"You Can Get Anything You Want..."

So I sit here in my dorm room, listening to "Alice's Restaraunt", mulling over the very detatched Thanksgiving I just had. I say "detatched" because it really is just another day here in Thailand.

Today final project time started in earnest. Our group, who consists of myself, Alyssa, Pete, Stevie, Anne, and Tom, is working on the organization of a sort-of network of urban scavengers in Khon Kaen. Yesterday we met with P' Kovitt, an NGO working with slum-dwellers and the landfill community. (A note here: P'Kovitt is a person; activist in Thailand routinely introduce themselves as NGOs.) This morning, Kovitt came with us to two slum communities -- Theperak 1 and Nong Wang. Neither of these was the one I stayed at. So that means, I still haven't seen any of my former host families since we've parted ways, which is a little sad. Oh well, we'll see each other at the Human Rights Festival next month.

The purpose of the meetings this morning was to get communities interested in an organizational meeting this evening back at the office. Luckily, both Theperak and Nong Wang communities were enthusiastic about the meeting. They agreed to send representatives to the dinner and meeting.

After a rushed lunch, Anne and I tagged along with another project group working with the landfill community. Their project is really cool, as Alexandra explained to me. It involves making crafts out of non-recyclable garbage for the Human Rights Festival and doing a photo exhibit using the same model used in the movie "Born into Brothels." That model involves giving cameras to members of a community, teaching how to use them, holding photo critiques, and ending with not only neat photos, but a skill for the community members. Also accompanying us were two KKU students who have written a human rights report for the landfill community, showing the first draft to the community. Paw Kham and Mae Thong were there again and it was really cool seeing them again. It really struck me how long it was since we'd been there -- consequently how long we've been here in Thailand.

Also, even two and a half months later, the landfill, the shear amount of trash, strikes me.

Paw Kham seemed excited about the prospects that a network of scavengers could be, but wary. It seems they've been promised a bit too much in the past. Still, he agreed to come with other members.

We came back with four hours until the meeting, but there was lots to organize, and we were kept busy until five. Last minute disasters sprung up -- like our Ajaans freaking out about the number of people coming to the meeting, or reevaluation of goals. When six o'clock rolled around however, we were ready to go. As the members of the communities flowed into our parking lot, sitting down to eat, every one of us was nervous. How would it go?

Anne and I sat with Ajaan Ooh, our translator for the night, P'Kovitt, and several of the leaders to set out our objectives. Paw Sompat of Theperak 1 sat with us, displaying his dark-horse tendencies. He seems to think most often aloud, and has been known to ramble on a bit. From his rambling several good ideas, brimming with excitement, have stemmed.

The meeting went exceptionally well. Just about everyone seemed optimistic of the idea to form a network, and all were in support of it. At one point, when relating stories of being accosted by the police, it was pretty chaotic. Ajaan Ooh looked like she was having a hard time, translating the cacaphony of voices coming from all sides. Still, excitement caused this. This is really great and in line with our goals for the project. We intend that this project -- starting a network -- be the communities', not ours. Our role is that of facilitator of these conversations (mission accomplish...?) and to contribute something like a PowerPoint presentation, that the network can take to presentations to portray them and arm them with usable statistics.

The communities set up meetings in the future that we're planning on attending, to check where they're at and explain our progress to them. Next steps for tomorrow include figuring out this pretty daunting process ahead of us. You see, we're planning on carrying out the survey on our own -- but none of us has ever done this. Well, it should be interesting.

Tonight, leaving the meeting, we were excited. Let's not forget this intial wave of optimism, excitement, and energy -- even if a week's time finds me in the pits of frustration!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.