Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Back from the village

just returned to Mae Sot from a village up north. It was a Thai/Karen village in a national forest up in the mountains. It was very beautiful and the people who live there are wonderful. What an amazing place to visit.

All in all, it took 8 days to install the micro-hydro electric project. There were four main areas of work to be completed:
1. Powerhouse holding the turbine at the bottom of the waterfall
2. Dam at the top of the waterfall to collect water for the pipe to the turbine
3. Powerline from the powerhouse to the school
4. Wiring the school

The local folks are amazingly efficient at construction and did most of the work. On the last day, it was very cool to see the lights come on at the school. This was a small project and the turbine only produces around 2 kW of electricity. This is just enough for lights in all of the school buildings and not much more than that. But, it does generate electricity 24 hours per day.

I was very happy to return to all of the great cuisine here in Mae Sot. The villagers were very generous with cooking food and sharing with all of us out there. But, I was very excited to get some different food after 8 days of eating rice, ramen noodles, pumpkin, and fish paste 3 meals per day. So, I am eating everything i can, and it is sooooooo good.

2 comments:

ben said...

trevor,

i hadn't stopped by here in a while, but glad i did this morning. what a fantastic trip you are on. keep posting!

Drea said...

Your trip sounds fab so far... post more pictures! And local recipes! Oh, and have fun and take care of yourself. xo