What Katie Did Next …

sooooooo then … even though i know some of you think that i’ve just been ambling my way around the place for the last few years i do believe i pumped out enough reports, interviews, assignments, bibliographies, analyses blah blah blah in the last month to last me another year … really … ok well i sense the majority of you have little care factor so i will order myself a wine and continue !

so the last month has been back in laos and doing some really interesting surveys etc on the influencing factors behind effective community development through  the village committees in the project’s target areas. so this took me far wide high and low in the mountains of luang nam tha and had me eating and seeing an equal variety of entities. you know up and until this trip, i had always struggled a little with the whole notion of bringing “development” to the masses. don’t get me wrong … i absolutely believe 100% in everyone’s right to education and the freedom that can come with that … but i did sometimes feel like we were potentially upsetting the equilibrium in some communities … ones that had operated fairly happily in their remote mountain top existences for hundreds of generations. i guess i used to think that through creating knowledge you create desire and if one would never have the opportunity to fulfil desires and wants then isn’t that the definition of frustration?

but then i met Saryoh in a village called lakkam mai … an akha and hmong village between luang nam tha and muang sing. there were three of them but Saryoh had the most beautiful, intelligent, mischievious, curious eyes and they burned into my soul i would have to say. Saryoh is 15, married, about to have a child and was made to leave school in grade two. she’ll never go back and will never study non formal education because she’s married … and that’s the way it works with akha girls. and to be honest, saryoh is one of the lucky ones … at least she had two years.

she’s the one on the right …

and now i don’t have any more answers than before but … i do believe in upsetting the equilibrium now … with obvious measure to guide and support the way … but it needs to be upset …

now i am back at the same fabulous place i was in thailand before, for five days of uni writing craziness (with of course a few cheeky swim and singha island moments thrown in!), before heading to athens on sunday. and there for about 4 weeks with the film peoples from the marathon last year … to try and work on my own creativeness in that area and see if we can’t put some combined projects together. apparently the first project is working on a promo film for some mediterrarean yachting company …. oh yeah, i’m definitely up for that one!

so if you’re a european resident you’ll be hearing from me soon to track down a local beverage sharing moment  … or come find me in greece!

some pics from the last month, until the next time …