Emily Safe in Northern Thailand - Songkran is upon her

Week 6



This week has been a much slower week – I have been working on a funding proposal to the European Commission for a sex education project. I have been working on this for a few weeks now.
As well, I have been teaching English to Koy (I was misspelling it Goi) and Manop...
But the main thing that has been happening here is a big slow down. The heat is quite bad. We turn on all the fans and try to avoid the sun. Today particularly is quite hot. Unlike Australia, where it will be hot for a few days and then pour and bucket down rain, here it is just consistently hot!
A lot of us have also been stopping work early in the afternoons to take part in early Songkran celebrations. Songkran is Thai New Year, and is famous for basically being a big water fight! It has evolved from its earlier traditions of washing an elder’s hands, into now targeting everyone with water. We have been dashing around the NGO screaming with buckets and bottles and getting people. I was drenched from head to toe twice in two days. On the weekend, we went into town, and as we passed through villages on the way in, the driver slowed, and the villagers poured buckets of water in the sides of the truck all over us. In Chiang Rai town, people are starting to set up little forts at the front of shops, with a hose, a big bucket, water pistols and extra water, and they squirt you as you go past, or if you drive past. I was with a friend making her way back home to Surathani and we kept crossing the street to avoid them! This coming week is Songkran, so my plans and operations will have to be raised. I have created alliances that have already been broken... so an alternative needs to be sought...
Also this week we had a party for the Thai interns. About 5 of them were leaving. They range in age – some of them are quite young (about 14) and stay for one month. The others are in first year/second year uni and stay for longer. My friend Ma was one of the interns that left this week. Again, it was heartbreaking. We had a huge party, with little bbqs made of terracotta pots, som tum (papaya salad), fruit, orange and green fanta and much more. We also had karaoke running constantly all night.... in Thai and English. The farang belted out such hits as ‘Can you Feel the Love Tonight’ and ‘I will Survive’. Afterwards, we had a bonfire out the back, where the Thai interns sang and we all chatted under the stars.
I love hanging out with the Thai interns, and have a good relationship with a lot of them. They always say I am ‘ting tong’ (Crazy). We also have private jokes because some of us were together in Mlabri. The favourite to quote in songtaaws is the Thai interns pretending to grab a tree in the air and yell ‘I’M FINE!!’. This was because as when we went fishing, we were walking down a very steep slope, and I was holding onto a tree as we went down. The dirt all slipped away under my feet, and I was left frantically grabbing onto the tree. “Emily, are you ok?” They asked. I was trying to get my footing and grabbing onto the tree all at once and yelled back, ‘I”M FINE!’
In other news, a big opportunity has presented itself to me here. A member of the Australian Bangkok embassy visited here the other day. It may be possible for me to work here for one year, under the AYAD scheme, where the Australian Government would pay for it. I am still considering my decision. There is a lot to think about.