The University of Maryland chapter of Engineers Without Borders sent (from left to right) faculty advisor Deborah Goodings, David Kerske, Michael Bronson, Amanda Gassman, S. Xiah Kragie, and Michelle Neukirchen to northern Thailand from June 23 to July 1 for the chapter’s first EWB project.

In the mountains of northern Thailand live several distinct groups of hilltribes who have migrated from the Tibetan plateau, each with their own language and culture. Samli is a Lisu village in Northern Thailand, two hours north of Chiang Mai near the Burmese border. The 160 residents are part of the 900,000 Lisus that extend into Burma and southern China, and who typically have not held citizenship in any country. In the past, this tribe’s livelihood was based on production and sale of opium. Thailand has moved to eliminate its opium production, and has invested in integrating these tribes into Thai society through the extension of citizenship recognition, education, and other social services to their communities. The village of Samli houses an elected chief for the village cluster which actually encompasses about 40 families at roughly 30 people per family (thus over a 1000 people).

Our project was to build a health clinic to serve the village cluster and beyond. Prior to the clinic, villagers had to travel great distances to the nearest doctor or health center. In the past, occasionally visiting doctors would see 150 patients a day to attempt to meet the staggering need. The new center is built to handle the estimated 60 visitors a day from surrounding villages. It is complete with a resident doctor’s bedroom and living quarters, an inpatient’s room, an emergency room, a waiting area, a small laboratory, and a pharmacy. The project was conceived and proposed by NGO Johnny Morse, resident in Chiang Mai (Thailand), and developed overall by Dr. Richard Herring of EWB – USA. Our efforts were coordinated on site by Jason Priebe, an aerospace engineer, and Dan deVito, a multi-talented craftsman, both from Colorado.

Four chapters worked on the project: Columbia University’s Student EWB Chapter, the West Coast Professional EWB Chapter, the University of California Los Angeles’ Student EWB Chapter, and the University of Maryland College Park’s Student EWB Chapter. As a young enthusiastic chapter, we joined the project later in the process. The wastewater treatment system was to be our unique design contribution, while generally lending technical and physical assistance on the ground.

The Columbia University chapter completed the first stage of work, including the framing, roofing, and siding on the building. They were delayed by a late foundation pouring and were forced to leave the project slightly behind schedule. An independently hired local concrete group built the outdoor public toilet facilities and laid the tile floor, a critical element in a Thai building. Left for us was the electrical system, the plumbing, the septic system, the interior walls, the ceiling, and the finishing work. We got to work immediately, and, a day later, the UCLA team joined us for our week.

We worked steadily and hard for one week, taking Sunday off at the request of the village chief. All the student chapters learned that a key to working in developing countries is adaptability in design and execution to fit with local building practices, with community needs and with community cultural expectations. For example, a concrete floor in the indoor toilet facilities was removed and repoured at a lower elevation to permit water to be contained and to drain from the floor within the bathroom. Another design change was requested in the doctor’s living quarters. The original design was an open plan to permit maximum air circulation, but Thais expect bedrooms to be entirely closed off. This required adding an extra 40 feet of interior walls and a day’s work for 4 of our team members. We attempted to make up the time by working evenings after the ceiling and lights had been installed.

While everyone worked on a variety of tasks around the clinic, we did specialize in our contributions. Amanda and David were primarily responsible for wiring and installing the lights. They also framed the new wall that resulted from a major design change. Xiah and Michelle proposed a design change in the sanitation system that involved consolidation of the two septic tanks and leach fields planned, into one. This was approved. Michael led a ceiling and wall plywood hanging team. The work was demanding. We are proud to report that we finished beyond our projected contribution.

A key element of EWB projects is that the served community must participate in the work effort. While several very skilled Thai workmen worked with us, often teaching us practical skills, and usually in the absence of a common language, the Lisu villagers were also major contributors. They undertook most of the sanitation system excavation by hand, working with hoes, shovels, and baskets to create trenches to lay pipe and a 14 foot deep hole to holding the 4000 liter septic tank. Both men and women worked, and while there was no distinction in the nature of the work they did. They came in flip-flops and in their traditional dress to work. They were impressive in their efforts and amused and engaged with our contributions. At times we would find them watching from doorways and windows, giving encouraging smiles and appreciative glimpses. Our common language became gestures, and facial expressions, sprinkled with our sparse Lisu and Thai vocabulary, but enriched by our common purpose.

While most of the villagers are very poor by western standards, the village chief lived in a large wooden house. The women in the work crew slept on mats on the floor of the main living area, while the men slept in a neighboring, more typical, Lisu house. Plumbing was entirely outside, and our bathing facility was a bamboo enclosure with a barrel of water, with living bamboo arching over the open top and the moon for our evening light. Our food was ample and delicious Lisu cuisine. This meant local fruit – mangoes, lychees, pineapple, bananas, and rambutan – lots of mountain rice, a thousand eggs, Morning Glory vines, corn, a little pork, chili sauces, and a host of other ingredients we did not recognize. Their welcome was shy at first, but always genuine.

All the members of the group did some other traveling in Thailand, and, for one, in Vietnam. This included trekking; having a Buddhist “monk chat” in Chiang Mai; visiting night markets in Chiang Mai and in Bangkok; staying in Ko Phi Phi, where the film “The Beach” was filmed; seeing parasols made by hand; visiting Wats; sampling delicious and often unidentifiable street vendor food; and becoming ever more skilled in bartering for everything.

Thailand is a developing country that is considered a success. It sees the expansion of social infrastructure as the key to its future. We anticipate the continued benefit and service that this clinic will provide for the surrounding communities. This first project for our chapter has created an appreciation of what is needed for that success and we look forward to applying our new experience to future projects.

View the Thailand Photo Album for more pictures of the trip and project.