thomas m wilson

Karen Village Life

November 26th, 2016

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The north-west corner of Thailand is the most sparsely populated corner of the country.  Mountains, forests and rivers, as far as the eye can see.  And sometimes a village.

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This village is called Menora.  Its a Karen village, without electricity or running water.  Its very, very remote and not mapped on Google Maps.

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Living out here is to live in a different world to the one most of us come from.

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Animal sounds are a constant, with the low grunts of black pigs syncopating with each other and the twitter of tiny chicks in the background.  This little puppy welcomed me to the homestead.

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In this village rice is hulled using human muscle power, not by a fossil fuel powered machine.

I spent some of the afternoon lying on my back on a wooden deck. The time pressures of life in the Thai highlands are unique.

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