"Fail"

I am awful at blogging.
It's been a fortnight, and I haven't written on here nearly as much as I should.
isn't this supposed to a documentation of my time here,
isn't this supposed to be an exposition of what I think about my experiences,
isn't this supposed to be a place for me to post photos of four-legged creatures I find in situations of adorableness? I can do that now, you know. Thais have pets.

What things are and what they should be are often not the same things. It's my perfectionism that gets in the way, don't you see? If something isn't good or deeply thought out, it is physically impossible for me to put it up for public viewing. Now my profs can know why my papers were often late. Good things take time, people, they take time. I do accept my "FAIL" and am trying to make amends. Look, I won't even reread this blog twice.
First reparation:

(<------) We found these in an abandoned truck when we were trying to find hiking in a local national park. There; feel better? I do.

Yes, the students are gone, but the first noticeable change to life in Northern Thailand is the billowing of thunder clouds that loom on the edges of the valley hills. The wind picks up in the afternoon and those clouds, when they feel like it, drop the most amazing display of water known to internkind. The wind, that moisture, cools down the air like composure and changes the weather from sweaty-back-Tshirt weather to Spring in Chicago. The heat difference between August and September is like none other. Come on in, boys, the water is fine.

I feel like my time is gearing up here even though I have only a month and a half left in the Mekong region. Dwight is on his way, I'm the intern, and everything needs to run like pie when he gets here; chop of the chop!I've been practicing making lists. They look nice. I've done my field visit for the Minority community the students will research for, and from here on out, I've got a quiet room staked out so I can sort through articles about Development in the Mekong and cultural information for the people group the students will be working with. The sad thing about the textbooks is that they cover "Third World" poverty (we don't use that term anymore. It's original purpose as a term meant something great but overtime its simply condescending) and Thailand isn't. It's "Second world" (for lack of a better word! Ahh @_@) and defies every reason for development that's found around the rest of the world. Imperialism created the divisions we know today, and have for much of our history as people, but Thailand was never colonized, imperial-ized, occupied. Never. This sly country wiggled out of just about every attempt of domination the world could throw at it.

It shows on the socio-political level and the one-on-one level. Thailand is the only place I know in the Global South where they are not even the slightest entertained or impressed that you are Western. Thais could care less. They have a beautiful amount of confidence because though they aren't as technologically far along as some Western nations, they have never had any reason to think less of themselves; they know who they are and have done fine enough for themselves. They find their own way and ask for advice only when they want to.
Its difficult to teach a Development Class when the place you live doesn't feel deficient in anyway. Why do it? Because, just like back home in the states, we have this nagging little belief that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in such prosperity, no matter who they are or where they come from. There are people people who don't have access to resources and they can't have access because they're not legally allowed to. Uh-oh. We are students, not politicians.
But that's what this whole thing is about. Allowing the students to ask "should we, could we, would we?" to exclusion and poverty we see. Sometimes the answer is "no" and we're okay with that.
Hopefully there'll be a rough course reader compiled by the end of the week. List it.
On the recreational side of recreation, we go into Chiang Mai town and spend some little monies (this is how we pay for things in Thailand: zee "baht"). 35 baht= $1.00. That's the king. Thais love him very very much.We take bike rides around Doi Saket and watch as much Colbert as physically possible. I watch most times. Our favorite thing in the world is the projector, hands down. Going into Chiang Mai city is a whole day thing, plan for it early, since taking a Songthaew into town can take up to an hour for the twenty minute drive and even more to get out. Thae Pae gate is gearing up for something, I'm not sure, but they've begun to decorate the square. Loi Kratong is coming at the end of the month and to say we're excited is the understatement of the year. Kenny (or "Dad") is obsessed with sustainable farming and wants someone to pee on his newly laid straw (nitrogen enriching! he says); Ryan has been so kind enough to volunteer.
"Ryan, do you have to take a piss?"
"Uh, no. Not right now."
Jordan will do it for the meantime. We have a battle with the skinny, free-range chickens and Kenny's garden. We will beat you scavenging chickens! Members in our little polis receive a new gardening tidbit daily. DID YOU KNOW: that you can put organic kitchen scraps in a lidded bucket, let it ferment for two weeks, put in it in your soil, and in two weeks you'll have fertile soil? Why, it sure beats the other methods of composting. My life is surely better, I don't know about yours.
The Lahu students are away on break and the rice has budded, dotting the vibrancy outside with brown. The land shall see harvest sometime. At the end of next week, the interns might find themselves on the way to Cambodia before we reunite with the students in Southern Thailand. Phenom Penh, the wonder, is a' calling out to us.
Delicious Thai dinner is hanging in the air; and tomorrow, I will conquer development articles.
An ethnoblog of the research community to come...

Until then here's a video that just makes me SO glad.