T6 Youth Camp trip to Thailand - Shayla's Experience!

Earlier this spring, NNDDC sponsored Taiya Melancon and Shayla Olsen on a youth trip to Thailand! Read about Shayla's experience in their own words below...

Taiya & I travelled to a small remote indigenous village - Mae Ning Nai, up in the mountains 5 hours outside of Chiang Mai; where we stayed for 5 days with the most lovely host family to attend the first ever Arramat T6 International Indigenous Youth Camp. The locals were so warm, welcoming & the most generous people you’ll ever meet. They were so happy to have us visit & show us their sustainable way of life. We learned a lot about rotational farming, harvesting/processing tea, harvesting honey from bees, local trees/plants they use for food, natural dyes & so much more. Enjoy just a tidbit of our week.

It’s amazing to see how the entire community comes together and works as a team to make their everyday lives a smooth routine. All the men, women, and even the children have their own role in the community.

The first full day (day two) in the village, we were taken to their farming area (where they use rotational farming) and learned how they plant rice along all the hills and hillsides. Rotational farming is an agricultural practice where different crops are planted in a planned sequence on the same land over a series of growing seasons, to ensure that throughout the years, there will always be an area to harvest, areas that are growing and areas they can keep planting to continue the cycle.

The third day, we were taken to a forested area by the village where they have bee hives (they are everywhere around the village), to see how they harvest honey. They used dried coconut husks and lit them on fire to smoke the bees and calm them down so they could retrieve the honey. It was pure and delicious! They use this as one of their products they sell to create income for the community.

After harvesting honey, we were taken for a hike through their “Womens Forest” where an abundance of different trees, plants grow. They use different trees and plants for medicinal uses, bark of different trees to use as natural dyes in various colours, which they then use for fabrics and weaving, and cooking. When we returned back to the church we got to see the dyes they use and dye our own pieces of fabric to see the colours.

Later on we had a cultural night, where we all cooked different traditional dishes from our cultures and shared at dinner time. It was so cool to see and watch everyone preparing and cooking a variety of different foods, and trying the flavors of everything! Taiya and I made bannock because it was impossible to cook up some moose in Thailand. It was a challenge without the proper ingredients and cooking tools, but we had nothing but good feedback about it.

On day four, we drove even higher up the mountains for about an hour from the village to the “1000 Year Tea Forest” where we learned about the tea leaves they harvest from these trees and spent some time collecting tea leaves. When we returned to the village, locals showed us how they process the tea leaves, dry them. They also use this as a way of income for the community. We drank a lot of tea during this week - the flavor reminded me of Red Rose tea.

In the evening, each country and region did presentations about our home, our culture, traditions and community. Everyone came from such different backgrounds, places in the world, but at the end of the day we all face similar challenges, and have the same sense of willingness for our communities and futures for the next generations to come.

Overall, this was an incredible experience that Taiya and I were lucky enough to attend. The first couple days were difficult with the time difference, culture shock, language barriers but it became easier and I have a huge appreciation for the locals and the Mae Ning Nai village for being so generous and welcoming. They live such a simple but rewarding, happy life. It was definitely bittersweet when the camp was over and we all had to say goodbye to our host families. 

I want to say a huge thank you to NNDDC for supporting us so we were able to fly to Chiang Mai, Thailand to attend this youth camp. We hope to see some other youth become interested in attending in the future! I think it’s so important to explore different parts of the world and indulge in their cultures, it’s something you won’t forget.