Thailand- Week 1

So I'm sitting here in a little internet cafe in Mae Sai finally. I've been putting off getting to email and such just because I've been enjoying myself so much.

The flights over here were really not too bad. We flew from Boston to Denver, then to LA, to Bangkok and then the Chiang Rai. From Chiang Rai we took a van out to where we're staying, the S House in Mae Sai. When we were originally told that we would be in the Northern most part of Thailand, I didn't fully grasp how far up we actually are! I had to walk under the bridge to Burma (Myanmar) to get to this internet cafe! And the Mekong is so small! I think it would classify as a creek rather than a major waterway. Also, I've been told that it gets even smaller during the dry season, only up to mid shin!

So, on our first night we got into our hotel, the S House and got to shower (thank God!) and then took a walk onto the main strip for dinner. I was really surprised that we actually got to meet all the women that we would be working with on the first night. So our first dinner was actually quite frightening, it was like Fire and Ice on crack, but I loved it. All of the meat and noodles were arranged buffet style, but nothing was labeled! Also, some of the mystery meat was shaped and colored (pictures are really needed to explain how funny it was) and I still don't quite know what I ate. I did however get quite full on seasame ?beef and some pork thing. I put a question mark on the beef because I really may have been eating liver and I'd have no idea. Also, there were three hibachi style grills to a table, where you cooked your meat. One reason that we went to this particular restaurant was because at the center, where the girls live, they aren't allowed to have meat. I never would have thought that such small women could eat so much! Finally, in the middle of a massive downpour, we finished our meals, boarded our buses, and went back to pass out.

So,the second day, Wednesday, we had the opportunity to more fully meet the women that we will be working with, as well as see the center, DEPDC. These women are part of the Mekong Youth Net (MKN)and live and work in the DEPDC. Some of them are Thai, from Hilltribes, Burmese, Vietnamese, from Laos, and the rest of our group is from the US. I learned some of the names of the women, but I have to admit that I don't fully know all of their names yet. There are four languages being spoken (Thai, English, Chinese and Vietnamese) but there are also many different dialects being translated as well. So, anytime anyone says anything, it has to be translated to everyone in Thai, and then translated several more times, but in smaller groups, in other languages. Surprisingly, this isn't annoying yet, haha. I really like just watching the translator, mostly Carole, and how animated she is. Also, since Si and I have started doing language lessons from my Ipod, it's interesting to hear words that we know. I even have a favorite phrase: Nit noy (it means 'a little').

On the third day, Thursday, we were finally given our groups. It's Si, Carlo, Quyen, Hyuen, and me. So, the train of translation has been that Si, Carlo and I speak English, then Si translated to Mandarin, then Quyen translated to Vietnamese. Crazy right? We also learned about setting up a presentation and picked an issue, domestic abuse, to break down and present for today.

That brings me to today, Friday(yay!!). To begin with, we played an icebreaker game, what the Thais call 'melting behaviour." It was a really interesting combination of Simon Says and Yoga. Before you did any move, Brian (a junior leader) had to say "1,2,3" and then Carole (I'm convinced she's a saint, maybe I'll explain why later) would do some kind of balancing/ yoga like pose. Then you had to hold that pose very still under Brett was done playing music on his guitar. If you moved at all, you were out. The really funny part of it all was that after you were out, you could heckle others that were still in the game!

So after we got all sweaty and everything, it was time to do some work. We did our presentations (again in a million different languages) and got some constructive criticism about our thoughts and presentation style. It's funny though that I made my writing all pretty on the presentation and all the Americans said that it looked really nice, but the Thai women couldn't read it very well!! After that, we took a break for lunch, I smoked a cigarette, and we played frisbee. After lunch, we returned for some frustrating group work, which ended up in one of our group members leaving because of the language difficulties. I think she was really frustrated with having to go through English to Mandarin to Vietnamese and not really getting the entire story. She went to another group which had more people that spoke Vietnamese. I was really sad to see her leave, but I'd rather have her be able to participate in group work than to continually feel left out. At the end we decided on how many times a week we'd stay with the DEPDC kids and got in our vans and came back to our hotel. And that brings me to right here, sitting in the internet cafe with my stomach growling.

Oh, before I forget... we met Uncle John. I realize that anyone reading this who is not on this trip has no clue who Uncle John is, but it was a big event for the week for me. So, I need to explain. There is this restaurant/bar a few doors down from our hotel called Uncle John's and, on the first night, we were all like, Who's Uncle John??

gotta go to dinner... to be continued on who Uncle John is...