Community in Context
During my last semester at university, I almost took a class taught by Dr. Melody Porter called ‘Community in Context’ with my roommate Maab. The course examined communities in their many forms and we were supposed to learn as a class community, what the needed factors are to build community. Ultimately, I was unable to take the class due to other commitments, but occasionally Maab and I would read together and discuss her homework.
The first reading assignment for the class was the introduction of The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods by John McKnight and Peter Block. The passage highlighted the “elements of satisfaction” and almost all of the elements were rooted in reinforcing the autonomy and inherent power of the community. When people band together and take responsibility for their food, environment, and the care/development of others, the possibilities are endless (McKnight & Block 3). Any single individuals gifts are multiplied tenfold.
The community here at Mae La Noi Daroonsik Schools has amazed me more and more with each passing day. Everything is a community effort. At the school, all students participate in projects designed to help the campus function. Each project is run by a teacher and all students are expected to participate.
The projects are as follows:
The Feeding Frog Project
The Biogas Project
The Feeding Mushroom Project
The Clean Water Project
The Home Grown Vegetables Project
The Feeding Mushrooms Project
The Feeding Pig Project
On a day to day basis students and teachers are “creat[ing] a culture made by their own vision...a handmade, homemade vision” (McKnight & Block, 1). The students and teachers grow produce together, recycle water bottles and sanitize water through a UV light purification system, care for the pigs and chickens that will one day make their way to the canteen for the school’s consumption, and wake up early to sweep leaves and debris from the sidewalks. They take pride in Mae La Noi and they take pride in each other.
Mae La Noi is not small by any means. With 1,000 students that come from either the local town or the four surrounding hill tribes, the school is also not homogeneous by any means. Still, it feels small and Mae La Noi undoubtedly feels like home. I have more respect and admiration for this community than I could ever put into words.
I am grateful to be here and learn from them in every given context.