You know, I want to blog, I really do. I think about my blog, sitting here, lonely and silent, reaching out to all of the people who have given up hope of ever reading a new post. And I even create little blogs in my mind. But actually getting past work, past personal emails and onto this site, actually getting the blog to upload, resizing the photos, and posting the whole thing is way more work that I am interested in. I blame it on the rain. The never ceasing rain. And the server that keeps crashing at work. And the stupid internet cafes that are closed now in the evenings and on weekends because the tourists have all fled from the ridiculous amount of water pouring from the sky. Again, it comes around to the rain.
Ooops. Laura, ha ha, just kidding. No rain, all sun. Please don't cancel your plane tickets. I am sure that by mid-May we'll be back to pure sunshine and happiness!
So, do you think it is better to take bucket showers but know that there is a possibility that at any moment you will have hot water from the tap or to just give up and rent a house with cold water showers but constant water flow? You would think, with all of the rain God has provided, that my water tank would be overflowing. But it isn't. And the water from the street appears to not be flowing to my house at all. Today someone came to look at the situation and with a few turns of some knobs near the sidewalk had the water flowing once again. I SWEAR I have turned those knobs the same way every day, even while praying for water, and nothing has happened. It was definitely a conspiracy. They turned on the water at some neighborhood water factory right before coming to see me and then "oh so miraculously" turned it on at my house while mocking me. I am not amused. And then, as soon as they left, the water flow from the street went out again. Who can possibly navigate this strange, there is so much water in the streets that we could actually swim along the ditches but no water could possibly be routed to your house, system of water allottment?
Now I am actually running late to a meeting while trying to blog. And I haven't covered my trip to Cambodia (amazing), the arrival of an absolutely giant box of Easter candy from a friend in the States (yum-am trying not to eat it all since it is destined for small needy Burmese children but I can't help myself around bunny shaped marshmallows!), Jeremy's departure (torturous-I hate goodbyes), my puppy's early death at the hands of an evil driver (the week of mourning following accounts for my silence on the blog site after returning from Cambodia), my recent UNICEF workshop which has revealed to me just the level of inexperience I am dealing with on my team-but also the exciting new plans we have for the project, my addiction to Gray's Anatomy as seen on my laptop computer since someone forgot to pay my cable bill this month, or my possible job options.
Hmmm. I can't do much more than this right now. So I promise to try a bit harder to get on here in the coming days. And I have resized the Cambodia photos so prepare yourself for Amanda + Jeremy + temples temples temples. :)
Love from Bang Niang.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Monday, April 2, 2007
Puppies
To all of my dog loving friends - here are the long awaited puppy photos. If you or anyone you know want one I would be happy to arrange a delivery to the United States. It is possible, it is done regularly by many foreigners living/working here, and there is a good and safe system. Costs money but not outrageously expensive. All three are spayed and have all shots. They are lovely little dogs full of life and happiness and a lot of loyalty for what they have here. I think they will make amazing pets.
Sook (alternative spelling Suk) is the little tan one on the left.Her name means happy.
She is about 4 months, very loving, soft fur, short hair but fluffier tail. She likes to follow people around and she can sit on command. She has sort of sad eyes because she is more passive and gets a little picked on. The other dogs around here steal her food which is why she is skinny. She is very happy on the beach, wags her tail a lot, and loves to run and play with everyone. She is an outdoor dog right now but could easily adapt to cushions and the good life inside! :) She has small paws and while her legs are getting longer I don't think she'll be a big dog. She would be a really easy dog with other pets or children. Seems low maintenence. Not a barker and have never heard her growl or whine. She is very quiet and calm.
Nok is the black one on right and at the top of the blog.
Her name means bird.
Nok is also about 4 months. She is clever and funny-sort of clowny. She showed up with a big bite/hole in her side and lots of skin parasites. Everything is fixed up now and she is turning shiny and soft. She was originally really scared of everything but now she is happy and friendly. She loves riding in the car and she loves people, she does not love water so far. She is very loyal and sits at attention in front of the office waiting for her favorite folks to arrive. She hasn't mastered sit yet but she is pretty good with stay. She also gets a little picked on about the food which is why she's thin but she is starting to assert herself. She is going to be small I think. Short hair. I think she'll be a great and fun companion. Would probably be fine with other pets-she gets along with the dogs around here, but she is a scaredy cat so it could take awhile to adjust. Definitely wants to be an indoor dog-you can see her craving the attention.
Finally, Saam. Her name means number 3. She sort of showed up a few days later and we are not sure if she is from the same litter. She's always looked fairly healthy and confident. At first she didn't want people to touch her and she would scream and cry. Was scared of men and feet. She got over that SO FAST and now she loves attention and being pet and loved. She adores Jeremy. She is very happy and active and would be so easy to teach. She listens well-knows sit, stay, etc. Good in the car. She could probably live indoors or outdoors. She likes other dogs and plays well. She does not like to share food though and growls at the other puppies if they eat near her. She wants their food. She is fine with the older and bigger dogs and never growls at them. So she would be fine with other pets-just not small weak puppies. ha ha ha. She has short hair, long legs, and a tail that curls over her back!Sunday, April 1, 2007
Real life in Thailand...
I say real life because honestly it is amazing what is going on in the lives of people living right next door to the tourist resorts here. It is not that I blame the tourists at all. If it weren't for them the whole area would be in crisis still. But I want people to know that behind every fancy swimming pool and expensive restaurant real life is playing out and it is not pretty.Almost a week and a half ago now my team located 2 of our cases in Kuraburi. A 7 year old girl and her 2 year old sister. They found the 22 (!) year old mother and her newborn baby with tuberculosis. The baby couldn't breath, couldn't open her eyes, without coughing and coughing. The family couldn't get much help at their local hospital because they are Burmese and don't speak any Thai. This is a huge problem here and prevents many Burmese people from getting medical attention. They also fall into the category of illegal migrants and so are generally scared of formal institutions like hospitals for fear of deportation. (It is not supposed to happen but sometimes hospitals will call the police and have people deported when they can't pay a medical bill.)
Anyway, being the good Samaritans that they are, my team found transportation for the woman and her children to a hospital closer to our office where MSF (Doctors without borders) has Burmese translators working. They could not drive the family in our team car because there are checkpoints in Thailand and if you are found to be driving someone without legal documentation you can be arrested for human trafficking. Good to know, good to know. I would have surely popped them all in my car and driven off so thankfully I was not with the team that day!
I was there the day that they checked into the hospital here in Takuapa and let me say that it was a sad sight. If I could have transferred my Thai Gold Standard insurance coverage over to them and taken them to the Phuket hospital I would have. Instead we shuffled around the Takuapa public hospital for no less than 8 hours before they were finally given a room. The mother with TB, coughing and coughing into a rag. The baby (turns out has pneumonia also) choking and choking barely able to breath being carried by the mother. No offer of a wheelchair at all. Mother so weak she can hardly stand trying to also watch her other girls. It was a pathetic standard of care. The hospital staff just kept demanding to know who would pay the bill. And that is ridiculous since Thai law mandates that TB patients receive free treatment since it is a public health risk. Of course, absolutely no one seemed to be in charge at the hospital to discuss this with. After hours and hours of the same-moving from the lab, to the x-rays, to the chairs, to the exam room, to the interpreters, and back again you just get in the zone and go with it. It is so difficult to fight any system here and get anything done quickly or efficiently. I had to demand that the hospital test the 2 older children for TB-they weren't going to do it! And it turns out they have it!
Finally we left the little family in the most disgusting room imagineable. Tiny-2 wooden beds with thin plastic mattresses. Broken fan. Dirty walls. The nurses dropped the baby on the bed and she was laying in a pool of her own urine until I had to point it out to them. It is as if being Burmese makes them animals in some people's eyes.
The story does not end there. The family is HIV positive. The hospital called later in the week to tell us they wanted them all out because they didn't want the TB to spread to other patients. It was a long week of looking for options, rounding up some money, and trying to convince the hospital to at least keep the baby until she is well. They agreed but only if we could find a woman to come and take care of her-they refuse to feed or change her. Can you BELIEVE that?!
Father has shown up and they are all living in a temporary shelter for Burmese migrants run by a local NGO now. It is grim but not as bad as the hospital.
In a side story to demonstrate the severity of the problems between the Thai and Burmese here, we literally ran into a woman sitting outside the baby rooms on a bench as we were dealing with this other case. She was hand expressing milk into a cup for her baby and crying and crying. My Burmese translator stopped to talk to her and her story is heartbreaking. She and her husband brought their sick newborn to the hospital all the way from Kuraburi (2 hours north) because they knew there were Burmese translators here. The father got stopped at a checkpoint near the hospital and was deported back to Burma for being illegal! The mother has no money, the hospital staff wouldn't tell her how her baby was doing or when she could leave, they were demanding money or they would deport her. Meanwhile the other children in the family were living with a neighbor back in Kuraburi. If both parents were deported the children would all be abandoned and never know what happened. It was such a sad story and the woman obviously felt so hopeless. End of story is that we are helping to sort things out-despite the fact that the case is not in our records. Just considering it preventive care...
I had to ask Save the Children for an emergency response fund to help with situations like these. You cannot just turn your back and what happens when we don't have money is that my staff start paying out of their pockets. They cannot afford this and it isn't ideal case management. We needs funding to actually DO things. It is so frustrating at times.
In a final note, yesterday we met some friends from California here and spent the day at their hotel which is the nicest in the whole area. I couldn't help myself and on the way into town for dinner I took them by the Burmese temporary shelter to drop off some things for the family there. They stayed in the car so they certainly didn't see much but I know that what they did see was a shock. I don't think they imagined that just a few kilometers down the road from their hotel the same sunset passes over rows of concrete shacks filled with HIV and TB patients and others in desperate need of a safe place. I feel a little guilty because I could have run that errand at a different time but I wanted them to see. They were really quiet afterwards.Restrictions on the Burmese tighten daily. Now in Phuket province they are not allowed to congregate in groups of 5 or more, they cannot use cell phones or drive cars, and they must be indoors after 8pm. It is becoming a human rights violation. These people escaped the military regime of Burma, many of them are heroes (like my staff members) who put their lives at risk to stand up against the government. But they find themselves being forced to run and hide like animals here.
From Bang Niang.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Too tired to think of a title...
I sat down tonight to write and realized that it has been awhile and I am not sure where to pick up my story….
Jeremy has been here for a couple of weeks and it feels like he was never not here. I try not to think about 4 weeks from now when he has to leave. I will give his update for him. He is enjoying the boatyard. They sent him home today with two gorgeous miniature longtail wooden boats. No idea how we will get them home along with all of the other gifts and dogs and decorations I am accumulating! At this point it is starting to look easier to ship our DC life over here and give up on ever leaving. Ok, just kidding mom and dad! Anyway, Jer is fine and much tanner than me already. He buzzes around on the motorbike, gobbles down all of the food with no stomach problems, is currently hanging a light for me in the house, and has mastered some basic Thai.
Last week we went to Bangkok for my monthly meeting with Save the Children and UNICEF. It is supposed to be a 2 day trip each month but with travel time it really takes up 3 days and thus feels like a waste of an entire work week.
We left on Tuesday morning, drove down to Phuket airport, flew up to Bangkok, took the taxi ride to the hotel (each leg of this well over an hour) and finally I got to the office. It was strange being back in Bangkok since I feel like I have fully left the big city life. Two places could not feel farther apart than Bang Niang and Bangkok. If you haven’t seen it, I can’t describe it. Just noise, cars, smog and buildings. It is very pretty right along the river, and I remember that there are beautiful sights around the outskirts, but the heart of Bangkok which stretches on and on seems so lacking of anything lovely or peaceful to balance the other stuff. It just doesn’t seem quite Thai to me.
I had my meetings which went really well. So far I absolutely love SCUK.
They are receptive, caring, generous, and helpful. They treat me like a professional and we all just work well together. I couldn’t have asked for a better organization to work for. It was a great two days to review what my team has done so far and get feedback. Talking about our work here makes me realize that we actually have accomplished quite a bit in such a short amount of time! It doesn’t feel like it each day but it accumulates. Save the Children want me to propose an extension of the project for up to one year which they are hoping to ask UNICEF to fund. I haven’t decided yet what that would look like and if it would necessarily involve me staying here but it is exciting because there isn’t any way we can make real changes here by the end of June. It takes time to build up local capacity before leaving…
For a bit of fun Jeremy explored the city, well he managed to get to a museum, and the next day we managed to meet up at the grand palace and reclining Buddha for some tourism. We also hit the night market where amazing shopping energy overcame my need for sleep (the night market is open until 1am and is enormous) and Jeremy was dragged for many mind numbing hours around while I accumulated a pile of presents for everyone back home.
I am amazed while I type this but we ALSO actually fit in an evening trip across the city to Bangkapi area where I volunteered 10 years ago. We had dinner with Steve Cable who was my “boss” back then at Santisuk Center and ran into an old friend that was one of my English students!
Despite the fun outings, never have we been happier to get on a plane and leave a city. Sadly our trip home was marred by an “Office Depot incident”. This is when I arrive at Office Depot at the Phuket mall (a 30 minute drive in the opposite direction from home) and I am overcome by the sheer stupidity and lack of brain power presented by the Office Depot employees as they struggle to fill my binder order. This has happened a few times in the past and generally the incident is characterized by my entrance, their confusion about my order (where it is, why the delay, whether they ordered 33 binders or 140-yes, this came as a question during the incident in question), followed by my own feeling of nausea that quickly turns into general malaise and weakness followed by a desperate need to drink water and nap. So. During my FOURTH trip to Office Depot this time (seriously I have been there 4 times now trying to sort out the 140 binders needed for the project) I had a terrible moment of extreme dehydration or exhaustion or something yet again. This culminated in what I view as an extreme act of desperation…an emergency nap on a chair in the mall! Ok, it was a cushy chair next to Au Bon Pain (yes they have them here too) but it was still very embarrassing. I just couldn’t take another step. It was starting to look like an Ecuador sickness relapse and while I do like the looks of the Phuket hospital I thought maybe a preventive rest would cure all. It did. I made it home. They actually came up with the correct binders after first offering me 33 and then forcing me to count every one of the 140 even though I was about to die. Amazingly I am still here to write about it. :)
In other news, over the weekend we moved into my new little house behind the Bang Niang market. It is in a weird sort of development where all the cute little houses look the same. Not what I look for in a neighborhood back home. But it was my best option here and is a sweet furnished little place with a great front porch. The photos are posted here.
There is one down side and that is a terrible mystery smell emanating from the bathroom. It is looking like a plumbing/sewage draining problem and since my rent has been paid up front and the owners are off to another province I am hoping that this can be resolved without the sewer fumes creating a fireball in the kitchen as soon as I light my burner…Concerning, yes. But it is Thailand and you just take it one day at a time. One stinky bathroom at a time.
Love from Bang Niang.
Jeremy has been here for a couple of weeks and it feels like he was never not here. I try not to think about 4 weeks from now when he has to leave. I will give his update for him. He is enjoying the boatyard. They sent him home today with two gorgeous miniature longtail wooden boats. No idea how we will get them home along with all of the other gifts and dogs and decorations I am accumulating! At this point it is starting to look easier to ship our DC life over here and give up on ever leaving. Ok, just kidding mom and dad! Anyway, Jer is fine and much tanner than me already. He buzzes around on the motorbike, gobbles down all of the food with no stomach problems, is currently hanging a light for me in the house, and has mastered some basic Thai.
Last week we went to Bangkok for my monthly meeting with Save the Children and UNICEF. It is supposed to be a 2 day trip each month but with travel time it really takes up 3 days and thus feels like a waste of an entire work week.
We left on Tuesday morning, drove down to Phuket airport, flew up to Bangkok, took the taxi ride to the hotel (each leg of this well over an hour) and finally I got to the office. It was strange being back in Bangkok since I feel like I have fully left the big city life. Two places could not feel farther apart than Bang Niang and Bangkok. If you haven’t seen it, I can’t describe it. Just noise, cars, smog and buildings. It is very pretty right along the river, and I remember that there are beautiful sights around the outskirts, but the heart of Bangkok which stretches on and on seems so lacking of anything lovely or peaceful to balance the other stuff. It just doesn’t seem quite Thai to me.I had my meetings which went really well. So far I absolutely love SCUK.
They are receptive, caring, generous, and helpful. They treat me like a professional and we all just work well together. I couldn’t have asked for a better organization to work for. It was a great two days to review what my team has done so far and get feedback. Talking about our work here makes me realize that we actually have accomplished quite a bit in such a short amount of time! It doesn’t feel like it each day but it accumulates. Save the Children want me to propose an extension of the project for up to one year which they are hoping to ask UNICEF to fund. I haven’t decided yet what that would look like and if it would necessarily involve me staying here but it is exciting because there isn’t any way we can make real changes here by the end of June. It takes time to build up local capacity before leaving…For a bit of fun Jeremy explored the city, well he managed to get to a museum, and the next day we managed to meet up at the grand palace and reclining Buddha for some tourism. We also hit the night market where amazing shopping energy overcame my need for sleep (the night market is open until 1am and is enormous) and Jeremy was dragged for many mind numbing hours around while I accumulated a pile of presents for everyone back home.
I am amazed while I type this but we ALSO actually fit in an evening trip across the city to Bangkapi area where I volunteered 10 years ago. We had dinner with Steve Cable who was my “boss” back then at Santisuk Center and ran into an old friend that was one of my English students!
Despite the fun outings, never have we been happier to get on a plane and leave a city. Sadly our trip home was marred by an “Office Depot incident”. This is when I arrive at Office Depot at the Phuket mall (a 30 minute drive in the opposite direction from home) and I am overcome by the sheer stupidity and lack of brain power presented by the Office Depot employees as they struggle to fill my binder order. This has happened a few times in the past and generally the incident is characterized by my entrance, their confusion about my order (where it is, why the delay, whether they ordered 33 binders or 140-yes, this came as a question during the incident in question), followed by my own feeling of nausea that quickly turns into general malaise and weakness followed by a desperate need to drink water and nap. So. During my FOURTH trip to Office Depot this time (seriously I have been there 4 times now trying to sort out the 140 binders needed for the project) I had a terrible moment of extreme dehydration or exhaustion or something yet again. This culminated in what I view as an extreme act of desperation…an emergency nap on a chair in the mall! Ok, it was a cushy chair next to Au Bon Pain (yes they have them here too) but it was still very embarrassing. I just couldn’t take another step. It was starting to look like an Ecuador sickness relapse and while I do like the looks of the Phuket hospital I thought maybe a preventive rest would cure all. It did. I made it home. They actually came up with the correct binders after first offering me 33 and then forcing me to count every one of the 140 even though I was about to die. Amazingly I am still here to write about it. :)
In other news, over the weekend we moved into my new little house behind the Bang Niang market. It is in a weird sort of development where all the cute little houses look the same. Not what I look for in a neighborhood back home. But it was my best option here and is a sweet furnished little place with a great front porch. The photos are posted here.
There is one down side and that is a terrible mystery smell emanating from the bathroom. It is looking like a plumbing/sewage draining problem and since my rent has been paid up front and the owners are off to another province I am hoping that this can be resolved without the sewer fumes creating a fireball in the kitchen as soon as I light my burner…Concerning, yes. But it is Thailand and you just take it one day at a time. One stinky bathroom at a time.Love from Bang Niang.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Jeremy is here!
I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep on Monday night. Since he had sort of a convoluted route to get to Bangkok and then a complicated midnight trip through the city to find a friend’s apartment I wasn’t totally convinced he would make it! I spent part of Tuesday afternoon at the mall in Phuket returning some office supplies (those mismatched folders I griped about in a previous post) and discovered the most wonderful grocery store on earth! It was amazing to wander through the aisles and find fresh bread and cookies, tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, everything you might want to make Mexican food-which I am craving! I was in heaven. So I entertained myself grocery shopping until it was time to go to the airport.
Jeremy arrived safe and sound and has been easing into the Thai life ever since. He still has the jet lag (good morning 2am) but the heat doesn’t bother him like it does me. I was really excited to show him around but maybe I should have stretched that out longer as he has now seen everything there is to see in Bang Niang. Sunset at the beach, favorite packs of puppies, coconut groves, 7-11, the outdoor market, the one gas station. Done.
With the local tour out of the way and me back at work Jeremy is working at the Pakarang Boatyard which is the site of the post-tsunami reconstruction of Thai long-tail fishing boats. However, the fishing boat project, like most tsunami projects, is just about done and so he is actually helping to build a huge sail boat that is being sailed around the world for an anti-child trafficking charity. The guys in the boatyard are lots of fun, the beach there is the best white sand clear water beach around, and the whole area is just quiet, filled with coconuts and palm trees, and full of power tools and wood. Perfect for Jer.
In other news, we have almost settled on a rental house and hopefully will actually negotiate a good deal this weekend and move in next week. Actually in the course of finding this house Jeremy got to have the true experience of house hunting in small town Thailand. This particular house only involved 2 phone calls, randomly knocking on their door, sitting through scalding hot coffee in the middle of the afternoon with the owner, and the involvement of 2 english speaking neighbors.
However, one other house was particularly troublesome. It involved driving to a restaurant in Khao Lak where I had been told that a waitress knew someone who had a friend renting a house. This took two separate trips. Once this connection was finally established the waitress made some long phone calls in Thai and set up a meeting the next day for 9am to see the house but we would have to drive back to Khao Lak and meet her at the restaurant to meet the owner because he didn’t want to try and speak English. Despite the fact that the house is next door to Tony Lodge and we could have walked there. So we went to the restaurant at 9am. The waitress doesn’t show until 9:30am. The owner is called. He is still an hour away doing something else. He shows an hour later very annoyed that he stayed out late and had to come and show this house in the morning, even though we had an appointment. He is wearing army fatigues from head to toe and driving a huge truck. He takes us to the house, which turns out to be his prostitute love nest. (!) At first we are assured that we will be very safe, no one mess with us, because he is “brother of Thai police chief.” THEN, he decides to brag to us that really he is the head of the Thai mafia family in a nearby town, Takuapa, and we would be VERY WISE to rent from him. During all of this he is glaring and evil and frightening. I have never had someone try to intimidate me into renting something-quite a sales tactic. With much apologizing we got out of there and now, according to the waitress, he is mad that every person he takes to see the house turns it down. Did I mention that it is bright pink inside, has the largest bed I have ever seen and the doorways are decorated with hanging crystal heart-shaped beads? What is a girl to do? Where are the NORMAL houses with normal landlords? Ha ha ha. It really is all very funny. After the fact.
Next week I have to be in Bangkok for meetings for a couple of days so Jeremy will join me and we’ll do a bit of sightseeing on the side. As much as Bangkok is a tiring place to be I’m really looking forward to a bit of big city again.
Love from Bang Niang.
Jeremy arrived safe and sound and has been easing into the Thai life ever since. He still has the jet lag (good morning 2am) but the heat doesn’t bother him like it does me. I was really excited to show him around but maybe I should have stretched that out longer as he has now seen everything there is to see in Bang Niang. Sunset at the beach, favorite packs of puppies, coconut groves, 7-11, the outdoor market, the one gas station. Done.
With the local tour out of the way and me back at work Jeremy is working at the Pakarang Boatyard which is the site of the post-tsunami reconstruction of Thai long-tail fishing boats. However, the fishing boat project, like most tsunami projects, is just about done and so he is actually helping to build a huge sail boat that is being sailed around the world for an anti-child trafficking charity. The guys in the boatyard are lots of fun, the beach there is the best white sand clear water beach around, and the whole area is just quiet, filled with coconuts and palm trees, and full of power tools and wood. Perfect for Jer.
In other news, we have almost settled on a rental house and hopefully will actually negotiate a good deal this weekend and move in next week. Actually in the course of finding this house Jeremy got to have the true experience of house hunting in small town Thailand. This particular house only involved 2 phone calls, randomly knocking on their door, sitting through scalding hot coffee in the middle of the afternoon with the owner, and the involvement of 2 english speaking neighbors.
However, one other house was particularly troublesome. It involved driving to a restaurant in Khao Lak where I had been told that a waitress knew someone who had a friend renting a house. This took two separate trips. Once this connection was finally established the waitress made some long phone calls in Thai and set up a meeting the next day for 9am to see the house but we would have to drive back to Khao Lak and meet her at the restaurant to meet the owner because he didn’t want to try and speak English. Despite the fact that the house is next door to Tony Lodge and we could have walked there. So we went to the restaurant at 9am. The waitress doesn’t show until 9:30am. The owner is called. He is still an hour away doing something else. He shows an hour later very annoyed that he stayed out late and had to come and show this house in the morning, even though we had an appointment. He is wearing army fatigues from head to toe and driving a huge truck. He takes us to the house, which turns out to be his prostitute love nest. (!) At first we are assured that we will be very safe, no one mess with us, because he is “brother of Thai police chief.” THEN, he decides to brag to us that really he is the head of the Thai mafia family in a nearby town, Takuapa, and we would be VERY WISE to rent from him. During all of this he is glaring and evil and frightening. I have never had someone try to intimidate me into renting something-quite a sales tactic. With much apologizing we got out of there and now, according to the waitress, he is mad that every person he takes to see the house turns it down. Did I mention that it is bright pink inside, has the largest bed I have ever seen and the doorways are decorated with hanging crystal heart-shaped beads? What is a girl to do? Where are the NORMAL houses with normal landlords? Ha ha ha. It really is all very funny. After the fact.
Next week I have to be in Bangkok for meetings for a couple of days so Jeremy will join me and we’ll do a bit of sightseeing on the side. As much as Bangkok is a tiring place to be I’m really looking forward to a bit of big city again.
Love from Bang Niang.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Maybe one at a time puts you on the path...
I really am just a sucker for kids and puppies. And both are abundant here. Abundant numbers and abundant needs. I think it is easy for people to just look away because you feel really helpless. If you help one, what happens to the rest?
Last Thursday I went "to the field." In development speak this is when we get off our butts, drive endless hours to a remote location, and get the face to face research done. This is a much idealized moment when you are sitting behind a desk in the US. In reality it is never ever easy or comfortable. I have done field work in several countries now and it is sort of a love hate relationship. Inevitably you will have to eat strange and possibly unidentifiable food that is offered. Inevitably the bathroom options will be worse than just using the great outdoors. Inevitably the drive will be windy and never ending. And inevitably you will only get a quarter of what you set out to accomplish accomplished. (The love part comes later when you feel so proud that you are actually DOING something instead of writing or reading about it!)
So Thursday I drove with my Burmese liaison and another Burmese researcher up north of here to an area called Kuraburi. It was a very long drive since I didn't know where I was going. I never realized this before but when you are the driver and you know the destination it is not a problem. But having to rely on my passengers for directions I just constantly felt like asking "are we there yet?" We arrived at noon at a learning center, which is an informal school for Burmese children set up by a local NGO. We compared the list of kids we were looking for with the list of kids in their classes. We identified a few of our kids but were told that many had moved away when certain local fisheries closed and their caregivers needed to find work. We ate fish and rice with the teachers. We were given a tour of the nursery with dozens of adorable little kids snoozing on the floor for nap time. And all in all located and spoke to 3 out of the 11 we were hoping to find.
I try not to be discouraged but it was eye opening and made me realize several things. First, just how hard it is going to be to find the children on our list in a migrant community that moves a lot, is here illegally, and is scared to be found. Second, how tough it is going to be to do case management with the ones we do find when their families are SO poor and there are very few community resources for them. I mean, I am not a miracle worker just because I am from the United States. Sometimes I think my being there gives really false hope. And third, HOW MANY children are in need. Our list is just the beginning. For some reason we were given a list of all children without parental care in the province and this came down to 140. How is that possible? There are so many more!! The teachers at that learning center alone gave us a list of 12 more we need to look into and when we got back to the office I found out about 23 supposedly orphaned Burmese children to add to the list.
Thursday night I wanted to just sort of lay down and give up. How can you sort it all out? How to help everyone? How to even help ANY one?
When I got back to the office that evening there were 3 puppies laying in front, hiding in the flowerpots. They were bags of skin and bones, covered in sores and ticks, missing hair, two missing chunks of skin and one with a big hole in her side. I was so low. I previously promised myself that while I am here I will not get involved with any pets. So I left them. I actually hoped they would just walk into the street and get run over because I felt like I couldn't help every sad puppy here in southern Thailand. I had nightmares all night.
Friday dawned and I came and they were still here and I realized that it is just not in my nature to ignore something that I CAN do something about. So I took a trip to the vet (45 minutes away) and got the ball rolling to fix them up. And that ball is still rolling. With my encouragement our office is sort of adopting them and people have stopped hoping they will disappear so they don't have to deal with how sad they look.
I know that puppies are not children. But I do think that many people react the same way when they see something sad. Better to look away from one if you can't help them all. But I think that just being able to help something in a tangible way has given me hope and the reminder I needed that if our team can help even one child, improve even one life, it will be worth it. You just cannot focus on the tremendous number of need or you'll lose all hope. But one at a time puts you on the path.
With hope from Bang Niang.
Last Thursday I went "to the field." In development speak this is when we get off our butts, drive endless hours to a remote location, and get the face to face research done. This is a much idealized moment when you are sitting behind a desk in the US. In reality it is never ever easy or comfortable. I have done field work in several countries now and it is sort of a love hate relationship. Inevitably you will have to eat strange and possibly unidentifiable food that is offered. Inevitably the bathroom options will be worse than just using the great outdoors. Inevitably the drive will be windy and never ending. And inevitably you will only get a quarter of what you set out to accomplish accomplished. (The love part comes later when you feel so proud that you are actually DOING something instead of writing or reading about it!)
So Thursday I drove with my Burmese liaison and another Burmese researcher up north of here to an area called Kuraburi. It was a very long drive since I didn't know where I was going. I never realized this before but when you are the driver and you know the destination it is not a problem. But having to rely on my passengers for directions I just constantly felt like asking "are we there yet?" We arrived at noon at a learning center, which is an informal school for Burmese children set up by a local NGO. We compared the list of kids we were looking for with the list of kids in their classes. We identified a few of our kids but were told that many had moved away when certain local fisheries closed and their caregivers needed to find work. We ate fish and rice with the teachers. We were given a tour of the nursery with dozens of adorable little kids snoozing on the floor for nap time. And all in all located and spoke to 3 out of the 11 we were hoping to find.
I try not to be discouraged but it was eye opening and made me realize several things. First, just how hard it is going to be to find the children on our list in a migrant community that moves a lot, is here illegally, and is scared to be found. Second, how tough it is going to be to do case management with the ones we do find when their families are SO poor and there are very few community resources for them. I mean, I am not a miracle worker just because I am from the United States. Sometimes I think my being there gives really false hope. And third, HOW MANY children are in need. Our list is just the beginning. For some reason we were given a list of all children without parental care in the province and this came down to 140. How is that possible? There are so many more!! The teachers at that learning center alone gave us a list of 12 more we need to look into and when we got back to the office I found out about 23 supposedly orphaned Burmese children to add to the list.
Thursday night I wanted to just sort of lay down and give up. How can you sort it all out? How to help everyone? How to even help ANY one?
When I got back to the office that evening there were 3 puppies laying in front, hiding in the flowerpots. They were bags of skin and bones, covered in sores and ticks, missing hair, two missing chunks of skin and one with a big hole in her side. I was so low. I previously promised myself that while I am here I will not get involved with any pets. So I left them. I actually hoped they would just walk into the street and get run over because I felt like I couldn't help every sad puppy here in southern Thailand. I had nightmares all night.
Friday dawned and I came and they were still here and I realized that it is just not in my nature to ignore something that I CAN do something about. So I took a trip to the vet (45 minutes away) and got the ball rolling to fix them up. And that ball is still rolling. With my encouragement our office is sort of adopting them and people have stopped hoping they will disappear so they don't have to deal with how sad they look.
I know that puppies are not children. But I do think that many people react the same way when they see something sad. Better to look away from one if you can't help them all. But I think that just being able to help something in a tangible way has given me hope and the reminder I needed that if our team can help even one child, improve even one life, it will be worth it. You just cannot focus on the tremendous number of need or you'll lose all hope. But one at a time puts you on the path.
With hope from Bang Niang.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
You should probably skip this blog if you aren't interested in the happenings of my hair...
Last night it cooled down and I went for a long walk on the beach at sunset. 
It was so refreshing and relaxing. At low tide the ocean leaves a huge expanse of beach to wander full of skittery little crabs, rocks and shells and strange sand shapes. I was alone but not lonely. It seems like a lot of time, during “normal life”, I feel lonely when I do things by myself. But when I travel I feel more accepting of being in my own skin. I think that outside of DC I just simply feel more capable, more accomplished. There is something about Washington DC that really inhibits me. This isn’t to say that I wouldn’t have loved to have someone walking with me, but I also didn’t feel like I had to be talking or focusing on anything but the view and my thoughts. Great way to end a long weekend (Monday was one of millions of wonderful Thai holidays.)
This email is not going to interest anyone reading for the sake of learning about my work so you may want to log off after this paragraph. In a nutshell we managed to make an entire afternoon of getting an office phone installed and project business cards drafted. As much as I like my team I just can’t seem to split everyone up and trust that things will get done right yet and so we waste a lot of time functioning as a pack. But here is an example of why that is… Last week I asked one of them to bring back from Phuket’s Office Depot 140 ½ inch thick, two-hole, A4 sized binders for creating our case records. Very bizarrely she returned from the store with just 40, multi-colored and multi-sized, binders that cost quite a lot and can’t be returned unless we want to drive back to Phuket in the next 7 days. I am not sure what to do about this as it seemed obvious to me that they should all be the same size and color but she seems very pleased with the idea of using all sorts of binders for our one project. Cultural difference? Personal difference? I’m not sure but somehow we still need 100 more binders and have been informed by Office Depot over the phone that they couldn’t possibly order us just one color in one size. And, if we want to make any kind of order we have to pay up front. Not by credit or debit card, which we have, but through a bank transfer, which will of course involve an entire afternoon at the bank again. VERY strange. Even Office Depot isn’t itself over here. Ha ha ha.
(Left photo is my team at lunch.)
We may end this project with a rainbow of case records. So, that being said, I’m still sorting out who is good at what and who I need to manage more closely. I can’t always trust that my instructions will be followed – or maybe they are being misunderstood? It is interesting since this is really my first large supervisory experience…Definitely trial by fire. Anyway, we FINALLY finished my case management training for the team, and really it seemed so basic that I was embarrassed to give it. They are all so diligent about writing every word I say though, as if each thought will make or break the project and I can’t figure out what they are thinking. I expend so much energy being enthusiastic and miming things, trying to give examples, smiling and encouraging and speaking in my new “Thailish-which is VERY slow and basic English” that I want to drop and sleep every day at 4:30. But they are so serious, even when I’m joking. I must look such a fool sometimes. Wish I could see myself from their perspective. It is a little worrisome but I can’t do much about it.
Now on to more exciting news. Like hair!
(No hair photos but photos of my new room at Tony Lodge are posted to the right. )
For many reasons I am not posting photos of me on this blog. One of those reasons has been my very serious hair trauma. You know, normally my hair lies straight and shiny and listens to the directions of my hair dryer and brush. Worst case scenario is static cling. I take much pride in getting it right even if nothing else is working. Well….here we have a different story. I cut the hair short before coming and it was definitely the right decision on the other side of the world. Within 24 hours of arriving here
though it staged a rebellion against the climate and has not sorted itself out. For the first week and a half my hair spent most of its days wet (within minutes after being blowdried), sticky, tucked behind my ears and doing this sort of strange frizz at the top. It has not been pretty folks.
BUT, here is my big finale…over the weekend my hair had second thoughts and has created its own new and perfectly acceptable hairstyle! It is too soon to post photos as I don’t want to count my chickens before they’re hatched. But I think I have some waves around the face, some nice sun streaks, and the frizzy/sweaty combo has sort of turned into fluffy and full volume. Lesson learned: you cannot fight nature and humidity.
Goodnight from Bang Niang.
It was so refreshing and relaxing. At low tide the ocean leaves a huge expanse of beach to wander full of skittery little crabs, rocks and shells and strange sand shapes. I was alone but not lonely. It seems like a lot of time, during “normal life”, I feel lonely when I do things by myself. But when I travel I feel more accepting of being in my own skin. I think that outside of DC I just simply feel more capable, more accomplished. There is something about Washington DC that really inhibits me. This isn’t to say that I wouldn’t have loved to have someone walking with me, but I also didn’t feel like I had to be talking or focusing on anything but the view and my thoughts. Great way to end a long weekend (Monday was one of millions of wonderful Thai holidays.)
This email is not going to interest anyone reading for the sake of learning about my work so you may want to log off after this paragraph. In a nutshell we managed to make an entire afternoon of getting an office phone installed and project business cards drafted. As much as I like my team I just can’t seem to split everyone up and trust that things will get done right yet and so we waste a lot of time functioning as a pack. But here is an example of why that is… Last week I asked one of them to bring back from Phuket’s Office Depot 140 ½ inch thick, two-hole, A4 sized binders for creating our case records. Very bizarrely she returned from the store with just 40, multi-colored and multi-sized, binders that cost quite a lot and can’t be returned unless we want to drive back to Phuket in the next 7 days. I am not sure what to do about this as it seemed obvious to me that they should all be the same size and color but she seems very pleased with the idea of using all sorts of binders for our one project. Cultural difference? Personal difference? I’m not sure but somehow we still need 100 more binders and have been informed by Office Depot over the phone that they couldn’t possibly order us just one color in one size. And, if we want to make any kind of order we have to pay up front. Not by credit or debit card, which we have, but through a bank transfer, which will of course involve an entire afternoon at the bank again. VERY strange. Even Office Depot isn’t itself over here. Ha ha ha.
(Left photo is my team at lunch.)We may end this project with a rainbow of case records. So, that being said, I’m still sorting out who is good at what and who I need to manage more closely. I can’t always trust that my instructions will be followed – or maybe they are being misunderstood? It is interesting since this is really my first large supervisory experience…Definitely trial by fire. Anyway, we FINALLY finished my case management training for the team, and really it seemed so basic that I was embarrassed to give it. They are all so diligent about writing every word I say though, as if each thought will make or break the project and I can’t figure out what they are thinking. I expend so much energy being enthusiastic and miming things, trying to give examples, smiling and encouraging and speaking in my new “Thailish-which is VERY slow and basic English” that I want to drop and sleep every day at 4:30. But they are so serious, even when I’m joking. I must look such a fool sometimes. Wish I could see myself from their perspective. It is a little worrisome but I can’t do much about it.
Now on to more exciting news. Like hair!
(No hair photos but photos of my new room at Tony Lodge are posted to the right. )
For many reasons I am not posting photos of me on this blog. One of those reasons has been my very serious hair trauma. You know, normally my hair lies straight and shiny and listens to the directions of my hair dryer and brush. Worst case scenario is static cling. I take much pride in getting it right even if nothing else is working. Well….here we have a different story. I cut the hair short before coming and it was definitely the right decision on the other side of the world. Within 24 hours of arriving here
though it staged a rebellion against the climate and has not sorted itself out. For the first week and a half my hair spent most of its days wet (within minutes after being blowdried), sticky, tucked behind my ears and doing this sort of strange frizz at the top. It has not been pretty folks.BUT, here is my big finale…over the weekend my hair had second thoughts and has created its own new and perfectly acceptable hairstyle! It is too soon to post photos as I don’t want to count my chickens before they’re hatched. But I think I have some waves around the face, some nice sun streaks, and the frizzy/sweaty combo has sort of turned into fluffy and full volume. Lesson learned: you cannot fight nature and humidity.
Goodnight from Bang Niang.
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