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A Friday morning in the life of a Huay Pakoot villager

Posted: March 12, 2019

The Friday Project

Hello all!!!

I’m currently speaking to you all from the beautiful village of Huay Pakoot, just outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand! I’m here as an intern with the wonderful GVI family. Today I will be giving you a little look into our fabulous Friday Project!

So before we dive straight in, here’s a little bit of background info for you all: once a fortnight the GVI crew all get together to help the village out with a project of their choice. This week, we had the great opportunity to help out in the beautiful corn fields.  It is in fact harvesting season in Huay Pakoot and pretty much all the fields are on a slope, meaning lots and lots of bags full of corn needing to be rolled down the steep hillsides and piled up, ready to be brought back up to the village! 

I know what you’re thinking, how did someone with arms like Olive Oyl manage to carry these massive sacks of corn? Well ladies and gentlemen, I may have little-to-no upper body strength but, through pure determination of not looking like a weakling, I managed to do it! I could barely move my arms the next day, but that’s how you know you’ve done a proper work out!!! Before I know it I’ll have arms like Popeye!

The reason why this has been one of my favourite days so far is because it gave the opportunity for a real life experience, I have a whole new level of respect for the villagers here in Huay Pakoot, they work incredibly hard, in the heat and on difficult terrain.

I mean I’m sat here complaining about my lanky arms aching after one morning of working in the field, yet these incredible people do it day in and day out with a smile on their face.

Being from the not-so-sunny north of England, just spending the day out in the glorious sun, surrounded by some of the most interesting and energetic people I’ve ever met, how could that be anything but sheer perfection?

From this…

To this…… 

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