Your Best Bet is to Smile

*You know you've been in Thailand for a while when you cringe at Westerners in spaghetti strap tops and frown when foreigners physically touch in public. Stop holding hands! Don't they know people can see them?!
*You know you've been in Thailand for a while when food that doesn't burn the edges of your lips seems bland.
*You know you've been in Thailand for a while when you feel a compulsion to keep the bottom of your feet down or away from others when seated.
*You know you've been in Thailand for a while when a baby elephant climbs out of a truck in the same Down-town parking lot you're in and lumbers past your van.
*You know you've been in Thailand for a while when you're 45 minutes late and your impulse is to say Mai pen rai ka and smile and wai it off to make it seem like it's no big deal.
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*It's hard to know what it means to Thais who see you or what they're thinking when you buy something or use chopsticks or greet them but you're best bet is to just smile. They are, no matter what's going on inside of them.
*Friday we had a evening field study of Chiang Mai's Red Light Districts.
*Late in the night, we were spontaneously taken to a back-alley Karaoke brothel for field study, were intimidated by some Thai man who wanted to know what the heck 10 farang were doing walking down a back alley (this ain't no stinkin' tourist attraction), and drank sodas with the owner and her girls for an hour while Kenny sang Thai pop songs loudly.
*A Thai man found his way into the our singing cubicle and was jovial but heavily intoxicated. He kept shaking our hands and toasting us. When asked to leave finally by the owner, he was noticeably upset and pointed his finger at the "Karaoke" girls outside (you do NOT point at someone in Thailand. You do it only when you mean to insult).
*In every guide book I've read, the warning is clear: you will regret making a Thai man upset.
*When Cat, Anna, and I didn't want to be in the karaoke anymore, the angry drunk Thai man spotted us walking back and followed us slowly down the back alley.
*By the time we were at the van, we were nearly running; our driver couldn't understand my trickling English trying to form words of alarm: a man. bad intentions. after us. I wanted him so badly to step in between us and cut off the approaching man.
*The door was opened finally, we jumped in, and breathed a sigh of relief as the man stopped where the road ended and then ducked into the nearest karaoke.
*I was terrified out of my mind, angry that the incident wasn't taken seriously, and felt disappointed in our professor for putting us in a situation she hadn't thought through.
*It's more difficult knowing that everyday women of the red light districts don't have vans to envelope them in safety.
*It's more difficult to know that because of their ethnicity many are forced or impelled economically to haunt those back alleys with men who could care less.
*I've begun to deeply understand that many of their nights are far scarier.
*After prayer and a phone call the next day, I felt much more at peace with what had happened.
*I found out in a lecture @ Payap University on "Racism and Xenophobia in Thailand" why Thais are (scouts honor) afraid of Black people:

• Thailand is a Theravada Buddhist country, yes, but animism seeps into everything they do and believe.
  
• When humans die, they turn black in the decaying process.
• The Thais are incredibly incredibly afraid of spirits and ghosts.
  
• Thais believe that black spirits (Pi-lao) walk around sucking people's blood.
• When an African/African-American walks around, it literally seems like a Pi-lao is roaming and the Thai will recoil back in fear until they realize they are in fact human beings and mean no harm.
• No one has recoiled from me yet; only wondered in subtle amazement, touched my skin when close to me, and commented on the curly softness of my hair.
  

Ryan asked me how I felt about that and I told him at first I was really amused. And when I think about it now--I think I feel tense but the same. At this point, it seems ridiculous to be hurt about something like that--can you blame them if their worldview/religion has no place for a dark-skinned person? You take it for what its worth and try to craft words to tell a funny story about it later. In Thailand, it's best not to let anything bother you too much. You should see all of us parade our new bicycles through Doi Saket with playboy bunnies on the baskets and bright red helmets. If that won't lighten your heart, I don't know what will.