Summer 2005

Amee Patel (Political Science, '06)

I spent part of my summer backpacking through and doing research in Cambodia, Viet Nam, Lao PDR and Thailand. It was a whirlwind trip where I somehow traveled the four countries into five weeks, all by myself. Despite the exhaustion of flights, overnight trains, and buses (which are not a great idea during the rainy season), the experience revealed a vibrant region with a fascinating culture, an all too often tragic history and a future which remains to be decided. And my research was honestly one of the best parts of the trip. I looked into gender mainstreaming policies in each nation’s agricultural extension services, focusing on both the restructuring of government programs as well as on the prominent services provided by NGOs and international donor agencies. The topic sounds technical, and I discovered that it definitely is. But underlying the technicalities is the overlap of social, political and economic development that makes improving rural livelihoods such a complicated and important field. I spoke with government officials in ministries of agriculture, male and female farmers, agricultural economists, entomologists, agronomists, professors, leaders of national women’s unions, intrepid journalists reporting on rural conditions in countries where free press is not a given, and, most rewardingly, a group of women farmers in a rural Cambodian village who train themselves and their husbands in innovative farming methods they learned from a local NGO. From local development organizations and think tanks to the Asian Development Bank and Food and Agricultural Organization, it was fascinating to see how different organizations address rural development and gender issues. Aside from the research, traveling the countries really provided an education of their own. From hiking to remote ethnic minority villages in northern Vietnam, to exploring the amazing ruins of the Angkor Empire in Cambodia, learning about the daily life of Buddhist monks in Laos and taking cooking classes in Thailand, I got somewhat of a broader context of the region… and met many interesting people along the way.

The picture above shows some members of a woman's group in Cambodia, and the picture below shows me shooting an AK-47 in Vietnam!