June 27, 2006

In Ranong (about 200 km north of Phang-nga) for a couple of days organizing focus groups. It’s been an exercise in communication. But going well. My hotel is lovely and has a TV that seems to get a variety of channels, some in English. So I get so excited about BBC and CNN, but the only English news is Fox News, which I really don’t ever watch. But I put it on for background news. Do they report on anything besides the “War on Terror?” They were arguing about the press and its facilitation of terror, Iran and how they are now the root cause of all terror in the world, and Southeast Asia and how it will soon become a feared pocket of terror. When it’s not terror, it seems to be heart disease. Which is likely to be exacerbated in the Fox News viewing population by the stress resulting from all this talk of terror.

June 25, 2006

We had our final Phang-nga focus group today at a rubber plantation about an hour from the office. We arrive, say hi to everyone. Sit down in someone’s home, which is made from bamboo and raised off the ground. Kind of like a treehouse. I will now list the day’s events.

1. Not enough people for the focus group- some men take the truck to go pick up others from their homes around the plantation.

2. Those remaining are served Burmese noodles, which are tasty. In addition to the fish /onion sauce, they are served with a giant platter of green beans, cilantro, mint, bean sprouts, fish sauce, chili, and garlic that you can add as you like.

3. Having had some pretty mild chili powder the last time I ate Burmese noodles, I heap chili powder onto my noodles. Everyone is impressed and comments, “We didn’t know Americans ate chili.” I am impressed with myself, breaking down stereotypes and all that.

4. Nice try, tough guy. My mouth is on fire, everyone is watching my every bite, so I compensate by adding tons of green things to my bowl and drinking obscene amounts of water.

5. Maybe all the water wasn’t such a good idea. I ask about the location of the toilet. Everyone giggles then points up the hill, which is apparently the community toilet.

6. Sidenote: I took this Water and Sanitation last semester and the professor began the course by giving us two tidbits of knowledge: 1.) Poop flows downhill. 2.) Don’t eat poop.

7. As I return to the hut, a young boy, who I’d been “chatting” with earlier runs over to me with a dead bat. He waves it in my face. I politely smile. He waves it in the face of the younger children nearby. They scream. He prefers this reaction. He throws the dead bat at another child. Child goes ballistic.

8. Many more people arrive. Instead of focus groups of 6 – 8, it looks like it’ll be 12 – 14. And everyone brought their kids.

9. New arrivals eat. I watch children chase the chickens and the ducks until they catch them and tackle them.

10. Focus groups begin!

11. Our female group is momentarily distracted by barking dogs directly below our hut. There are about 6 dogs mauling each other. Blood is being splattered onto the ground.

12. Howling turns to screeching. Two puppies continue to duke it out.

13. Old man separates two dogs, one continues to whine.

14. Man punts dog about 10 yards across the now bloody yard.

15. About five men, apparently late, roar in on motorbikes and do some wheelies. Hoot, holler, and enter the men’s hut.

16. Man exits men’s hut with slingshot. Tries to shoot at duck. Owners of duck are ticked. So is the duck. It flies onto our roof. Slingshot man returns to his focus group.

17. Men’s focus group moderator falls through the bamboo floor of hut. All women leap up to regard the commotion on the other side.

Can you find the public health problems in the above scenario? At the end of it all, the workers on the plantation had, by far, the least knowledge of HIV / AIDS. Some couldn’t really identify what it was. People living near the water received a lot of NGO attention after the tsunami. The workers on the plantations, as they weren’t affected by the tsunami, haven’t been the focus of any NGOs or funding. The only organizations who’ve tried are small religious groups who require that the recipients go to church. As they are Buddhist, this little arrangement is not always agreeable.

Me at Wat Pho


I left Chiang Mai on Friday evening. We were supposed to take the bus to Bangkok at 7 PM, and then around 2:30, I was informed that we were flying at 5. After a good deal of rushing around and checking of baggage, a couple of colleagues and I made it to the plane (I later discovered that my ipod, which I’d forgotten to move into my carry-on with my other valuable stuff (computer, passport), was stolen from my checked bags… I have the worst luck with checked baggage… I will never go anywhere again without traveler’s insurance). We made it to Bangkok in the evening, but by the time the taxi inched through the traffic, it was almost 9. I stayed in a wonderful guesthouse, across the hall from my friend, Kurt, who studies forced migration with me at Columbia. He’s working in Bangkok for the summer. The weekend was a wonderful break from the confusion and occasional exasperation of being an American working at a Thai NGO. We saw most of the major sites, took all forms of public transportation (including boat taxis… where they’ve posted signs about giving monks space to sit or stand), had foot massages, went to the biggest market (in the world, apparently), and watched a cockfight (definitely the highlight of the weekend). The King’s festivities continued and Bangkok was all jazzed up with lights and signs.


The Reclining Buddha is the largest statue in Thailand... probably the biggest feet, too!




Monks have it made.

People taking photos in front of a giant photo of the king


After the fun in Bangkok, I met back up with my workfolks and we took the overnight bus to Phang-nga, where I will pretty much be staying for the duration (only a few short scheduled trips remaining). Phang-nga has been interesting. It’s been raining buckets, and consistently. Someone described it to me as “Real Thailand.” After being here for a couple of days, it makes sense. There aren’t very many people who live here. There’s one main road, two restaurants, a general store (which has nail polish remover and yogurt), and a place where they wash and dry your clothes. Life is not complicated. It’s also been described to me as isolated and boring, which I can see as well. However, I have so many books to read and so many things to think about, that I don’t think I’ll be overtaken by boredom. Also, there are some fun people next door and across the way. I think the people at the restaurant where I eat dinner (50% of the local dining establishments) feel the need to entertain me. We watch Thai soap operas. They are very moving and dramatic. I make lots of expressive noises and faces to show my surprise, disappointment, and concern for the protagonist.

I went running this morning (to the beach, which is beautiful even in the rain) and was pleased to see cows grazing among palm trees by the ocean. I must say, however, that it is strange to be putzing along and suddenly realize that you’re crossing into the area that was destroyed by the tsunami. You can actually see where the water just tore down huge areas of homes and trees. As I ran, empty pick-up trucks passed by, then later passed again, filled with day labourers. And you just imagine the number of undocumented migrants who were here during the tsunami and didn’t receive any of the support and assistance, nor help in tracing lost family members (as they were undocumented). And yet more are back, in the same spot.

I’ve been reading and editing focus group transcripts for days now. They are quite good. One really interesting part (you get a sneak preview!)- As migrants working in Thailand are talking about returning to Burma (if they’ve had the opportunity… it’s logistically tricky to go back to visit Burma and then return to Thailand), men are saying that they were received as millionaires, since they’ve made a comparatively greater amount of money working in Thailand than they could have in Burma. Women in the exact same position are received much differently. Instead of people being impressed by their wealth, they often scorn them, believing that they are sex workers in Thailand, for how else could they have earned money? Talk about a rock and a hard place.

The bug situation is out of control. There is quite the variety- size, color, shape, and texture. I like some of the neon green and orange grasshopper-type things, but even I am starting to get grossed out by the sheer number of ants, which seem to fall from the ceiling.

Angelina Jolie was on the news tonight (after the soap opera). I couldn’t tell what they were talking about, but in a variety of scenes she was patting a very sickly woman on the back, reading with some orphans, and looking very interested as an older gentleman explained some kind of corn-husking contraption to her. I’m pleased that she cares, but I’m really getting tired of her whole shtick.

On the road again!

After 5 days away from news, I came back to the world falling apart. Crazy violent student protests in Guinea, air strikes in Sri Lanka, and a tourist being randomly stabbed on a subway (one of my subways, nonetheless). Maybe it's better not to be in the know.

We came back from our MAP Staff retreat today (more on that in a moment), tomorrow I have a couple of meetings, then tomorrow night two colleagues and I take off for Bangkok where we will spend a day visiting some domestic workers and some German woman who may also be a domestic worker (this part was linguistically challenging to understand... I think the German woman is not a domestic worker in Bangkok, but it continued to be repeated, so maybe I'm wrong). Then on Sunday night (lots of sleeping on buses), off to Pang-gna where I will be living for the duration of my time here. It's in the south about an hour from Phuket (yeah, yeah, yeah... It's pronounced Poo - ket... San Francisco folks, take note) where the tsunami hit. When I first get to Pang-gna, I will be coordinating a lot of HIV focus group discussions with migrants (as an anglophone, I will be coordinating in the sense that I tell people what time things start, buy snacks, record things, etc.... then analyse the data at the end... that's the "whoo-whoo I've gained a new skill at public health school" fun part of it all. After that's over, things are a bit up in the air. I'm doing some mobilising (note my British way of spelling things... I get a lot of amusing slack for being an American and saying things like "gas" instead of petrol) work around sexual and reproductive health rights. And helping with the new HIV program which has no structure. I keep trying to politely mention that a little structure is a good thing. I think I will be making a lot of flow-charts, as loosey-goosey HIV programs make me nervous, though flow charts are generally stupid as well. There are only 4 staff in the south. Two of the others and I will be living in the same building and are only 3 kilometers from the beach. I see a little triathlon practice in my future. Hurray. On that note, I ran every day of the retreat, which was nice me time. Though me-time is a little frantic when being chased by dogs who are angry because you've stumbled onto their cattle ranch. I also saw elephant tracks and lots of elephant excrement, but no elephants. We were near an elephant farm where the elephants draw pictures and take people's hats off their heads. Some weird tourists passing through the hotel where we were retreating (PS- I have never been anywhere with so many flies. It was disgusting. We took pictures) were telling me about it. I was eating lunch with work people and they interrupted because they got the sense I was American and were wondering how I knew so many Thai people. I now think that Americans should be forced to take classes on appropriate behaviour before they are permitted visas. It's really dreadful. So the retreat- not too unlike a corporate meeting in the states, but with a lot less bells and whistles. Nice little resort (except for the flies... if you left your plate for 5 seconds it would be covered with 50 plus flies). We slept in rooms of about 10 people each. A long room with mattresses. Bathroom time in the morning was something else. It was a whole lot of languages and there were only two of us who needed english translation, but it worked out. It was really nice to get a sense of the organisation, the history, and what people are working on. We culminated last night with a party which I thought would be silly, but was a whole lot of fun. There was karaoke and dancing (of the wedding variety: more than the beer in one hand, at a bar bob / shake, but not at all refined- lots of uncontrolled, flailing limbs... in my opinion, this is the best kind of dancing). I sang "I will survive", which was a hit... apparently a karaoke favourite across the world... Africa by Toto, on the other hand was a flop). People went from being their normal serious selves to drunken messes in about 10 minutes. This was surprising to me considering my own friends and their (in many cases astoundingly) high tolerance. But in their state of inebriation, everyone was speaking loads of English. It was hysterical. All week I have been trying to speak to people in English and then using my crappy Thai. Turns out everyone was just nervous and needed a good old gin and tonic to get going. Unfortunately, neither my Thai nor my Burmese improved with a couple of beers.

All in all an interesting experience. Looking forward to some sunshine and quiet time, but am a little sad to leave a lot of my colleagues who work in Chiang Mai.

I am currently in Mae Sot, right on the Thai-Burma border (today, in fact, I was literally right on the border), doing an interview with a labour rights activist who is incredible and also checking out the MAP office that is in Mae Sot. As time goes by, I am learning more and more how terribly frightening it can be to speak your mind in Thailand, and even worse in Myanmar (Burma). As the man I interviewed (Burmese, but banished from returning to the country due to his participation in the student rebellion of 1988) stated, “true passion for a cause means that you are willing to die for it, right now.” His work in mobilizing workers to advocate for themselves and their right to fair wage, treatment, and working conditions has on numerous occasions made him a hunted individual. I am truly in awe of the individuals I’ve met who have devoted themselves to the cause of human rights, risking their own lives and often the lives of their families, to assure that the life of migrants, fleeing a murderous regime, can find a degree of humanness in the work they do.

I spent a good portion of today riding around on a motorcycle with Julai, a MAP worker who is a Burmese migrant, stopping at various factories in Mae Sot. He worked at a knitting factory for 3 years, volunteering with MAP. He now works for MAP. We went to about 10 of the 150 factories in the area, giving new information to the volunteers about health trainings. Outsiders aren’t allowed into the factories (super secret… probably because they are horrible… from my vantage point, they looked quite awful). I was definitely along for the ride (and lots of smiles and pantomime… I was even out of Thai territory… Burmese language territory).The system here is very simple and effective. The MAP staff coordinates with worker volunteers in each of the factories who provide occasional health trainings for workers (though finding time when people AREN’T working is quite a challenge) and, more importantly, be a go-to person for condoms and contraceptives. I think it is especially smart that the volunteers are trained to distribute and educate on OC. So often the formality of family planning clinics keeps women (especially those who work long and complicated hours) from accessing contraceptives. The volunteers and enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and information disseminates well. They also have a community drop-in center that has an amazing library. Workers can go during their breaks or Sunday afternoons off to read books and check out up to three books at a time. They also have events- health related and community-building. Everything from football (soccer) matches to hygiene for children. It’s a great place. Today while there, a young man of perhaps 20 brought a piece of paper to me that said, “Please, what is your name and where are you from?” Turns out he learned English in Burma (seems like many people have), but they focused a great deal on writing. We had a really nice conversation about the World Cup. He was actually quite a good speaker, too. Though preferred the writing notes back and forth. I was game for anything. Better than me standing around smiling like a dope.

At the gas station today, a little boy was chatting with and petting a rooster. In retrospect, I realized that if I were a good American, I would have screamed and dive-bombed into him and the rooster to prevent the potential spread of avain flu. Instead, at the time, I thought to myself, “gee, that kid should get some friends so he doesn’t have to spend his free time talking to a rooster.”

While in Mae Sot, I have been spending most of my time with Dr. Meemee who is a young, Burmese doctor who is in charge of the MAP office here. She is wonderful and we’ve had a really nice time chatting. She really wants to return to Burma someday, but not with the current regime (which Koffi Annan, on his recent trip to Thailand, said is really shaping up nicely… doesn’t at all seem to be the case). She also has her MPH, which is exciting and prompted all sorts of conversations about possibilities for the program.

I mentioned previously the 60th Anniversary for the King. Today was the absolute kick-off of the holiday weekend in his honour. I learned this morning that the king was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts while his father studied at Harvard. In honour of the king, everyone wore yellow shirts. I have seen the yellow shirt business building up all week, but today it was truly astounding. Everyone was wearing yellow shirts. It was a better showing than a prep school during homecoming week. Yellow shirts everywhere. There was a huge parade this afternoon, for which everyone abandoned their shops to take part in. Schoolchildren marched, parents, teenagers, grandparents. As evening came, many people lit 60 candles in front of their homes and businesses to honor the king’s 60 years on the throne. The day culminated with fireworks, which were especially jazzy with the little candles everywhere. Mae Sot is a small town. Celebrations in Bangkok and Chiang Mai were even more substantial. I was actually quite moved to see an entire nation truly rally around a respected and revered individual. People here truly love the king and it extends across class and age. I can’t think of anyone in the United States (or most countries for that matter) so capable of uniting a people.

At my guesthouse (which is beautiful and comfy), I got to chatting with a guy who was using the wireless internet that I so desperately wanted to connect to. Turns out he’s an undergraduate at Columbia doing work with a legal organization here in Mae Sot. There were two other MPH students (Oxford and Alberta) staying here on different projects, so we had a great evening talking about dengue fever epidemics in refugee camps.

Tomorrow I head back up to Chiang Mai for our staff retreat. I’m not sure what to expect, but I’m looking forward to getting a better sense of the organization and the whole picture of what MAP is doing. Also, everyone will be assembled, so I should get some clarity as to what I will be doing for the remainder of my time here. I am set with the IOM project in the south, but that will only take me until mid-July. I am learning a great deal, but mostly feel like I am in the way more than doing anything of value (though I felt very professional when I received a travel stipend for my current trip). It’s a bit frustrating. It’s also not exactly in my nature to simply let things fall into place, and in this case, I think it should pay off in the end if I don’t force it. As one of my colleagues said “You Americans like to always be busy. You are not in America. You are in Thailand. Give it some time and you will be a busy as you should be.” I’m not even sure what that means, but it seems like a good enough reason to loosen up a bit.


Furries (Bad shot... I was trying to be slick)

Hi. I have a bazillion photos from a hike I took yesterday. I love taking hiking pictures because there's nobody around to be annoyed with tourist-like behaviour. Though I did cave this evening and take a photo of what almost appeared to be a furry convention... lots of disney-like (but NOT) characters dancing in a macarena-like line. It's in honour of the king's 60th year of rule. Festivities everywhere. Including furries. My hike was great. I went with a colleague of mine who's been here for some time. Walked up the lower part of a mountain, up a bunch of slippery trials and waterfallish things, to a beautiful Buddhist temple. Lots of great trails around. My hiking buddy wanted to meditate, so I continued and found some great bugs and fungus. It's not something you can easily suggest to someone you just met- "Hey, let's go look at bugs and fungus!" What I especially liked were all of these neat little words to live by discreetly posted on trees all around. I'll try to get the rest of the photos (and the furries!) up soon. After the hike, I met up with some other friends at the Sunday Walking Street Market. It's a market that is held every Sunday evening. I was convinced that it would rain, as it seems to be averaging. I got some Thai herb juice and they served it in that cute bamboo cup pictured above. I think I will use it to hold pencils. There were alot of tourists in the market. I passed an American couple regarding little handmade wicker animals. I thought they were nice, but the girl thought they were "like soooo weird." I wish these people would stick to Disneyworld for their annual vacation. It's making the rest of us look bad. Today it was back to work. I made some amazing flowcharts. It's too bad I can't post them. After work I met up with a friend from public health school's friend and her friend (got it?) for dinner. It was great. Always fun to meet up with interesting, somewhat random people when on the other side of the world. After that I bought a cheap lonely planet at a used bookstore and now feel like I'm complete again. I was longing for maps... people keep talking about all these places and I felt somewhat uneducated, not at all like someone who'd passed Map of the Modern world (this reference is only relevant to some and too extensive and dorky to get into for the rest of you).

June 4, 2006

I am taking the afternoon to email. This morning I went to a protestant service with some friends /colleagues, who'd invited me a few days back. They had these really high-tech headphones that would supposedly translate the service into English. They didn't, and quite honestly, who wants to be the dork with the headphones. But they did have handy dandy English songbooks that corresponded to the songbooks everyone else were reading in Thai. So I could sing the same songs in English! Super! I think I have some sort of invisible blinking cross on my forehead that indicates to the world that I like going to church. I get it alot. It is quite interesting to see how similar / different worship is across religions and countries. This was quite like a service in the states. The pastor was even wearing a Jesus necktie. And I'm always excited to see churches where women are able to play an active role in the goings-on. Nice though, lots of university students leading things. Kind of like 8:30 mass for you Georgetown folks.

After that, we wandered around the university a bit. It's move-in weekend, and I am continually amused by how similar it is to my own college new student orientation. Lots of kids with brightly colored name tags running around and doing silly activities while appearing simultaneously amused and terrified. Lots of concerned parents. Lots of huge packages of toilet paper being lugged out of cars (this is something that has long amused me... a college kid should be able to purchase toilet paper), along with stuffed animals, clothes, even some discreet tears. Add to all of this trucks being driven around by upper-classmen (upper-class-students?) blaring "My Humps" and "My Milkshake."

It's been raining a good deal, making outings to the market difficult. Apparently the rainy season has started a bit early (global warming!). We are planning to go to the market in a few hours, but the sky is looking threatening.

June 3, 2006

I’m not sure how I feel about blogging. I feel like I need to be purposefully vague about certain things, so I end up talking about the mostly mundane. Things like yogurt. The cereal bean and lotus nut yoghurt is pretty good. Kind of like yogurt with corn and kidney beans. Just returned from watching some movie with my colleagues about the Texas Longhorns cheerleading team and some guy who’s playing the assistant cheerleading coach, but is really there to protect the cheerleading team from something. Tommy Lee Jones, I think. It was on HBO with Thai subtitles, so it was good, clean, understandable fun for everyone. The past few days have been filled more than anticipated. As part of my two week project, I’m interviewing a couple of people who have been working with my organization for quite some time to get a sense of the effective strategies they use when negotiating rights for labourers (who to contact, how to navigate the government system, how to deal with different government and non-government organizations, etc.) Went to a coffee shop for the interview (just for fun to get out of the office… that’s worth noting… there are so many coffee shops… they are definitely the hip thing in Chiang Mai) and had the interview, but then just ended up chatting. She’s only a couple years older than me and I was quite impressed by her passion for labour rights and ability to navigate a purposefully complicated system. One point that came up was the need to get a sense from workers in the factory about what exactly is going on inside so that it can be documented. I was confused as to how this happens. Cell phones. Technology is amazing. Especially as it becomes affordable for everyone, even migrant workers inside of factories that are not up to code. We ended up chatting for awhile. It started to pour, we were there for another hour. I’d forgotten to leave my helmet appropriately perched on the motorcycle, so it was filled with water when we finally left to meet the director and an American guy who works for another labour organization here for drinks. The national beer is mediocre (as it usually is). It was open mic night and one guy went crazy with things like “Dust in the Wind,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Landslide.”
I intended to get up really early this morning, but ended up getting up late (still having funky sleep patterns). I took an exceptionally long walk around town, which took all day. Bought a good map of town, a SIM card for my loaner cell phone (I have a phone!), and a towel (I forgot a towel, a raincoat, and an umbrella… all very important things when it rains at least daily). I had a nice time people-watching as I walked. I was walking and noticed a couple my age walking towards me laughing. The guy was dramatically swinging his arms and walking quite quickly. Then I realized that I was dramatically swinging my arms and walking quite quickly. I slowed down and laughed. They realized I’d figured out their joke and laughed as well. Things I like: the parks that are plentiful and well-used, the coffee shops (some of them are really creative), used book shops, lots of families spending time together, funky fruit I’ve never seen before, and the museum of world insects. Things I don’t like: traffic (it’s tough to cross the street… it never stops… imagine new york with the same number of cars plus 2 times as many motorbikes and no crosswalks) and fat, old white guys with their attractive, young Thai girlfriends. This evening some new friends / colleagues and I walked around, grabbed dinner (we are near the university, so there are a lot of great little cheap food stands nearby), chatted and watched the fabulous piece of American cinema I began by telling you about.

For the public health / legal / rather frustrated with the US international policy contingent: My organization had to decline funding because they couldn’t sign the US Anti-prostitution clause. So frustrating (and embarrassing) to be from a place where our leaders can’t see the connection between economics, prostitution, and the health of a population.

June 1, 2006

So work is a bit dull at the moment. All I did today was read, read, read. Ate lunch. Had a mini-cultural crisis when I was told we were going to buy lunch, then was given a bowl of Burmese noodles to eat (leftovers from yesterday’s goodbye party), then was told that there was rice that I should be eating, so I had the rice, as everyone was watching me eat it, waiting for my response (I think I’m supposed to have a much more violent reaction to spicy food… I feel like I’m disappointing people when I don’t jump up in anguish, turn red, and sweat). Rice was good. Noodles were good. Definitely could not eat them both. I’m supposed to be reading to get background information for this mini-project I’m doing over the next week. I’ve now got a better grasp on migration along the Thai-Burma border and some of the legal loopholes that keep human rights on the backburner. In terms of the project, the reading hasn’t really directly addressed anything, but I should be able to move forward. There’s a British guy in the office who has been here for a year. Very nice. He likes organic fruits and vegetables and is really good at speaking Thai. In fact, he seems to speak English with a Thai accent. I think he felt bad for me and all of my reading (while everyone else seemed quite collaborative), so he sent me to the market with another colleague to get food for a workshop they were doing. That was a lot of fun. Riding on a motorcycle (they wear helmets here!!) on the left side of the street. Markets are so surprisingly calm. I can see why people vacation in Thailand. Nobody is screaming at you or trying to sell you stuff constantly. Definitely less of a game than African markets (and I do love the game), but a nice change of pace. We also went to a chic little organic grocery to get organic snacks. I confessed that I find organic food to be a rip-off. My partner in crime acknowledged that he doesn’t buy it either, but likes to have it available for those who do. We returned to the office, then back to reading.
My in-country liaison for the American organization I’m working through invited me for dinner with her friends this evening. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was anticipating a lot of smiling and not understanding. Turns out her friends are a group of 12 or so, all young and working for Thai organizations. I’m really struck by how so many of the people I’ve met care tremendously about the issues in their country and are true activists (kind of puts young Americans to shame). It’s not like foreigners are coming in and dictating how things should change, but instead the actual citizens making informed decisions. Dinner ended up being really nice. They made spaghetti and garlic bread in honor of my presence. It was a bit tough in the beginning, as there was a good deal of Thai, but once people got comfortable, it became a nice mélange of languages, so that everyone could understand. The house was really snazzy, the young woman living there collects bulls, so the theme pervaded the whole place. Really open- lots of big windows and a beautiful garden. In addition to spaghetti, the soundtrack to Brokeback mountain was being played in honor of me as well (because Americans love country music… I attribute this misconception to having a cowboy for a president). Eventually that switched to Joni Mitchell. But I had this funny, happy / sad moment at dinner while everyone was passing around food, making fun of each other, and just genuinely enjoying one another’s company that I realized how great it is to have good friends, and made me quite content to know that people all over the world are lucky enough to have good ones. Felt like I was in someone's apartment back home. By the time we were onto fruit, we were having all kinds of funny conversations. I learned that people here eat bugs and I should try them. Bamboo worms are especially fresh and good (at this point, I was unsure as to whether or not I was being played like a fiddle and really wished someone was around to hit their fist on their forehead to indicate sarcasm). Turns out he was serious. I’ll let you know about the bamboo worms. In addition to Thai names, they have given themselves Japanese names, so we went around doing reintroductions with Japanese names, though I was told “If you see us in town, use our Thai names.” I had a lot of fun. It’s a really different scene when people can be young professionals without too much pressure to get married young. I’m cooking next week. Guinean food. Ah, the clash of worlds and lives. Oh, I learned there’s a Starbucks here ( a couple, actually). And that fact made me nauseated. So forget about my Starbucks nostalgia from yesterday.

May 31, 2006

After an unbeatable 17 hour flight to Bangkok (which really didn’t seem that bad… I resisted the lure of 40+ movies and actually slept a solid 7 hours) and then another hour long hop to Chiang Mai, I have finally reached my home for two weeks. After a nice, jet-lagged dinner of Pad Thai last night, I slept until 11:30 today so that I could be to work by 12. Some guy was leaving today, so they’d prepared a Burmese lunch for him. I actually don’t think I saw him eating the lunch. It was nice. Lots of me smiling like a moron because I don’t understand a lick of Thai. That’s a lie… I’ve got hello, thank you, yes, no, and good morning down. I should write a book about being a linguistically-challenged traveler. After that, I met with the director, who is great. She gave me a run-down of the projects I’d be working on while here. It looks like my time here will be spent developing an inner-agency guidebook about effectively navigating bureaucratic shenanigans that impede the assurance of labour rights to migrants. I have to do a little research, interview two people (may need to travel a bit for the second interview), then summarize the findings. Quite manageable. After that, there’s a staff retreat for about a week, then I’m off to the south, Phang-Nga specifically, to work with the IOM on migrant focus groups to determine steps needed to reduce HIV / AIDS among the population. I have quite a bit of reading to do, which is good as I’m learning a lot and am somewhat embarrassed by how much I didn’t know prior. For now I’m sitting in the desk of the guy who left (remember him? -- by the time lunch was cleaned up, he was gone, desk cleared and empty and I was sitting there). Definitely one of those days when I found my mind wandering to comfortable things like New York, Starbucks, and baseball season (I don’t even really follow baseball) and trying to figure out exactly how long it would be until I understood what people around me were saying and didn’t feel freakishly tall. That being said, I work with some really welcoming, dynamic people who made me feel like part of the gang by the time we left at 7. Things I’ve noticed so far- lots of people walk dogs on leashes, kids wear cute uniforms to school (it’s especially interesting to see a mother walking a dog on a leash with her kid in a cute school uniform picking up dinner to go at a food cart… just a regular old yuppie family). I’ve seen numerous people sporting Che shirts, people eat constantly and BIG bowls of noodles, I went to an ATM at a 7-11… and had to ask for an ATM… it was outside… I can’t remember the last time I used an ATM outside, people care about causes, there are plenty of hipsters here, everyone drives motorcycles. Apparently tall Thai girls cannot find a Thai boyfriend. The exception to this is the current (previous?) Ms. Universe (a Canadian) who is dating a Thai guy. She also does ads for some well-known brand of Thai noodles.