The first month of the rainy season has already brought a fair amount of rain to northern Thailand this year. We’re all very thankful for the rain, especially after last year’s drought, which caused a shortage of water and crops all over Thailand. This year, rice planting has started with plenty of water for the seedlings to grow and hopefully give us a big harvest by the end of the year. Other crops are also prospering in the rainy season and we’re looking at a great year for local farmers.
On the downside, the heavy downpours of the rainy season quite commonly cause some flooding each year and we’ve just had a remarkable downpour last night in Mae Wang. While there was some damage at Spicy Villa Eco-Lodges, it was minor and we were able to quickly clear and repair most of it. Over the next days, we’ll be repairing the damage to our community health care lodge.
On the other hand, they weren’t as lucky further down in the valley at the Sop Win village where the floods left a considerable amount of mud and debris as they subsided by the morning. Sop Win village is situated in the valley between Mae Win and Sop Win rivers and as the rivers rose during the night’s downpour, they flooded over the banks and caused considerable damage on both sides. The water swept away nearly all wooden huts that stood close to the river banks and the villagers who lived in these huts had to relocate.
When we heard of the damage in Sop Win village, we decided to give the villagers a hand. We’ve spent the day clearing the river banks, village roads, and houses in the village and although the work was exhausting, at the end of the day our progress is clearly seen. It feels great that we could help the villagers in a small way and we’ll be back to help them in the coming days.
Huge thanks to our amazing volunteers. We wouldn’t be able to do it without them!
