Living on a Landfill

Shayne Thomas

“even though i feel so disconnected from all of you, it’s nice to know that on the other side of this glowing screen there is a long, long wire that connects me to you. these words are crossing continents and oceans…”

In 2007, I received the Women’s Studies International Experiences scholarship, as well as the VCU Education Abroad scholarship, and spent the fall 2007 semester studying globalization and development with the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) in Khon Kaen, Thailand. I was attracted to the program because of its emphasis on active and experiential learning. I was excited to ditch my books on theory and get the opportunity to talk to real people about how globalization has affected their lives. The entries that follow are an excerpt from my blog, which can be found at http://globalshayne.livejournal.com/. I chose to leave them unedited and as they were because I was a rollercoaster of emotions: excited and on the edge of my seat all the time and I wanted to document that. As for the format and language, I tried to write as simply as I could; I wanted my blog to be accessible so that anyone could pull it up and be able to read and understand it. Most of the blog entries featured here concentrate on my time spent working with Ban Kambon Noi, a community that lives and works at the municipal landfill in Khon Kaen. Kambon Noi villagers are aiding Thailand’s recycling efforts while at the same time asking citizens to rethink the modern mentality of materialism. One of the biggest problems facing the community is their lack of visibility. Most Khon Kaen citizens have very little knowledge of what happens to their trash after they dispose of it, and even less knowledge of the important role that Kambon Noi community members have.

I spent the end of my semester working with two other students on a collaborative photo project with Ban Kambon Noi community members. For the project we gave community members (3 adults and 4 children) cameras to allow them to document what they wanted to show others about their work and their lives. Each photographer chose their favorite pictures to be enlarged and displayed at a human rights festival held at Khon Kaen University. The images were accompanied by the photographers’ profile, as well as photo descriptions. The photo essay was meant to encourage individuals to question their consumption habits, ponder where their trash goes after they dispose of it, and realize that trash not only affects the environment but also plays a crucial role in the lives of many.

Aug. 21st, 2007 hello all my sweet dumplings! i’m in Bangkok!

i arrived last night at 11 p.m. thai time and 10 a.m. your time. i got to the hotel around 1 a.m. and went to sleep immediately. i woke up at about 6:30 a.m. and couldn’t fall back asleep so i just took a shower and wrote in my journal and read for a bit. it’s 9 a.m. right now and 8 p.m. for you! i miss you all already! there are so many things i wanted to say and now i can’t seem to remember any of them. well, one sad thing: there are so many cute dogs sleeping all over the place and i can’t pet any of them because they ALL HAVE RABIES! we have orientation at 10 a.m. in a couple of days, we are leaving to do home stays with families in slum areas + landfills. originally, i thought that these were just people who were living by the landfills, but now i found out that these people are living off of the landfills. from what i read this is what i gathered: they are called scavengers, and they make their living by going through the khon kaen landfill and sorting out recyclables that houses and

businesses forgot to separate out of their trash. they sell the recyclables to a middle-man who makes a profit by selling it to a recycling factory. what is really amazing is that the scavengers have lengthened the landfills life by about 5 or 6 years by removing the recyclables! they are really providing a great service, and of course aren’t recognized or protected at all despite all of the dangers. i really am in awe of people who utilize their land/bodies/and whatever else is available to create opportunities to survive. here is the problem: the landfill will be full soon and they will have to open a new one. the government says they are planning to offer the families of scavengers jobs at a new recycling facility, but this isn’t insured. also, these people were autonomous workers who set their own hours, rules, and decided how much they would collect; thus how much money they made reflected how much they decided to collect. all of that will change at recycling centers. there will be more and more middle-men to go through and bosses to answer to. and despite how much they collect they won’t be guaranteed even a minimum living wage we are fucked...

Aug. 22nd, 2007 maybe this is just culture shock but...

bangkok at night is so different from bangkok during the day. i was walking down the street, and someone asked me if i wanted to see “ping pong.” i’ve read about all of this in books—women doing tricks with their vaginas, like shooting ping pong balls out and such, but it is so different being here. i guess i just feel very overwhelmed. just now there was a 7-year-old girl dancing and humping the ground while some older woman stood by and collected money. there was also some white dude taking pics of it all with his camera phone. i knew it was going to be like this, but i just feel so ... so everything.

p.s. on a good note, i went to a bar where this thai band did a cover of an oasis song.

Aug. 25th, 2007

i’m better! my stomach is still having a hard time adjusting to everything, but i always kind of have a sensitive stomach. last week i went on a beautiful 2-hour hike through the jungle and saw lots of bamboo and waterfalls! they keep us soooo busy. i have only been here a little over a week, but it seems like a month! i am on a rollercoaster of emotions. one second i feel on top of the world and ready for all new things, and the next second i feel very alone and frustrated and home sick. but that’s normal, right? i am on a home stay right now, and it was very stressful at first because we didn’t/don’t understand each other at all. my host krab kruaw (family) are very nice, but they try and feed me too much! the first night they took us to the night market, which was so wild. i even saw a very small, sad elephant! they take me to school on a motorcycle, which is probably my favorite part of every day because i get to see the area and feel the breeze in my hair. last night things got much better with my home family. my host meh (mom) got out my mong saow (little sisters) english book, and i got out my thai book and thai dictionary and just went to town. i found out that my paw (father), who was there on sunday but has been gone since, works as a mechanic at the nike factory. my meh works at home. i have seen her sewing Kraft (the company) uniform shirts. the program is really amazing and is broken into several units: urban, food, water, land, and movements & trends. in each unit we spend time in a village. for example, next week is urban and we go to the slum community and landfill community. then for food we will be staying in a community and helping our family set up stands to sell produce at the market. before each stay

we have a briefing on the unit/community. after the stay we have a check-in where we just reflect; then we have a workshop which is facilitated by different students each time.

i just like how much this program is hands-on. for the most part, we don’t sit in a classroom and study how globalization has affected thailand. no, we go directly into communities and live/exchange with villagers to see how globalization has directly affected their lives. at the end of each semester they have one big group project. last semester, they wrote a human rights report. i hope we can do something i am proud of. it will be interesting because some people on the trip don’t seem that into the program. this one kid was like, “i didn’t know this program has so much emphasis on activism. i mean, they send me to these communities to hear these people’s sad stories, but i didn’t come to thailand to change the world.” i thought the program description was pretty accurate. oh! something interesting! no one uses toilet paper! most bathrooms are just a porcelain hole in the ground and you squat. there is a tub with “clean” water in it and a bowl. if you poop you have to put some water in the bowl and splash your bum and wipe with your hand until you are clean. it’s hard to get used to. also, you normally shower the same way—by putting water in the bowl and pouring it on yourself. p.s. one of the program facilitators said the weirdest thing they ever ate here was cow placenta!!! whoa! hello pepto bismol!

mush.

Sep. 12th, 2007 sa-wa-de-kaa! greetings from the world wide web!

it’s only 10:30 p.m. here but i am so, so tired. my brain feels like

before i hit my hard flat bed, i want to tell you all about the communities i stayed in during our urban unit.

first i stayed in a slum community—i felt weary about using the term “slum,” but they have sort of reclaimed the word and embraced it. they said they don’t like the term “squatter” and actually prefer to be called pioneers because they were the first to settle on the land a long time ago. i stayed in mittrapat (friendship) community, but before i talk about my experience there, i want to talk a little about the slums here in thailand. slums are a direct example of globalization and development here in thailand. i am in khon kaen city, and it has quickly become known as the capital of isaan (the northeast). most jobs and services, such as schools and hospitals, are all easily accessible in the city—the problem is that the government didn’t plan space for people to live before they started to rapidly develop the city. people were forced out of their homes in rural areas and into the cities to find jobs. because there was nowhere for these people to live, they built homes on government-owned land. most slum dwellers do not own/rent/lease their land—and technically live there illegally. most of the slum communities i have learned about—both here in khon kaen and in Bangkok—are located on the Railroad Authority of Thailands land (RAT). most of the homes are located within forty meters of the train tracks (very noisy). the 4 Slum Community Network along with other organizations have drafted the “Slum Bill,” which basically asks that those in authority enact a bill that will grant slum dwellers somewhere to live. the bill doesn’t ask the government to expropriate land for slum dwellers but just recognize their right to their slum dwellings and also allow them some say in decision making. this seems so basic to me. i mean a lot of communities don’t even want their land for free. they just want to be able to buy it for a fair price, and if they do have to be evicted from their homes, they just ask that there be a new place still in the city. sometimes RAT offers communities the option to lease for 3 years. most communities are split about whether or not to lease. some community members think that leasing will guarantee them some renters’ rights and also

kind of legitimize their homes. other communities (including the one i stayed at) don’t see the point in taking out a large loan for only a 3-year lease; it’s just too risky. my community would only consider leasing if the RAT offered them a thirty-year lease (what they offer businesses) for a fair price. mittrapap had the most amazing sense of community. it was so inspiring to see the way they live/work/make decisions/organize together. whenever an issue or problem pops up they announce over the loudspeaker and have a community meeting to discuss it and make a decision collectively. my meh and paw worked at the market, and i had 3 little brothers: chem, bass, and boy. i felt like i had so many parents and siblings—i could just walk from house to house and find someone to talk to or feed me and feel totally welcome. actually when i first arrived, i wasn’t sure who my siblings were because there were so many kids at my house. mittrapap has sixty households and has existed in this location for twenty-six years. before that, most community members lived in another slum community, but they were evicted because investors planned on building a department store. they were threatened with eviction once fifteen years ago but protested at the main train station and have not been bothered since. one thing i think is so neat is how autonomously these communities function. collectively, they save money for both immediate and long-term needs of community members. they circulate short-term, no-interest loans that can be used by community members if they fall on hard times. this is really important because it is much better than borrowing from a third party that charges very high interest. these funds are also available to buy land for the permanent resettlement of communities when the time comes—if that’s even what they want. during each community stay, we have an exchange. in the exchange, all of the community members, the students, and a translator sit around in a circle and talk. we ask each other questions to better understand each other’s issues and lives. it’s really very beautiful.

Sep. 14th, 2007

i am going to take a bit of a break from telling you all the things i learn and try and describe to you some of the things i see and do and think about, so maybe you can feel like you are here with me. the word for foreigner is farang. all of us farangs stick out in khon kaen—people want to wave to you and have you hold their babies and stuff. it’s weird. everywhere i go i hear “insert-random-thai-words farang more-words-i don’t-know farang.” it’s really frustrating. sometimes i think: what makes me any different than other tourists soaking up thai culture? i have to be really aware of it when i am out. i see so many things that i want to take pictures of to share with you, but i can’t do that—i’m in the market and i see a whole pigs face, and i want to take a picture, but i can’t. this isn’t crazy to them; this is their life. so normally i just wait for other people to look like an asshole, and then take a picture and i ask for a copy later. haha. speaking of ”haha,” the word for the number five in thai is “ha.” if you are watching television and the subtitles are on and there is laughing, it says “5-5-5!” i love that! i also love pumpkin (faktone). i eat it steamed almost everyday. i also eat a lot of crap. seriously, everything is fried, and here is the straight up sad truth: i don’t get much exercise. we sit and talk so much. i have found an amazing vegetarian (jae) restaurant that i frequent. they have awesome mock meat. i really enjoy the red curry and also the fried morning glory. i also eat a lot of som tom (green papaya salad) because the northeast is well known for it. everything i eat has those dangerous tiny red chili peppers. every time i get an accidental real bite of one my lips turn bright red and swell up. it’s actually really gross. thailand is a “democracy,” but they are crazy about the king. everyday

at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. the national anthem (which is basically a tribute to the king) comes on tv and the radio, and if you go see a movie they play it before the previews. there are also pictures of him—huge pictures of him everywhere! i don’t know if you can tell but he has sweat dripping from his nose. this was at a school we visited. there are pictures like this at all of my home stays—it’s so odd. there are also designated colors for every day of the week and you can get these weird polo shirts in each color and wear them on that day—but most people only wear the colored shirt on the day they were born. the king was born on a monday, so on mondays you see ridiculous amounts of people in pale yellow polo shirts. it’s also illegal to criticize the king. you actually couldn’t use YouTube for awhile here because someone made videos where they made fun of the king, but the person issued an apology and so now we can all use YouTube again.

Sep. 15th, 2007 reduce, reuse, recycle

girls in thailand are obsessed with their weight (western influence?) there are weird scales everywhere, and they play a loud song when you get on it. i walk out of 7-11 with chocolate and a soda, and i hear that damn song and look over and see this tiny tiny thai girl weighing herself. weeeird. anyway, i want to write a little about the landfill. i think the people are just so incredible. but it’s just so much to have to organize my thoughts and then type them on a keyboard—it’s very hard—but here goes... paw come, one of the community leaders, took us where the medical waste from the hospital is taken. needles, bandages and gauze are all sitting in open bins. there was blood still in needles and iv tubes. it seemed so dangerous. the landfill community is very concerned about how dangerous and unhealthy the incinerator that the government uses to burn medical waste is for them when they turn it on. two people from my program went back to

talk to villagers, the guy who runs the incinerator, and the municipality. here are some of the really scary things they found out: every day they burn about three tons of medical waste in the incinerator. the incineratory is about five feet away from the water tank. whenever they turn it on, thick black smoke comes out and pollutes the area around the incinerator, aka the village where the scavengers live. what is really fucked up is that sometimes liquid waste drips down on to the villagers homes. paw come said that when this happens the whole community has to run to the highest tip of the landfill to get away. when we first arrived at the landfill paw come told us that there are sixty families that live in the landfill community. then he took us on a tour. it was really intense. there were mountains and mountains of trash. from far away it was almost beautiful because it just looked like a big fluffy hill, but up close it wasn’t so pretty, and the smell was unlike anything i have ever smelled before. i almost threw up once. i’m trying to be honest here because while i was there, i tried to be really aware of my facial expressions because i didn’t want to be rude.

we also helped them scavenge for a little while. i found some pretty gross stuff—dead animals, needles, intestines...the list goes on. they told us that just a month ago they found a dead baby. all of the medical waste from the hospital goes to a separate spot (a wide open spot nearby—a place kids could easily find,) but all of the trash from private clinics that aren’t run by the state goes here too. it’s so scary because hardly any of the scavengers wear gloves or boots; they scavenge with their bare hands and wear flip-flops. they said they don’t wear gloves because they go bad too fast and it slows them down. you’d think it would be easy to find recyclables, but it’s not. everything is covered in shit and food. you have to open bags and dig through them to try and find the good stuff. after we scavenged for a bit, paw come told us that he really appreciated how we didn’t hesitate and just dug right in. he said it really meant a lot

because a lot of people come and won’t get out of their cars or they wear face masks. he said it makes all of the workers feel really bad about what they’re doing, like they’re dirty and gross. his eyes just looked so sad and sincere that i almost cried, but i didn’t want to be that farang.

The slums of Khon Kaen

While Thailand developed, people were forced from rural agriculturebased areas to urban ones, causing cities like Khon Kaen to become overcrowded. Most of the houses in the slums (seen on the left of the image) are within 40 meters of the train tracks and are on land that is owned by the Railroad Authority of Thailand.

My host dad in Sisaket

His family was affected by the construction of the Pak Mun dam. Prior to the dam’s construction, he fished like everyone else in the community. Now they raise cows and make brooms. The Pak Mun Dam is a run-of-the-river hydropower dam that generates electricity. The dam cost $240 million U.S. dollars and is supposed to generate 136 MW of electricity but is only operating at 40 MW. More than 50 fish species found in the Pak Mun River have gone extinct since the construction of the dam because their habitat in the rapids was destroyed, and because their migration routes for breeding were blocked by the dam gates. It was predicted that 241 households would be displaced by the dam, but the world commission of dams report found that 1,700 households were actually displaced and that 6,000 more had their livelihoods destroyed by the dam’s effect on the fish population, which in many areas caused a 50-100% decline. The Pak Mun River was really important to my host dad. He took us to this waterfall for us to swim and enjoy. He wanted to share with us something he was proud of and loved.

Irrigation canal in Rasi Salai

The community in Rasi Salai was affected by the construction of a large dam built for irrigation purposes. In this photo, you can see one of the irrigation canals that were built and can no longer be used. These irrigation canals proved to be beneficial only for people who were located right next to the river. The Rasi Salai dam was also determined a failure because the water in the river was ruined by the dam. The underground of the Rasi Salai area is rich in salt deposits. Before the dam’s construction, villagers would dig deep holes to extract and sell the salt. Unfortunately, the heavy dam began to weigh down on the ground, forcing the salt into the water. Saline contaminated water destroys crops, so the community’s rice fields have been ruined by using water from the now dammed river.

Paw Come at highest point

Paw Come is at one of the highest points of the landfill. As one of the key organizers in the Kambon Noi community, Paw Come regularly attends meetings with the municipality and with the Thai Health Promotion Foundation in Bangkok. When he goes to these meetings as a representative from the community, his income often drops because he has to stop working, but he told me it is worth it because he gets to hear how others are planning to solve the problems of the poor as well as give his own input. He told me he takes the information he gets and spreads it to his fellow community members.

Scavenging the landfill

Of course you find lots of gross things scavenging in the landfill, but you would be surprised at all the neat things you can find. At the end of the semester, while I was working on the photo project with the community, I also worked on an art project with the children that live at the landfill. We collected non-recyclable trash from the landfill and used it to make art—everything from a really awesome mural to some pretty impressive mobiles and masks.