Rock Climbing and Fish Wrangling

The last couple weeks have been busy ones for students. On top of taking Thai classes in the morning, students are engaged in learning about Thai society, Thai social structure, marginalization in Southeast Asia, Ecology, and the role of NGOs in Thai society. Every Friday, students take a break from their studies to participate in activities off of the ISDSI campus. These events allow students to get out in the field and start to understand what experiential learning really means in the ISDSI framework.

On Friday September 7, ISDSI joined Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures on a trip out to Crazy Horse Buttress, about 45 minutes drive North of Chiang Mai. There, students had the opportunity to delve deeper into the geology of Thailand, while walking around and climbing in limestone caves carved millions of years ago by oceanic forces.

After playing some icebreaker games, students were split into three groups and moved through three sections of the day’s program. Throughout the day, students managed to hike through giant limestone caves, learning about cave, stalactite, and stalagmite formation first hand. Everyone also crossed the tyrolean traverse 50 meters above the cave floor below, eventually repelling all the way down to the bottom of the cave. There, students had the opportunity to climb one of several routes CMRCA had set up for ISDSI.

At the end of the trip, everyone had managed to meet their goals for the day, having a great time bonding with new friends and becoming acquainted with one of the many outdoor adventure opportunities in Northern Thailand.

The next week featured a trip to Ajaan Randy’s Fish Farm, the Chiang Mai Development Farm — a local NGO focused on the development and sale of Nile Tilapia to community members participating in aquaculture. For several years, Ajaan Randy has allowed ISDSI students to come to his farm to gain first hand experience working in sustainable aquaculture. Students got down and dirty, climbing into the fish ponds to set up hatchery nets, along with handling live Tilapia in order to extract eggs for the production of more fish fry. After a busy morning in the ponds, everyone joined together for a delicious, and locally-sourced meal of fried Tilapia.

After lunch, students relaxed while Ajaan Randy presented about aquaculture and projects the Chiang Mai Development Farm was currently involved in. Students were allowed time to ask questions and gain an understanding of what running an NGO in Thailand was like, and what sorts of challenges such a job would entail. Then it was back to work in the ponds for another hour before the students returned to ISDSI, satisfied with a day of experiential learning.