Rick Burnette, UHDP Director, explains upland agriculture.

My Return to the Thailand UHDP: From February 22 to March 10th, I traveled to Thailand, the beautiful country where I had spent two years teaching English from 1990-1992. I spent the first week doing volunteer work and visiting with old friends at the Thailand Upland Holistic Development Project http://www.uhdp.org/, a community based, agricultural and educational extension project aimed at improving the quality of life of Thailand’s Palaung hilltribe. This marks my fifth visit to Thailand and my third visit to the UHDP in the last six years. On previous visits and this one as well, I recruited Thai friends from Bangkok to serve as translators for American doctors and other volunteers from Atlanta, Georgia who travel to Thailand bi-ennially to do medical clinics in Palaung villages. Working with the UHDP over these many years, I have especially enjoyed getting to know Rick Burnette, the UHDP's director, who grew up in Franklin NC, not far from my hometown of Elberton GA.