Today’s theme for our work at the jet rai property (some two to three acres of land that we work on from time to time) was the phlegmatic attitude of the honey badger. For those who are not familiar with this particular inside joke, I would include a link except that it is a bit profane, and I do not wish to offend my readers (even if it is funny in a really odd way). At any rate, the honey badger was the modest animal whose nonchalance about life’s troubles served as a fitting and somewhat ironic mascot of our difficulties.

Today was the first time I had ever visited the jet rai property north of Mae Rim, as I had been cooped up on campus on previous trips to the property. We normally have two drivers (as it is hard to fit all of the equipment and students and teachers in one truck), but today we had to be tightly crammed because the normal driver had thrown his back out yesterday, probably when he worked the tiller on only half of the land that he was supposed to till for us. That limited the work we were all able to do, but at the same time we still productive in planting corn and soybeans in one plot of land (even if a bit haphazardly), clearing out another few plots of land for future planting with scythes and machetes, weeding a patch of soybeans and peanuts and mounding some corn that is growing very well.

Despite the fact that I am not inclined at all to manual labor, I find that farm labor (and manual labor in general) is not so bad as long as there is a good social environment. When everyone is laughing and joking along with getting their work done, I find that most jobs can be at least somewhat enjoyable. I suppose that despite being a somewhat unsociable extrovert, that I find my work is more enjoyable when social needs are met, and less enjoyable when it is just a job to be done alone. Much could be said about that, but perhaps this is not the time or place to do so, lest it overwhelm my observations of the day’s events.

There was some weirdness to the day–there was an immigration issue for some of our students that had to be dealt with, which required some documents being brought out to sign to three students from Burma. Other than that, there is the constant fun of trying to feed over twenty people at a small restaurant, seeing how politely (or not) they ask for seconds for a lunch that is paid for by others (the meal was quite tasty and reasonably inexpensive). Then there was the matter of keeping three different work crews busy and productive (it helped that there were three teachers there). We ended up harvesting a lot of plants that are apparently good for the eyes and for the stomach, according to our resident folk herbologists.

All in all, the trip to jet rai was a pleasant one, even if the weather was drizzly the whole time. There were a few hassles to deal with, but nothing too major, and for the most part everyone was looking forward to doing the work quickly so that everyone could return back to the school quickly. Now that I have my own straw hat (I’m sure someone will take a photo of me wearing it at some point), I will be able to do a much better job of looking the part of a modest farmer. Needless to say, farm work is something that I did not go to Thailand specifically to perform, and it is something I have spent a fair amount of my life trying to avoid, but it is not often as tedious as I remember from my childhood. Company matters a great deal.