A Semester in Review: Part Two *Edited*

And now we have academics. Yes, I still had homework to do and classes to attend while in another country. I’m just saying that in case anyone is like my dad who, when I told him about the papers I had to write, protested that I shouldn’t have that much homework. I agree, Dad, I thought, I agree. At the same time, it is called study abroad, and in all seriousness, my classes were a significant part of how I’ve grown and been challenged. The set-up of the semester contains three blocks in which two classes are taken for a month on either end of the semester and a month-long practicum experience fills the middle. Through the semester, each block challenged me in different ways while also contributing to an overall theme of mindfulness in my writing that built with each experience.

*In no way do I claim to be an expert on human trafficking or issues of exploitation, either in the Mekong Region or in the United States of America. The information I relay is from Exclusion and Exploitation, a class taught by Dr. Christa Crawford. I do not claim to have definitive answers to these problems nor do I wish to speak poorly about either region. I simply want to convey what I learned from this class in the hopes that you will gain something from it to ponder over in your own engagement with these issues.*

*EDITED*

During the first block, I took the classes Exclusion and Exploitation in the Mekong Region as well as History, Religion, and Society in the Mekong Region. To be honest, E & E was tough. The theme for the Mekong GO ED semester encapsulates the oppression that persists in the region, and in my mind, that meant human trafficking. While somewhat true, the exclusion and exploitation more accurately exists as a network of interwoven strands of corruption, mismanagement, human rights offenses, and other issues. In short, it’s much more complicated than just the term human trafficking. While used as an umbrella, trafficking doesn’t cover all the nuanced forms of exploitation that demand attention and action, and it was troubling to realize how different approaches have been received as well. In terms of the relationship human trafficking has with the general efforts that try to stop it, our professor Dr. Christa Crawford explained that many organizations focus solely on the "supply" side of trafficking. In terms of supply and demand, the women, children, and men who become trafficked are on the "supply" end, and most organizations focus there, and with good reason. I mean, as Dr. Crawford pointed out, who wants to focus on the other end which means dealing with the kind of people who would treat others like merchandise? Yeah, not so appealing. But unappealing does not equal unnecessary. Even if one population emerges from exploitation, Dr. Crawford pointed out that another population of people will only become new targets. So the cycle continues unless people are willing to address the root, willing to confront just what it is that causes people to use others for their own sexual desires. And these past couple of sentences only cover human trafficking, without touching the connecting subjects that must be addressed along with it.

I don't relay this information to create despair but to point to something that we should not be ignorant of. I also don't write this to give people a certain idea of Southeast Asia because these kinds of issues do not just occur there; they happen in the States as well. I worried about writing this because I did not want to give people the wrong impression of this region I have come to love and deeply appreciate, and I hope becoming aware of these issues doesn't do that, just as I believe that understanding the flaws in your own country should not break your appreciation of its value. Instead, what I hope this little paragraph has accomplished is to spur you to research more into human trafficking, modern slavery, exploitation, and other human rights issues because your awareness and action can impact how these issues will advance or decrease. Growth will happen naturally, unfortunately. So, it will take a lot of intentional action from people to push back against it. I say intentional because the approach we take matters. To my discouragement, I also learned in class that people who support anti-trafficking causes tend to flock to the ones that provide quick, calculable results. The ones that require long-term investment without explicit and overt assurance of success? Not so popular. But we need these second type of responses. As I'll talk about in my third block section, reaching out to one another and working against injustices requires more of us than a simple list of action steps. No, it means getting knee deep in complication stuff because we care enough about who a person is to walk with them through their lives and work against the systems that oppress them.

*DONE EDITED SECTION*

The class also set in motion a theme I’ve been considering for the past four months: people’s stories, who can tell them, and how they’re told. When I arrived in Thailand, it was as a writer eager to tell people’ stories – give voices to them – to evoke empathy from other people. So I didn’t think much when, in the past, I conveyed people as victims. During that course and through the rest of the semester, I met a question, a challenge: why? Why did I think it was okay to twist people’s stories into any shape if I accomplished my goal? The wording that chilled me came from my professor who pointed out that when people do that, they’re just exploiting a different part of the person. In an attempt to raise awareness for social issues, people could just take advantage of others in a different way.

During practicum, when I lived in Bangkok for a month, I attended some of the UN’s HeforShe events, and during one, photographer Xyca Bacani challenged me yet again. She was presenting on her documentation of migration, explaining her reasoning and telling her own story, but then she said something about her role as a photographer and ultimately an artist: “I’m not speaking for them and giving them a voice. They already have voices. I’m magnifying them. I’m acting as a microphone right now. They have voices. It’s just sometimes people aren’t listening.” That has stuck with me as the re-orientation of my own identity as a writer and artist. I’d thought before that my desire to give people voices made me altruistic. I’d failed to realize this simple truth that seems to elude most of us in this world but that Bacani knows firmly: “They already have voices.” As I consider my role as a storyteller, the semester has then increased my sensitivity towards the stories I’ll tell. And as an artist, I believe I will have to seriously challenge myself at every turn to question: Is this a story that people should hear in my voice? The tough decision and one that could be easy and tempting to ignore is the one that asks me to give up certain stories, to metaphorically pass the pen to the person whose story should emerge in their own voice. I once read about the role of solidarity not as the responsibility to speak up for people who can’t be heard, but as the responsibility to highlight those voices and provide space for them to fill with their identities. When I consider the characters I’ll include in my stories and the reflections I’ll continue writing, my task has become more complicated with this new awareness. And to that I say: challenge accepted.

Third block brought heat and nonstop study. April, also known as hot season in Thailand, educated us (see what I did there?) in an entirely new level of heat I’d never known before. Even being cloistered in the classroom all day did not save us from rising temperatures that made you sweat without even having to move a muscle. In other areas of education, our two classes were Thai Cultural Arts and Social Context for Community Development. As part of TCA, our group tried new art forms through experience. We visited the C.C.I dance company at Payap University that works to integrate the Thai style of Likay dance with Biblical stories. In the course of the month, we learned two types of weaving, both from people who are Lahu, one of Thailand's many hill tribes. One Lahu woman whose name I will assuredly spell wrong - Nammee Pon - who works with deftness and skill taught us how to back strap weave with many strands of thread. During a visit to a Lahu village, a man with continuous patience whose name I unfortunately cannot remember taught me how to basket-weave. Additionally, we spent an afternoon painting with renowned artist, Ajarn ("Ah Jon" = Professor) Sawai and another one cooking with the skilled chef Sornsak Sakbodin who opened Sorn's Restaurant and Cafe.

In the community development class, we explored how to bring about positive change in communities. It’s tricky because I think we all have ideas for how to do that, but as we talked about in class, good ideas don’t necessarily produce good results. I’m borrowing the framework of one of the books we read When Helping Hurts that talks about the ways people have tried to go into communities to help but have only created new areas of hurt. That kind of class doesn’t exactly become fun when it points to all the ways we as people think we know best and have just messed up. But, just like the lesson about representing people’s stories, it’s a topic I want to stick my hands in because many of our conversations, while uncovering some of the deep flaws in development work of the past and present, also presented new ways to think about loving people truly through empowerment and partnership rather than charity. Instead of smashing any hope I have for contributing positive to the world, the class spurred me to think about all the ways I can alter my framework of thinking and behavior to see development as an opportunity to create relationships with people and extend the love within you towards others.

As I learned, I also kept in mind my original desire to be bolder. A naturally introspective kind of thinker, I often find class participation too similar to public speaking, but I pressed myself to contribute more. Community Development helped me learn to find a method for developing my thoughts better. Because the professors set aside time for each person to share thought at the beginning of each class, I began being more intentional during my reading to note ideas that stood out to me. Preparing ahead of time, I no longer felt quite so put on the spot and had a greater confidence in sharing because I’d been able to process mentally before sharing verbally. Knowing that I’ll encounter more opportunities that will ask me to be a bold speaker, I have been able to accept my way of processing and now have a better understanding of how to work well within it.

Considering public speaking, my professor taught me never to end with “in conclusion,” so I won’t. Besides, to conclude indicates that I’m done with these lessons, which I’ll probably never be.

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