Good post by Stephan Guyenet from Whole Health Source, Dr. Kevin Patterson on Western Diets and Health, about a Canadian physician Kevin Patterson who writes about the diseases of civilization and the transition from a traditional diet among native peoples of Canada to a more “modern” one — full of processed foods and cheap calories.

He discusses the “epidemiological transition”, the idea that cultures experience predictable changes in their health as they go from hunter-gatherer, to agricultural, to industrial. I think he has an uncommonly good perspective on the effects of industrialization on human health, which tends to be true of people who have witnessed the effects of the industrial diet and lifestyle on diverse cultures.

Jump over for more.  Reading through that brought be to an article written by Kevin Patterson Diseases of Affluence. In it he discusses his experience as a doctor in Afghanistan, and the lives of traditional Polynesian and arctic peoples.

Around the world, as traditional peoples and societies have been absorbed into the global monoculture, the prevalence of diabetes has exploded. Since 2001, premature death from obesity has exceeded death from malnutrition. The milestone was reached at almost the same time as another: for the first time in history, the number of urbanites exceeds the number of rural dwellers. Canada is an example. For all its magnificent and extensive wilderness, 87 percent of the population lives in a community with at least ten thousand neighbours. Afghans are at the other end: less than 12 percent live in cities. No lattes, no internet, no phone, no pool. And no XXXL elastic stretch pants. After wealth and death rates, the biggest difference between Afghanistan and Canada—and the hallmark of the world’s creeping homogeneity—is urbanization.

An excellent discussion of the key issues facing all of us who have already made the transition, and what we consider “normal” parts of daily life and aging.

(Cross posted with CrossFit Chiang Mai)

This week we’re running a Wilderness First Responder (WFR) recert course and a Wilderness First Aid course with the great folks at WMI/NOLS.

When 9-1-1 is not an option, the rules change … plain and simple! For almost two decades the Wilderness Medicine Institute has defined the standards in wilderness medicine training. We offer a wide range of course and certification opportunities tailored to meet your needs.

Because of our commitment to excellent risk management and the highest standards of care for our students, we run our course with instructors who are WFR or WFA certified by WMI/NOLS.  The rules certainly change in the backcountry, and even more so in the backcountry of a developing country like Thailand.

As educators it is always great to be taught by the great teachers from WMI/NOLS, and over the years we’ve been impressed with their depth of knowledge, ease of communicating difficult material, and fun and engaging ways of teaching sometimes difficult material.  So thanks to Shaun Quinn for his marathon solo teaching effort over three long days!

Here are a few photos from the course.  Jump to our WFR course page for description of and a video of our last full (10 day) WFR course.

Today was our first workout with the spring semester students.

Given the demands of adapting to Thailand’s climate, as well as the demands of the courses we do (backpacking, skin diving, sea kayaking), being in reasonable shape is important.  We’ve found that fitness leads directly to better academic performance — if you’re tired while hiking through the forest, it is hard to learn about forest ecology.

With the focus on functional (real world) movement and constant variance, CrossFit has proven to be perfectly suited to our needs for both staff and students.

With its emphasis on having a healthy life, good nutrition and eating real food (The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a favorite book for CrossFit), it also fits well with ISDSI’s focus on sustainability. This last year ISDSI established the first official CrossFit affiliate in Thailand (CrossFit Chiang Mai). ISDSI is a project of the Foundation for Experiential Learning, and CrossFit also gives us and our students lots of opportunities for that — learning key leadership skills, self discipline, teamwork, and other aspects of what it takes to be successful on expeditions.

It is also a lot of fun, and today was the first day of CrossFit for the spring students and they did great!  Well done! Jump over to cfcnx.com for more photos and posts of our daily workouts together.

No, it isn’t just laying around the Institute drinking herbal tea and reading poetry…

This last month as been PACKED at ISDSI.

The students finished up their course on sustainable food systems and agroecology, and are now mid-course on the political ecology of forests course.  Currently both groups are up in the mountains of Mae Hong Son Province, living with and learning from the Karen villagers.

For the instructors, they’ve been all over the world.

Last month Ajaan Laura and Ajaan Abram went to India to present and participate in a conference / workshop on sustainable agriculture and sustainable development with ECHO Asia, including local and international grassroots NGO partners.

Then, Mark and Ben went to the US to present workshops at two conferences, one at the AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) in Denver, and the Wilderness Risk Management Conference in Colorado Springs.  At the AASHE Conference they taught a workshop on Experiential Learning and Sustainability (read more about it here) and at the WRMC they taught a workshop on International Risk Management (learn more here).  Great conferences, good visits with alumni, faculty, and prospective students.  Even with meetings every single day (including the days we flew in and out!) we managed to sneak in a couple of brief hikes up into the mountains, so it was a great trip.

Snow on the mountains in October? We must not be in Chiang Mai...

Ben barely arrived back in Chiang Mai before going down south with Pi Am and Pi Pui to check the logistics for our Oceans course that starts in a month.  We’re combining the best of the former Islands and Coastal courses (hence “Oceans”), and we need to check in with the village homestays, and confirm the logistics for the islands section of the course. Moving 30+ students, instructors, sea kayaks, and all the associated gear (snorkels, fins, tents, etc.) around Southern Thailand by train, truck and boat can be complex!

Ben, Pui and Am flew back the Chiang Mai, paused for about a day, and picked up Aaron and Ajaan Abram and left for Laos!  They are there now, and are setting up an incredible addition to the Spring Semester course on Rivers.  Rivers and trans-boundary issues are critical to resource management and sustainability in Southeast Asia, and we are now, after several years of planning, able to make the Mekong River a bigger component of the course.

They get back, and next week Ben and Mark fly to Sydney Australia for 4 days of training (see cfcnx.com to learn what we’re up to)… and get back in time to greet the students for the set up and start of Oceans!

Fun!

We will be presenting both a workshop and a paper at the upcoming AASHE conference in Denver, October 10-12!

AASHE is the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.  ISDSI has been involved with AASHE since it was started, and we have attended and presented at previous conferences. The conferences are a great place to meet like-minded people involved in sustainability education, and the sessions, workshops, and speakers are great.

This year we will be doing a workshop on how to create the sorts of  experiential courses focused on sustainability issues that ISDSI is known for.  We realize that not everyone who wants to come on an ISDSI study abroad semester can, and that the lessons we’ve learned here in Thailand can translate back to campus and off-campus courses in the US.

So we’re starting a new initiative — beginning with this conference — to make our approach to education and course design available to other teachers, professors and instructors who are interested in doing more than being in a classroom teaching about sustainability.

Here are the abstracts for the workshop and paper session:

Experiential Learning and Sustainability Education

Universities and colleges have the potential to address sustainability and social justice in unique and powerful ways. However, effective teaching about sustainability and the links between culture (how we live) and ecology (where we live) can be challenging confined to the lecture hall or seminar room. Courses at the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute are a blend of seminars and experiential field-based study, working with communities to teach American students about local cultures and ecosystems.

Workshop:

This hands-on workshop will use case studies from over 10 years of teaching American undergraduate students on study-abroad in Thailand to outline key principles for effective teaching in partnership with local communities. Participants should come prepared to brainstorm together on how to transform their existing courses or develop new ones. From risk management to logistics to effective participatory community meetings, this workshop is designed to give participants concrete goals and ideas for addressing social justice, leadership and sustainability in their courses in the United States and abroad. From primarily campus-based courses to fully field-based courses, the principles of community-based sustainability courses can be transformative and empowering for the students, professors, their campus and local communities as well.

Paper:

This paper will present key lessons learned in over 10 years of teaching American undergraduate students on study-abroad in Thailand, and outline key principles for effective teaching in partnership with local communities.  This type of education is powerfully transformative — empowering local communities, building social capacity, and teaching students practical skills of leadership and collaboration.

Our web page supporting the conference is here.

Hope to see you in Denver!

New things are happening at ISDSI.

Good things!

Check it out here.

Students hiking in Mae Hong Son province.

Risk management is an important part of any good program, especially those that are running in an international/developing country setting, and those who are working in wilderness/experiential education.  At ISDSI we have been students of risk management since the beginning, and feel that it is an important component to both our overall program, and part of what we teach our students.

One of the best places to learn about risk management is at the annual Wilderness Risk Management Conference, but on by NOLS, Outward Bound and SCA.  Their focus is “Practical Solutions for Challenging Issues.”  We’ve  attended the WRMC a couple of times, and have published a paper in the WRMC 2004 proceedings, “The Objective Hazards of Culture: Risk Management in an International Setting.”

ISDSI (Ajaan Mark and Pi Ben) will presenting a workshop at the 2010 WRMC at Colorado Springs: “Crossing the Border Matters: Practical Risk Management in Developing Countries.”  Here is the description:

International wilderness trips are growing in popularity, especially to “non-traditional” settings in developing countries. However, even experienced wilderness leaders and risk managers may be caught unprepared by differences in legal systems, cultural expectations, and a sometimes radically changed risk management terrain. This practical hands-on session will examine in detail key issues and concerns for working in developing countries, appropriate for trip leaders, risk managers and expedition members.

We’ve put together a web page for folks attending the workshop, and will use the page to collect ISDSI specific information on risk management.  This won’t be a comprehensive list of papers on risk management (that’s even hard if you’re doing a google search), but rather supporting documentation and specific information related to the WRMC workshop and how we approach risk management at ISDSI.

Jump over to the new Risk Management page to see what we’re starting…

Pi Kat, businesswoman, climber and occasional ISDSI Field Instructor, climbing at Crazy Horse. (Photo credit: Josh and Dan Morris)

A core part of what we do at ISDSI is to teach students about teamwork, leadership, and decision making. We believe that part of creating a more sustainable world is equipping students with practical skills in how to work and lead, so that their passion for sustainability can be transformed into action.

A great way to combine these lessons is through the challenge of rock climbing. We are fortunate to be near a world-class climbing destination, and have helped a bit over the years to develop Crazy Horse, from crag clean-ups to trail building to some initial meetings with local officals. Crazy Horse is a community effort spearheaded by the folks at Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures.  Each semester, ISDSI students go out to Crazy Horse to climb and have an amazing time. Josh Morris and Khaetthaleeya Uppakham (Pi Kat) have done a great job developing the crag into not only a world-class climbing destination, but also an example of how to develop a sustainable ecotourism destination. We’ve worked with both Josh and Kat, and Kat is a field instructor for ISDSI when she has time.

Climbing Magazine has featured them in an article, The Other Thailand, talking not just about the climbing, but also the history and unique development of Crazy Horse.

Leave behind Thailand’s farang-packed Tonsai, and you’ll discover Crazy Horse, a quiet crag that’s redefining sustainable tourism in Asia…

Crazy Horse Buttress rises above rice paddies 25 miles from the culturally vibrant city Chiang Mai. Named for its principal formation’s striking resemblance to an equine head, Crazy Horse comprises a cluster of 15 quiet cliffs first climbed in 1998 and now boasting 97 single-pitch and 15 multi-pitch routes. Spanning 5.6 to 5.13c, the climbs tackle everything from technical slabs, to overhanging tufas, to multi-chambered, stalactite-dripping caves — not to mention the wealth of untapped rock.

However, the cliff’s true essence lies in the tight-knit community of locals and foreigners who’ve developed it. With an emphasis on social and ecological sustainability, the motley Crazy Horse crew has endeavored to keep this a quality destination for the long haul. In fact, many climbers now hold up Crazy Horse as a case study on how climbing tourism can positively affect a foreign community. Turns out, one of the most important factors is for the locals to come to love climbing, too.

If you’re interested in sustainability, ecotourism and (of course) climbing, jump over and read “The Other Thailand.”

A core part of an ISDSI semester is learning about leadership and judgment.  We use hands-on training as well as the NOLS Leadership Skills to help students develop as competent and capable leaders.

Each semesters starts off with a retreat on the second weekend at the Mok Fa Waterfall, part of the Doi Suthep – Doi Pui National Park.  The weekend is a great time for students and instructors to get to know each other, enjoy some time out in nature, and relax.

Mok Fa Waterfall.

We also use the weekend to begin the process of training students in risk management and judgment.  Like any activity, studying on one’s home campus carries with it a set of risks and hazards. Learning and studying abroad has inherent risks associated with it as well, but the risks are different and students don’t have the “street smarts” they would in their home cultures. Because of that we do a number of things during the program, from training sessions to leader-of-the-day, to help students build their ability to make good decisions and lead in a challenging and different environment than their home cultures.

As a part of the weekend, we have modified a leadership tool used by Outward Bound (USA) that they use to train their instructors.  We first learned about how to do this at a workshop “When Judgment Is Crucial: Outward Bound USA’s Instructor Judgment Training” at the Wilderness Risk Management Conference. The basic idea is simple — take a realistic scenario, and then work a group through the options and consequences of decisions.

We start the training session with a discussion of some basic principles of understanding risk, accidents, and how to pull apart a decision to understand its consequences.

Risk, accidents and decision making.

Using these tools allow students to work through the scenario and begin applying a more sophisticated understanding of risk other than a “safe/unsafe” dichotomy.

Notes -- students often end up referring back to these throughout the semester when they are in the position of being leaders-of-the-day.

The students break into groups, and we introduce the scenario — a group of students backpacking through the mountains in Northern Thailand from village to village. This involves understanding objectives hazards of weather and jungle travel, as well as cultural concerns and group dynamics.

Talking over options.

The scenario is very close to the actual Expedition Field Courses they will experience, and is modeled to reflect some of the actual places and people they will meet during the Forests course.

At each point in the scenario where a decision needs to be made, the groups work through what they would do, and then share their decision with the larger group.

Matt sharing his group's thinking on their course of action.

Each group comes up with different solutions to the same set of problems.  Do you stop your group on the trail?  Turn back to the village?

Karen explaining their decision and possible consequences.

The real-life decision modeling is a very powerful way to get students to understand that their decisions have consequences. It is impossible to eliminate all risk and hazards — but it is possible to manage those in a responsible way.

A key thing we learned ourselves on our Wilderness First Responder course.

After the scenario we debrief and reflect on what students have learned — what was surprising, what take away points they want to remember, and how to apply it.

The next day during the retreat we spend the morning putting this into action — first with a “Threats To Life” class on what to do in case of an emergency where someone has gotten hurt, and then with an accident scenario where they work in teams to carry a “patient” out of the jungle with an improvised litter. Aside from being a lot of fun, it brings home how decisions have consequences, and how to be thoughtful and aware in a new culture, environment, and learning context.

———–

For more on our approach, see “The Objective Hazards of Culture” online (as a PDF), as well as other papers on our Publications page.

Also see our Wilderness First Responder page, with explains a bit about our approach and the training required for ISDSI instructors.

We just finished our WFR Course (Wilderness First Responder).  For some of us this was a recertification, but for others the first time to be trained and certified as a WFR. The course was a lot of work, but really excellent.  We had 20 participants and 2 instructors from the Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS, Tyson and John.  10 days (and some nights) of lectures, hands-on practice of skills, and lots and lots of scenarios testing our knoweldge and decision making!

For those who don’t know what a WFR is, it is the sort of training that is required for NOLS and Outward Bound Instructors, rangers doing search and rescue in the wilderness, and others. We require our own instructors to be WFR trained as we work in a lot of remote locations, and medical care can be hours or days away at times. The WFR training is very comprehensive, dealing with broken bones, wounds, medical issues, illnesses, how to care for someone with a possible spine or head injury, etc. The key part that is added (and why it is “Wilderness” First Responder) is how to imporvise with limited resources, and how to care for someone over an extended period of time.  Urban EMTs and paramedics usually have their patients to a hospital in minutes, while WFRs need to be able to care for someone over the hours or days until they can reach a hospital.

Tyson and John were able to put together a curriculum that was not only packed with information, but also fun.  Skits and real-life scenarios helped bring the material to life, and helped all of us remember more.  As a teacher I really appreciated that they were able to take some rather grim topics (massive trauma, etc.), and inject it with appropriate humor and fun to make the students remember the lessons and key points.

More information is on our WFR page (including a video!).  We’re already planning a course in two more years.