Wonderful adventures! Zak,
I love reading your blogs as it makes me feel like you are not so far away. You have had amazing adventures and are so open to everyone and all cultures that I am not surprised that people are so welcoming to you. I envy you having all those wonderful encounters.
We all miss you and I was able to spend a week with Michael and family just before Christmas. It was a nice visit and I was there to see Salvador take his first steps. Very busy household!
Miss you as always,
Love, Sandy
We\'re impressed you went out to photograph and help out with the rice harvest, Zak, and so glad for the great text and photos that help us to know what it\'s like for you in the big and varied province of Chiang Mai: Back-breaking! Hot! but with a good natural bathtub to cool down in, a good tent to sleep in, lots of natural foods from too much sticky rice to smoked tarantulas, and a safe water supply. Not to mention the beautiful setting. Your camping with Jason was part of your training for this great adventure? The portraits give a wonderful sense of the variety of people you worked with--how fine that they let you into their lives that much. Amazed to learn of the fauna lurking in the rice-paddies as you harvested, and also that wild dogs are a bigger problem than cobras--maybe you need a spear rather than a sawed-off 2 X 4? (loved that surprise ending to sawed-off!). You\'ve already had enough trouble with a dog. We Love you! Bob and Helen
Love how it looks The cartoonish mobile "factory" in this lush countryside needs to become an incident in an indie movie? Now please explain who gets what out of the corn factory. Is the final product for the grower the corn kernels? or whole corn ears? Do the factory owners keep and use the husks for something? At least I guess the corn will be used for food, not ethanol--wish that were true in the US right now, during this drought that's devasted thousands of acres of corn.
mobile corn factory the grower sells to a middleman who sells to another middleman....usually with the machinery who then sells further on down the chain. The final product here is the kernels which are probably sold to someone who grinds them into corn meal or feed.
Gorgeous vistas! Very interesting pictures as well as the concept of a mobile corn factory. you are certainly showing us some beautiful parts of the world. Thanks,
Love, Sandy
Stolen moped can't keep you away from the Plain of Jars I'm exhausted just reading this, Zak. Walking 6+ miles and sleeping on a mosquitoey bench in the bus station?. Really made me appreciate the photos even more. All the photos of mopeds-- sort of Freudian wish-fulfillment? But the jars are amazing , and memorable. Relieved that the US didn't bomb them off the face of the earth. Love, Helen & Bob
What a wonderful journey! You are living a life few get the chance to have and it's only because you are so open to everyone and everything that others are so welcoming to you.
Enjoy the ride while you are able.
Love,
Sandy
Adventures I see that you are back on the road again. No job prospects in Indonesia? it sounds as if you are having a good trip and the photos are great.
Love,
Sandy
Response to H&B I do receive your comments. Thank you. All of the stuff you talk about would require a much longer blog. Expect more to come. That is the point. If you do look at Jon Jandai's video clip you will get an idea of what is meant by the easy life of a farmer.....it is not grueling work all year round. Only part of the year. To eat and to live require even less work. The trade-off of course is that life is very simple and unemcumbered compared to what most people experience. Of course, Jon Jandai is now training people, giving speeches, welcoming volunteers and running a few restaurants in the city with his community in order to spice things up....but this does not seem to be a busy endeavor all year round for many of the folks there. But in order for all of these details to be spelled out in more detail, I would need to spend more time there to observe. The blog is a starter and nothing more....something to keep me on task for another blog in the future....hopefully
This is a thoughtful investigation, Zak, of the concept of \"good soil\" and it relation to strong roots, and how soil in all its variety relates to your life, past and present. I don\'t want to write too much here because I have no idea whether you ever see these comments and I probably should just use regular email. This piece is worth fine-tuning in our opinion. You do evoke the feeling for us attentive readers that really fertile soil is not what has fed your roots, so to speak, or the produce you have discovered in Thailand or West Virginia, but rather you have been inspired by the imagination and brotherly collaboration of people in marginal (by western industrial standards) communities. That\'s what good soil is, we think you are saying. And you do well on the metaphor of good soil. But sometimes you can make the connections clearer. One example: when you cite how offputting the usual questions from strangers are (what do you do, etc) you need to tell us how the more earth-centered people from PEI, Pun Pun, Panya, etc. actually demonstrate and develop acceptance--sharing food? Ideas? work? or what? And what you mean, or they mean, that being lazy makes for a greener existence? It looks like there\'s a lot of grueling work in planting, drying seeds, cooking, mailing seeds, etc. A little more shaping, a clearer line on where you want to take us will make a big difference in this already promising essay. Much love, and admiration--these thoughts come from our discussion together. H & B
Poy Sam Long Boys I admire the look of this ceremony--the colors, the patterns. The boys themselves seem bewildered or self conscious about the whole event--but they're awfully young to grasp the meaning of all this which will have such a profound effect on their whole lives. Thanks for this glimpse of another aspect of life in Chiang mai, Zak, and we send love and Easter Greetings. Miss you!
Yogyakarta: Sojourning Adventure, Language, Culture and Friendship Yogyakarta is awesome...
I love living here. This is not because I'm a native Yogyakarta, after I got around some places in Indonesia, so far Yogyakarta is still the most comfortable.
nice blog.
i hope u willl back yo Yogyakarta some day.
it seems there are still many places that you have not visited.
:)
Yes you are what your eat Looks like a healthy diet except for the fried rice. I don't recognize any vegetables--seems fruit is primary, along with rice and seitan and other soy products. Glad to see the snake fruit with some of the snakey-looking skin off-what does it taste like? Quite a contrast to other cuisines you have reported on, and the photos really help us Americans know what it looks like as well as what's in it. So sorry to miss the pleasure of eating with you in these exotic places. Love ya---
Semarang Zak, I loved my visit with you and only wish it could have been longer. The treats were delicious and I still have one pack yet to open. I love reading your blogs as it keeps me close to you. Stay well and I hope you find a job that you will enjoy. Love, Sandy
Sandy
non-member comment
Wonderful adventures!
Zak, I love reading your blogs as it makes me feel like you are not so far away. You have had amazing adventures and are so open to everyone and all cultures that I am not surprised that people are so welcoming to you. I envy you having all those wonderful encounters. We all miss you and I was able to spend a week with Michael and family just before Christmas. It was a nice visit and I was there to see Salvador take his first steps. Very busy household! Miss you as always, Love, Sandy