7/07/08
Yes everything is great here. Orientation was absolutely great and Paul gives us such an insight into the country and culture. Hes actually really amazing and gives just the right amount of encouragement and independance.
Food is the best ive had in months except for a couple of unidentified things in soups but that wasnt at mirror so its ok.
The accomodation is good too. They lent me a mozzie net and the floor mat beds are much comfier than they look. Of course its not like home, but you get used to it. And as the sighn on the wall says (when explaining how to flush with a bucket and go without toilet paper) "lets try thai custom!"
6/07/08
Im just at the end of the most amazing week and weekend ever. On friday night we all caught a song tao into town and the mirror staff and volunteers all ate together in this great little place with people cooking in woks out the front. The thai food in Sydney just isnt the same. The trick here, i think, is to go to a place without an english menu, cause then you know its going to be the real thing. We ate pad thai for 70 cents wrapped in fried egg and just bursting with peanutty, lime flavour.
We all went into the night bazaar. It was July 4 so all the americans were pretty excited. It was such a great night. We all hung out in the central square and had mango smoothies (absolutely delicious) and banana chips (a little weird) and chang beer (which i immediately learned to like because it costs less than a dollar and is so refreshing when its all humid and hot) and guess what else...a cricket! Yep its true. tasted fine, but the legs kind of freaked me out.
Its such a chilled out town. They had music on the stage and thai people everywhere having dinner.
In the morning paul met us for brekky (if i didnt tell you paul works at mirror and is our in country agent who basically teaches us all about thailand and helps us out. He lives in chiang rai with his thai wife and three kids). Then we drove up through the rice fields and past the crooked junglish mountains to the border of Burma. We waved at the burmese people across the other side of the river. We also made friends with a border guard who is 18 and doing his compulsory military service.
Its an area with a lot of issues (dont worry it was totally safe). I was pretty surprised to realise that begging was actually an industry and involcves a lot of people trafficking. Children or disabled people are sometimes forced to beg for others because it is more profitable. There is actually a refuge for some of these kids in the area which is also an orphanage etc. We went and saw one of the ladies that runs it. Basically theyve run out of money and the staff havent been payed for 2 months and they dont have enough to buy rice, so i gave them some of my fundraising money. The lady was so happy.
We went to the opium meuseum which was really interesting, and then on to the golden triangle. Paul found us a couple of boats and we jumped in and went whizzing over into burmese water, then stopped at Laos and ate lunch. It was such a chilled out little town with lots of low trees, chickens running round and people in straw huts.
Back in Chiang Kong, Thailand, we got a hotel with a big verandah over the mekong. So beautiful, especially with the mountains in the distance and the lights of Laos twinkling on the other side. We ate the most delicious dinner in the world and grilled paul about thai culture, politics, issues etc. Its soooo incredible complex. The hill tribes especially have huge issues with citizenship and a whole huge range of things that mirror are working on. Its a really delicate balance between preserving traditional culture and being able to adapt to modernity. Aparently things in thailand have even changed within the last few years. Paul says he sees less and less people waiing to monks as they pass (which your supposed to do as a sighn of respect). Its kind of sad that people are losing respect like that, but paul pointed out that monks need to earn respect of the people. In fact they cant eat if they dont because they only get food by accepting alms in the mornigns. Its such a clever system. although monks are sooo pwerful (the king bows before a monk and he is SUPER polular round here), they cannot use their power to their own means because they have to get their food from the ordinary people.
We ate banana pancakes by the river for brekky. The fruit here is amazing. It is so full in flavour and there seem to be about 100 things which resemble lychees. The hotel gave us bananas and called us monkeys in thai.
We drove back to chiang rai this morning. Charlotte and I sat in the back of the truck which is so much fun with the wind cooling you down and the tarp to lie on and the SUPER DOOPER GREEEEEEEN foliage overhead and all the people on motor bikes waving at us.
Weve spent all week learning about the society and its problems but i feel like ive only just scratched the surface. Im super excited about the work mirrors doing. teaching is hard but great fun if you get good kids (they thought simon says was hilarious when i lost and they got it right). Im going to give english lessons to the lady that runs the shop (which keeps traditional arts alive and provides skills and employment to local women and funds for other projects) and hopefully learn a bit about the arts. were going out to raise funds and help the local communities by having a second hand clothing stall which sells things at very reasonable prices so that people can be independant and not beg. On monday there might be a protest by the hill tribes but it depends what the government decided about a citizen ship issue they were discussing on the weekend. On the weekend were going to stay with and akha and lisu tribe and ride elephants (which i checked out and its ethical because domestic elephants cant be wild and the only work left for them to get food is tourism) and eating unch at a waterfall. Hopefully we get to go to a Karen village too because Nu invited us (he works and mirror) to come and stay at his village.
And I can say about 10 things in Thai and im starting to get the accents ok and i can write my name.
Sorry for such a whopping long email, but there is so much to think about and write about here.
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