India revisited

As promised, more info on India...

My overall impression is that it is a dirty country and some people live in deep poverty. I will always remember the people who came up to our car every time we stopped and would tap on the windows begging for money. Being white we were a magnet for the beggers, and there were a lot. I was warned that people would try to take advantage of us, but it didn't make it any less of a shock to the system. But expect for overpaying for a few things and having my mom's wallet w very little in it stolen everything went smoothly.

In fact I don't think i have lived nicer at any point in my life. We stayed in the nicest hotels I have ever been in. Living in luxury was a weird dichotomy from the poverty we were seeing, but it was a treat from my Peace Corps living style. One hotel particulary stands out in my mind. It was the Kings summer palace in Udapur. And it was smack dab in the middle of a big lake. Not on an island- the palace looked like it was floating on water. All made of marble w turrets and courtyards. They even had a man playing the flute that echoed around the gardens.

home sweet home

I am back sitting in my teek rocking chair in my 90 degree room with my fan on me. I got home last night after almost 3 weeks away from my town. I am just a little afraid to motivate and go outside. I still want to be on vacation. My parents left from Bangkok 2 nights ago and I have mostly been speaking English for the 3 weeks they were here, I fear i have forgotten all my Thai.

I had been looking forward to the visit from my parents for such a long time. I loved showing my town, my friends, my daily routines, my market, my thai language skills- basically my Thailand life to them. And they were appropriately impressed! I have integrated into my Thai life so much that it was fun to take a step back and look at my life the way my visiting parents must be seeing it. It's always nice to have visitors to see an outside perspective.

After the visit to my town we went up to Northern Thailand to visit some of the hill tribes. People there living in bamboo huts the way people have been living for 100s of year. The people were so kind and welcoming. My parents really enjoyed seeing that way of life. It is always a hard balance for me between being really curious about that lifestyle and wanting to see how people live, but not wanting to treat them like a museum exhibit, or zoo animals. I don't want their lives to be for the entertainment of people who are just there behind a camera. It is hard to see that there lives have already been influences by the tourist industry. Seeing the little kids begging for candy or school pens. Seeing the Satelite in the house of the man who gets tips from the tourists, while the other men are doing back breaking labor for the equivalent of $25 for 3 days. And that opportunity only comes up every few weeks.

We visited a Lisu hilltribe village where the lineage is origionally from China and Tibet and Burma. Many left because of the poor treatment of people in Burma. They have been in Thailand for 1-2 generations. But they only know a few Thai words, mostly they speak the Lisu language. The village head spoke Thai so he translated for me, but it was generally difficult to communicate. Still I stayed up after dinner by candle light while they sat around drinking and chatting and joined in on the festivities.

After the hill tribe we went to the large city in the North, Chiang Mai, where there were huge festivals for the Thai Holiday, Loy Gratong. This is a festival to the gods for the use of water during the year. Many Thai holidays have the same preparations, weeks before hand are set aside to prepare for a parade w floats, a beauty contest, possibly an aerobics competition, and often dressing up in traditional Thai wear, Loy Gratong is no exception. All of the country schools were canceled to plan dance routines and parades. With Loy Gratong people also prepare hat sized floats made of folded bamboo leaves and candles to be floated down the river. It is absolutely beautiful.

After Chiang Mai we flew to Northern India for 11 days in Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, and Udaphur. Visiting the Taj Majal on day 2 was certainly a highlight. My dad kept saying it is something that is so talked up that you go with such high expectations, but it still does not disapoint. It is impressive from afar and up close w all it's intricate marble inlay work.

After the Taj was built the king had the architects hands cut off so he could never make anything so fabulous for another person. So the man taught the craft to the boy who fed him every day. The secrets of the craft have been passed down in that boys family for generations and now they make beautiful inlay marble tables, boxes, etc. The secret formula for the glue used to keep the precious stones in place for 100s of years in the Taj is still not publicly known.

I will have to finish my India explination later. I am going to motivate outside to get to my tutors on time. Got to get back in the swing of speaking Thai...

Forward from Allie

You ask the questions... I give the answers.... Here's me in a nutshell...

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:45
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? honestly can't remember,it's been too long. It could have been That Tom Cruise one w Dakota Fawning. War??I walked out. I didn't know it was about Aliens.
4. What is your favorite TV show? Sex and the City. Watch on DVDs at my computer.
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Lately cereal and box milk.
6. What is your middle name? Mildred (grandmother's name)
7. Favorite food? gang som cha-om tawt (sweat and sour curry w veggies), somtam (sweet papaya salad)
8. What foods do you dislike? ba-lah (fermented fish)
9. What is your favorite chip flavor? squid- I swear they have it inThailand
10.What is your favorite CD at the moment? Crystal Skulls (not nearly as hard -core as they sound) or usually just IPOD shuffle
11. What kind of car do you drive? a bicycle
12. Favorite sandwich? Oh how I wish I could eat sandwiches. Here's one I fantasize about: Turkey wrap on whole wheat roll-up with crisp lettuce,roasted red peppers and honey mustard...
13. What characteristic do you detest? indecicevness. uh, wait, on secondthought...
14. Favorite item of clothing? none, as in nakedness
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would yougo? Headed to India in 10 days!!
16. What color is your bathroom? orangish
17. Favorite brand of clothing? the 199 Baht stall at the market ( 5 USD,but you can bargain down)
18. Where would you retire to? San Francisco
19. What was your most memorable birthday? The last one- it ended w a few of us getting driven to bangkok to meet w the director of PC Thailand to receive a warning.
20. Favorite sport to watch? Skiing21. Furthest place you are sending this? America!!
22. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? Allie bc she already sent it to me.
23. Person you expect to send it back first? go on, surprise me...
24. Goal you have for yourself? Marathon #4 March 18, 2006
25. When is your birthday? March 18 Every year!!
26. When is your Anniversary? i'll get back to you.
27. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night
28. What is your shoe size? 6.5
29. Pets? lots of stray dogs
30. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? My parents arecoming to visit in less than 35 hours!!! I haven't seen them in 10 months.
31. What did you want to be when you were little? a lawyer actress
32. What are you today? Peace Corps Volunteer doing development work in schools and on HIV prevention
33. What is your favorite candy? knome crook (a coconut milk custard)
34. What is your favorite flower? orchids and lotus flowers
35. What is a date on the calendar you are looking forward to? Spring 2006and being back in the USA

site development

Spent the day with my Peace Corps program manager. I am in a Teacher Collaboration and Community Outreach program as a volunteer, and the woman who is my PC suppervisor's name is Khun Siweporn. She invited me to check out a town where they may send a volunteer next year. Someone was in my town last year doing the same thing checking out if my town is suitable for a volunteer. This morning we went to the Educational office for the province. All the big wigs met us in the confrence room where we chatted and did a power point on what it's like to have a volunteer and what is expected of the host community before heading out to visit the schools.

It was really interesting to see the volunteer cycle, from before the volunteer arrives. Peace Corps only spends a day in each town, and about an hour at each school before deciding to send a volunteer. And the sponsors have so many misconceptions about what having a volunteer means. My friend who went on a site development had a woman tell her she was very lonely and hoped to get a male volunteer!

Generally they are really excited to have a volunteer in the town. It is easy to see why so many of my friends got to site and their co-teachers didn't actually want to do any work w them, they just wanted to have a whitey in town. It's a status symble.

Chiquita Banana meets Bangkok

Halloween 2005

Just got back from the most fabulous of weekends in Bangkok. A group of about 30 PC Volunteers were finishing their service, so a big gaggle of us got together to see them off. We all stayed at Suk 11 Guesthouse, a place we often stay when we are in Bangkok. It is down a side street and has a lot of character. Open air wooden reception area w big wooden tables and lots of plants. Upstairs is a room w couches, a big TV, and about 300 movies to choose from. Anyway, it is like our home in Bangkok, and it is so much fun to sort of take over the place with 30 friends. Whenever you're up, people are around. We spontaniously get 20 people sitting around to watch a movie or play cards.

So, as Bangkok always is, it was a weekend of good food and lots of spending. The food highlight was a turkey sandwich at Subway! I went Saturday with a group of friends after a basketball tournament that the guys organize with out PC doctor every few months. The other food highlight was a club sandwich at a bar where we had a private room Saturday night at the going away pub crawl.

So Halloween was on Saturday night for us and the theme was togas. Bangkok knows about Halloween, and they weren't too shocked to see 30 of us walking down the street in costumes, but they don't know about togas and didn't know why most of us were wearing bed sheets. I was going to be Chiquita Banana toga, but I scrapped the toga part and just went w Chiquita banana. You may remember I got this totally cheesy outfit last April at the Songran festival, one that reminded me of Chiquita Banana- yellow ruffles and all. Well I wrapped my head up, and pinned some fake fruit in- presto chango- Chiquita Banana!!

So I said good bye to some good friends, and in about 5 months another group leaves and my group will be the oldest. The next new group comes mid January. Remember how I came and spent 10 weeks in Training before we all left to our own sites? Well this year they moved the training city to be in my town! In all of Thailand, there will be 60 new Americans training about 3 kms from my house. In my town!

I am actually really really excited. It means I will get to know them pretty well. And whenever other volunteers come to help with training I'll get to hang out with them. When we were training at the beginning of the year, we had a place we would all go hang out at the end of the day, before heading to our host families houses. We called it 'the hut.' I'm hoping my house is the new 'hut.'