Who Loves Thailand, We Love Thailand

Poi:"Uh, this is...ant's egg....this is...bee's egg..and that's shrimp and that's squid. You can have one of these things in your egg."
R:"....aant's egg??"
P:"yyeah..."
R:"Um. What are you thinking?"
P:"I've never had bee's egg but it's interesting. I'd like to try."
R:"If you try, I'll try."
P:"You take ant, I'll take bee?"
R:"Yeah, that's sound good."
I was really thinking about a squid omelet in its origami banana-leaf boat container because, well, who can turn down calamari and egg for 30 cents but if Poi was going to have some, I was going to have some. It would be fun to tell my mom anyway--she'd freak out. Jordan ate some insect offspring along with with Poi and I. Good man.

It takes people to have shenanigans and a wonderful place to have them in and fortunately my people here are the folks to have them with. I can be free to buzz with anticipation when there's a group that's equally as excited as me to experience Thailand's bustling night culture, to eat things Americans would much rather leave living. Ever since the students have settled in we've been learning about each other (and watching Colbert and laughing at the stupidest tattoos up on the projector) and throwing out ideas about how we will can get the
best out of this experience. Some of us are thinking of things are on the permanent side, but that's just a little obnoxious teaser that deserves later revelation. The interns are dedicated to making it to Angkor Wat in Cambodia before the semester's out. We will see you, temple.
My mother asked me how it was to have one of my best friends, Cat, here with me to share my experience (^up^) and I feel that fantasmic would be the understatement of the century so I'll just go stick with great. It has been a series of unfortunate events and miracles that have placed our feet here together, but a comrade in all this has been invaluable. When I need someone to understand how I'm feeling by a grimace or raise of eyebrow, she's there across the room to receive it, validate it, and throw me the look back: "I have no idea what the hell this lady is talking about either." We see beautiful things every day and it feels really good to know that someone I care about is taking in the same beauty as well. I wouldn't want to consume Thai barbecue (^up^) with anyone else.
The other great parts about being here are (1) taking SongThaews to class and seeing the Thai in various forms of moped awesomeness. Songthaews are trucks with a tall covered cab in the back that carries citizens in and out of Chiang Mai city. Yellow Songthaews come to Doisaket where we are, the Red Songthaews have routes only in the city, and the white, green, and blue songthaews are a mystery to us. Our best story so far is when the epitome of Thai dreamy rode by us fast on a motorcycle, all dressed up in a rust-colored dress, tattoos and taking names. She ties with the woman who transported her furry dog in a Burberry baby-carrier. It seems like we discover an interesting shop or person or restaurant on the way to class each day. The cast of characters in the picture below [from left to right] are Bianca, Beth, and Ryan-the-intern advertising our daily travel. (2) With college students surrounding me and the nature of the classes, I really enjoy thinking about philosophical things with students and watching their thoughts about this new (and hot) context come out into questions about the world around them. What do you do with the presence of women forced by social problems in Burma to work at places that look like Karaoke/Go-Go bars and massage parlors? What do you do with all of the Western men sitting inside them? Or the white men who are led through grocery stores by their "Thai wife"? What can anyone do about faulty labor and migration laws that prop up Thailand's economy but don't extend rights?
Exclusion and Exploitation is taught on Chiang Mai's red light district in the Garden of Hope outreach building and matching our lessons with our observations on Loh Kroi road have been very challenging for us. It's been so good. We have a field trip to Burma and the Golden Triangle on Friday to ask some more hard questions that have no immediate answers. The founder of Free Burma Rangers came to speak with us about what they do, why they do it, and what the Hill tribes of Burma are up against. We left quiet and moved by the way David Eubanks and hundreds of others have chosen to live their lives; the way he looks at the Karen as his own community, come gun or land mine. It is still moving us. It may always. This is Julia! Our house mom, (kenny our house dad is unpictured) and is doing a great job helping an overwhelmed intern, facilitating the students' experiences and managing to do master's social work courses for the U of Minnesota from her laptop at 4am. The Millers have been gallivanting across this planet for a few years now so they're preparing for their move back to the US next summer so both spouses can enroll in grad school and better our world. Our new friends, Poi and Pete, have volunteered to show us around. Poi is 21 years old and majoring in hospitality and Pete is 18 and majoring in music. We love them because Poi laughs with us and makes us feel so comfortable about being different. She won't hesitate to let us know how we're viewed as foreigners and what she thinks about Thailand. She's extremely patient with our infernal questioning and loves to show us new things to eat. Geez, we love eating Thai food. Pete often just stands there smiling and mute but his hair is pretty rockin', which counts.

Anyway, here's some pictures of where we live for you to peruse.We're having a movie night &I really must go. Sorry this is all over the place. Hopefully I'll talk more about the Hill tribes of Burma & Northern Thailand, Thai culture, & my position here.

Give me some time. Lao jer gun ka! (see you later)

In Thai Transitions II

The thunder cracks in the sky like a charioteer's whip and I am on our little couch struggling to keep my eyes open. Jet lag is trying to be a conqueror. And conquering at really strange times too, like 2pm, 3pm, definitely 4:30pm, making my body tired and my mind wired. For the past three days when I go to bed at 9 or 10 at night, I wake up before the sun. Well, hello three-in-the-a.m. Fancy to see you this early.

But the rain is great (it's hurricane season in Southeast Asia, hang on) and it cools down an otherwise very muggy and hot day. You drive into and out of relaxed Chiang Mai City and everything is draped in GREEN. Where we live is surrounded by rice paddies and the valley is encased by forested hills. You have never seen so many different shades of vibrant in your life.

Our home away from home is a Lahu Christian compound inhabited by the Lahu people, an ethnic minority group in Northern Thailand, situated in Doi Suket. The students take Thai, English, computer and bible classes during the day and worship in the night. And the morning. And the afternoon. You can hear their garage band concert in their sanctuary during all times of the day really. At 5am, they ring the bell. Wake up, eager open minds. It is (obviously) time to greet the day. You too, you American darlings. You hear our bell.
The other day, I took a corner around the staircase and nearly frightened two Lahu girls out of their skin. Sakes alive, jumping 6 inches into the air, shrieking, they rebounded from their fright by wai-ing and practicing their English.
"How are you?"
"I am fine." I smile. "How are you?"
"I am fine."
and they giggled away to tell their friends about the first black person they have ever seen in their lives stalking the stairwell.

Being African-American only becomes noticeable for me when, well, we go out in public. In Carefor (sp?), a French equivalent to Home Depot, I walked into the store and every worker stopped what they were doing. A white person is really no big deal but since African-American's don't tend to ever travel in Asia, blackness can be quite a spectacle. I take note because in Thailand and Asia darkness and skin pigmentation matter. In Mekong Region the darker you are, the worse you may be treated. Darkness is synonymous with ugliness, backwardness, and crime. You can see why I would be concerned about my skin color, the ultimate brown. Walking around in the flower markets with not-so-smiley faces looking my way, I began to internally hesitate. *whimper* Toto....

It wouldn't be such of a problem if I wasn't dependent on social validation (I'm addicted to being liked) but that's what goes along with [1] travel and [2] being Black. It takes an certain amount of grace and a stiff upper lip but what you get in return is often more than worth it. I woke up this morning with a hope of steel. If I smile and treat everyone with honor and respect, I can't possibly be responsible for bad perceptions. I might make a friend.

Markets are really fun in Thailand since they are incredibly packed with aisles of vibrant (indescribable)Thai things. The flowers around the edges of the market smell of a strong fragrant scent worthy of temple offering and the tropical fauna burst. Inside is everything you'd ever want (hot pink lanterns, here. Black gelatin with strange fruit in them, here). Um, Guys, I do think that bucket is moving. There in front of us were eels trying to crawl out for their lives and another basin with imprisoned toads. Ryan and I are hatching a plan to get (SAVE) a toad and turtle for GoEd pets. That's what Julia gets for not letting us have a puppy.

I walked Walking Street by myself while the others got massages and it was packed with distinction. Thais, Farangs (westerners), Chinese, Japanese patronized stalls and I wove through them and looked at all the intricate and interesting knicknacks, clothing, and textiles. Sawat dee Kahhh, sellers called out to entice us with welcome. Blind men, Hill Tribe, and Chinese musicians played in the middle of the moving sea of bodies. All I could see was a red color and all I could hear was the shrill, beautiful twang of traditional Asian instruments, the beats of drums. Street food crackled in the humidity. For the first time since I'd arrived, I felt completely at ease.
The students are in for some great classes:

• Exclusion and Exploitation (taught by Harvard Law Professor, Crista Crawford)
• Social Context for Development (taught by Dr. Dwight Jackson, Country Director for Rwanda)
• Thai Culture and Arts (taught by Dr. Michael Pucci, profound man extraordinaire)
• History, Religion, and Society of the Mekong Sub-region (taught by Payap University Faculty)

and Au di Surah will teach the students introductory Thai. Ryan will teach Julia how to buy a fantastic tea kettle on Ebay. Everything will be educational, even Julia's online buying mania. I'll let you know about those as they come along, of course, you can count on me. What's most important, though, is to spend a lot of my time reflecting about the culture, people, and environment here since we are American students in Thailand trying to make this place a little part of our souls; study abroad/internship is a tool to take this within ourselves and see the color of the market when we close our eyes even in old age.

I have gotten ahead of myself. Or have I?
The students are here.



Julia: "So Ryan. About this tea kettle."

In Thai Transition, Part I

[I blame my middle school education if this had tense problems *grin*]

I looked at the woman's disposable camera photos of her brother's graduation because that's what you do when you travel. When a Vietnamese woman at your flight gate to Taiwan wants to point out every member of her family to you and discuss her black friend's hair (that can refrain from being washed for 2 weeks), you look at them. You talk about your hair too.

She did try to coerce me to say she was fat. I didn't participate.

The silver haired, middle-aged Arab man who sat next to me on the flight was reading a book called Thai for Lovers. Every time I glanced over, he seemed to be coming back to the same few pages. I'm assuming it was the Infidelity section, which contained such useful Thai phrases like "You cheated on me!" and "You think that guy is better than me?!" Mr.--I don't know what you're into.

Why I like traveling is that you have an anecdote for every five minutes, something story-worthy is always happening. It's not that interesting things, quirky things aren't happening to us where we live, where we're settled, they're happening all the time actually--it's that for some reason, the action of intentional displacement (or Voluntary displacement as Nouwen put it once in a different context) moves you out of your normal way of perception, out of your expectations, and forces you to see everything's potential. Things are funnier, more interesting, more noticeable. Things a world away are so different not because they're foreign, I am.
My China Airlines flight to Taiwan was actually very, very good! I overestimated the flight time, figuring it would take me close to 17 hours to cross the Pacific, but the flight was only 12 and to me twelve was far more doable than seventeen so I had a party in my head. I should always do that when I fly. Oh, a flight to Indiana? 7 hours tops. Oh, its only 3, you say? Phew. Well, how nice. I took a pill and knocked out for 5 1/2 hours (god, I hope I wasn't clicking) and watched two great in-flight movies for the rest of the time. The flight attendant in my aisle sort of machine-gun-staccato yelled her requests at me when she passed.

"Drink?!"
"Tea would be great, thanks"
"Tea?! LATER! Drink?!"

I smiled nicely and I just took a water instead. I listened to Cronie and waited to land on the tiny Island in the East China Sea. (My Terp friends! There's going to be a big Deaflympics in Taiwan this year! AMAZING). The Arab man spoke up only when we landed and I found out he lives close to my hometown. He has a daughter in Sacramento but all of this information only decreased his creepiness slightly. You land in Taiwan and it smells like wet earth. Taipei is hills wrapped in gauzy haze and, at 5am, it is 82 degrees outside. I'm so excited to be 3/4 of the way there and I freaking love new airports! As I walk out of the plane, I realized that I'm going to be the only one of black skin for a long time while I gander at all the beautiful advertising and small Asian faces. I couldn't read any of the signs so I wandered and took my time to get to my gate since the airport was deserted and how many times will I come to Taiwan in my life?

I tried to take a toilet picture for my friend Elizabeth but I just couldn't get it right, too much of me or too much of the potty. My 3 1/2 flight to Chiang Mai was torturous, I just wanted to be there already and there's was much more turbulence for the smaller plane. It seemed like 49 of the 50 people on that plane had to go the bathroom. Sadly, a Thai man in front of me (I knew his ethnicity because when he put his hands over his head, he had one set of knuckles tattooed LOVE and the other tattooed THAI) was having a flu problem. When I felt my throat tickling, I thought NO, OH GOD. SICKNESS BEFORE I EVEN GET THERE!!!! but as we got closer and closer to our destination, my throat began to get more irritated. Not sore but like it was.....
..
..
..sw...
...elling?!
We landed in lush-green-rice paddie-Doi Sutep Chiang Mai and instead of being excited out of my mind, I am worried I am loosing my ability to breathe. Hahahaha, My throat is huge inside and GoEd had forgotten to send me the address where I'd be staying and I had to think of something quick to put in that blank on the customs form before they kicked me out of the country. Good Lord. I must have been allergic to something I ate on the second flight but I have no known allergies and I don't know what was in my food. I wonder if I should get an epi-pen. I'm mindful of my breathing, quick-fast-in-a-hurry putting Chiang Mai University, the only Chiang Mai institution I knew of but didn't live at, in the blank, and hoped for the best.

She stamped my passport and handed it back to me. I was triumphant. Chiang Mai is hot hot hot, a heavy humid heat (at 10am) and I go outside with my bags to wait for the Millers. Just a few minutes late there are Julia and Kenny, my long lost GoEd Student Chaperones and I couldn't be more happy to see them. Maybe Julia has an epi-pen.
"How are you?!" they ask
"Great! Maybe a little sick." I squeak.
"What?" they ask.
"Um, my throat is swollen for some reason." I reply.
"Can you breathe?" Julia asks
"Yeah." I wheeze.
"You'll be fine." she says.
"I hope so." I think.

And we ride to a restaurant where the Green Curry Chicken is so good it burns the corners of my mouth. It's going to be this way for the next four months. Coming was such a good idea. Oh well, about the allergy. The hotness of the peppers cleared up my throat after a while. THAI FOOD!! I'll just have to avoid eating a lot of whatever it was.....
Whatever it was in. Cronie, get the bags.

Ready, Set...

My living room has exploded into neat piles of clothing categories and my suitcase is waiting to digest my rolled fabric. I keep running through the to-pack-list and I keep looking at my explosion of a living room and what the list has produced in real life still doesn't look like enough. That just can't be enough there for four months! I add another casual t-shirt. The ubiquitous "they" say that it's better to have more than less, better to have it and not need it, but traveling this sort of way, it's better to have less in your bags. You have to be able to carry your bags all by yourself. More souvenir space anyway.

Nowadays you can buy just about everything at your destination. The only things most places don't have are things like cheese and stuff, but airport security would bum-rush you before they let you smuggle that in your bags. I list cheese as a craving because it seems like no other continent eats cheese like Europe and the half continent, US, so even if I haven't eaten a cheeseburger in 2 years, they and macaroni//cheese sound super good when I don't see some for so long.

After all this time, and hoping, my miracle has come in the form of every friend, family, and friend of the family in my network. If you haven't received your thank-you card from me yet, it's coming! I'm so slow at writing them out because I want to write what I really feel and show how honored I feel about everything. Forgive me. I received above my impossible goal and am flying out on China Air late tomorrow night/Thursday morning.

I hate flying. Int'l Studies major with aerophobia. Funny. I add my sound-proof headphones.

Preparations for this trip has gone very well. I have just about everything I need. My clothes seem cottony enough and they seem nice enough to fit into the Thai culture of being neat, presentable, and well-put together. The guy at REI immediately asked me if I was heading to Chiang Mai when I mentioned sorry, man I can't buy the membership, I'm traveling to Thailand tomorrow. It makes me laugh because I keep hearing that Chiang Mai is the hot-spot destination for every Development, Missionary, Trail Guide, Hippie Westerner in Asia. I will be so sad if I see Thais in torn American Eagle Jeans. Switchfoot's Best Yet album plays through my laptop speakers. I mouth the lyrics to love is a movement.

My travel nurse says I'm probably going to succumb to a fatal bout of Japanese encephalitis but it doesn't matter because she can't give me the shot anyway (for lack of time) so I should just proceed to fear for my well-being and pray my Hail Marys. My feeling is that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I brought Promethrin to coat all of my clothing and 100% deet to repel every spear toting mosquito after that. Take that insects.

But other than that I'm excited because new things are exciting and I'm scared because all new things are slightly terrifying. I'm concerned about my uncle's state of emergency health, about leaving him right now, about how his healing will go after knee & aneurysm surgery but only his body can help him out at this point. My mom is doing the best she can with it all. I'll go see him one more time in ICU before I leave.

tomorrow. So soon. I take out a skirt and two t-shirts. More space.

The P.S.

Oh yeah. Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of Darlana and Tom, I have an i-pod now. I know, LATE, but I don't mind it. I'm currently trying to beat the tech revolution, remember? It's the nano ("a few generations ago"-cat), really shmancy and nice and black and plays videos and movies and things. Its face is clean and glossy; mine is not. I'm pretty much thumbs with it.

I've named it Cronie. That way it'll always know its place.