About Ms. Wang
By Hsiao, Yueh-Min ─2018 Summer
At this small town, Maesalong, the facilities we have seen are not advanced enough when they compared to big cities. There are still some people working hard for the local affairs. The job of the engineering department is to make Maesalong be a better place to live and Ms. Wang is one of the important member in engineering department.
Ms. Wang is a native resident in Maesalong. From her appearance, we can not tell she is almost 50 years old NOW. Growing in the dynasty after wars, Ms. Wang worked part time at a small hotel in her childhood. With the experience of operating a hotel, this is the first time Ms. Wang owned her hotel. After that, she started to operate a tea shop and this shop is where I met Ms. Wang! She was also elected to be vice team leader at that time. There are 13 teams in Maesalong which are the local administrative organizations. Then Ms. Wang started to learn but she didn’t go to school. She chose to study by herself and successfully enrolled a college in Chiangrai. However, she had only studied in college for one year and she dropped out of school. Because Mr. Wang knew staying in Chiangrai was not what she desired and she loved her hometown, she went back to Maesalong. At that time, a scandal happened and the new team leader was poisoned so Ms. Wang started to join the local organization called “women association”.
↑Ms. Wang with her friends from women association
This post office is where I met Ms. Wang. The Thai government sponsored ฿200,000 and some farmers raised lots of money to build this building. This post office is also the office of the women association. There are many local crafts selling in the office including the tea leaf pillows, local costumes and some fabrics. Once the women association has some meetings the post office will turn into the meeting room.
↑Women association’s ad in Ms. Wang’s tea shop
When it comes to the women association, we should know that there are two parties in Maesalong. One is the women association and the other is Yun-feng-chai. They are both local dancing organizations. Long time ago, they are in harmony with each other. However, in one election, they became competitors until now. While Ms. Wang don’t mind the gap between the two parties, she think they are both great and worth attending.
↑The post office will turn into BBQ stand
I wondered that whether some changes happened during these years in the perspective of a native resident so I talked about this with Ms. Wang.
↑The view from the post office
She said there had been some basis constructions in early Maesalong. Like tap water was common at that time and electricity was generated by generators. But the electricity was limited used, only in the specific time people would have no electricity. Being the member of the engineering department, Ms. Wang’s job is to maintain the local facilities in Maesalong. Sometimes, she has to join the meeting in Chiangrai.
Many years ago, television is not popular as now each family has television and the most common vehicle is motorcycle while a few roads were still muddy. Nowadays, almost the each family has tap water which is from the mountains. In the purpose of safety, the locals will call the drinking water for daily use. And the electricity is cheap even using under 50 degrees is FREE.
↑Ms. Wang and her co workers from the engineering department
Maesalong now is a very good place to travel, and December to January is the dry season which is the most suitable time for traveling. Main tourists are from Japan, Korea, American and Thailand. Some Chinese will come to Maesalong for visiting traditional Chinese culture. Now, the population in Maesalong is more and more and some people living outside will come home for voting.
↑The voting
Ms. Wang’s love for her hometown makes her to stay here and service for the locals. This is what I’ve learned from Ms. Wang!
