Young woman puts vision into practice by Betty Cotton
in the Saturday, August 21, 1999 Chronicle-Journal, Thunder Bay, Ontario.
"Enough food is produced in the world to feed everybody, we are told, but missions to end malnutrition and famine are only words unless individuals commit themselves to stewardship, conservation and sharing the earth's resources.
Many individuals committed to that vision work through international organizations for world development, one of them is CUSO, started in 1961 involving university students, and now funded principally by CIDA, Canadian International Development Aid.
Melody Allaire is on her way next month to Northern Thailand, among the next wave of volunteers, health care workers, teachers and co-operative organizers for CUSO.
Her background is in agriculture and the environment and her two-year contract identifies her as an Agricultural Extension Officer.
Her venture into a previously unknown culture began with what she describes as her epiphany -- direct or mystical intuition -- that came to her while working in a bicycle shop in British Columbia. But its roots are int he value she places on the earth's resources and the paths followed since graduating from Trent University with degrees in environmental studies, policies and laws.
After experiencing hands-on land and forest management, working on a series of Canadian organic farms, she decided she wanted to do more with her life and began looking for other opportunities in human development. Among the resources was information about CUSO, with its philosophy of people as the world's greatest resource, grassroots projects and mantra. "It's a world, let's help shape it." Melody's response was "I can do that!!"
The small village in the most northtern tip of Thailand is a totally different culture. In a mountainous region close to the border of Burma, the Hill Tribes speak eight or nine different dialects, there are no amenities, electricity, water and the people have never been assimilated, she says. The Thailand government is now attempting to stifle the narcotics trade, on which the tribal people up to now have depended upon as a livelihood.
As in other development projects where indigenous people have no alternative source of income, not every experiment for change is successful. Farmers balk against growing other grains, vegetables, fruit and a change in attitude is neede to decrease the lucrative drug marketing. How to encourage soil improvement with another beneficial crop, without criticism is a serious concern; any criticism, even constructive, is seen as a threat.
Melody has already taken on some of the more deferent boddy language of a rigid hierarchal society. As in a mainly Buddhist environment where the head is sacred, the feet most abominable, she ducks in passing her short mother, Shawn, sits on the floor with feet tucked under, for this interview. Of an eager, inquiring nature, she virtually soaks up information about her posting but says she knows there will be lonely times in her small A-frame house in a hill village with the nearest big town Chiang Mai with a university, a long, hilly motorbike ride away.
However, weekends, a week's holiday and CUSO supporting systems over the two-year commitment give her time to recreate her own self.
Preparation since January has been a two-month language course, another on cultural understanding, lots of studying and more briefing before her departure in the middle of September. In Thailand, she will meet with other workers, have some orientation time in a village, then off to her posting, perhaps on a motorcycle, her mode of travel there other than walking.
An impressive informative photographer and recorder, this new venture far exceeds the boring "been there, done that, got the t-shirt" norm of the day and Melody can be expected to share this view of another part of our world. Stewardship of the earth's resources seems embodied in a CUSO worker's mantra which Melody quotes, "Pack light and enjoy the ride". |
"Young woman puts vision into practice" Saturday, August 21, 1999 
To pictures
Melody's mailing address as of December 1, 1999: