A Festival

It was last night, after a final peer tutoring session that I got invited to a festival downtown to celebrate the end of Buddhist Lent. I first heard about it two days before, when we and our peer tutors went to the local (tiny!) museum downtown. They were setting up the stages at the time andI asked what was going on. I was hoping I'd get a chance to go, so I leaped at the idea when Ae (my tutor) and her friends Oh and Boi invited me. Boi is Anne's tutor, so she tagged along, as did Emily. Everyone else had meetings and homework. Bah.

The festival, which was held downtown at the big lake in Khon Kaen, was set up like an American carnival, but there are many monks around. You can go to tents on the water, contribute a donation, and get a Gratom, or small floating boat with flowers, incense, and candles. We collected our gratom, waied to the monk, lit the incense, and then set the boats into the water to float off. It was a beautiful sight to see these little lights and flowers atop the water. The lake was also teeming with tiny goldfish -- sold nearby so people can set them free. It's good luck. Along with the fish, there were little birds, eels, and turtles.

The carnival was really remarkably like an American carnival. I learned the Thai words for Ferris Wheel (chingchah suwan), and got introduced to the Thai version of a carousel. I also learned the words for "tuk-tuk is broken", but that's another story.

We spent the last part of the evening watching traditional dancing and singing on the big stage. I think the Thai traditional dancing is so beautiful, and kept trying to master it. Oh, who has been dancing since she was little, would play teacher for me. Then we both would laugh at my ineptitude.

Today was my Thai final. In the afternoon, we present our final presentations for Thai class. My group did a video to the Wizard of Oz parody. In Thai. Hmmm. I've seen the other groups' videos, and most are really hilarious. So this afternoon is it for Thai class, and school in general for a week. Fall break is upon us!

I'm going to Chiang Mai and the northern area for the week. I'll be back on next Friday late. Tonight Anne, Christie, Kevin and I depart on our twelve-hour bus ride, overnight. We'll spend Sunday in Chiang Mai city, Monday at an organic farm run by CIEE alumni, and then who knows.

It just feels really nice to know that in a few short hours, my obligations will be significantly reduced.

A storm approaches...

Arg.

So I'm now dwelling in a world of slow computers and oodles of work. I've got a tone of projects -- all due in some completion form before break starts on Saturday evening. I filmed a Thai final project with my group yesterday and this morning and we are now in the process of editing the movie. I have to write some journal enteries (in Thai... oh lordie), and finish an art project to respond to the last unit's problematice. In addition, my Thai final is on Saturday. I have an article that I'm doing with my Buddhist-buddy, Whitney, on kathoey, or Thai ladyboys. In addition, my Social Research Methods class assigned an interview, to be recorded somehow.

So that's what's on my plate now. And to add some icing to the cake, my beloved child, my Mac, is dying of a mysterious ailment. I'm getting on the phone soon with Apple International to figure out why it keeps freezing and dying. Must be hypothermia.

So this is my complain-fest, version October 2007. I can't promise to be updating anytime soon if this persists. Hopefully, I await a recovery with my computer. Till then, I'm backing up files and using internet cafes.

Till soon?

There and Back Again

So I left before I could catch up as much as I wanted to. I hope to update more often in this short week before fall break, but no promises. We got back from a five-day trip on our fourth unit, the land unit, which took us to Udon Thani, about two hours north. Udon used to be the site of an American military base during the Vietnam war, and now is the proposed site of a potash mine. We had two homestays examining various issues having to do with the region.

But more on that later.

First, an anecdote, if you will. Last night, it was shortly before midnight. We'd been asleep for about forty minutes, Amanda, Anna, and myself on our mats under the mosquito net. Out of nowhere, Amanda shoots straight up in bed, screams, and scampers down to the end of the net. Anna and I were quick to react, jumping to the foot of the bed, pressed against the net. Amanda was yelling about a spider or something for a moment, but then woke up -- it was nothing more than a half-dreamed hallucination of the fan at the foot of the bed.

Well, that deception didn't stop everyone from hearing the screams, and come running to see who was being apparently murdered in our bed; P'Jim came from her room next door, Mae rushed upstairs in her patung, even Ajaan Ooh, staying down the street, heard our screams and called Amanda's phone. So there we stood, two very confused, worried Thai women and three shaken, but actually alright farang women, with a limited communication channel. Somehow, it landed on my shoulders to explain what was going on. I managed to say "Amanda dreamed of a big bug," but Mae still didn't get the story. For some reason, one of them suggested, "show Mae the scorpion."

At this point it becomes necessary to tie in another point from earlier in the evening. Before bed, Anna was on the phone and spotted something. "Hey guys, come here and check out this cool bug!" she called. However it was no bug. Yessiree, a little scorpion. No one wanted to kill it, so we trapped it under a glass, leaving it to be dealt with in the morning. Flash forward to our story again.
I show Mae the scorpion. She has just heard her farang daughters freaking the heck out in the middle of the night, where the only explaination is in broken Thai and saying something about a big bug. Then there's this scorpion. Plus, at that moment, I absentmindedly scratched a fresh mosquito bite. Mae got this look on her face and asked what I can only assume to be, "did that bite you."

The only thing I could think to say was "mai" or "no". I was trying to get out that this actually was okay, and yes we were fine, and there was no bug afterall, but all that came out from my sleep-befuddled mind was "mai, mai... mai... mai." As she bent down and started killing the scorpion, she asked why the screams. I couldn't remember how to say "I don't know. I don't get it," which in Thai is something like "mai ru. Mai khao jai." The only thing to come out however was "mai au" or "I don't want."

God, Mae must have been confused.

Luckily, we somehow sorted it out and we're okay. Lots of laughing at ourselves afterward.

So I guess this story has a moral. One, language use is essential, even when you're tired and loopy. Laughter is essential, especially when you're tired. And never have scorpions on the mind when sleeping near anything that can be misconstrued as a giant spider in your bed.

Till soon

Pak Mun Dam 10/5-10/7/2007

The ride to the Sirindhorn dam on the Mun River was a long four hours. We all slept, or remained quiet for most of it, dressed in our nice clothes. The government demands respectful attire, so no exposed shoulders, knees, or toes. It’s like the children’s song, except now it’s a rhyme of don’ts. Being folded up into a van for so long really does a number on one’s concentration, so when we pulled into the Sirindhorn parking lot, I was in no mood to exchange.

Our exchange was to be with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, or EGAT, about their role in dam building, engineering, and maintenance. I still know little to nothing about dams, so my questions took a broader view – the effects, the consequences on a social and individual scale. Sirindhorn Dam is an unfortunately beautiful place. The reservoir is peaceful and full of greenery. I walked around between lunch and the exchange to un-cramp my legs and take in some pro-corporate beauty.

The exchange itself was one of the best ones I’ve had so far. We honed in on specific questions and tried to dance around the major issues as little as possible. Take for example, the inquiry into EGAT’s role in the Burma debacle. It seems that most people seem to think China’s influence is the greatest one in Burma, but Thailand is actually the largest importer of Burmese energy – not to mention its neighbor and recipient of a significant number of refugees. EGAT admitted they import some of the energy from outside countries – Laos and Burma. The reasons they gave were that it was cheaper and they wanted to offer customorship to the impoverished nations. Dams are easier to build there, they said. In Thailand, the people are too vocal against dams. The Lao people can’t stand up to their government. The EGAT representatives acknowledged this in some way, in the way of someone who feels helpless to change just embraces it.

But then something humanizing happened. We pursued the Burma question until we got to the question of ethical responsibilities of corporations. The representatives couldn’t precisely respond? Well how could they? True, they are representatives, but can they, should they be held 100% accountable for their company’s actions? Anyway, one man gave some pat non-answer, but then, the mask came down for a brief moment. I don’t know how to respond, he said, but I watch the news too. I read the newspaper.

This was a really interesting exchange, one of the first that we got at really important questions. What made it even better was that we did it not with a really cool, really “wise” NGO leader, but with a mouthpiece of the big-bad corporation. I think we’re definitely on our way to being more inquisitive human beings and students.

Afterward, we toured the Sirindhorn dam briefly, then drove to Pak Mun, about a twenty minute drive. In the shadow of the dam lie the echoes of the Mae Mun 1 Protest village (“the Mun River Protest village”). The villagers who have been protesting the dam in all its various stages set up here in 2003 (maybe?) for a few months. They were kicked off. Now there remains but a few artifacts to mark their presence – some boards, barbed wire, a hammock.

We took a boat ride to where the Mun and Mekong Rivers intersect. This is called the ci song, or “two colors”. One river is blue, the other is red, the way the Mississippi is a muddy brown. Where they intersect, it is a swirling mass of the two colors. You can even feel the difference in temperatures.

Off in the distance, our professor Ajaan Di (note: Ajaan is a title like “professor”) pointed at the mountains in the distance. It was Laos. Our boats pulled up on the far shore, into this new country. It’s funny, the cultures of Isaan and Lao share the same roots, but now are somehow completely viewed as separate. Thailand wasn’t even Thailand until threats of colonization encouraged the nineteenth century rulers to mark borders and rename ethnicities “Thai.” The loosely-defined Lao territory extended into Isaan. Even today, Isaan people especially out in the villages will speak Isaan – a dialect of Lao – as a first language, not Thai. I’ve picked up some Isaan, but move past saying “that was delicious” and I’m at a loss.

Anyway, it’s strange to see how a mere river and political regime can divide a culture that comes from essentially the same cultural soup. In Laos, the small village that we stayed in for about thirty minutes was devoted almost exclusively to the sale of cheap goods, the equivalent of a duty-free airport store. The kids on the road sold brooms, the road-side stores hawked cartons of cheap cigarettes, silk scarves, and whiskey. Some of the whiskey had cobras preserved in the bottle along with the alcohol.

Coming back on the river, we encountered a strong rainstorm. The four of us at the front of the boat stood without roof, without jacket while the wind and rain raged around us. Everyone else huddled under the thin tarp, acting as a roof. The cold of the rain felt warmer when we embraced the fact that, like it or not, we were going to get wet.

I showed up at my homestay an hour later completely saturated. Stay tuned for waterfalls, temple, protest stories, and all the bamboo shoots you ever thought you wanted to eat.

Digestions: Both Intellectual and Vegetarian

It's odd being in a place with no winter. The changing of seasons remind me of time passing during the year. Certain things that are associated with the autumn, with the winter, I don't see them now. Because of this, suddenly I'll wake up and realize, wow, it's mid-October. I see monsoons, palm trees, and sleeveless now, not leaves turning all different shades and apples. It's funny too, to encounter all those things I associate with different seasons too, but not be immersed in that atmosphere.

Take for example music. I got in the mood for classical music a few minutes ago, and brought up this gorgeous album by Morten Lauridsen. I will always associate it with the winter. That's when I first heard it, concert choir, senior year of high school. We sang selections from his Mid-Winter Songs, and I remember the cold, dark nights, and this cathedralic music. To take that in a completely different context, say Thailand, brings me out of this study abroad mindset and suddenly, I have my own little autumn.

I'm not sure why I'm all musey today. Last night, we were at the P-fac (program facilitator)'s house for a pseudo-party. I sat in the corner with Adam and Alejandro and had a fantastic conversation about... well, everything, but specifically about outlook on the world. It's fascinating to think about how everything that we believe is imperceptibly influenced by all these factors you can't touch, can't recognize. It's conversations like this that excite me. We three, tiny people in a big, big world came up with our own views about the world. Not for a paper, or a book, or a thesis, but just because we are three enquiring minds. I find that exciting.

Once again, I'm struck by how exciting learning from ones peers is. I even learn when I'm not trying. For example, today Sasha and I trekked downtown to the city to eat at the Asoke restaraunt (which we finally found). I learned a lot of great things about her. Our conversations fed off of each other.

Welly, welly, welly, no more time for musings about the universe and every atom within. I've got two papers due tomorrow and am only through my first draft.

Rat dii sawat. (Good night)

Back from the fields

Our caravan pulled into the office a few hours ago. The ride was about four hours from the last village, Thap Yai, until KKU. Today was Elly's birthday, so we've been singing to her, passing around the cake (kanom), and giving rice whiskey. Tess and I shared an iPod and even belted out tunes for a spate. A lovely time, but still a four hour van ride. Let's be real.
So now I'm back with a backpack full of dirty clothes, a cell phone empty of batteries, a bottle of soymilk, and over 490 photos of the past week. Updates galore to follow. Now I'm tired and foresee much paper-writing and unpacking to come, so rat di sawat (good night).

Crooked Rain

So tomorrow at the crack of dawn we leave for the east for a week to study the effects of dams on the villagers living by them. Judging from the reading, it'll be intense. I'm just glad to be another participant and no longer a u-fac. My sleep will improve and hopefully my mood.

Rained all day. At one point, rain covered my ankles while slogging through a puddle. The briefing was well-done and although I arrived utterly saturated from my umbrella-less walk, I am thoroughly excited about the unit. The rain, I have discovered, leaks through my roof (I live on the top floor), so I have a little piece of the outdoors (a puddle) in my room. I tried to clean it up, but just in case I told Ajaan Ooh -- our professor who looks after apartment-related stuff -- about my room's problem. Dada comes back tomorrow after I leave, so I'd like to leave the room and her stuff in good condition. Hope her stuff is alright. She already thinks I'm disaster-prone, seeing as I shorted out the electricity the first day, and pulled the patio door off its hinges. Whoops.
We have a new girl, Vanessa, who is studying dams' social effects worldwide. She just got in from China this morning and is staying with us until late October. She helped us map out one of the up-coming exchanges, and seems really fascinating. I look forward to picking her brain about China, dams, and her research.

Finally, I gave a mini-lecture today on photography, seeing as the group has been recently talking a lot about sharing knowledge. Well, only two people showed up, but I had fun sharing what amounted to be a twenty-minute summary of last semester's Intro to Photo.

In other news, I finally posted my thoughts from the slaughterhouse visit (was it really only last week?). It's a bit graphic, but... well I just needed to write it. The delay is explained by the experience's intensity.

Sawasdee-ka! See you in a week.

Group Process Love

This'll be brief, mainly because after a sixteen hour day of facilitation, meetings, planning, and evaluation, I'm pooped, but also because I believe that this statement is in its purest form right now:
I think our group and our process is awesome, inspiring, and terrific. We're starting to come together as a working and supportive unit, and that is amazing to be a witness to and participant in.

Bahd-dah-bah-bah-bah i'm lovin' it.
To quote Alejandro, "Spread the love."

And I'll just end that here. "Master of Delicious", enjoy.

Some Breaking News from Bangkok...

From the Bangkok Post: Trouser Snake Kills Cambodian Man

Thai English-language newspapers have a history of bizzare or just plain funny headlines with us CIEE students. It started back in late August when a group of us came across a Nation front page headline about opposition to "same-sex underwater marriage".

In more pertinent news to me, workshop today. We came up with some really cool ideas for further projects:

+ list of alternatives to 7/11 so we don't support CP, a corporation with really creepy ties to the Thai government.
+ organizing a possible reprise of a Thai farmer-tour in the US. Continuing the work that has been done in that field.
+ maybe get ENGAGE (our network of former CIEE Thailand students) a booth at music festivals or county fairs. Spread the word about fair trade rice and our other interests.
+ looking into traditional knowledge of farming and its integration in alternative education here in Thailand.
Overall, I feel a bit more of an informed consumer and am encouraged to keep seeking out this information. If anyone reading has any insight, comments, suggestions, or outlets that we could use in approaching these projects, I know I always appreciate the help.

Last Night in September

It feels like my life this past while has been an endless chain of meetings and food, sandwiched (pun alert), one right after another. Although yesterday was a bit of a break, where I did little but sleep and update flickr, today it was back to the old routine. So the weekend isn’t that relaxing afterall, is it?

Waking up at eleven like I have been doing this weekend is really nice, but something I can’t get used to. Because Dada is back home for a week, I have the room all to myself and can stay up later reading without feeling guilty about keeping her up. Plus, this week I can access all the internet I want – both a positive and a negative. Positive as a means of keeping in touch. Negative as it is an immense time-waster. You know the internet.

I got “breakfast” at the crack of two at the bakery-coffee shop down the road from KSS with some friends. Although we CIEE students all hang out together a lot, some weekends I feel certain people disappear. They aren’t actually going anywhere – our paths just don’t cross. These group outings for meals or to the student activities room at the office are essential for keeping up with the latest in group social news.
This bakery is a weird combination of American and Thai ambiance. When I first saw the décor, my initial association was with a diner. The same glass cake display racks, white vinyl booths – different food. Much of the offering maintains the appearance of American diner food, for example, they offer French fries with fish. When you actually bite into the oversized fish stick, it has a distinctly Thai flavor. I can’t explain what that means exactly. It’s not worse or better, just different.

My coffee obsession continues. I got a cappuccino that tasted like a dream wrapped in a caffeine covered blanket. Mmh. Kat got what she thought was a green tea smoothie. It ended up tasting more like Grape Nuts. Once again, not better, not worse than green tea. Now that’s what I should be getting for breakfast. Too bad the bakery opens at noon.

We U-facs met for what promises to be one of the last times, this time to plan the final workshop, which is bright and early Monday morning. Hopefully, this will tie up the unit into a tidy, little package. Two hours later, Anne, Kat, and I headed downtown on a song taew in hopes of eating at the Asoke vegetarian restaurant. The Asoke movement is a sect of Buddhism in Thailand (fun fact: started by a former TV entertainer) that focuses on self-reliance. They grow their own food, very organic, very vegetarian. I hear delicious too, but wouldn’t know because our journey turned out to be in vain. By the time we found their restaurant – a small building in what looks like a deserted part of the pseudo-suburbs – it was closed for the night. Luckily, a nearby organic restaurant was open. We had really delicious food – Kat especially. Her coconut milk curry came in an actually coconut. Tasted like Thai food from the states; nothing I’ve yet had here. Isn’t that funny.

Somehow, we rolled our stuffed stomachs further downtown to the night market. A little shopping, some necessary, some pleasure-driven, before we hailed a tuk-tuk home. Alas, no lolly-gagging at the clothing stands for we had more meetings to go.

Again with the U-facs (we have dubbed ourselves “Team Food”), this time to start a self-evaluation paper. Although I will not miss the added meetings eating precious hours of my days away, we’re a pretty fun group. Full of opinions, yes. Sometimes over-exact to a point, yes. But fun – heck yeah.

PS - I was tempted to title this post "Wake me up when September ends", but I'm resisting the cheesy song titles as post titles tonight. No promises about the future though.