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The Akha: Matt's
Weekly AHF Journal: Dec 2000
AHF Weekly Journal
December 2000
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Dec. 3, 2000
Dear Friends:
Well, last year in November the old truck took a turn off the mountain.
This year the engine fried. As well, a little bit of the mountain
fell on me, a feeling like my head was being baked, a kindly bonus
from my Keng Tung, Burma trip in November, Malaria. Well, I guess
the odds weren't too bad, ten years, many trips into Burma, and
only now malaria. Fortunately it was only pv variety, and I was
able to recover quickly once the third hospital visit and second
blood test figured out what it was.
But with the down side always comes the upside and this November
was full of surprises. A very kind donor donated three commercial
baking ovens and a large electric mixer for our nutrition project.
This will be a really big step forward for helping the street kids
and the children in the worst hit villages, which are many.
By example, Pah Nmm Akha saw its rice harvest register at half of
last year due to Forestry department taking so much land away. Forestry
would best be compared to Scrooge around here. As it is Pah Nmm
villagers are walking one and a half hours just one way to the fields,
then working all day and walking back again. Not surprising 9 miscarriages
in this village in last two years, notes that Forestry does not
pay much attention to.
This is just one village of scores that were relocated to marginal
lands, stuffy locations, while Thailand lost one of its most stable
environmental relationships, the old villages having been sustainable
for years on end.
It's that time of the year....when everyone is asking for money.
So why not give to an organization that will make sure your donation
goes straight to the heart of a child. Your donation will help buy
flour and other ingredients for our Baking Project that is being
used to provide much needed nutrition to the Akha children of northern
Thailand. Give a present....give a toy.....or give a child a chance
at life with the necessary nutrition for survival so that they will
one day make a contribution to our world significant enough to make
a difference. Our goal this holiday season is to raise $2000 for
the baking project to help raise the nutritional levels of the Akha
children of northern Thailand. Give a dollar or give more if you
can but know that your donation will be used to help this project
give more children a chance in life. The Akha Heritage Foundation
appreciates your generous donation this holiday season for our Baking
Project.
With the donation of the ovens came the donation of a new iMac DVD
Classic with fire wire and iMovie. I can now directly hook my digital
camera to the computer and pull footage that I want, edit it, and
produce a mini movie in minutes.
So this will be the beginning of the Akha Weekly Video Journal as
well.
Remaining details are that we still have the fish project to finish
and repairs to the truck, replacing the engine.
Please remember the Akha Children of north Thailand this Christmas
Season.
Matthew McDaniel
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Dec. 11, 2000
Dear Friends:
This is the **FIRST** Akha Weekly VIDEO Journal!
On the new combined web page for the Akha Weekly Video Journal there
are now the following files in Qucktime video format .
The Swing Festival
The Rice Harvest
The Harvest Festival
Enjoy!!!
Akha Weekly Video Journal Page:
http://akha.org/akha_video.htm
It is the end of the Akha year, in some villages the year end festival
is already going on. "Gah Tauh Bpah" is the name of the festival,
and it is the highlight of the year, the end of the harvest and
work for one season.
All the rice and other foods are safely in their storage, corn cribs
and rice cribs.
Melons and squash stacked on shelves, the new fields being cleared
for next year.
Pah Nmm Akha doesn't have much reason to celebrate, but they do
never the less in this video segment. They got half the rice crop
this year since Thai Forestry has taken so much of the land away
from them.
So what will they eat the last half of next year?????
Maybe Forestry will feed them? Guess again.
They are still having to do the three hour walk to the fields back
and forth every day since the Thai Army moved them off their old
village site some 9 years ago.
Course neither do they have anyone to complain to who will listen
and has the power to do anything about it.
Never the less, the festive village was filled with top throwing,
a top is called a "Chauh". The point is for one man to spin his
top down into the square, and then others throw their spinning tops
from a start line and try to knock his down. It is quite an intense
sport with spinning wooden tops of good size and weight striking
the other tops hard and shooting down the road, banging into the
bamboo fences as they go, the men running after them, checking to
see whose top stops first to determine the winner.
The children play a game of bowling by pitching large brown seeds
with their feet down a hill, trying to knock down one of four waiting
seeds lined up at the bottom. The seeds are large and bulky, coming
from a pod in the forest, rolling like fat little boys to the finish
line.
The dances start the second night of the five day festival, going
all night, they were still going this morning when I got up to come
down off the mountain and I heard them all night long, the drums
and cymbols reverbating off the forest.
During this festival, in a statement of Akha solidarity, all the
Akha in the village turn a year older collectively.
This village has one of the toughest diets there is, nothing but
sparse rice and greens, there are few fruit trees and getting the
vegetables into the village from far away before someone else gathers
them is very hard.
Squash and melons, common in some villages, along with other fruits,
are not common in this village. In villages I visited this last
November in Burma, squash was common, many saved on the porches.
I saw maybe only one or two per hut in Pah Nmm Akha.
I could not live on rice and greens, neither do the Akha live well
on them.
We would like to be able to do a whole lot more for the Akha.
Please consider that these PROJECTS run solely on your donations:
1. NUTRITION project:
Such as the baking for the village children,
we now have all the ovens and need baking supplies like flour,
etc.
2. The CATFISH project:
We still need a pumping system and additional
tanks.
3. The TRUCK continues to be parked until the $1800 bill
is paid. The engine has been replaced.
Very difficult to get help out to the villages
with no wheels.
Help make a difference for the Akha this winter season.
We hope to have our regular site, Akha.com, back on line soon.
And last but not least, we are happy for the addition of "The
Akha Way" Video to the Archeology Channel as noted below.
Thanks to Yellowcat Productions for all their hard work.
Cheers and Joy,
Sincerely,
Matthew McDaniel
"Friends and Members:
Now appearing among our video offerings on The Archaeology Channel,
our streaming video website at www.archaeologychannel.org
is The Akha Way. Driven southward from their original homeland
in Yunnan, China, the Akha of northern Thailand today face an uncertain
future in the face of threats from forced migration, Christianization,
money, and drugs. This video, created by Yellow Cat Productions
of Washington, D.C., brings into view the dramatic and often destructive
cultural changes taking place today, under the code name "globalization,"
among indigenous peoples around the world. As fellow human beings,
we should pay attention to what is happening to the Akha and other
marginalized cultures."
http://www.archaeologychannel.org
http://www.yellowcat.com
http://www.akha.com
http://www.akha.org
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