During my college application, I had no intention of coming to Asia or studying in Thailand. But the CIEE program makes all of this lifelong opportunity possible.
The CIEE Khon Kaen Development & Globalization program in Thailand emphasizes community-based learning, teamwork among participants, and building a sense of solidarity with communities facing various environmental and human rights issues.
At the CIEE Khon Kaen in Khon Kaen Province, with noted Thai scholar and social critic Sulak Sivaraksa
Three things I have learned stand out for me: community, globalization, and a way of being a global citizen.
Our community stays in rural villages reminded me of rural life in Central African Republic (CAR). In Loura kids like me are very clever and creative, playing with just dirt and clay. I witnessed the same things with kids in the villages here. Just like in the life I experienced in CAR, everything here is also based on community. My fellow students and I lived with families, ate all our meals together with the family, and got to know about the issues through their lives. These family were very engaging with us, interacting with us in a very kind, love, and welcoming ways.
In comparison, in the US everything seems very individualistic and you seem to be fighting against yourself, against the time you have, and everything is like a competition in order to succeed rather than achieve something greater as a collective society. In Northeastern Thailand, we are working with communities collectively, a part of advancing forward in society.
Prior to this academic program my understanding of globalization was about the free flow of goods and services between countries. Now, after our learning from and with communities and seeing how certain trends are impacting communities here, I have been able to understand another side of globalization. I learned globalization does not always result in positive outcomes because it has impacted the world both positively and negatively.
In this program, I got a better understanding of how globalization can affect every aspect of life–religion, food, livelihoods, transport, language, music, and clothing. I’ve gained a better understanding of how the spread of globalization and development are affecting Thailand as well as Southeast Asian as well as African countries like the Central African Republic. I have also gained a greater awareness of how issues of human rights and environmental activism are often closely related.
With fellow students from across America whom I’ve got to know through CIEE, we’ve enjoyed meals together in community and travelling together to neighboring Laos.
I was introduced to new ways of learning here. Working with my peers, working closely with the local people and participating in the event happening in the communities, I have discovered how to learn, discovering my own learning style. I’ve learned the importance of learning how to work with other people. The yearning to understand has been crucial–learning through exchanges with communities, NGOs, government officials while being engaging and writing about what we have learned from their experiences.
My best experiences studying abroad in this way are the feeling of connection I have established with the CIEE Khon Kaen staff and the other students on the program. They have helped me to stay engaged and motivated. Studying in the we have about human rights and development issues in the Northeast, the poorest region of Thailand, has also taught me a lot about humans values. The feeling of sharing certain values has helped me feel solidarity with affective communities. All of this has furthered my understanding of the world, my role as a global citizen, and how I can play a role through the skills I have gained from the program.
The entire experience has helped me appreciate life and what I have! I know now that the past and present should not stop the pursuit of tomorrow. Henry David Thoreau said, “wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” Despite all that has happened to me in the past, I wake up happy every day happy, ready to share and enjoy life in this world and to be grateful for people around me.
VI. My hope for the future
Meanwhile, the Central African Republic continues to go from one crisis to the next. CAR has been named as “worst country in the world to be a young person.”
A report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said: “Since December 2013, some 250,000 people too scared to stay in CAR have fled to at least 14 countries in West and Central Africa… Thousands of people continue to escape CAR every week. Those who have fled are often traumatized, malnourished and dehydrated. …Many have walked for weeks and taken refuge in the bush along the way to hide from armed groups. Some have been exposed to atrocities and survived violence. …Many are still hiding in the bush in fear for their lives, surviving on leaves and roots.”
The report says that the majority of those fleeing are “women and children”–children, just like me who, almost ten years ago, fled for my own life.
I appreciate my being born in the Central African Republic. Since I fled, I’ve learned so much about the struggles it has gone through, and continue to go through. As a Politics and International Relations major, I look forward to returning to the CAR one day and contributing some fresh and positive ideas. I want help find way to help stabilize the lives of people there, so that hope can be sustained there for years to come.
Saint Cyr Dimanche studies international relations and political science at Brandeis University. He studied about development and human rights issues in Khon Kaen this past fall.
Isaan voters have a long track record of their candidates winning and then eventually losing. Northeasterners picked parties whose leaders became prime ministers in 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011, and 2014. But they lost to coups (twice), court rulings (two or three times), and election annulments (twice). The overwhelming choice of Isaan voters (and the majority of voters throughout the country) now face a new challenge: an unelected Senate. Will its beloved Pheu Thai Party rise to the occasion and save democracy? Or will it take the premiership and break the pro-democratic bloc? Does it have any choice?
Natticha Nasee shares her journey of reclaiming her identity in Thailand after growing up in Nepal, where she was labeled a foreigner. A growing disconnect from her Thai heritage and loss of cultural ties compel her to return to Thailand and enroll at Khon Kaen University. There, Natticha finds reintegrating into Thai society doesn’t go as hoped, and she is soon labeled foreigner again due to her unfamiliarity with the language as well as simple cultural norms, like how to eat mu kata. Frustrated by again being treated as an outsider, Natticha eventually navigates the blurred lines between being both farang noi and Thai to make peace with her complex identity through the connections she forms and the enduring bonds of family.
Isaan would not be in poverty if the central government distributed administrative power to localities and was more careful in how it imposed development policies and projects in the region. The series “What will Isaan people get from the 2023 elections?” looks back on how Isaan has been left out in such policy making processes, and what can be done to resolve the issue.
While Tha Rae district in Sakon Nakhon province is well known for having the biggest Catholic community in Thailand, the district may perhaps be even better known for a darker history as the former heart of the dog meat trade in Southeast Asia. Although most residents of Tha Rae no longer eat dog meat and the tradition has died down due to the influence of Buddhism, some locals in Sakon Nakhon’s Tha Rae district still consume it. This raises the question: “Man’s best friend or favorite meal?” Isaan Record intern, Russell Chapman, goes to Sakon Nakhon to explore the issue.
