BGET recently hosted volunteers from Spring Street International School and Institute for Village Studies for a microhydro installation in a village called Kre Ki. The following is one student's reflection of the experience.
I usually have reservations about making generalizations, but I came away with the feeling that the Karen people are all around "good people". Though we did not speak the same language, we could guess at their dispositions through their actions and their attitudes. Each day they were up at dawn, wordlessly pounding rice that was added to laboriously gathered vegetables, all in order to feed foreigners with whom they had had no contact, no knowledge, and little in common. Trust, given, without reservation, even to strangers. Each day they were the first to the work site and the last to leave, working tirelessly without a sound of protest. Work ethic held, even though each person had hours of other tasks to do. Each villager took in great responsibility selflessly, caring for others and the good of the village, down to the last 12-year-old girl supporting another's child or carrying a staggering load of wood on her back. Community, respected even though one could make an easier life elsewhere.
As I've seen again and again, it's all about the people. From a micro-hydro project, providing a village power, to a permaculture farm, providing sustainable growth, food, and housing, people always lie at the center. Did the village use the power to run electrical equipment into their homes, making their lives easier? No. They powered a school so that their children, in the distant future, could further educate themselves. Did the permaculture leaders, as would seem logical, focus entirely on living sustainably? No. Their first goal was to "achieve a greater fulfillment in our lives", to give themselves a greater purpose while living sustainably, an act they planned deliberately to help the earth and especially encourage the surrounding community to adopt these techniques.
So when I'm asked to discuss my service projects, I give a cursory description of the physical work and a detailed description of the people. The people. You do not need a common language or profession or hobby to interact, for there is one common ground that every culture shares: smiles, laughter, and the desire to learn. I realized in the village that the so-called "language barrier" is in fact a bridge to be used by the explorative traveler. Sitting in a circle at night with our host family, asking the question "koo-de-lac", which means "how do you say" in karen, with a finger pointed at an object or a charades-like gesture. Together with the villagers we sound out foreign syllables, then smile and laugh that unique laugh that comes only from this experience-trading languages, and in doing so, trading cultures. In a way, at least in my opinion, there is a heart of cultural exchange that only rarely can be achived when speaking the same language. There is an inexplicable intimacy and type of learning that is achieved when communicating without a common language. Perhaps next time I wish to truly communicate something, I will keep my mouth shut.
~Peter Duggins
