Thailand Summer 2008 - jasonreevesmiller

Going to Thailand Tomorrow
Austin, United States
Hey Everyone. This is going to be my new blog where you all can keep track of my adventures. As most of you know, I am heading back to Thialand to work for a company called Rustic Pathways. You can find out more about the company at www.rusticpathways.com. I will be leading groups of high school kids from America to do Service and Adventure trips throughout Thailand. As of now, I have no idea what to expect. All I know is that I am getting on a plane tomorrow to head for Thailand. From there, I have no idea what the summer holds for me. I don't even know where I am going or who is going to be meeting me at the airport. I look forward to many great adventures though. I am excited about showing these teenages around the amazing country of Thailand and showing them how much service can enrich thier lives. I am excited not only about serving people this summer, but teaching others to serve so that even more will be done in the future.
I will try to post a blog entry and a few pictures once a week or so, so that everybody can keep up with what I am doing. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I embark on my third journey to Thailand.
written by  jasonreevesmiller on May 21, 2008 from Austin, United States
from the travel blog: Thailand Summer 2008

Week Number One
Mae Hong Son, Thailand
So, I am now in Thailand and have already had so many adventures. Shortly after arriving here, I found out I was heading straight to the mountains for 5 days to scout out villages for the come with nothing trip. We traveled all around the North checking out a different village in a different area every day. In the villages, we meet with the head of the village and the village elders to figure out what the village needs that the government won't help them pay for. We also talk with teachers at the school to think about projects we could do there and make the connections so that the students coming from America can spend time with the kids at the school as well. Some of the villages, we have stayed at overnight and others we have just made day trips to, but every village has been great in its own way and we have found so many great projects that we can do. These include building a preschool, a storage shed, bridges over rivers, water storage tanks, catfish farms and stairs. We can also help to plant rice as next month is planting time.
Each village has been different and special in its own way. Some have been Christian and some have been Buddihst. In the first village, we had the opportunity to stay in huts on the temple grounds. This was a great experience. We got to spend a lot of time with the monk there. The night we were there, he sat down and talked to us for nearly an hour about the problems of the world and what we can do to find solutions. We have eaten many weird things in the villages as well. So far, I have eaten bbq lizard, small frogs from the rice fields and pig brain. We were at a village last night that wanted to serve us dog, but the two other americans and I opted out of that and decided to head into town to get a real meal. I have to draw the line somewhere.
So, here is an outline of our trip. You guys can check it out on a map of Thailand. I will try to post it here as well. We went from Chiang Mai to Hot to Mae Sariang to Ta Son Yang to Mae Hong Son to Pai then back to Chiang Mai. We did so much driving on this trip, but got to see some of the most beautiful scenery Thailand has to offer. That made the trip go by a bit faster.
I already told you guys a little about the experience near Hot. The main things there were staying at the temple and eating the weird foods. We also got to see a pig get butchered and found many good projects to do in the villages. Moving on, Mae Sariang was amazing. We got there late in the day and started asking around about villages. Rustic has many connections in there, so it was easy to find a village to go to. The hard part was finding a 4Wheel drive truck so late in the day. The solution to this was the teacher at the school got us 5 motorbikes to take out to a village. So, the 11 of us set out on 5 bikes. Over an hour later we finally made it to the village. The road was rough being dark outside made it much worse. It was all dirt with many river crossings and steep rutted hills. It was so much fun making the journey out there. The village was beautiful as well with huge houses made of teak wood and we found a good project to work on there.
Back to Mae Sariang, there is a huge project going on there of which I hope to be a part of this summer. The owner of the company, David, has decided that for the 25th anniversary of Rustic, he will build an orphanage here. This will be no ordinary orphanage though. This town is very near the border with Burma. There are many kids who cross the border everyday, leaving their families behind, for a chance at education and a better life. When these kids get to Mae Sariang they have very poor living conditions. David is build the orphanage to house these kids. Also on the property, he is building an Eco Resort Hotel. It will be made all out of recycled teak wood. No new trees have been cut down for this project. They have bought many abandoned houses in the area to reuse the wood. The property has a beautiful view of the mountains and is right on the river. He will train the kids to eventually work at the hotel after they finish with school so that they can have jobs and good training in the hospitality industry which would be hard for them to get otherwise. He will also present guests at the hotel the opportunity to sponsor a kid for one year while they are still in school. This will be a very personal way for people to get involved. It is not like the things you see on TV where you send money to some random kid. The people will actually know the kids they are supporting. On top of all of this, they are creating an organic farm on the property where the kids will learn to grow fruits and vegetables organically and the food will feed both the kids and the hotel guest. This is going to be one huge self-sustaining organism. I am excited to see what the future holds for this place.
The other villages we visited were a similar format to the ones before, but each having their own distinct character. Most of the villages that we visited were Karen villages while the last one was Lisu. We will se more people groups as we continue to Chiang Rai tomorrow.
written by  jasonreevesmiller on May 30, 2008 from Mae Hong Son, Thailand
from the travel blog: Thailand Summer 2008

Ricefileds Base Orientation and Monk Ceremonies
Udon Thani, Thailand
So, I have been here in Udon at our Ricefields Base for a few days now. This place is incredible. It is a huge resort like place in the middle of this Thai village. This is the main base where students come and they do service projects in the surrounding community. I think this is the only time I will be here this summer though. We are using it for staff orientation right now. This consists of lots of all day meetings telling us everything about the company and about our trips. We have to go through every little legal issue for liability purposes. It is amazing how huge and encompassing this comany is and how few people run the show. I have a few more days of training here and then I will head up to Laos for a few days with a friend to get another Thai visa. Then back here and then on to Chiang Mai to pick up kids and take them to the orphanage in Mae Sariang. I will then be out there for about 3 weeks before I lead my first Come With Nothing trip. We have been going over all the trip details as well this week and I am so excited to get out there and start
Yesterday we were able to have a unique experience as one of the Thai staff members became a Monk for one week. This is very common of Thai people around 20 years old. They do it to clense thier own life and to gain merit for thier parents (especially thier mother who doesn't have the chance to become a monk). There is a very old ceremony to ordinate the monk. We had a big party, then saved his head and eyebrows, carried him through the streets to the temple, and then the head monk swore him in throuh chants, prayer and reciting the monk vows. This was a cool ceremony to be a part of. I actually got to help carry him to the temple which was so much fun.
music in the streets for the monkhood
carrying Ting to the Temple
Ting before coming a monk
Tink becoming a monk
Ting taking the final vows
The weather here has been amazing as well. The land here is really flat so it is nice to watch the storms roll through. Reminds me of Texas. It is the rainy season now as well, so it rains everyday. We had a great mud soccer game in the rain today. Definitely one of the highlights of the time here at the base so far.
written by  jasonreevesmiller on June 7, 2008 from Udon Thani, Thailand
from the travel blog: Thailand Summer 2008

The summer begins
Mae Hong Son, Thailand
Temple in Laos
So, here i am, about a week into the summer. Things are going great so far. Before all the students came, my friend Kevin and I ran up to Laos for a few days to get a longer visa to stay in Thailand. We just went to Vientiane, which is the capitol city of Laos and is right on the border. We spent most of our time at the Thai embassy, but it wasn't a bad trip. Nice and relaxing. We also got to check out the sights in the city. I can't wait to get back to Laos and see more of the countryside. I have a few Lao friends now that will take me all around when I get some free time. I hear that the countryside of Laos is really beautiful.
Karen style house at the orphanage
Now, I am in a small town called Mae Sariang, very close to the Thai-Burma border. This are is mostly Karen people orginally from Burma. It is very different than being in the rest of Thailand. There are not a lot of Thai ethic people here so the culture and traditions here are very different. I like the Karen people and I am trying to learn to speak their language, although most of them speak Thai so communication is not an issue. The house in the picture is the house that I live in, along with the other staff and 8 Karen boys who go to the local school. They are all around 17 years old. This is where I will be spending most of my summer. I am here for another two weeks, then I leave to lead another trip all over the north of Thailand for 3 weeks and then I am back here for the last 4 weeks. It is really amazing here and I really like the project here. We have american kids coming to stay with us here. so far this week, we have painted the school, prepared a new vegtable garden on our property, visited a Karen Longneck village, visited many temples, cleaned up trash at a temple, planted rice, adopted 2 puppies, visited a cave, and learned to weave. This part of Thailand has so much to offer. Especially the culture of the Karen people. We also live with Karen people, so the students and I really get to be a part of their lives and learn from them.
The big house at the orphanage
This project is a really big project that is just in the beginning phases. I have already written alot about this project in past blogs so I won't repeat myself, but this is a picture of the big house. This is part of what will be the orphan's dorms and the guesthouse. The roof and the walls are temporary for right now just to house the students for the summer. this building is huge though and dominates the skyline. Everyone in the area knows about this house. In the future it is going to be so beautiful . Below the house, there are rice fields leading all the way down to the river, and there is a beautiful view of the mountians leading into Burma. This town is situated in a beautiful valley with mountains on either side and a river and rice fields occuping the valley floor.
My first batch of students have been great. 6 girls that are all 16 or 17. It has been an adventure, but they are all loving the trip and have been doing great. They love to make fun of me all the time. Next week, I get one guy, so i am really excited about that. He will have a lot of fun hanging out with me and all the Thai and Karen staff. We have some great guys here.
That is about all I have for now. Not much time for using the internet either. I hope everyone is doing well and I will updat esoon.
written by  jasonreevesmiller on June 17, 2008 from Mae Hong Son, Thailand

good times
Mae Hong Son, Thailand
so, i am about to leave the orphanage in mae sariang to head back to Chiang Mai to pick up my come with nothing group. i have had an amazing time here and i can't wait to get back here at the end of the summer. i have many great friends here now and i will be sad to leave them for the next few weeks.
a couple of days ago, i got to hear my friend Moo's story about growning up. He was born in Burma and his family was forced to flee when he was 6 because the Burmese attacked his Karen village. He and his whole family made it to Thailand where they lived in a refugee camp for 2 years. At the age of 8, Moo and his old brother took off alone to Chiang Mai to find a place to go to school. He has been living alone ever since making it however he could. Now he works for rustic and is one of the key guys at the orphanage. there is so much more to the story, but no time to type now. i will tell the full story one day. i just wanted to give a little peice of it so you guys would be prompted to do some more research on Burma and the situation there. Not with the cyclone, but the problems between the Burmese government and the Karen and Shan people. It is a very sad situation that has been going on for about 60 years.
In the past week, we have planted some rice, done a lot of teaching and I had the opporunity to work with and translate for a doctor that was brought in to give check ups to all the kids at the school. this was a really good experience. also, today we passed out toothbrushes and told the kids about brushing their teeth.
so, i am off to lead my come with nothing trip. it should be a good one. i am very excited about the places we will be going. sorry, no camera yet either, but maybe i can get some time to pick up one in Chiang Mai. i really want to guys to see some pictures of these amazing places i am woking.
until next time......
written by  jasonreevesmiller on July 1, 2008 from Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Come With Nothing
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Sunrise on the top of a mountain
A monk teaching one of my students
Our storage shed building project
Me and the head of the village at Baan Mai
Karen Woman
I am currently driving back to Chiang Mai from Chiang Rai after dropping off my students at the airport. My Come With Nothing trip is now over and I have to start a new trip. These last 3 weeks have been so much fun. Some of the most memorable weeks of my life. It feels so weird to leave this group that had become so close because of the experiences that we had together. I feel so lucky to have been able to lead these amazing high school students through the beautiful and cultural rich areas of Northern Thailand. We got to experience parts of Thailand that foreigners never get to see. By going to these places, we learned so much about respect for culture and what irresponsible tourism can do to places. All of us leave this trip more aware of our actions as we travel around the world. We have also learned so much from each other as we all come from different places and very different backgrounds.
So, we started off the trip with some great times. The second night of our trip happened to be the 4th of July, so we had a big party at our house in Chiang Mai which included lots of big fireworks. Obviously, this did not go over so well with the neighbors and the party ended early when the police showed up. What a great start to the trip though. We also started off the trip with establishing leaders of the day and assigning leader of the day duties. They were to change everyday and leaders of the day were responsible for coming up with thoughts of the day, which would be discussed every night over dinner. This turned out to be one of the best parts of our trips. The students were excited to get into really deep cultural issues and the discussions always lasted well past dinner. Our minds were definitely stretched by the discussions we had and these thoughts caused us to really keep our eyes open and observe what was going on around us where ever we happened to be.
After this, we headed to our first village about an hour south of Chiang Mai. It is a Karen village called Baan Mai outside of the town of Hot. This is a special village to us because our local staff on the trip was from this village. Having him back in his home village allowed us privileges that we could not experience elsewhere. To get to this village, we had to hire 3 4Wheel Drive trucks to get us up the 45 minute long dirt road to the village. This drive is spectacular. It goes up a very narrow canyon with huge mountains and cliffs all around. It has a mountain that looks like half of it just fell off, so there are amazing cliffs all the way up. It reminds me of Half Dome in Yosemite, and I even call this place the Yosemite Valley of Thailand. Several mornings in this village, we did sunrise mountain climbs to take in the amazing scenery of this place. Standing on top of these mountains, watching the sunrise and looking down at the valley floor covered in rice patties such an amazing way to start the day. The people in this village are equally as beautiful as the nature that surrounds them,. Through my time in Thailand this year, I have spent a lot of time with Karen people and really grown to love them. They are friendly, peaceful, easy going and fun. I cherish any opportunities I have to spend time in Karen villages. At this village, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with my house parents and other villagers talking and eating great food. These nights, sitting around the cooking fire in the kitchen are some of my best memories of the whole trip. As for the project at this village, we continued working on a storage building that had been started by the previous group. The village need a community storage building to store stuff that the government gives them that they don’t need all the time. They also need it to store corn and rice after the harvest. When we got there, the posts and roof were already up, so we had to pour a concrete floor and building walls out of concrete blocks. We had to do all of this in 3 days and not spend more than $250. The project went well, and we had some great times working with the locals on this project. Many of the men of the village helped out with the work and it was an interesting time trying to get them and the students to work together. It all turned out fine though and we finished what we set out to. It was really interesting to learn about building practices in the hill tribes for me. Everything is so simple. We needed stones and sand to mix with the cement, so we headed down to the river to gather it. We needed a frame in the floor to make the concrete stronger, so we chopped down some bamboo, cut it up and wove it together into a strong grid frame. I wish that construction could be so simple back in the US. No building codes to worry about here. Another great aspect of this village was our time with the local monk. This village happened to be Buddhist and the monk that resides at the local temple is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. We spent a lot of time with this monk, learning how to meditate and listening to him teach about how we can change the world into a better place for everyone through learning about ourselves and serving others. He is a very wise man and has a great sense of humor as well. I never saw him without a smile on his face. One day, we got to help him with planting trees on a hillside where all the trees had been cleared. This was a great opportunity for us because when talking to the head of the village, he said if he could have anything in the world, He would want the forests around his village to be replanted. I am so happy that we were able to help him accomplish his dream. Each of us planted on tree. The monk and I were also able to have some religious conversations about Christianity and Buddhism. He was very accepting of my religion and so happy that people of different religions could work together to make this world a better place. It is so nice to meet people in this world are willing to work with people who may be different than them. It was so nice to work closely with someone who was very religious but at the same time accepting of people with other religious beliefs. I wish that more people could be this way. We are all working towards the same goal and we can accomplish it so much faster if we all work together. My friendship with this monk was very encouraging for me and I will always remember him and the conversations that we had. Many of the students also became close with this monk. The last night in this village was an especially good time, the villagers threw us a party and had a string ceremony for us. The string ceremony consists of the villages tying white string on our wrist and send blessings of good luck into the string. The strings must then not be removed until they fall off. They will offer protection and good luck for as long as they are on your wrist. We also had a bonfire and lots of tradition singing and music. It was such a great way to end our time in the first village.
After the first village, we had a great break time. Right after leaving the village, we drove to a grove of pine trees at the top of a mountain and had a picnic in the cool air. The environment there reminded us all of America and we had such a relaxing picnic and nap there. It was just what we all need after a week in the village. We also brought out the speakers and iPods for this after not having them in the village. This made it so much better. That night we spent the night at the orphanage and had a great discussion about the situation in Burma. This was great after having just spent time in a Karen village and then learning about how bad the Karen people are being treated just across the border in Burma. The next day, we drove to Mae Hong Son and rode elephants. We stayed in a guesthouse here and prepared to go to our next village. Most groups go see the Karen longneck village here as well. These are the people that stretch out their necks by putting brass rings on. We decided as a group not to go through. This village is extremely touristy and I would compare it more to a zoo for human beings. Not really the kind of place I want to be supporting by paying lots of money to o there. It is such a tourist trap and a great example of how tourism can ruin a place and its culture. It makes me sad every time I have to go there. Before going into our second village, we also spent an evening in Pai shopping and eating western food. Pai is the hippie town of northern Thailand. It is filled with foreigners and has a huge hippie vibe to it. It is like putting a Colorado mountain town right in the middle of Thailand. It is a great place and the students love going here. It is a beautiful place and a relaxing town to spend an evening in.
To be continued…………
written by  jasonreevesmiller on July 27, 2008 from Chiang Mai, Thailand

CWN Part 2
Chiang Rai, Thailand
Novice monks collecting breakfast
Lishu Girls
On to our second village. This village was a Lisu village called Baan Doi Pee Lu (ghost hole mountain village). The translation of the name of this village will be important to know for some of the stories about this village. This village is a very remote village near the town of Pai. It is a little over an hour drive down a dirt road through a wildlife sanctuary to get there. I had been to this village once before, but only for a few hours and didn’t really know much about it except for some things at the school. We had one less day in this village than the other ones, so I sent in Melissa and the students into the village while I took one student and went into town to shop for food and construction supplies. We knew that we were going to build a water storage tank, so we could go ahead and buy all the materials to save too many trips in and out of the village. When we finally made it to the village, the other students had just been sitting around for 3 hours with nothing to do. We were the very first foreigners to ever sleep in this village, so the locals were having a hard time figuring out what to do with us. When I got there, we were able to get some things figured out and get places to sleep. Then, we just let the students go explore. This is when things started to get interesting. Back to the name of the village, there is a mountain beside the village that is full of caves and is mostly a big limestone crag with jungle growing all over it. The village is animistic and believes that these caves are where the sprits live and ceremonies must be had to appease the spirits every year so they will protect rather than haunt the village. So, this mountain is very sacred to the people and they never climb it. In fact, women aren’t even allowed to go on the mountain. We didn’t know any of this when we sent the kids out, so we didn’t explain about this. Three of the more adventurous girls decided they wanted to climb the mountain and set of to climb without telling us they were going. If we knew they were going, we would have said no just because of the danger factor. As we were sitting at the school talking to some of the students, we noticed these three girls on top of the mountain. We figured there must have been a trail to get up there, so we didn’t really worry too much about it. Four hours later, they still hadn’t returned, and we sent of a few of the locals to go searching for them. Right about that time, they showed up in the back of a truck they had caught a ride with all cut up and severely dehydrated. Melissa took care of them while I ran up the mountain to meet the guys that went looking for them. I met them right at the spirit house, which was constructed to keep the spirits of the mountain at peace. When I got there, the guys looked very worried because they had just found out about the mountain and what it may mean if girls had gone on the mountain. We decided that we needed to have a meeting with the head of the village to talk about what needed to happen to fix this problem. Girls are not allowed to go on the mountain and we just had three up there. We thought that we were going to have to buy a pig to be sacrificed to appease the mountain spirits. After talking with the head of the village, he decided that we did not need to sacrifice an animal and we should be okay as long as the girls didn’t touch any of the spirit houses, which they all swore they didn’t even see them. This scared me more actually because not seeing the spirit houses meant that the girls didn’t follow any trail up the mountain. After that whole incident, we were sitting around at our house when we heard a huge explosion not far away. All the villagers around started running towards the explosion. All the students were pretty scared by this, but we soon found out that it was just a fight between two groups of young guys. They were fighting over a soccer field and one of the groups took a homemade bomb and threw it at the other group. No one was injured, but it was enough to stir up our group for the next few days. It was not a great first night in the village. Because of all this, we had to have guys sleep outside the girls houses to protect them, and all the students had a pretty bad feeling about the village the whole time. In fact, none of the girls in our group were able to get sleep for all three nights we were at the village. This is probably because they were just scared of everything, but the village head told us it was because the girls had climbed the mountain and offended the spirits. It was quite an interesting village, but in the end we were all glad to have spent time there and learn more about this village’s culture. We were also able to build water storage tanks at the school so that they can have water in the dry season. It was a fun project for the students and we had a great time at the school. The teachers at this school are really nice people from a bigger town in the valley and they are very dedicated to help out this village. They have put a lot of work into this place. When they first came, only about 50% of he children came to school and they usually came really late. Now, 2 years later, almost all of the children in the village attend school and get there on time.
Building Water Tanks
Moving on, we got to have a nice rest day in Chiang Mai and then another in the small mountain town of Chiang Dao. On the way to Chiang Dao, we stopped to do some whitewater rafting on the Mae Dtaang river. The rafting here was great (class 3 and 4 rapids) and the students loved it. It was many of the students first time to go whitewater rafting, and was a nice fun break from all the work we had been doing in the villages. After the rafting, we headed to a nice little bungalow guesthouse in Chiang Dao where we were able to rent bikes and just relax. It was a really great place with some amazing food.
Ahka Village
The next stop, was moving towards our last village right on the Burmese border in the far north of Thailand. We drove for about three hours, and then jumped on a boat to head down the river 3 hours to the town of Chiang Rai. Our last village was an Ahka village high on the mountain. In the village, it was very cold and foggy all the time. This village has constant clouds and fog, and even in the hot season in Thailand, it is cold up there. This village also has a really interesting history. It was one of the biggest opium producing villages in this part of Thailand. It was occupied by Chinese, Burmese and local Thai people. Everyone wanted a piece of the drug money that was coming in. Where the school sits today, there was once a big Chinese opium factory. This was only 30 years ago and many villagers still remember this time. There are also many Chinese people still living in the area. When opium was on the way out of this area, The King built a road to the village and taught the villagers to grow coffee. This remains the main crop of the area today and the villagers are very happy about all of this. The best part is that coffee plants can be grown under the canopy of other trees, so much of the surrounding land has been replanted and natural forests are beginning to replenish themselves. Our time at this village was great as well. The locals were very friendly and we learned a lot about Ahka culture. We spent a lot of time teaching at the school where we were the very first foreigners to ever teach at. The kids were all really excited to be able to learn and practice English with native speakers. Also, at the school, we cleaned the bathrooms and gave them a fresh coat of paint. It was a very dirty job, but one that really needed to be done. This village was a great way to finish off the trip although many of the students were sick though most of this village.
The White Temple
On the last day of the trip, we visited a nice waterfall, hot springs, and had a great lunch on the river. We spent the night at a nice guesthouse at a fishing resort, and had a nice breakfast the next morning before boarding the plane to head out. Overall, it was a great trip and I received many emails from parents saying how much their kids enjoyed and learned from our trip.
written by  jasonreevesmiller on August 16, 2008 from Chiang Rai, Thailand

Burmese Stories
Mae Sot, Thailand
Today, I went to Burma just across from Mae Sot, Thailand. I had a great experience there and met so many nice people. We went to a tea shop and watched the men sit around, drink tea and converse. We also spent some time touring around the city by trickshaw (a 3 wheeled bicycle with a big cart in front for passengers). Being with these people, you would never think that the situation in Burma is so bad. All of the people that we met were so friendly and constantly had big smiles on their face. They all spoke English pretty well and seemed happy with their lives. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary…
…after this short trip to Burma, Maggie (a co-worker of mine) and I went to have a meeting with a couple of missionaries working and living on the Thai-Burma border just about an hour north of where we had crossed. We are planning on setting up a new program in this area, so we went to do a little research and find out more about the area. The people we talked with were amazing people with equally amazing stories. They were originally Australian, but have been living here for about 7 years working with Karen refugees. They told us a lot of stories about the conflict right across the border, which really opened up our eyes to the true situation. I have been learning a lot about Burma and the horrors that have been plaguing the country though out the summer. This issue is very important to me now as I have spent most of the past 3 months right on the Burmese border.
So here it is, the situation that Burma finds itself in. When Burma was released by British colonialism, a man named Aun San took control. Shortly there after he was killed and a military dictator named Ne Win took over the country thereby taking control of all of the separate states and people groups in Burma. Burma is a very diverse country, and as they were becoming free, the plan was to give all of these groups the power to rule over themselves. Ne Win had different plans. He closed off the borders, and planned to take control over all the separate states. Most of the people groups were okay with this, and said they would comply as long as they were left alone and were able to keep their own culture. Some groups however, mainly the Shan and the Karen, decided to fight back. They didn’t want to be controlled by anyone. 60 years later the fighting continues and the Burmese army continues to raid villages, burning them to the ground, in both the Karen and the Shan States. The rebel armies are not aggressive and are just trying to defend their land from the Burmese army. What the Burmese army is doing is trying to do is to break down these people and take control of their lands. These are strong people though, and they will not give up easy.
Back to the Thai border, Karen refugees are flooding the refugee camps along the border. These people have been pushed out of their villages by the Burmese Army and have no place to go. I have several friends who have experienced these attacks in their own villages and have had to flee to Thailand. One friend, Moo, has told me stories about the Burmese army raiding his village and killing everybody in sight. Before the soldiers attacked the village, they would shoot up with heroin so that they could continue fighting even after being shot. These soldiers are like robots fighting. There is no way to defeat them. Once they attack the village, the people must flee into the jungle and find somewhere else to go. Another friend, Dodo, told me that the soldiers came into his village with huge flame-throwers, torching all of the bamboo and teak wood houses. The entire village would be burned down within hours. His family was lucky in that they received early information about the attack and were able to escape. They watched from afar as everything they had was destroyed.
This is a very bad situation that has gone on for a very long time. Back in 1988, students in Burma started a large uprising against the government, but nothing was changed. As the riots continued, the Army shot into the crowd killing many people. In the end, people were dead and the government remained in control. Today, the situation is just as bad as ever, especially in the Karen State. On top of the Burmese attacking villages, the DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army) is attacking the main group of the Karen because the leader of the KNU (Karen National Union) is a Christian. Because of this, most of the violence occurs in Christian villages. This adds a whole new level to the situation plaguing the Karen people.
Me and the head of the village at Baan Mai
The Karen people are a great people. I have spent a lot of time in Karen villages in Thailand and have many friends who have grown up in refugee camps or have fled from Burma recently. I hate to see what is happening to these great people, and I hope some day they can live in peace. They are a peaceful, hardworking, and friendly people. I hope soon they will be free.
written by  jasonreevesmiller on August 17, 2008 from Mae Sot, Thailand

Trekking Scouting Trip
No pictures of this yet, but a nice trip slideshow will be up on the web soon. I will send the link when it is avaliable.
At the last second possible, I was told to head up towards Mae Hong Son to survey a route for a new program. Mae Hong Son is the province that is in the far Northwestern part of Thailand and borders Burma. It is a very mountainous, remote, and diverse area of Thailand, and because of all of this, it is my favorite part of Thailand. The plan, heading out of Mae Hong Son city was to hike over 100 miles to the south to the city of Mae Sariang. We needed to blaze a trail that stayed away from the main roads where elephants could trek next year. Other than that, we had no plan, nowhere to stay, no map, and no trail to follow. This is not like hoping onto the Appalachian Trail with your backpack, tent and a clear trail to follow. We were heading deep into the jungle through hilltribe villages and asking locals to guide us on to the next place. For the first part of the trip, we did have a support truck to carry our stuff and to help plan a path, but that soon went by the wayside as the path got more remote and inaccessible. On the trip, I was accompanied by Maggie (a photographer for Rustic), Bay (a local Ahka ethic guy), Nueng (a local Karen ethnic guy), and Pa (a 50 year old Karen guy that will head up the leading of this trek next year). This trip proved to be very challenging and a great insight to life in past times when people always traveled in this way.
On the first day, we started off pretty late because we were trying to buy supplies and plan a little for the trip. Because of this late start, we ended up riding in the truck for a bit this day and didn’t actually hike that much. It worked out really good though, because there was a beautiful 4WD road that led through many Karen villages. We stopped by every village and saw some really amazing places not far from the border with Burma. That night, we were also able to stay in the house of a really nice Northern Thai family and find our guide for the next day. At this point, we still were not clear on the exact plan because of communication issues and were quite frustrated. We spent a lot of time talking this night and worked out more of a plan. Unfortunately, working with Thai people never goes smooth. They tell you they are going to do one thing, and then will turn around and do something completely different. This made the first few days of the journey frustrating and tiring. We always had to fight to get the people to understand what kind of terrain we wanted to hike through and what kind of places we wanted to spend the night. Civilization was much too close in the first half of the trip and we just couldn’t get it in the guy’s head that was planning for us what we wanted to do. The next few days were long hiking days, spending a lot of time walking through rivers. The rivers were amazingly beautiful and clear. Going by river also allowed us to see many insights into mountains culture. We met people fishing, building dams for irrigation, and washing clothes. We drank fresh made jungle tea and told the locals about our crazy adventure. We would always end up right near the main roads, just taking shortcuts though the jungle to do this. The made it easy for us though. The truck carried all the food and water and provided great support for the trip. Even though all this was great, it wasn’t really the kind of trip we were trying to plan….
Three days into hiking, we got in after a very long day of hiking into a village right along the main road. Here, we stayed in a really small hut with an old man who said he would be our guide for the next three days into Mae Sariang. This guy was 68 years old, but seemed strong and said he knew the path well. The next morning, we took off for our next village after waiting for our guide for over an hour. The day was already not going well. As we continued down the path, the guide would continually stop to smoke a cigarette and complain that his legs were hurting. It was a slow pace and we were all getting frustrated. Then, the guide started to get lost. We wandered around this valley for hours in circles trying to find the path through the mountains to the next village. Late in the afternoon, we finally made it into the village where we were going to spend the night. We were all tired and frustrated with both the guide and the truck driver. This day, we had carried all of our stuff in with us because the truck driver said he could not reach the village by truck. However, upon arriving, a truck pulled right past us into the village. This is when we decide to change all of the plans and take everything into our own hands.
The village was a really cool Karen village and we were able to buy a chicken in this village to kill and eat for dinner. Our host family was very excited to have us stay with them and happy to help us plan the rest of our trip. During this conversation, we decided to tell our old guide to go home, we hired a new one to get us to the next village and told the truck driver we didn’t need him for the next few days. The new route that we had chosen had no villages accessible by truck during this time of the rainy season. We were finally on our own and able to control our own path. Excitement was back up and we had planned a very strenuous schedule for the next 2 days. We had planned to do 40k (25 miles) the first day and 50k (30 miles) the next. The fun was just beginning.
From here, our supplies were low because we no longer had the truck. We set of with bags of rice, a jar of peanut butter and a bottle of water each that we had boiled the night before. This day started off really hard. We hiked up and over many ridges. Maggie had a bad knee a this point and it was really hard for her on the inclines. It was also very hot, muggy and the mosquitoes where swarming. On top of that, we all had leeches trying to crawl up our pants. We went through some beautiful terrain this day though and passed through many small Karen villages. About 4 hours into the hike, we popped out of the jungle and found the Thai army crawling out of trucks with big guns. They said they were out to patrol the illegal cutting of trees. At this point, we were very close to the Burmese border and it is likely that Burmese people were sneaking over to cut teak trees and take them back to Burma. Soon after this, dehydrated and tired, we stopped at a house in a small village where they let us sit, eat and boil water. Hot water is not exactly what you want to drink when you are thirsty on a hot day, but we had no other option. As the trek continued on, we had to climb over several mountain passes and then into a beautiful streambed. Due to lack of water, the stream was a welcome sight and we all drank a little water to keep us going (luckily I never got sick off of that water). Late in the afternoon, we made it to the village where we were going to spend the night right as a huge rainstorm hit. We all stood out side in the rain for a long time, washing our clothes and collecting clean rainwater to drink. That was the only time it rained on the whole trip. It was surely a gift of much needed water from the Heavens. We had a great night here as we conversed with the locals and killed another chicken for diner. We spent the evening hunting grasshoppers and talking with our guides and host family. I love to be in remote Karen villages. They have such an amazing and peaceful way of life, and they are some of the most hospitable people in the world.
The next morning, we woke up and decided to send Maggie out by motorcycle because her knee was too bad and we had a long day ahead of us. Now, it was just the boys, and we took off at an incredibly fast pace. We climbed up the mountain out of the village and followed a ridge for a long time. From here we dropped into a river and headed towards the valley. Unfortunately, today was another day filled with mosquitoes and leeches. All of our ankles were bloody from the leeches all day. A leech wound takes forever to stop bleeding. But today, we didn’t care because it was the last day and we were all determined to get to the end. We didn’t talk, stop for a break, eat lunch or even get any water. It was one solid push to the finish. Six hours later, we dropped into a teak forest and then popped out into the final valley. Here, the truck met us and we caught a ride to the final destination. We were all dehydrated and hungry, but happy to be at the end. We had a really hard but great last couple of days. Over 125 miles and 6 days of mountainous jungle finally stood behind us.
This was a great experience although really hard at times. I am glad I had the opportunity to make this journey just as people in the past did. We all felt as if we were explorers finding places for the first time. It was amazing to be a part of, but even better to finish.
written by  jasonreevesmiller on September 4, 2008 from Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Why I Do What I Do
Udon Thani, Thailand
Take a minute to read this letter that I received from a parent of one of my students this summer. Reading this reminds me what I am actually doing here. For all of you that are wondering what I actually do here, this is it. This letter embodies everything that I am trying to accomplish. Enjoy!
Dear Melisa and Jason and the rest of the Come With Nothing staff,
Just want to tell you how thrilled we are with Hannah’s happy return from Thailand! Her journey across the world has been an adventure for all of us, and we’ve been enjoying her countless stories of life in another culture. Every time I think she has told us all, she has yet another engaging tale to relate! From intimate moments with a Buddhist monk and the new exotic foods she cooked and tasted, and even to witnessing a chicken being sacrificed, we are truly amazed at her deep, life-changing experiences.
When Hannah found Rustic Pathways on the internet several years ago, then this trip was just a dream. Now, after months of worrying about sending her so far, toiling over the vaccines, and trekking out for bug spray, I can say without compunction that we are glad for every effort.
Your program is, in fact, much more than you advertise. Aside from the beautiful land you showed her, you introduced her to people and ways of life she would never imagine, and you’ve helped grow her thinking far beyond our imagination. Besides the sights and community service we expected, Hannah has come home with a new awareness of humanity and human issues that many people rarely encounter at all.
I could go on about how impressed we are with the way you engaged our daughter, stimulated her physical and emotional well being, and left her with memories of a simpler (and in some ways, more desirable) life. I imagine you already know you have a special program. I hope that we have the opportunity to cross “Paths” again. But in the meantime, please accept our deepest thanks for leaving such a memorable impact on our daughter and for influencing her vision of a beautiful part of our world.
written by  jasonreevesmiller on September 4, 2008 from Udon Thani, Thailand

music in the streets for the monkhood

carrying Ting to the Temple

Ting before coming a monk

Tink becoming a monk

Ting taking the final vows

Temple in Laos

Sunrise on the top of a mountain

A monk teaching one of my students

Our storage shed building project

Me and the head of the village at Baan Mai

Karen Woman

Novice monks collecting breakfast

Lishu Girls

Building Water Tanks

Ahka Village