"We make our traditional food for you", our host said proudly. He gestured and the young indigenous Karen people participating in our meeting jumped up to get the food. We (my 14 year old business-owning daughter and I) were close to the Thai-Burmese border, a few hours drive from urbanized Thailand, and had been up and running, driving and working on our Organic Frontiers project for about 9 hours already. In short, we were hungry.
The rice came out first, and our host apologized. "My wife, she can only eat the white city rice now. Is soft." Malnutrition and lack of Vitamin C will make your teeth fall out. Dental problems are in plague proportions amongst the indigenous community. Our host was curious about what type of rice we eat in our Chiang Mai home and I explained that we normally eat only black or dark red rice. He smiled and spoke nostalgically of the local dark mountain rice he prefers but his wife can no longer chew.
Out came the next dish - the vegetables. Our host grandly gestured at the generous bowl, and said something like: "We know you like vegetable, so we buy special for you."
"Karen people don't eat vegetables?" I asked, hearing the stupidity of my question the second it left my mouth. You need to have LAND to have vegetables. And access to consistent water supply in the dry season. If you have no land, you need MONEY. The Karen refugee and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) struggle with all three.
I was saved by the other dishes coming out: a curry, a plate of raw vegetables and a dish of the most amazing ripe mangoes.
They looked at us, and we looked at the curry and back at them. The curry smelled great - fragrant with kaffir lime leaves, fresh chili and lemongrass. There was a longish moment.
"What's in the curry?" Miss 14 asked finally. Much laughter, and our host grabbed his old cell phone, scrolling to find a picture, since language was challenging between their indigenous Karen, local mountain-style Thai and some limited English.
"Dragon!" he finally said triumphantly. And showed us a picture of an endangered Komodo Dragon. I lost my appetite instantly. But then my head kicked in about local jungle terrain, dry season etc and I knew that wasn't quite right. So I queried the identification, and he scrolled some more and finally after much chatter in 3 languages he found a correct picture of what they had worked hard all morning to catch and prepare for our meal: a large Asian water monitor lizard. Yikes.
Full credit to Miss 14 - she has been well raised (LOL) and didn't miss a beat. She politely took up the serving spoon and put a spoonful on her plate and mine. We gushed about the vegetables and made much fuss over the beautiful cucumbers and tomatoes, and carrot and cauliflower they had bought for us. With the very little money they had. And we bravely both tasted. No one was overtly looking at us, and yet EVERY SINGLE PERSON at the table watched.
Credit again to Miss 14, who launched in bravely and took a bite. "A bit like snake meat, no?" she asked, turning to me. "Maybe a cross between snake, fish and chicken?"
Much nodding, laughing, and eating followed. They ate only the rice and lizard curry. We ate 90% vegetables and rice but both bravely managed a second spoonful of the curry. Actually, if you could turn your brain off from the google pic and don't mind a lot of small bones, it was good.
After lunch I chatted with our host about what indigenous Karen people generally eat. Since the United Nations have cut off Food Aid to the Karen people (rice, salt and cooking oil), rice is in very short supply for many people in the community who are not allowed to work in Thailand. They supplement with some steamed yam, if they can get it to grow in the very poor soil. Across the valley, Big Corporate Polluters offer free GMO seed corn, chemical fertilizers and pesticides to Thai land owners - use now, pay at the end when we buy all your crop for an appallingly low price.
And so the Karen people can't afford grains much, and have no land or water supply for vegetables. In the dry season they live off whatever they can hunt from the jungle: barking deer, snake, lizards, birds and squirrels. In the wet season they have frogs, mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Supplemented by scavenged greens, rice and chili paste, when they have actual money for rice,
On the long drive back to Chiang Mai the following afternoon, my daughter and I chatted about the urban myth that poor people live on rice and beans. You actually need safety from armed conflict, steady water supply and land for both of those. We decided that vegan is really a first world luxury for people who don't have to worry about no water supply for 5 months; and who have never worried about a landmine or risked criminal charges for trying to grow food inside a national park boundary.
Can't say that I'd queue up for water monitor lizard curry again anytime soon, but was SO HONOURED that these kind, humble people shared with us the best that they had.
I had two distinct thoughts running through my head as I wove my way back down the challenging mountain roads to urban Chiang Mai:
(1) that Thai monks are forbidden to refuse any food offered to them in their daily alms rounds, so the luxury of choosing vegetarian or vegan is completely outside their thinking; they must share and accept all food generously offered to them, whatever it is. and (2) that line from early childhood Christian days, "For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make is truly thankful."
Grateful, learning and growing in my Thai natural world.
Disclaimer: My daughter and I are what I think of as flexitarian: we eat 90%+ plant based at home, and eat meat and animal products sparingly. I believe plants are more conscious and evolved beings than animals, and so I have as much of a problem with a chemically produced carrot, toxic GMO tofu or a crudely harvested fungicided potato as I do with fresh, natural, baked fish on my dinner plate. Living in the flow of life and appreciating the natural cycles of which we, too, are a part.
The civil war between the Burmese military and the various indigenous ethnic minority groups along Burma's borders continues. 64 years and counting.
