Random Thoughts Closer to Home

In the middle of Mae Sa Laung is a market that is busy in the morning and evening. There is much fresh produce there, as well as other things. It certainly seems like this system where people live in or close to a village, and fresh food is available in the village every day, is workable and inexpensive, if not most efficient.




This past Sabbath, Naung Naung was the songleader and Hkawn Din played the keyboard. We have not had much music lately, since the most musical students were home on break. I look forward to more this week.





Since everyone is supposed to be learning to speak English well, we all sing hymns in English. The students do some of there special music in Burmese, Thai, or tribal languages.





During the break, Seng Hpa (right) was joined in the kitchen by Hkawn Din on most days. Seng Mai also helped quite a bit. Legacy's former cook and student, Andrew, is now in Rangoon, looking to persue his cooking career elsewhere.



Seng Hpa's oldest, Surachai. He has a Thai name because he was born in Thailand.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture, but I wanted to get a pic of Goi (office employee) on the blog. She rides a motorcycle to work also. This particular day, the coat never came off- this pic was taken midday! By the way, I have to take back my wimp comment about Art- we have had colder mornings (lower 50's) and he has been riding his motorcycle.








This canine, however, is not taking any chances, even at lunchtime.

Today I noticed this rather amazing water wheel. At first, I wondered what type of machine it was driving...then I noticed that it *was* the machine. Look close and see if you can figure it out.

You can see cut-off plastic jugs around the outside of the wheel. They dip into the water and tip over then they get to about 10 o'clock, which deposits their contents on the piece of tin which carries it to a pipe intake. Once it enters the pipe, it goes under the road to the other side.

The government is a bit more adanced. They are the ones that build the permanent dams I mentioned in an earlier post. These dams keep the water levels high enough to divert water to nearby fields at a higher level than the stream or canal would be otherwise.

Notice that the water level on the left is 6 or 8 feet lower than on the right, upstream. You can see an intake on the opposite bank. The diversion to the near side happens a few hundred yards upstream, and the resulting new "stream" flows along the same road in the same direction as this water, but on the other side of the road, and about 6 feet higher. This is one of those cases where the water in the small "stream" is flowing *away from* the larger stream, instead of toward it, as we are used to seeing.

Sometimes, the locals build their own dams to be better able to use the water. They drive several rows of bamboo stakes into the stream bed and let them fill with debris, perhaps helping the process by throwing in some Tyvek or something similar. I watched some locals building one similar to this on a stream right up the road from the farm. I suspect that this method of dam construction has not changed in the 700 years they have been irrigating here.

When I first arrived, I posted some pics of the concrete road to the farm, with its gutter. What I did not know is that this gutter is to carry the irrigation water. As the nearby rice paddies are flooded, eventually they get all the water they need and the overflow moves on. In our case, the fields near the Wat (where the monks are) up the street flood and the overflow eventually goes into a wooded area. We are on the other side of the woods, and the water comes here in these "gutters."

Because of this water, the concrete pond with the fish has filled up, and the overflow is directed to the new pond, which is partially full in this picture, but which is completely full as I write. Ben says it loses about 10 gallons a minute, so the paddy water must keep up with that, or they need to get the pump system working to get water from the pipe in the stream below which I showed you before.

At the Wat up the road, they have this beautiful building. I am not sure what they use it for. The monks camp outside.

This picture shows you the water system they have at the building above. There is a well that pumps water up to the storage tanks. The water needs to be stored that high so it can reach the top floor of the building. We have a similar system here at the farm, but I am told that the municipal water is good enough and has high enough pressure these days that the system is now only a backup.

This palm tree in Mae Sa Laung was apparently in the way of progress, and was being felled by only 2 men in the proximity of all these utility wires, with basically no tools. A man is on the ground with a rope which is looped over a high branch on the palm and then tied onto the branch which is being chopped (with a hatchet by another man who has climbed the palm.) When the branch is hacked free, the man on the ground lowers it by letting more of the rope go up.

Here is a closeup of the ropes and the man in the tree. I had to angle the camera to get this view, so tilt your head to the right to see the picture vertically.

This is what the end of one of those palm branches looks like. They are quite long, too, I would guess about 10 feet or so.
Eventually, although I did not stay to see it, they felled the tree completely. Things to notice- the house is being constructed in the background. This house, like every other one I have seen under construction is being built with a post and beam method- just that the posts and beams are concrete. I wondered why and discovered on the internet that Thailand banned most logging in 1989 due to the rapid deforestation that had occured during the 20th century. Before that, most houses in the north were wood framed. There was a restaurant of sorts here, which they had to tear down first, and they built a temprary one next to it out of the way. (Basically just an open air shed with tables). Also notice the little "shrine" or whatever they may call it. These are EVERYWHERE- in public and private spaces. It seems every yard has at least a little one.

This is the roof of the Legacy farmhouse with the vine I have told you about. This house has the same constuction style.

Turns out that those orange flowers on the vine on the wall at the School DO open up.
For comparison's sake, here are some that are not open. I think they are prettier this way. The color seems to fade a bit as they open.

I am as busy as ever. Regular classes Tuesday and Thursday. Extra classes for Seng Aung and Lal Lian on Monday and Wednesday. I just heard that Myo Zaw and Tumar are coming (from Rangoon) now- we don't know for sure if it will be this week or next week. Then we will have to teach with Burmese translation. Please pray with me for their safe arrival.