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.