Here I Go Again...

I, too, Have Returned to America

2006-08-22T12:09:00.000-04:00

I am back in the good old US of A. Interestingly enough, on the same day of my departure, a more high-profile individual also left Thailand from the same airport on the same airline, though bound for L.A. and then Colorado (where he would be facing charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and child sexual assault). I've never really been interested in the case or the individual until I compared our Thai Airways flight experiences. Keeping in mind my own criminal record (or lack thereof), let's compare my flight with that of John Karr (JK for short):

Time allotted for check-in

JK: Left Bangkok Immigration Detention Center (IDC) at 3 PM for a 7:10 PM flight.

MG: Left Walking Streets Sunday Market at 6:15 PM for a 6:30 airport departure for a 9 PM flight to Bangkok with a connection at 12:40 AM.

Who wins: Draw. Walking Streets Sunday Market and a ride from a friend trumps IDC and a ride with immigration officials, though JK has a far less complicated departure at a more reasonable hour.

Scheduled Time of Departure vs. Actual Time of Take-off

JK: 7:10 PM, plane left at 8 PM.

MG: 12:40 AM, plane left at 1:20 AM.

Who wins: MG, narrowly, by 10 minutes.

At the Gate

JK: chats amiably with fellow passengers.

MG: exchanges sympathetic half-smiles with exhausted-looking fellow passengers forced to be patted down after surrendering their bottles of water, tubes of chapstick, travel-sized toothpastes, and other harmful liquids.

Who wins: JK.

Pre-Flight Services

JK: a glass of champagne from a cabin attendant; clinked glasses with Mark Spray (investigator with Boulder DA's office), who had orange juice.

MG: A room-temperature bottle of Singha drinking water placed in my seat pocket.

Who wins: Karr; hands down.

Seat buddy

JK: Mr. Spray and two other US officials.

MG: A nice 14-year-old Thai girl returning to her home in America after living in Bangkok for the past three years.

Who wins: Draw. Karr has more of an entourage (good for image), whereas MG has quality (not a lot of unnecessary chatter, friendly). Note- Due to his past, probably good that JK did NOT have MG's seat buddy.

Freedom of Movement

JK: Business Class window seat, no handcuffs.

MG: Economy Class aisle seat, no handcuffs.

Who wins: JK.

Dining

JK: Dinner was served on a starched white tablecloth. Karr started with a pate, then had a green salad with walnut dressing. The main course was fried king prawn with steamed rice and broccoli. Karr drank a beer, crushing the can with his hands when it was empty, then moved on to a glass of French chardonnay with his main course.

MG: Dinner was served on a plastic tray. MG started with a cup of (again) room-temperature pre-poured water, then had a green salad with gloppy Italian dressing from a packet. The main course was stir-fried pork and noodles. MG drank another cup of room-temperature water and placed the cup into the smaller cup intended for coffee or tea when it was empty (as there was not space anywhere else on the plastic tray), then moved onto more room temperature water (which needed to be requested from the exasperated-looking flight attendant) with the main course.

Who wins: JK, obviously.

On-board Demeanor

JK: Relaxed, smiling and chatting nonstop with the U.S. officials next to him -- until television news crews on the flight turned their cameras on. Then he stopped smiling, clutched the armrests of his seat and stared at his lap.

MG: Tired, but chatting occasionally with her seat buddy (in a "Have you seen Akeelah and the Bee?" "No?" "I heard it's good" kind of way) until the flight attendants turned off all of the lights, when she stared into space due to her inability to sleep.

Who wins: JK.

In-flight Entertainment

JK: Mission Impossible III.

MG: The Sentinel, Akeelah and the Bee (wonderful), Stick It (terrible), Inside Man, Law and Order.

Who wins: MG on the surface, though upon further consideration, perhaps JK (less movies = more shut-eye.

Reading

JK: The Secret Garden (wtf?).

MG: The Bangkok Post (which featured a lengthy article on JK).

Who wins: MG (The Secret Garden is a reasonable choice... for an 8 year old).

Flight Payment

JK: You paid for JK's business-class flight.

MG: Columbia paid for MG's economy-class flight (After MG paid dearly for Columbia).

Who wins: Draw. Though you clearly loose.

Island Vacation (Tough Life)

2006-08-19T06:49:00.000-04:00

After leaving the south on Friday, I headed up to Bangkok on the overnight bus to celebrate Mother's Day (the Queen's birthday) with my colleague who'd organized a big gathering for his ethnic group, the Pao people, in Bangkok. It was a great day filled with singing and dancing. I stood out like a foreign sore thumb, but everyone was quite nice.

On Sunday, I met up with one of my oldest (longest known) friends, who lives in Korea. He'd been visiting friends in BKK, so we decided to hit the island of Koh Chang for a couple of days. We saw pretty much everything there was to see, swam in waterfalls, checked out stilt villages, randomly ran into one of my public health school friends, crashed our motorbike (that was all me, though I blame the slick roads and the stupid dog that couldn't decide which way to cross the street... though the nicest family took us into their home, let us wash up, and helped dress our wounds... all 12 of them (4 generations) were actively involved... it was so kind and again restored my faith in humanity... though it was their dog), watched Fox News, complained about Fox News, recounted numerous high school stories, chatted with other tourists and locals, and tried to dodge the rain. I was so thrilled to have a travel buddy and fellow English speaker that I didn't even read much I was so busy running my mouth. The weather wasn't super, but we certainly made the best of it and had a great time.

Fun with Bikes!
Matt pre-crash
How American!

Then back to Bangkok for a day before I returned to Chiang Mai for goodbyes and my night flight on the 20th!

Note the contrasts

Leaving Home

2006-08-19T06:39:00.000-04:00

My last week in Phang-nga Province was filled with meetings, library openings, motorbike riding, football games, beach-going, crazed finishing up of projects, and goodbyes (always a bit sad to leave places, especially when finally getting the hang of things!)

A rainy season sunset on the Sea

My Room (on the far right)

The Office

The restaurant (aka our kitchen)

My Going Away Shindig

Welcome to the Jungle

2006-08-06T05:12:00.000-04:00

I only have one more week of work remaining in Phang-nga (actually, I've been calling it Phang-nga, but it's actually Laem Pakarang... the province is Phang-nga... now you can rest easier). I decided on Wednesday that I haven't seen nearly enough of the area to be leaving it. I've done the beach thing, but there's a huge National Park that's only about an hour away. It's home to the oldest rainforest in the world (they claim) as well as a rare flower, Raffleasia, which is the biggest in the world and is also a parasite. It lives off other plants, blooms for 3 or 4 day, during which it emits the smell of rotting meat (apparently attracts pollinators), then shrivels up and dies. Unfortunately the visible and smelly stage of Raffleasia is in January and February. But the thought of real jungle was pleasant. There are apparently tigers and bears and cobras and pythons or something, too, but I'm not that into chasing around animals in their natural habitats. I don't like it when dogs stand next to the table when I eat.

So I was looking forward to a solo adventure, so I could do what I wanted. But when I mentioned I was thinking of going, one of my co-workers got really excited about a girls' weekend at the national park. I was sort of irked, knowing that instead of hiking we would now be going to the visitor's center, walking to a nearby waterfall, taking a picture, then sitting around for the remainder of the time. Plans changed, however, when I mentioned my 6 AM departure on Saturday morning. I was on my own!

I arrived at my hut, left my stuff and changed into proper hiking attire. The owner of the huts, however, suggested shorts, as it was hot, saying "There are some leeches (which I'd read about), but not so many... You'll be able to climb easier in shorts." (Note: This is foreshadowing)

Off I went, rigging the top of my backpack with my camera strap to make a little backpack. I got a map and set off for a 10K round trip hike to a 6-tiered waterfall. The day was sunny, the jungle was beautiful and I was thrilled to be off on my own. I took a zillion pictures of interesting trees and fungi.

After about 1 K into the hike, the official park trail ended, and I set off on a narrower trail, which was steeper, but easy enough to navigate.
A bit damp, however, and I noticed a leech on my leg. This brought to mind the movie "Stand by Me," which I've never seen as at the time of its popularity, I was not even permitted to see PG-rated movies, as they use words that are not only impolite, but also take the Lord's name in vain. I've seen the leech scene, though. Never having had a leech on me before, I took a picture before pulling it off.

I continued on my way, noting that the trail was beginning to erode, causing it to be quite narrow in certain places, but still easy to navigate by holding onto vines. As I walked further and further it, the number of leeches increased and I was stopping every 10 minutes or so to scrape 5 or 6 from my sneakers. The hike traversed the river numerous times, and involved some interesting scaling, which added to the initial excitement. It began to rain, but only a bit and due to the natural canopy of the rainforest, wasn't too bad. I had been walking for about 2 hours and felt I should be close to the waterfall. As I reached the river, a lone arrow indicated that I should walk upcurrent in the river. I figured I'd come this far. I took off my shoes and found about 30 leeches sucking my feet. It pulled them off (which is a nuisance, as they then suck your fingers... I found flicking worked best). Still in good spirits, I took another picture of my bloody feet (I'll spare you) and set off against the current. It started to pour, but I was determined to reach the waterfall. After another hour of walking in the river and along the bank, I reached a series of tiered rapids. Hardly a waterfall, and still not sure this was the main attraction. As the rain had been pretty torrential, I was drenched and thought it time to head back.

On the way back, the erosion had worsened, the paths were flooded and slippery, the ledges less defined, and the streams overflowing. With the rain it was difficult to see. I now had visions of Bridge to Teribithia when the boy dies by heading out along the stream in the rain. I ran into a man and woman in ponchos as I was leaping from rock to rock. I told them about walking in the river for an hour, and they continued on to the waterfall. I encountered them an hour later as I reached a dead end and was turning around. Apparently they'd decided against the waterfall and had been following my lead. We set off together for the last bit. The woman said I was "a brave young lady" for hiking by myself. I replied that I was a stupid young lady (people continue to think I'm 18 and treat me as such... These two couldn't have been older than 35). They kept falling, their ponchos and backpacks putting them off-balance, I pulled down a piece of bamboo that almost clocked the woman on the head, the man was grumbling in French about how he didn't really want to go on a long hike in the first place and how the park map was poorly drawn and not to scale. It was fun to secretly listen to foreign language I understood. It was nice to be with people, as it really wasn't too safe for any of us. When we got to the final stretch, I told them to go ahead while I de-leeched (I could feel them in my shoes and saw some had reached my knees). The woman kindly offered to burn them off, but it didn't seem to work. I thanked them and sent them on their way. My leech situation was foul. At least 50, and I couldn't take them off fast enough. I finished the hike as quickly as I could, terribly excited about my upcoming shower. It had been 5 hours of blood, sweat, and dirt.

I realized on my walk back to the hut that there was blood streaming down my legs. I took off my socks and shoes to go inside and trekked blood all over the floor. After the shower I was bleeding worse than before. It seemed like nothing would clot (I later learned that leeches secrete an anti-clotting enzyme into their victim's bloodstream). I waited an hour in the shower, bleeding through band-aids. I continued to bleed all evening. I had to mop my room twice. It looked like someone had been eaten by one of those tigers and bears. I went to dinner, the hut guy apologized for recommending shorts, though he said he doesn't really advocate hiking in the rainy season anyway (little late, eh?) I ended up having a nice time reading, chatting to some other tourists. I discovered my cell phone is no longer working, perhaps due to the monsoon it encountered while in my bag.

This morning I did a short waterfall hike, but on the park trail with the Thais wearing pressed khakis and polo shirts. That seemed safe. The ride home was fairly uneventful. All in all, exciting weekend and good me-time. A nice event to remember when stressed out about work or annoyed to be waiting in line, in a "I was lost in the jungle with leeches sucking my blood- I can certainly handle this" kind of way.

Just Another Day (Featuring the Back of My Head)

2006-08-02T06:55:00.000-04:00

Warming-Up with the Women's Sports Program in Ban Nam Khem. I was given the task of leading on this day. At the time of this photo, we were walking like Egyptians.

Trying to convince everyone that football (soccer) is more fun than volleyball (my co-worker loves volleyball, so we are always lobbying for our individual causes)

And football it is! Looks like my little "spread out and pass" pep talk went over really well.

Facilitating a network meeting. And by facilitate, I mean writing down key ideas, looking pensive and asking if anyone has anything to add.

Nightly dinner with the neighbors. Some people can't EVER leave the office.

Slow Boat to Burma

2006-07-30T03:33:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I needed to extend my visa by going to Burma. In Thailand, you are given a month long tourist visa each time you enter the country. Therefore, monthly "visa runs" comprised of exiting and promptly reentering the country are quite common for people staying for awhile. Since my two month visa had expired, I needed to get myself an extra month, so I took the bus to Ranong (where I've spent a lot of time for work, too... I think I've been there almost weekly for one thing or another), which is the closest point to access Burma. In chatting with foreigners in the past, I had a hazy idea about how things should go, and I knew NOT to pay more than 100 baht ($2.50) for my round-trip boat ticket. I arrived at Thai immigration, surrounded by an interesting mix of beach bums and sex tourists, got my stamp to leave, walked down the road to the dock, where I encountered a guy trying to get me to take his friend's boat. We argued about the price for awhile, and I shimmied down the rope ladder to the awaiting long boats. There was some arguing about the price that was agreed to and they told me that I had to pay 200 if I wanted to take the boat by myself. I replied that I never said that I wanted my own boat and to go find people. So after 30 minutes of moving between two boats (I wasn't certain of why, I just kept jumping across boats each time I was told to do so), we had 7 people, which was deemed sufficient to depart. Everyone was Burmese, so we chatted (as far as I can go in Burmese, which isn't far). The motor is actually on a long wooden pole which is placed in the water. As we bobbed along, water kept coming in from the side and splashing from the motor. The woman next to me was kindly trying to use her umbrella to shield the both of us from the splashing. We had to stop at numerous check-points out of Thailand. Once in Burmese water (Myanmar water, if you prefer), my passport was stamped and I paid 5 dollars (US) for a day pass to Myanmar. They like dollars and charge more if you want to pay in Thai currency. I had a 10. They gave me change. This highly impressed me. I've become a major cheapskate here and the thought of loosing $5 had been disturbing me all morning. So, way to go, Myanmar- you violently oppress your people and stifle open thought, but you've got a great system when it comes to dispensing change on your borders in currency that is not even your own. Then we went back to Thailand. The Thai police with a big dog stopped us to make sure we weren't smuggling cigarettes, drugs, or people back to Thailand. Everyone smiled. I said "Hi" in Thai, they let us go quickly. About 5 minutes later, the women in front of me pulled 2 cases of cigarettes (which are much cheaper on the Burmese side) out from inside her oversized windbreaker. It's good they hadn't unleashed the dog on us. When we got back to the dock, I bid adieu to my new traveling friends (including the American father and daughter duo who I'd joined on the return trip), and went back to immigration, where I encountered the same people from before, who'd paid a great deal more to take fancy, air-conditioned boats that didn't have "holes in the bottom" as one Brit put it. Afterwards, I was chatting with 2 women from the Netherlands. We had lunch together. They were so surprised that I was here on my own. Somedays I'm surprised that I'm here on my own.

My week has been filled with very long and ineffective meetings. One on Friday was particularly annoying, as it lasted for 4 hours, but nobody could answer any of the questions that were being asked (mostly by me... We have a new HIV program, and it's really difficult to determine how it should be run without knowing what other organizations are already doing... I've been asking this question for weeks to various people and the answer is never clear and never the same). There's a Japanese American who works for a partner organization nearby who was also at the meeting. We had a nice time commiserating. It's been really interesting being here, in the rural south, without expat friends for the most part. I feel like I'm seeing a side of the country, the local NGO world, that I would not have had I come with another westerner. I think it's also revealed to me how people from the outside are often seen by Thai people (not always so positively) and how little most westerners accomplish in the time that they are here, as they surround themselves with other people who think and act as they do. That being said, communication and sense of humor remain different, and that is really trying at times. When a co-worker thinks that a meeting is good and effective because it lasted for 4 hours, it's hard to explain how it feels to mourn 4 hours of your life that you will never regain. You can't really. And during those rare moments when I've had someone nearby with whom I can chuckle about feeling out of place or ineffective despite great time and effort, I begin to see why people seek out others who are like them, why local people perceive visitors as snooty or irritating, and why the cycle continues.

Still very little global concern about the situation in Burma. I had hoped that it would be addressed during the Asean summit, but seemed very much overshadowed by N. Korea and Lebanon. So sadly reactive. It's really frustrating and difficult to be constantly hearing from people about the atrocities from which they are fleeing (the usual forced military, forced portering for the military, stealing, beating, raping) knowing that nothing is being done to change it or draw international attention to it.

Our migrant women's football (soccer) program has been quite successful in a couple of communities. I've been playing a lot of football with the women, who are not at all adverse to slide tackling or just charging at one another. It's not a far cry from American football in some ways. It's been great and is making me seriously think about joining some kind of very non-competitive soccer team when I get back home. Non-competitive being key. My very competitive high school soccer team has permanently scarred me.

Three more weeks in Thailand, a little less than two more weeks at my office in the south. It's amazing how time flies!

Mohinga and Other Thoughts

2006-07-27T07:32:00.000-04:00

Observations:

1.) Mohinga: Mohinga (I have no idea how to spell it; there likely isn't a proper English written way anyhow) is a Burmese dish. Noodle-based, with this broth comprised of fish and onions and stuff. It's sort of like a make-your-own sundae event, except it's make your own Mohinga. You can add green beans, cilantro, fish sauce, fried garlic, chili, etc. I've written about it before. Because it seems to be analogous to pizza in the US. People devour it. Every time it seems to be a competition of how quickly it can be shoveled into one's gullet. This does not happen with other foods, only Mohinga.

2.) I eat slower than everybody. My love for Mohinga is usually questioned because of it.

3.) Popular cell phone rings: We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Jingle Bells.

4.) Side cars on motorcycles: Can be used as a mobile noodle shop, a place for people to sit, a place to carry fish that you are going to sell. They are, however, frustrating to pass on the road as they move slowly and jut out into traffic. Did I mention that my latest and greatest side responsibility is driving the office pick-up truck? I have to use my left hand to shift gears, sit on the right, and drive on the left side of the road.

5.) A snobby church group from Texas: They are visiting for a week or so. My boss is obsessed with showing them around, as he feels they do not understand the situation for Burmese migrants in Thailand (they don't. I tried to explain). They are NOT nice. Always have a look on their faces like they smell something bad. I was my very nicest with them and they still were aloof. And I keep running into them. As a cynical east-coaster, I certainly do my fair share of Texas-mocking (particularly since the current administration assumed power). That being said, some of the nicest people I know are from Texas. Until these guys came along. Folks, we're in a foreign country on the other side of the world, far from our homeland. WE SHARE THAT HOMELAND. For crying out loud, just crack a smile for me.

6.) The symmetry of rubber plantations is amazing. The trees are spaced the same distance away from the trees next to them, as well as the trees in front and behind them. Multiply that by thousands. It's most fascinating to observe.

Women's Meeting

2006-07-21T03:52:00.000-04:00

Ants.

2006-07-18T22:11:00.000-04:00

There are ants everywhere. Right now there are about 7 floating in my coffee. They are in on my clothes. In my hair. They even manage to crawl inside of my toothpaste cap. As I brushed some off of my water bottle this morning so I could ingest some protein-free water, I realized how comfortable I've become with all of the ants (which really were initially quite disgusting, despite my fondness for bugs).

We don't have water today at home. Usually Thailand is great for things like electricity and water. I suppose it needs to occasionally remind its country-people that it is not quite developed yet. The lack of water threw my (apparently very clean?) neighbors into an uproar. So much so that they stood in front of our three attached rooms complaining loudly about it from 7 am on. One, who I work with, has spent the last hour trying to shower in the office (first the shower was not clean enough, then she had to buy soap that wouldn't rough up her skin, etc.) I'm sure I'm now considered the filthy one as I used my flushing bucket water (clean water collected to flush the toilet) to wash my face and brush my teeth so that I could get on with things.

My birthday was funny. Lots of usual birthday cultural confusion. A very jazzy rendition of Happy Birthday is sung here. I think someone, at some point, worked for World Vision (which is a Christian NGO) as the lesser-known second verse of Happy Birthday is used- "May God bless you always, may God bless you always... ." So yeah, 26. Seems old compared to 25. Need to get moving.

Some Photos from Ranong

2006-07-15T23:09:00.000-04:00

A Class in the Midst of an English Lesson (I got to do a little teaching!)

Little sidecar / school bus contraption that takes 12-plus kids to school

So much rain! Clothes never seem to dry!

Little girl dancing in front of the pool hall

Studying

Shooting the Breeze at the Brothel

Community Vists and Celebrations

2006-07-14T23:21:00.000-04:00

So my last post was along the bad mood vein. I had come back from a community visit during which my colleague who CAN translate for me chose to wander off for long bouts. When he was around, he'd only translate if I asked a question. Then, at the end of it all, he asked me to provide my opinion on what had been discussed for everyone there. If I had any clue what had been discussed, I'm sure my comments would be much more releveant for everyone listening to them. Certainly not the biggest crisis :)

It's been an interesting past few days. I've been doing site visits with a team that includes a guy from a Thai animation company who will be creating the animated cartoon based on the focus groups I’ve been working on for IOM. We drove around to different areas so that he could take pictures of typical living situations for Burmese migrants in this area. I had been to most of the places already, but it was kind of fun to go back and show the folks how my Burmese has progressed over the past two weeks (besides hello, I can now say ‘what is that?’ ‘what?’ ‘thank you’ ‘come’ ‘eat’ ‘come eat.’ We also went to this fishing town I’d never visited and saw people painting ships and hauling in fish. It was very “Downeaster Alexa.”

After a looong day of visiting, my colleagues and a few other friends were meeting up for a goodbye shindig for my friend Ayaka, who is leaving our office in the South to work at the Chiang Mai office. I’m quite sad she’s going, as we really hit it off, but I’ll see her in a couple of weeks in Bangkok and again in Chiang Mai at the end.

Some of my co-workers and the Italians from down the road

Thomas (our office radio expert)

So the goodbye party… we go to this cute little bar in a very cute little touristy beach town about 10 k from where we all live. Everyone was having a nice time chatting. There are a good number of tsunami volunteers from America and Europe who live in the area and come to volunteer for a couple of weeks or a couple of months. As the evening progressed, I started to feel like we were at a frat party. Loud drinking games, cursing, crude comments made about women. Thailand is always such a strange place of contrasts. Last night, I went to a birthday celebration for one of my Burmese neighbors who works with a nearby NGO. They were doing a July birthday celebration for the office (kind of like the corporate one-cake-a-month thing). It was hysterical. I wish I had brought my camera to document the hours upon hours of some of the most heartfelt karaoke, guitar-playing, and dancing I have seen recently. Funny thing about alot of popular Burmese songs is that they are set to familiar American classic rock / alternative rock songs, but the words are completely different (hence 'Shot through the heart' is about buying a bowl in the market).

Ergh...

2006-07-13T08:01:00.000-04:00

I am so sick and tired of not being able to understand anybody.

2006-07-11T05:59:00.000-04:00

My focus group project is reaching the end. My responsibility this week is to nag the slew of people responsible for transcription and translation to hustle. It's really upping my popularity. I've been trying to change up my methods to keep it exciting. A text message one day, an email the next, lots of emoticons. People looove emoticons. I'm also sorting through and analyzing a bunch of data about arrest, detention, and deportation. Yesterday I went on a community visit to a rubber plantation / shrimping part of town. We were distributing information about birth certificates for migrant children so that it is easier to enroll them in Thai schools. I did the distributing, not the explaining. The registration period for migrants recently ended, so now the govt. is sending out the goon squads to arrest and deport undocumented migrants (documentation is difficult, as some employers won't pay for it; if you don't have a current employer, you can't register). When we arrived to the village, a whole crew of men immediately fled, thinking we'd come to deport them. But why wouldn't they... us driving up at dusk in a Toyota pick-up truck.

My sunburn is peeling to a degree that makes me feel as though I am molting. It's especially pleasant when meeting new people. "So nice to meet you! Please ignore that large chunk of my arm that just fell off as you shook my hand... ." This past weekend I stayed in town, which was great. Went to the beach, played some football (of the soccer variety), talked World Cup, watched World Cup (@ 2 am in Thailand).

Pictures are of sites along my little road that leads to the beach. The top is a lagoon where people crab. On the bottom is a field where cows (and sometimes these mysterious horses) graze. Before the tsunami, it was all trees... you can see the line where the water stopped.

2006-07-04T05:42:00.000-04:00

Beautiful Beach

Beautiful Pool

Sad, Sun-burned Me

I went to Phuket last weekend. I met up with my friend Philippa from college. She had a business trip in Singapore and came over to Thailand. Such a nice break from my ant-filled room (which I've been kicked out of, as the owner is returning tomorrow... I'm staying in a new ant-filled room across the street until yet another person vacates their room and I move there). Our hotel was amazing (in Phuket... I'm jumping around). I feel silly going on and on about it, as I'm supposed to be here for a cause that transcends silly things like beach resorts. The sun even came out on Saturday (I got the worst sunburn of my life... I was just so excited about sun versus rain that I forgot to reapply the old SPF 30). This week has been very office-based, except for a day trip to Ranong yesterday to pick up some transcripts for the focus groups. On the way back, there weren't any seats, so they put us in the luggage compartment. It was more comfortable than expected and even had a light so I could read. I went to a used bookstore last weekend and stocked up. I have been flying through books. Funny how that happens when you live in a sleepy town and often take public transport (lots of waiting, which isn't so bad with a book).

2006-06-28T08:58:00.000-04:00

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.

2006-06-28T08:53:00.000-04:00

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.

2006-06-23T07:13:00.000-04:00

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.

2006-06-15T06:23:00.000-04:00

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.

2006-06-09T20:16:00.000-04:00

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)

2006-06-05T12:02:00.000-04:00

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).

2006-06-04T03:44:00.000-04:00

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.

2006-06-04T03:39:00.000-04:00

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.

2006-06-04T03:35:00.000-04:00

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.

2006-06-04T03:31:00.000-04:00

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.