The comings and goings of the Minsky's in Thailand.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Count Gerry's Garden Party

Early on Sunday, January 13, Jules and I traveled to Chiang Rai with a group of 10 people from the Chiang Mai Ex-Patriates Club. Chiang Rai is about three hours north of Chiang Mai. The Club hired a van and driver to take us there over winding mountain roads. The ride was great fun since our traveling companions were lively conversationalists from all over the world. One couple in their late 70’s are still on the road enjoying life and recently returned from an ashram in India where they spent a couple of years on their spiritual path. Maude, a French woman who has settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is an expert in conflict resolution and lives in a shared housing community. They were our seatmates and made the ride go quickly.

We were on our way to a garden party hosted by Count Gerald van der Straten Ponthoz (Count Gerry) in order to launch the book he authored. The book retraces the work and achievement of Count Gerry’s relative, Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns, a Belgian politician, who was the General Advisor of King Chulalongkorn in the late 1890’s. He was instrumental in negotiations with European powers to keep Siam independent and free from colonization. (Thailand, unlike its neighboring countries, has never been a colony of a foreign power.) Count Gerry was a featured speaker at one of the Ex-Pat Club meetings. He told us that, while the book commemorates the achievements of his relative, the meaning of the book is “to bring the past back to help the future.” Instead of purchasing the book, it can only be acquired by making a donation of 3000 baht to provide a scholarship to help the education of the hill tribes children attending Suksa Song Kroh Maechan. The Maechan Hill Tribes School is a government boarding school caring for 950 children, most of whom are from a dozen different hill tribes. These children are from very poor families. 3000 baht is enough to send one child to school for one year.

The party was fabulous. The pictures below were all taken on the grounds at Count Gerry’s beautiful teak house during the party, which lasted for several hours. The school band played. The children donned their beautiful native dress and performed traditional dances. There was lots of food, wine, Thai desserts, and fruit. After dark, we were treated to a violin concert and the evening ended with a huge display of fireworks.

The next morning, Jules set off early to tour the school (the last five pictures are pictures of the school and its grounds), meet the teachers, and actually teach a math class using colorful manipulatives, which he made. The rest of us traveled to the Golden Triangle on the Mekong River, about a half hour north of Chiang Rai. We visited the Opium Museum, a world class museum built under the auspices of the Queen Mother. I learned everything I could ever want to know about the history of opium in the Far East. Did you know that you can flunk a drug test if you consume a poppy seed bagel prior to the test? Did you know that Flander’s Field poppies and California poppies do not produce opium? It took us two and a half hours to tour the museum.

After lunch, we headed back to Chiang Mai. Jules loved his time at the school. Could there be a stint in Chiang Rai in our future? Only time will tell.


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