be covered with bamboo woven mats which are really nice. Some huts have one section that uses the earth for a floor and then the bed and eating areas are raised bambooo or wood. These days in San Chai you can always hear the Thai helicopters, police or army, patroling back and forth to the border regions. Now along these border regions there are a special group of border patrol called Black Shirts. The story goes that black shirts can take that lonely job or go to prison for something they have done. They often have a somewhat unsavory air to them which would be consistent with this concept. In addition in my experiences with the younger ones I find that they are forcefully belligerant. Usually when I have met them at their outposts in the ranges, they are drunk or busy drinking, brandishing weapons and gernades in a most undisciplined fashion. As well the Akha say that they often rape the Akha girls at will, their outposts often being near the Akha or Lahu villages in this northern Thai region. The regular army and the border police seem to more disciplined. The regular army or the border patrol army seeming to be the most dixciplined. Any blackshirt or police unit of any kind seem to do as they will with the Akha girls from all that I have heard. Handing Akha girls over to Thai officials visiting the village seems to standard procedure. The girls say that it is easier to get it over with. Asoh asked Meeh Daw to give him her younger daughter Ah Meeh for a job in thailand Grinders Nimits mother daughter wails The dying thing the daughters have to do. wierd the first time you see it, affected the second time you would say. Last Days at San Chai Mai I have always wanted for her and Dad to be able to go to Scotland and Hungary and Israel. I would like to be able to take them on that trip as well because I could show them a lot. In addition this year, I have learned more about how you learn. You jump in there regardless of what you think the other guy is doing or might be doing because in the case like with the Akha in Thailand they were doing very little and I could have gotten so much more involved early on. Life in San Chai Mai Aug. 95 Clip this hard. My work to help the Akha was often deeply frustrating. Many times I did not know how to proceed or how to move my efforts forward. This was one such occasion. I wasnt sure what to do. Money had been sent to me but it got lost. After it does come I will have to pay much of it out for rent and food charges here in the village where I am working. I have been staying at Asoh Nimits house and he charges me 150 baht a day to sleep here, eat meager food, and help me on the childrens book when he isnt zonked out of his head on heroin. A heroin adict for many years. In all the business of this drug den I sometimes only get an hour of his drooping eye attention to work on words. Add to that the TV stays on till 1 or 2 am while they sit around shooting up or smoking heroin. In the end I will need more money to get all this paid off. My visa overstay paid and a ticket back to the states. As soon as I am paid off here I want to get back to the US to raise support for this literacy work. Meanwhile I sit around the hut quite broke. Listening to the rain or going for short walks. I gave Asohs wife all my household goods that I moved up here. Many people had tried to help Ahsoh quit drugs but he cant stop and probably never will. Both he and his wife have increasingly distorted features. If heroin does anything for you it gives you such features, drawing out the death in your face long before the event. I cant recommend it. Andy from Switzerland was up here in very bad shape. He had AIDS from dirty needles. All his friends were dead from AIDS and hed had it for ten years. He used to do cocaine and heroin back to back for ten years before that. Now just heroin. But now all the veins in his arms were gone after surgery, for they had collapsed apparently. He knew his time was short but tried to take good care of himself now. Sometimes I would find him at the back of the hut near the fire, trying to find a vein in his hand for one more injection. Later he moved to Hatyai where he got extremely ill in the stomach. He wanted to fly home but the doctor told him he wouldnt make it and offered him a death shot instead so he opted for the death injection and it was over. I myself would have opted to go home no matter what. He was a good guy. Never a bad word for anyone and no bitterness that you could see. Yet in the context of Nimits house I couldnt feel other than that Nimit was more than just an addict but also a death merchant. One time an Akha boy came there to use heroin. He was already drunk and after shooting up he sat down in the circle. Everyone talking and then he just fell over dead. No one said a word or moved but just kept on. I was told someone went to his village and they came and got him and carried him out. And there had been a lot of such deaths in San Chai of both Akhas and Thai boys over the years. Nimit always insisted he wasnt dealing but no such fantasy. His one son did years in prison for him, now the village chief. The other son was in and out of prison for drugs. The youngest son on something too. In later years Nimits wife was near death, smoking heroin every day, horribly puckered in the face, emaciated to nothing. Nimit a ghost dwarf from being hunched over years of methamphetimine now. Not able to see much joy or hope in it I didnt even like to write about it but it was there. San chai Sold computer, book finished Finally sold the computer, paid off Asoh and moved my writing to maesai. Wanted to go back to US. Which I did. The Childrens Book Clip this Hard. I have been in the village for two months almost and have done a huge amount of work on the Childrens book while here to say nothing of the work that I had already done on a collective basis over the past four years working up to this moment. All of this previous work is what gave me the ability to know how close or far off of target I was on the new information that was given to me here. The quality of the information given to me here is better if only because the english spoken is better, but the attention to detail is not all that good. Now that the book is about as done as it is going to get for the moment I am ready to make copies for the villagers who want copies. I am not surprised. But there is just about no interest. Who is suppose to move this forward. If the villagers want the book they will have to pay for their own copies because I havent the money to give them the books for free. Furthermore there needs to be a splitting of the sheets somewhere, and when it comes to education I think that the people need to pay something. I can not do their learning for them although they would appear to expect it. Education is a thing of priveledge. So many people in the world have no access to it at all, but to judge by an Akha village it is water to be poured out on the ground and drained away as though of no value, because after all water is free and they have always had it. My friend from Belgium was right on the money when she said that the Akha people and that these oriental people in general are a people waiting waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone to do something for them, but with no vision of the future, they have no idea that the world is not waiting for them and is not going to be waiting for them either. The villagers have no idea the work or the money or the time that it took to put that book together. Surely there are people somewhere who would have so much more appreciated it. Certainly one should not do for people who do not want enough that they are not at least willing to pay a fraction of the cost of getting, are not willing to at least extend the hand as it were to reach out and take it. But when I am gone, I will be gone, and then they can think what they want but I would not again live in San Chai where the men have defected leadership and expect someone else to supply the deficit. I have offered them many ideas but they are not interested. I wonder if Akha people anywhere are. How can they blame the missionaries for only taking for themselves. If the missionary, tired of this mentality, takes children and raises them to think different, how can the villagers blame them, even though I dont agree, for doing so when the villagers in most cases do nothing and gladly sell the girls to get a few bucks here and there. I am made angry to see what the missionary has so irresponsibly done but I am more angry at the leadership which does so little for its own people yet criticise the efforts of those who are at least accomplishing something. They should learn that when they take from the missionary they get what comes with the territory. I dont feel much pity for these people save for the children because a rod for the backs of fools. Here in San Chai Asoh provides a horrible example to the youth, coming from a high family of leadership and then being smacked out of his head 90% of the time on heroin. Such foolishness. Being as my money is hung up in the bank, and being as the only reason that I was in the village in the first place was to finish the Akha Childrens book, they are foolish to always talk to me about money. When I said they will have to buy the book at 55 baht all fell dead. What we dont get if for nothing, whats this? as if to say. These are really studpid people and when the time comes in the near future when they must move out of the mountains for their irresponsibility then they will have only themselves to blame. The leadership teaches a mentality of poverty is to blame. As example, I pointed out to Asoh that they should not be using Paraquat in the village he only stupidly replied, Poor people have no time to think about such things! He is of the mistaken impression that when you shoot up with heroin for years on end, the heroin never wins. And like the movie Harlem Nights with Richard Prior and Eddy Murphy there is a Lady Heroin in the script, Meeh Yoh. Television There is no more striking example of the evil of television than when you see it in the context of an Akha village. Here the television becomes god. The Akha can talk about their culture all they want but with the uncontrolled watching of large quantities of television there will be no hope for the culture. Television is a tyranny. Television is a god unto itself, the created instead of the Creator, if you will. One neednt look far if they are looking for one of the chief components of the destruction of humans. Television. There is no greater effecter of human thinking, no greater manipulator of the masses than this instrument. People speak of how television is good if it is used right, but man isnt given to using things right. Whatever it is, sooner or later its greatest capability is used for an ill effect. The point becomes moot because there are so many examples. Of course you can disregard this if you dont believe in good and evil in the first place. The rice growing scam, nimit tells. Story: Shake down for drugs, driveway to san chai mai, man in bushes mimits son, headman now he is headman, spent three years in prison for his dads drug bust According to nimit the crashed plane near doi tung More Nimit Use taiwan rice or go back to burma, nimit, rice failure, begging, working cheap labor Burning of 7 villages first wife nimit, lewis San Chai Gow San Chai Pattana Nimit Work this in with the San Chai stories in the villages. Looking for him in this hut or that in the village. He claimed it was his cousin who helped beat Ah Pah who died from a brain hemorhage. I believe him. Jeff Clair said it was one of the girls from Afect School's father at San Mah Keeh village who worked at Sam Yak Police box. Working with Nimit The Good Ole Men And Women of Nimit's village Meeh Chooh She had a son out near Pooh Jeeh Fah Meeh Oh Ah Saws wife Mee Oh: dirty shirt: akha man Afect, Nimit So I was in the flat village checking out the second night of music and it was shit. Som Ah Kohm Akha. Afect. About as Akha traditional as MacDonalds. Not what the people want at all in my opinion. And really lousy on the guitar. So I loaded up and went to San Chai to say hello to Nimit. His sixteen year old daughter met me at the door and said she was unhappy because of her dad was still doing opium. I sat down and talked to him about it. God it must be depressing for her. Nimit, we talked, I encouraged him to write some, to learn to write Akha so he could tell his stories. Wish I had the money to help him do it, get started. He sat there squirting water out of a heroin syringe at bugs in the bamboo mat. Then he would try to burn them out with the heat of a cigarette but I could never see them. I wonder if it was the meth. Always, as tonight some wild looking thai pops in. this one had tatoos and a swastica over one armpit. Yeah, he was in the right place for the death business. After a while I left. I would keep praying for this guy. God needed people like him. The clinic the Thais had built had not openened yet, I assumed they would need to fix the road before the staff of any kind would come there. It was only one mile but very eroded and bumpy and with its steep parts. Many thai medical staff dont have cars so they would have to come on bikes and I dont think it would happen. I took the turnoff at the police station that was a shortcut and headed for the highway. Driving a motorbike at night is the definition of dangerous. Dogs, they are your worst obstacle and you dont see them in the road or crossing it in the dark till it is too late. Then there are the jackass drivers who all zip out and turn without looking. If you were scared, you were too small for them to see or care about. If they are scared, the stop first when they see your size. Then because my stomach was in the worst way I headed straight home on the last of my gas and the last of my money. The death of the two Thais San Chai was like a gangster village, in part because it was close to Mae Chan and had a lot of underworld connections. Running drugs and guns in the old days, still the former, and the Thais always came there to buy, a bad marriage, buyers one minute, police the next. Nimit's brother had been killed in a big gun battle with police in the village and Nimit was hit in the neck, a big scar along the side of the face. Of all the people, speaking english he had the most opportunity to do good for his people but wouldn't do it. Once his sister had some heroin but wouldn't share it so he got her busted and she did eight years for that. Many of the people whom I knew said they never wanted to meet me if Nimit was along, he was perceived as very evil by most people who knew him. To me there was always something sad about him, like HE felt sad about what was being lost and what was going on. I remember the time his nephew Ah Cha came to see him from england, Ah Cha's parents lived in San Chai Pattana. Well, one of them ran the video and Nimit walked through the forest with Ah Cha, singing about the mountains, about love. Nimit was a wonderful singer whih redeemed many other qualities he had. These two Thais were building on a house in San Chai Pattana and Nimit's youngest son who had become a real jerk, he tells his brother that was the Pah Luang now, that these two robbers were escaping. They were persued, a man and a woman, and they tried to defend themselves by holding onto a hammer, but they got shot. After they were dead, someone figured out something went wrong so they loaded the bodies in a truck and roared back through the village and into the jungle where they burned them with gasoline. It all came out, wasn't clear what started the madness except that Nimit's son pulled the first peg out. His older brother had to keep checking in with the judge and the young boy went to prison, where his older brother by a different mother was also. Nimit had not taken care to his sons during all these days. Half the people in the big family were in jail. Nimit told how so many times the missionaries had tried to take over his village. But it had never happened. The second wife of Ah Doh who was killed in Bpah Mah Han lived there, she came back afterwards and married someone else. Ganster situation. nimits mother daughter wails. Aleh did three years for nimit his dad He also died for his dad. The police raided Nimit's house one day, they were always doing that, and he was gone but they found some heroin, so they took his son to prison where he stayed for three years. His new wife was pregnant at the time and so he wasn't there when he was born, but the kid grew up and Ah Leh got out. He later became Pah Luang and in many ways became corrupt. After the killings I could see that his heart got very sad, he tried to always talk big and keep a straight face and the foolish talking increased with time. He took one or more second wives and his wife became sad over this, not because of the one or more but because of the selection. Sometimes he carried a gun, the house got a little bigger with time, the wall got bigger and higher, falling down, being rebuilt, like he didn't want a drive by shooting. Lots of people hung out at his house, Thai and Akha. That is where I saw Ado for the first time. He was dead a couple of nights later. Ah Juuhxv was Ado's younger brother. They said that he was the one who killed Ado. It went bad for him, he was dead ten days later too. They really blew him away, his eye shot out, blasted him from under the bed, just kept shooting, then came in the house and went at it some more. He hadn't always been a bad guy. And then his story was over. They said he took his younger brother and family out in the hills and killed them all too, I think he thought there was money to be had. There is the potential for very bad blood between brothers, like things gone wrong, done wrong, that an outside person would never break off like that. Nimit Nimit June 1999 Iwent and saw Nimit. He's back on the stuff. Meth. Never builds anything, never has anything, but we are friends. We talk, I'm listening to his stories and maybe trying to see if there is any hope in his story at all. He said the villages that got burned were not far from h is village. Bad maechan police and army. You never know from Nimit, but this story was verified by others. But then he said the Cultural Center, some 30 years ago, made the Akhas all grow a new brand of Taiwan rice and it failed. Took years to recover and people suffered incredibly. They told the Akha if they didn't grow it they'd have to go back to Burma. Many became beggars, or had to take jobs in town, breaking up their families. This sort of thing casts light on why the relationshipo between Thais and Akhas might not be so good. Nimit Jan 2002 Now his son Ah Jung is dead. He had killed many people including the two Thai house builders, and now he shot himself in the head while his house was surrounded by army. I would have liked to know what led up to that but Ah Jung was into many bad things. He had so often bad people around his house, and many of them died first of course. I knew him when he was in his early twenties, a small boy, who was always friendly and his nice wife. He worked for Jenny Gray in those days and then gave up on it when he saw what a scam it was. He later became headman and then he went bad. Nimit Family Update Of late Nimit's wife is looking worse than bad. Josef says aids, but she has always been thin for years and I see no sign of illness other than abandonment, heartbreak, and the birds coming home to roost. Meeh Oh was always faithful to Nimit as a good friend, but Nimit didn't see it. The third and youngest son looks like he has aids though, course that is the same look as meth addicts and he is that too. Nimit himself is a mosquito of a man and how he lives so long or still lives now I don't know. Two of his sons are in prison now and one son is head man. Ah Jung. A daughter goes to school, tries to keep a sober face and is greatly saddened by what is going on. Nimit aug 99 Sure, some people spoke ill of her and she was a wreck, smoking meth all the time but she loved him and she was kind to him when he was half dead and no one else would touch him. She was young, his life was old and hard, a pirate in a mountain, a broken pirate. I remember her going to the wooden cabinet in the corner of the broken wooden cabinet in the corner of the broken wooden hut and pulling at clothes her face obscured by hair, crying in long sobs like pain can only be in a young girl's heart, and it hurt me too, not that he had done anything wrong but just at life with its sudden hardness, words hung wrong as if they fell on a blade first. She wasn't Akha. She was Thai. Her face pocked with marks, her arms as well. When she first came he told her to quit smoking that shit, but she swore she would the day after he quit, two people in the hard of it. His first wife, actually his second, was dead now. Died a year ago. She was really sad and faint in the end. I came by two weeks before she passed on and spent some time talking to her. She was staying in the old house by herself, at the square of the village, and he was down in another hut with this new Thai wife. In some ways they had played the game together and she had lost first. She certainly couldn't have put it over on him, her hand deep in the jar for many years. Like all people he had a good side and his bad side. Something that impressed me about bad people was that they seemed to have more passion. And when the good passed across that stream of energy it got fired out all that much more forcefully. And so it was with Nimit. In all the despair his eyes could still find your idea. And he could accept the hardness, not all of it his, quite bravely as well. I was waiting for him one day and along he came in the rain with a bag of passion fruit slung over his shoulder. Funny how life can't drown us rats, and the rain had him soked like that, a sad man struggling on, still understanding how sweet fruit can be. He wore a purple shirt, black baseball hat, cut offs and the road was nothing but mud where he came back from Aih Oh Mai village up above his. Then he sat down in his busted hut and he ate a meal like a king. Later he kicked the Thai girl out, I am not sure what she did, or if anything at all, but he told me she had a problem with the police, or maybe she wanted too many of his pills when he had them. Squatted there, pipe bongs for smoking all around him in various stages of use. They say pills fry the brain, they n ever fried Nimit's brain, he was always the same Nimit. Asaw. Aug 20. I came. Everyone was sitting around smoking speed, Awaw wanted Ah May's Budda locket and sold it. Last time I was h ere the oldest brother and Asaw were fighting with Brother 3. Brother 3 said the oldest brother said that Asaw's son was not running the village right because he didn't listen enough to the elders. The old brother insisted that he did not say he was a bad headman but only that he didn't listen to the elders. The one young boy in the house was telling how he was doing a radio show for kids to not use drugs. Always the authorities are happy to put out that message, putting the burden on the poor. They never spoke about rights, land rights, human rights, how the police took and exploited. So the young children thought that only the Akha had the potential to be bad, from the way things went on.  PAGE 26  PAGE 26 "3g / Ym%&-5-_CRȮӮ /+"  Qe\uv7^ftnH 5nH 5a  # 34ABUVh / *Z[nD[!$$$  # 34ABUVh / *Z[nD[!HPRh 3"R##%%%&'m*',,--!-6--.[B.DDEFmG-I.I4IIIJMKLxLMMzN#O\O]OjOe!HPRh 3"R##%%%&'m*',,--!-6-$$6--.[B.DDEF$$FmG-I.I4IIIJMKLxLMMzN#O\O]OjOOPP9TUZUUUUbXkZ$$jOOPP9TUZUUUUbXkZlZZ[=\>\U\^^^^^^^^^M_N_d_r`s`````=a>aIaacccdd,d-dBdfhiijLklm\U\^^^^^^^^^M_N_d_r`s`````=a>aIaa$$acccdd,d-dBdfhiijLklm?S`l#CDSȮɮԮڰLZ~$$Ex>?S`l#CDSȮɮԮڰLZ~̵e6;CI]no%\ !0@"cIj9XJ. Q,tf$rH e~̵e6;CI]no%\ $$ !0@"cIj9XJ. Q$$,tf$rH JWmc$$ JWmcsB#D:g$yt     G `    QRfFG]uvl,-8]^fti8_(yzdsB#D:g$yt   $$   G `    QRfFG]uv$$l,-8]^fti8_$$(yzLP!L"""(#####$&H''(N*O*U*V*$$$y##O*e*--/022<<@@$@%@'@(@*@+@1@2@4@5@;@ 0J5mH0J5j0J5U5LP!L"""(#####$&H''(N*O*U*V*\*f*{*B++5----////0)112I22222m33H56^7789$;f;<<<J=>?@@)@*@6@7@8@9@:@;@CV*\*f*{*B++5----////0)112I22222m33H56^77$$789$;f;<<<J=>?@@)@*@6@7@8@9@:@;@$$$$$" 00 v. A!8"8#8$8%|HH ,6G{HH(d'`elop it, and so forth. Army says they are coming to develop the village. A polotician is coming as well. They are saying the will give gifts to the villagers that they are there to help them. These are the same people that two months ago didnt believe that the villagers didnt want to leave and made them vote twice. Maybe from all the wars, ar [6@6NormaldhOJQJkH'mH 6@6 Heading 1$dh@&58@8 Heading 2$<@&588 Heading 3$<@&CJ<A@<Default Paragraph Font,@,Header  !, @,Footer  !.)@. Page NumberOJQJ0Y"0 Document Map-D  2 Style1 B Style2;<;<t$t     Z %1)?jKUXB`n'})0jf$v ( +8;<:n   & U Y ;@!6-FkZa2~  V*7;@jO ;@;< !!8@0( N=:x B S  ?;<'+',8<BGPTV]pu} "&/4MT mr [ ` i m n s Z _ f m LQ$(dghkhoGK6<""0#7###$$%%x&{&&&&&&'J(Q(t(x(++000000t1w11112>222222233N4S44444a7f7d8h888E:I:;<~<<==#A(AAABBmCrC&E+E.E4EEEFFFFFFGGGG_HhH%I*IsJxJJJK!K N NrRvRwRzR"V)VVV7WAWWW>XCXY YZZXZ\Z]Z`ZfZkZZZZZZZZZ[[N[S[[[V\Z\h\q\\\\\\\\\\\\\>]C]I]N]a]d]m]q]]]]]]]]]]]^___=`A`l`p`6b9bZb`b~bbbbbbbbc&cOdYddeeeggqhxhmmFnKn'o-oooqq rrMrSrssuuuu{vvvvvvRwVwwwwwSx\xxx8y;yDфՄ#'+CGdžˆ"IM)+kpЉԉMSY^RWeju{'vcg1=EJ!'ciW[<@HLͪѪū˫AGOUV^+/hqsxz~ ڽ޽%)X\BJnrHPx||%)U_hqlsAH)-ho!*QYX];?@Fcghm5: SXGKdjFPT]swx|%); C   9 = > A R X               h m o t z ~           8 ; R [ q v          #-127TXY\^btw -7*07?V]Y^SZ_dz~ !%| 'LQ>ATXY\' . 1!4!O!R!S!X!##O&T&V&[&f&k&t&y&&&''''*(/(_)l)))))++,,,,,,------......5 5>6C66677888888990959w9{999<8<<<Matthew McDaniel'Hard Drive:Desktop Folder:MT Map SingleMatthew McDaniel'Hard Drive:Desktop Folder:MT Map SingleMatthew McDanielQHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Parts Finished:10-3 San Chai MaiMatthew McDanielmHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:08-14 The Akha - Part 2:13 San Chai MaiMatthew McDanielmHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:08-14 The Akha - Part 2:13 San Chai MaiMatthew McDanielmHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:08-14 The Akha - Part 2:13 San Chai MaiMatthew McDanielpHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:09-15 The Akha - Part 2:11 San Chai Mai 31Matthew McDaniel:Hard Drive:Temporary Items:AutoRecovery save of 11 San ChMatthew McDaniel:Hard Drive:Temporary Items:AutoRecovery save of 11 San ChMatthew McDanielzHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters 953 pages:09-15 The Akha - Part 2:11 San Chai Mai 31 hh.@hh.@80.@<<X <<3;<`@GTimes New Roman5Symbol3 Arial3TimesMNew Century Schlbk"qhLcGČ#-,$0d#@FlorenceMatthew McDanielMatthew McDanieloke. The village men said that when they got there they found three spirits standing nearby. Two wanted to kill him all the way and the one said not to do it. They took the father home and he remained like a caged animal after that for many years, tearing at his bedding, growling and making noises, not going out of the house, eating his food out of a pot with his hand, aggressive to Oh+'0p  , 8 DPX`h' Florencet lorMatthew McDanielrdattNormal Matthew McDanielrd8ttMicrosoft Word 8.0d@40@XTz@z-1-111565151-221112255<966662626966622666::662;622266222666:66,662.62.H222.223.2666.22,62323666236.2327377773373/3377733/733(/373334//3(//338333344//4338=48008888480044)000)4;959955555.55&5551151511<655661166111262222-1-2222222-222&..37333233.33/33:E844444/4/4444/555%555:6:;6:=01116174/1212//2/4252472525///255522/52222557242/142/24244745441/244244222//422//24222222/222/4/////,22924572/,/<454222//22//4/4?4/52/2772225472,22454552455/422252729525552/25552555222/55775255/5/2252555552225/252222522522785272522/22/2285202/55/255885858255577752225555285285852//55225822:87222/52552220/22/2/5522252/285882558525;88822/225058888352/288285025@5833258:;:88858580;;888;;838366536388383636333@86355066256553233333330636336693633766333330356050530030066683060036336366303688;836883330663686666353306636636666606369633060069366000-003-000333---0003699>CLX]cny~ytie_TPLNNV^]fnnsqqqjiffa\X_TSVTVZX_]cd_`__\]aeqnhdZXRFCCHEMHHHHA<>96794741114663767<7499<<9<::<>?A>;>@;>AAFCCFDFHFKMPRUUWU[]WYSSNNKPPTGGGDGDAAA>DCIDAAAA>DBGIKJIINIKPPQUXVSUUXQLLNLNIILNJFDJGEBEBEBB<<<99<6<<<65656085<99595922//62222929<<9?BGJOPOWW]bbaglinrvtpjhlphnhhjdjjbe`[`dbb`[\ZUUSKHMKFHEB====?B=@@E===::6367:=::::7:=::7:==:==::=:7=@@7=:====:7:::7=:>:::34:>=@@77>7:7:>A>>>;=>;:>=;=:;7>:>747.7;;8;;8>;844@;;4C847448;4;@7;;;;8;7;878;8847484;;;>8845885<88;88441-11118455814851551855855-1--:51-55555115455551-1511-5555:5111551-1595;51555155-55;5615911665552625966666:969926,22696662225226662?2.26666266662<622226663333.-3;360333033333338603003633388063303333883666306336663636366666606336360666638333336963;600963003333600-00010-3003063636>CJR]agty{ynfcZVNJLNTZakpsxwtttmlhfc_]ZXVXX\ZX]_aaaccbcchmmgddZXTJHHCACFFAA>>6@7674444A64639179469<<999::<99>??>K?CAAACKJOHJMFHDHDFIHMHKSSUUQQQQSSSRSUUVS[XRYTUSUUSVVUSQSTRRRQPTQKQQSRWUVXSPQMKPRMUSQVROMPRTORRPV`XVVXTVZZ]^^de^_bcceefcabaa_``ba^\Z\\^\TPRPTVNLNRPNLM?NKLINKPNNRNTRTLPRRTX`geeZ\VVTXWTPXVPPRT\RPRTTTTVWR\\XXXUTRUWVTU[Y][f\Y[[\^ZZSWZ\]Z\^bddbd^^bbdbbab`YWVXWWUSOLSNW]duwz{rojcbcde_dgeaca[U\aecc__]_^UQX]YWUUUYZZaec\aa^^c^^a`bdgcdhggillhjlklilkggiid`b`cb``d]`bcgbac`d`dfdd^b\^^XXVTWX[ZXT[XZX\^Z`c`\b```VVXX\Zb^^`fdfcfempryv|zvuxwonnkpqsolmlgdhiehhkurmlhkkhhaa_]YUSSPQSQIQNNLLLJIJHLJSSQWYZ[cad\VOMOLNQSOJC@7=7==:44771717107717747475ESzmQ@2:4474?441141-14117711=8+:1488:7474;4:8:478;4444488:;ADDD>A>DF@FIKKKNSNUUWYUUNNNIKMKIIDGDDDDAAA>A9DFADA>BGGDGILLLKNNQQXTSUWXTVQNQLLLLLJFGLMGBBBEB< _PID_GUID'AN{2619B580-F5D3-11D3-A411-0050E4E08678}4440)49509B55055095499511151111-55166:611662<666221-2-269-972-2. 33373923,33.433848894944/5449995:5505::66=<0166166711/42772/222/52442/2225/25524225//222/5744244274442/772221/,24424442//4242277222422,,4242/242222//425/21/,///42542252/,9474777/272724/5/552424/25722222/55//252552755/222555572,2//5252522525/2252255/52,/225/525522/,255858:855//2552222202//5225528855822225775252285552558255/2/585522522/5252525572252//2255552/2555/2888555555585582855/2=558558822535555322352332288;88888888==?8;=;6868636506333336638633:5353336022=555230366699966303306336180303006(030533636303368300063006386636333666636603666638686666033063333660063036363066330333;336033030-0003330--0066369;>CNX^fqw{undaXTLEIR\`dmpwyytxtslmmjff\ZXTVVVZ]^acaa_`acfmmoifaXVFHHJHCCHC>996976494794664373774996777<7:<>C>??AA>>ACKCCACCCFLLNWYRPPSPPKINPKGIGGDGDFAAAAADDDDDAABEGIDGLINKLRQQSZNSWSVSLNQNQLLLJILGMJGEHEE???9596<6996<<9?<885>999892222/2226<999?::=:=>:===:=:>7:=:>::=::=A==@E@;::;7:>:;F>@>;::=;:F;;;::7>7>478;;;>888;;>;88=8874484;;>>;;;4447;8;;>;;4418848;;848858588585=41845548845884455+5115>585551111541-551--5111511511151--1151511;1111515555598159111;952111152655126211226626626622.226.?6626652222228222262662<6626666.626666326.,66<626632762263.82763/333/733773333.33373@77333///73737/3//333/48448;74384A4000/0400)004444455595500;9555851151;155<511116666:?112222222122822--22--29933.33.23A8N343,8484?8?4445///49::55555:.6.65=6;666'1/412424/2/2/522//2/5525/55222224524//52224427774422442424522////2222442/4222/247//1/242222/425/22222//1522422/,2225224442472525272522/42544545222/2/2725755/25522775542775255225545555/5/27252/5222/22255222575257557272252:-25227555222/02///252/2225/8552252525525:555/22822522252/225225<75522222/225:2558852552555522588585555888/252852552252/022:568/52322688585555258;885;;88858688.98;3606633636366636333635566350305553668669696666636063640063:33335--5353363003333066663338033336033363060:06636633838666383330333036683333333030333333-3333336603-31-1300800333199<<64914,769@94943744696:;>>>A@>>A>FCFDIFINPRYPRNMNRIINIIGLIFAAA>;AAFAADA?GGFGINPQNPNQNQOQNWUXSSSQNNLLLJIOJJJEEE?BBB??<<9969<6595?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~Root Entry!#$%&'() F07s&1Table|(WordDocumenttSummaryInformationry(DocumentSummaryInformation8 CompObj1TableX\.WordDocumentԠSummaryInformation( FMicrosoft Word DocumentNB6WWord.Document.85/72722/27547::55/25*55<25725222257222425:7//22222222/22/22775/4/5522222555222225555225552/5/23/52552//22555/222/2222255585525855228252582/22525555?5228222252:225225555<255225/55885553535/22285885582/352226?22/55265555523855255888;58;;58886638;6533366=3686366663353866022035323886336996<966690-3043-0336330000363336030333006633303360366666806-063306:630033366965366330-30300363333330633>0803--003603303-0-013-36000-0136>ER\aRoot Entry!#$%&'() F-{&@1Table|(WordDocument vSummaryInformationry( DocumentSummaryInformation8 CompObj1TableX0Table\.WordDocumentU4ԠSummaryInformation( _GUID'AN{2619B580-F5D3-11D3-A411-0050E4E08678}33773/473@37833/7/3/8848 Oh+'0p  , 8 DPX`h' Florencet lorMatthew McDanielrdattNormal Matthew McDanielrd9ttMicrosoft Word 8.0d@zT@XTz@a FMicrosoft Word DocumentNB6WWord.Document.85/72722/27547::55/25*55<2572522225722242 ՜.+,D՜.+,P  hp  'The Akha Heritage Foundation3-,#@:  Florence Title 6> _PID-mnhjtqqoqnqqtqrrwvyy|z}}{|x|~~|{{|}~||{xvx|~~}{x}{}~}}|}|tssnkpkejeeeded]]YWUVUSSSUMMOKJJJJLOOQONQUOQXXWUWY[Y_ZZY^Y\WZbbc`\\^\^`__a^``^\YY^^_^^b`XXZVTZZX\\^\]ZX\V\XZX^ZZTTVXVVXVVRTTRMNMIKNINPVVZXW\bbdb`^ddb`^bb``hhipruvutw{||{xsuxxvtsvuwz|~~xzwspnkjlnssnknllehkifliecihlidgea_d]YUYWSTUY]]^bddZb^Y`^ZVXQQSZVUQQOONJGMJHGEEEBB?EJ\pqSJF@:7744778477::;=::==;CFKKRP[YYYRYXPRTOKMRMKOPKMKKIH    [6@6NormaldhOJQJkH'mH 6@6 Heading 1$dh@&58@8 Heading 2$<@&588 Heading 3$<@&CJ<A@<Default Paragraph Font,@,Header  !, @,Footer  !.)@. Page NumberOJQJ0Y"0 Document Map-D  2 Style1 B Style20<0<t$t     R %1 ?aKLX9`n} 'aw]m  +80<:n   & U Y *+89LM_& ! Q R e ; R ?G888A9:;<1< &\K &\K &\K &\K &p-  &\K & & &  &\K &\K &\K &\K &\K &\K &\K & &\K &\K & & &\K &\K &\K &x &  & &\K &x &  &\K &\K & &  &  &\K &p-  & &\K &\K & &p-  &  & &\K*+<<< <+<1< t!6-FkZa2~  V*7tjO ;@QUnknownMatthew McDanielMarthaKrisda PER & TERRAMicrosoft Windows 98per O.B.1. Canobi SYSTEM2000*LPLWPOFFICE TECHNOLOGYDachanee EmphandhuLadawan PuangchitSilvicAgroforestry_ProjectRegistraCRPKUFF***ffcc9aaaPCKAPI_5IT-KAPIIT_3 BiotechnologyYPKAPI RatchanokComputer ScienceBIOTECHPoo.KungCompaqIT_4Micronics ComputerSupportSurasak SanguanpongDOAE For USER OnlyMR.SARUTT PTUMCHAISIRIKULKAPI_JAJAPAN INTERNATIONALYOKAPI-8Lerluck ChitradonPenjitPenjit Sangsurasak Deidre Stuart!Microsoft Office 4.3 ProfessionalDacusxxxIT_1 Robert HarperWikhanIT_5Guntima OcharosARONKONPascalxxxxrootV.J.Weerapol Thairachpc7NonameBiotechprunKS@20maneefsciwccWiroj RatanaporncharoenWiroj Ratanaporncharernnrm INFORMATION FORGENMAPPT Siem Smit0< !!8@0( N=:x B S  ?0<"#/39>GKMTglty&+DKdi R W ` d e j Q V ] d CH[^_b _f>B-3!!'#.### $$%%o&r&&&&&&&A(H(k(o(++000000k1n111(25222222233E4J44444X7]7[8_888<:@:;;u<z<==AAAABBdCiCE"E%E+E~EEyFFFFFFGGGGVH_HI!IjJoJxJ}JKKNNiRmRnRqRV VVV.W8WWW5X:XXYZ ZOZSZTZWZ]ZbZZZZZZZZZ[[E[J[[[M\Q\_\h\\\\\\\\\\\\\5]:]@]E]X][]d]h]w]]]]]]]]]]^^__4`8`c`g`-b0bQbWbub{bbbbbbbccFdPdddeegghhoh mm=nBno$oooqqr rDrJrss uuxu|urvvvvvvvIwMwwwwwJxSxxx/y2y3y7yDyMyyyzz{{L{R{}!}"}%}'}-}~~~~*3OZ*8"#'5;Ȅ̄":>†@D  "bgljˉDJPUIN\alrޕmvZ^(4<AZ`NR37?CĪȪ«8>FLMU "&_hjoquzѽս OSؾܾ9Aei?G{oss| LV_hcj 8? $_f!HP OT267=Z^ _d,1JO>B[a=GKTjnos 2 :   0 4 5 8 I O               _ d f k q u v y ~        / 2 I R h m          $().KOPSUYkn$.y~ !'.6MTPUJQV[quv}swxCH58KOPS % (!+!F!I!J!O!##F&K&M&R&]&b&k&p&&&''''!(&(V)c)v){)))++,,,,,, --z-~---......4556:6666688888899'9,9n9r999<-<1<Matthew McDaniel'Hard Drive:Desktop Folder:MT Map SingleMatthew McDanielQHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Parts Finished:10-3 San Chai MaiMatthew McDanielmHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:08-14 The Akha - Part 2:13 San Chai MaiMatthew McDanielmHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:08-14 The Akha - Part 2:13 San Chai MaiMatthew McDanielmHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:08-14 The Akha - Part 2:13 San Chai MaiMatthew McDanielpHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:09-15 The Akha - Part 2:11 San Chai Mai 31Matthew McDaniel:Hard Drive:Temporary Items:AutoRecovery save of 11 San ChMatthew McDaniel:Hard Drive:Temporary Items:AutoRecovery save of 11 San ChMatthew McDanielzHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters 953 pages:09-15 The Akha - Part 2:11 San Chai Mai 31Matthew McDanielzHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters 953 pages:09-15 The Akha - Part 2:11 San Chai Mai 31 hh.@hh.@80.@88X 883*<<<<(<)<,<-<.</<0<`@`D@`F@`n @` @`4 @`@`@`f@`t@a:@at`N@at`h@`n@`p@`r@`t@GTimes New Roman5Symbol3 Arial3TimesMNew Century Schlbk"qhLcHČ# -,$0d#@FlorenceMatthew McDanielMatthew McDanielb`c_cffhmlkkhmmgbZ^]fgotfW\UVSSUZYZUUSOTTTVSOSOJMHKMOOMMHOOMMKOMFHTMMKHNFJFHCEFHCFFFHHHMFKCHHKKKHJIIGKNPPPRPKKMMKKNLKFFICKFDFFIKKMNPPQSLNPXUSRQUSRNNPUOQQUQYNUVWZYZ\\XXZZXTSNQNSQSXZSSOQQOQMJEEGGB??<69<99<89929855699<56566C>ACE==>A@==>=F@C@@@>>=7>>AA;;>=>>::@;@>;FA:A747;>>8;>>;;;87;;>;;;>8;8;;;>I;>>>>>8>;7;c ;@jbjbSS v11<]LLL8 . 08(@@@///////,13z//  !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~%LL@@ .%%%L8@@/LLLL/%%M.V)/T/ ,!cN%}/ Chapter 11 San Chai Mai Summary: San Chai Village was a village that I spent a lot of time in while working on an Akha book. This village was illustrative of the worst exchanges with the Thai world and low lands as well as the diminishing ends of mountain culture as though it had overextended itself. Leadership was of the worst despotic sort, if there was a good to choose, the evil was always chosen and the people paid the price. Elders and children were forced to suffer for the evil leadership of this village. Outside police, missions and NGO's preyed on the difficult position of this village with no one making any effort to assist it in any true way. Drug addiction, prostitution, crime and prostitution was at its worst with AIDS being a resultant factor. Many of the Akha in this village died, there were many murders and many of its people ended up in prison. Drugs contributed significantly to the death and imprisonment factor, the leadership being blind, arrogant and without vision for a future. Little to no good thing ever came out of this village. San Chai Mai Nimit and San Chai Nimit's Dark Side One man said the other day, here in October of 98 that Nimit had planted drugs on a sister because she wouldnt loan him heroin and she just got out or is getting out this month for doing six years after he set the cops on her. You would never know that to meet Nimit. Yet I knew his mean ness a time or two. I remember the time I took Meeh Suur the girl who had been burned badly to see him. While we were there a pretty girl invited me outside to talk and while we were gone out under the light, sitting on the bench talking, Nimit became angry at me with envy I suppose and told the burned girl many cruel things to discourage her. John Gunther AUA director chiangmai, don't tell him that asoh sent me Nimit sent me to talk to John Gunther. Asked me not to mention his name, maybe he had pissed some money in the past. Lots of people had tried to help the Akha through Nimit. But he ate the money and the good will. San Chai had been a good man, and the village had lots of options as well as lots of bad luck. But Nimit would not do that part that was good, and so the village missed much good will and opportunity. Nimit's involvement with drugs, along with his brothers, had corrupted the leadership that was there. Missionaries who had come had often been into other going's on that took away from those good opportunities as well. In the end, Nimit squandered a lot of good time where his people could have used honesty, integrity, and good leadership. It appeared his sons were repeating his errors. Nimit and San Chai Nimit is his search, as all of us, for the meaning and substance not by definition in life, but by our existence, to live our lives in meaning, to have events, to be engaged, and so often missing the mark, and that is much the story of Nimit. For Nimit's side there is the problem that his surrender to drugs, and a surrender it must be called, repeated surrender, despite the effort of many friends, ,tf$rH JWmc$$ JWmcsB#D:g$yt     G `    QRfFG]uvl,-8]^fti8_(yzdsB#D:g$yt   $$   G `    QRfFG]uv$$l,-8]^fti8_$$(yzLP!L"""(#####$&H''(N*O*U*V*$$$y##O*e*--/022<<@@$@%@'@(@*@+@1@2@4@5@;@tt 0J5mH0J5j0J5U5LP!L"""(#####$&H''(N*O*U*V*\*f*{*B++5----////0)112I22222m33H56^7789$;f;<<<J=>?@@)@*@6@7@8@9@:@;@CV*\*f*{*B++5----////0)112I22222m33H56^77$$789$;f;<<<J=>?@@)@*@6@7@8@9@:@;@t$$$$$" 00 v. A!8"8#8$8%|HH ,6G{HH(d'`11