Panya is nothing without its people. The Panya Project has a constant influx of course participants and volunteers that make the place so wonderful and special, but it also has its core long-term residents and interns that make up the heart and soul of the community, not to mention keeping the place running smoothly and co-teaching most of the courses. So, meet the Panya Crew:
Laura Cox, Volunteer Coordinator
Laura coordinates the activities of all students and short and long term volunteers that come to Panya. She is also responsible for Panya’s website and online presence. She leads yoga sessions most mornings and is a real people person. Originally from Canada, she first attended a Natural Building Internship at Panya to help us build our new Sala in February 2013. She fell in love with our project and has since returned to complete the two week PDC and stayed for six months as intern in 2015. As an unschooler Laura has always lived outside the traditional system and is keen to talk about her direct experience of alternative education systems and share her knowledge and skills. She loves community living, learning, natural building, writing, creating, yoga, and welcoming people to Panya. Laura’s intention is to help create an inspiring experience for all volunteers and students joining our project.
To learn more about how you can get involved in this transformational community, contact Laura via the panya email. panyaproject@gmail.com
Ben Murray, Garden Manager
Ben is a Permaculture designer, consultant and teacher with a background in organic and biodynamic gardening / agriculture, natural building, horticulture & landscape architecture. Ben has been actively practicing and teaching permaculture for the last 5 years in England, Thailand and India. He loves community living, natural building and is most often to be found with his hands in the earth working in the plant realm. Ben is passionate about applying permaculture design to every element of life and believes in being the change we wish to see in the world.
Kae Sodtamna, Long-term Caretaker
Kae (aka Gae) is the long-term caretaker at Panya, having lived here with her daughter Ping since the project started some seven years ago. Originally from Kanchanaburi, Kae worked for some time in Bangkok before finding her way to Pun Pun (our neighboring community) seeking a more balanced life away from the hectic pace of life in the city. When Panya was founded, Kae decided to move to Panya and help start the project and has been here ever since. Kae and Ping are two of our three longterm Thai residents here at Panya, so Kae does a lot of work serving as an intermediary between the local Thai community and the ‘farangs’. She is a big animal lover and can be often found mingling with the chickens and ducks in the food forest or playing with her cats. And she is a great cook too!
