2010 EDGE Thailand Project
On March 12, the Shawnigan EDGE team will be leaving to an agricultural training campus in Baan Nato, Thailand. It won’t be our first time working with the Chiang Rai College of Agriculture in area known as the Golden Triangle, close to Burma border.
Last year's team helped to build a hut, with adobe mudbrick walls and a thatched grass roof, that now houses visiting teachers who come to the rural campus twice a week. This year, we will help to build a similar structure to accommodate hilltribe students whose home villages are too far away for a daily commute.
It seems right for us to help built a boarding school education, however, I’m sure their experience is very different from our own.
One of the special things about Baan Nato is that there are six separate hilltribe cultures living within a relatively short radius, so we are looking forward to the rich and fascinating diversity of the area—especially because each hilltribe has its own language and distinct culture. Our EDGE team has been learning a bit about them. The Karen people hail from Burma, the Hmong originated in Mongolia, the Akha and the Lisu came from Tibet, and the Lahu and the Yao have their roots in China. All of the hilltribes are relative newcomers to Thailand, most having moved there within the past 200 years. Being isolated by their rural locations and by their cultural differences, they lead pretty tough lives because of extreme poverty and a lack of education.
Chiangrai College's Baan Nato campus brings education and agricultural training to hilltribe students. It is a "hand up" as opposed to a handout, if you get my meaning. Members of our Shawnigan team are looking forward to working alongside the hilltribe peoples and learning about their ways of life. For most of us, it will be our first opportunity to experience something of what life is like for the less-privileged 98% of the world’s population. One of the things that many EDGE students have written about in the past is how surprised they were to discover firsthand how happiness can exist in the complete absence of material wealth. Thailand is known as the Land of Smiles, and we are looking forward to meeting a lot of gentle, happy people.
There are twelve grade 11 students and three staff (Mrs. Hamilton, Mr. McClellan and Mr. Yates) on this year’s EDGE Thailand team. By the way, if you’re like me and you’re new to Shawnigan, you may be surprised to know that 22 members of this year's graduating class have been part of the EDGE Thailand program.
In past years our biggest annual fundraiser for EDGE projects has been T-shirt sales, but we gave up the T-shirt this year in order to support the relief effort in Haiti. In absence of the shirts, we are spearheading several other fundraising efforts to cover the cost of building supplies. One is a bake sale: we will be coming around during prep, selling mega-sized brownies, rice krispie squares and gooey cookies. We will also be the beneficiaries of the proceeds from the Grade 10 Round Table’s “Pot of Gold” dance. Our last fundraiser, that we’re calling “Twoonies for Thailand,” will take place on March 11. We're asking everyone to donate at least a twoonie in exchange for the chance to wear casual clothes along with one of the special Word T-Shirts (compassion, engage, unite, commit, or relieve) instead of classroom dress. Our goal is to raise $3200 to pay for the building supplies—things like doors, windows, floor and water pipes.
We are very aware that although we are only a team of 12 students we are representing everyone at Shawnigan, and we really appreciate your interest and support in this year's project.