Uttaradit- July 2006

Tales from the Bucket Brigade

Back in July 2006 we went to Uttaradit, a province south of Chiang Mai. One of the ladies I worked with was connected to a group called Siam Volunteers and they organized a weekend trip for us (7 Thais and 6 expats) to go down and help victims of the flood. In May 2006 the area between Chiang Mai and Bangkok experienced severe flash flooding. A number of people were killed, houses were destroyed and many people were homeless for months. We joined about 150 other people digging mud out of people's houses so they could leave their temporary shelters and return home. It was hard, hot, dirty and very rewarding.

We took a bus at (gulp) 4:30am from Chiang Mai 4 hours to the south. We arrived in Uttaradit Province at 9am and then climbed into the back of a pickup truck and (after breakfast at the Tesco Lotus) drove another half hour down to one of the worst hit regions in the Province. Around noon, we started working. My husband was assigned to work with the men using shovels to dig out mud and toss it into buckets. Then those buckets were handed out the door and swung from person to person down a line and dumped close to the river. I was a bucket swinger and it was not an easy job. We worked until 4pm then stopped for dinner. We were housed in different places in the village. My husband (with the guys) spent the night in a local school. I (with the girls and the katoeys) spent the night in an old Lanna house. All of us slept on the floor on sleeping bags but the girls had the benefit of mosquito nets which improves our sleep considerably.

After showers, dinner and more snacking we all passed out and awoke the next morning to the same work. It was hot, sweaty, muddy, mucky, smelly and made us all very, very sore. But it was also great to work as a team with my Thai colleagues and hundreds of others. I also learned lots of useful Thai- bucket, empty, tired and muddy place- for example. We were able to see another province and the scenery both ways was lovely. We returned late at night and after about 10 showers trying to get mud out of finger nails and hair we ate at Pizza Hut and passed out on the couch watching a movie. The next day we could barely lift our arms!