Heifers, Fish and Volunteers

L to R Sunny Danpongpee, Volunteer Russ Gaulin,
Marshall Peters and Phil Gage at the 1987
Graduation lunch at the CUHT

 We had quite a few volunteers come for varying lengths of time. Since TBMF included Baptist mission organizations from Sweden and Australia as well as the US, we and all the TBMF missionaries would host volunteers from several countries as well. The majority were great but occasionally some would require more “maintenance” than would be ideal. One volunteer for example had a large appetite and an uncanny ability to show up at meal time. Before we caught on, he showed up unannounced a couple times at dinner time and literally ate everything we had made for the two of us. Conferring with other missionaries, it seems he had done the same thing with them as well.

One of good ones though came through Heifer Project International (HPI, but now called “Heifer International”). Rupert Nelson had built a relationship with HPI and had helped start a number of cattle groups in villages among the Karen and Lahu Baptist churches. Enough groups were being started that HPI opened an office in Chiang Mai that in 1984 was headed by Lipo, an influential member of the Lahu Baptist Churches.

New water buffalo delivered to a HPI cattle group 
in an Akha village.

The idea of the cattle groups was that cows would be sent to a village as a loan to enable a family or several families to establish a new herd. The loan was paid back as new calves were born. It was a popular and worthwhile program. It was Rupert’s work but I would tag along on some of Rupert’s village visits and in some cases, cattle groups were in the same villages where the Irrigation Project was working.

In addition to cattle, HPI also got involved with other animals including fish. Russ Gaulin was a
volunteer from HPI that came out to Thailand to work in aquaculture. He traveled to Karen villages, in some cases advising on pond building where the ponds were dug with help from our Irrigation Project. Rupert, me and others would help Russ get out to villages where he would advise and assist on stocking fish, care for the fish and harvesting. There were challenges such as animals that would get into the ponds and eat everything. Also culturally, fish were considered “wild” and therefore had no owner. Therefore, anyone in the village could, and in some cases did, come along and harvest fish when ever they wanted. So there were cases when ponds were empty of fish before the owner could get them. Still, there were enough successes it seemed worthwhile.

Volunteer Russ Gaulin (first person in the pond)
teaching fish harvest and pond management
in Mae Ha Khee village.

Not exactly a volunteer, but a person I enjoyed having some contact with and accompanying on a village trip or two was Dr. Edward F. Anderson. He made research trips to Thailand studying plants and how the various Hilltribe groups used and related to them. The results of his research were compiled in a book published in 1993. The title of the book was “Plants and People of the Golden Triangle” and subtitled “Ethnobotany of the Hill Tribes of Northern Thailand”.

Other volunteers, partners and friends came and went over the years. It was a privilege to be able to benefit from the expertise and abilities of people that came and their dedication and willingness to help and share was admirable and appreciated by us as missionaries as well as the people in the villages. I was impressed with the spirit of cooperation, partnership, and brother/sisterhood shown by so many people and organizations and glad to play what ever small part we could.