Koura's Journey in Phang Nga, Thailand

Elephant Trekking

2005-12-11T22:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of our elephant trekking experience yesterday. I'll be going to Ko Pi Pi (the island where the movie "The Beach" was filmed) tomorrow, back to Ban Niang/Khao Lak on Friday, up to Bangkok on Saturday and then flying home on the 21st. So, hope to see you all soon.

Khao Lak National Park

2005-12-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

All the new V-STAY girls (Chantelle, Nikki, Jenny, May) and I went to Khao Lak National Park today.

Left to Right: Me Chantelle, May, and Jenny at the Khao Lak National Park entrance

We had a great time doing a short hike down to a beautiful beach.

Arriving at the secluded beach

Chillin at the beach

One of the many gorgeous views along the trail to the beach

We ate a late lunch at Khao Lak Seafood, went to the grocery store for snacks and then went to The Well to watch a movie and relax. Although this may sound like a pretty plain day, I enjoyed it so much just because of the people I was with. I’m comfortable and enjoy hanging out with the new girls. They seem very down to earth.

The new V-STAY roomies and I had our first night in as a group and just hung out, playing different card games and enjoying each other's company.

Playing poker with crayons as chips

We’ll be going to a restaurant a few doors down from our house tonight to watch a tsunami memorial concert. Tomorrow, we’ll be going elephant trekking.

And the Goodbye’s Begin

2005-12-09T21:14:00.000-08:00

Today was my last day of teaching at Lam Pi School.

Carrie and I with 5th grade

We gave the girls nail polish, the boys colored pencils, and all of them a drink and cookies. We also gave away some of the coloring books my parents sent as prizes for winning a spelling bee. I’m so proud of the kids. Their English has improved so much within the past few months and they actually seem to be enjoying the learning process (games we came up with).

Winners of the 6th grade spelling bee (Left to Right: Jenjira, Nathong, Kwanepa)

Most of the kids made crying noises and said, “Nampung, America, no”. And, several of the boys who aren’t used to showing affection toward females gave me a hug.

Throwin' up the kewl sign for Thai kids with some of the 4th graders

Why does it seem impossible to fully appreciate what you have in the moment? Why do loss and change tend to bring about such a longing for good times in the past, good times that become greater times in hindsight?...Just a tear drop from the flow of questions constantly streaming though my mind.

On a completely different note, I had a blast last night keeping score for the Lady Boy contest last night. There were 14 proud TVC guys, some of whom were such pretty girls that I was jealous. Three rounds of competition (talent, Q&A, and a surprise round) led to a British bloak named Ed being crowned Miss Khao Lak 2005. We danced and celebrated the rest of the night.

Some of the new roomies and I at the Lady Boy competition. Left to Right: Me, Jenny, Adam, Larry, Nikki, Angie (not a roomie)

The Weekend and Beyond

2005-12-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday Jiri invited me to “Worship at The Well”. It’s weird how I always seem to find out about some of the kewlest places to go right before I have to leave. The Well is a free lounge place for volunteers to hang out and chill in. There are couches, chairs, tables (luxuries to me since I’ve been living in the V-STAY house), a TV with a DVD player and DVDs, a kitchen and a guitar!...I could’ve been cooking this whole time.

Friday was a great day at school. The 6th graders have learned the alphabet letters and sounds well enough that we were able to do a spelling bee with them. They seem so excited about learning now. Friday was probably the most rewarding day of teaching for me since I’ve been here. 5th graders were standing outside the 6th grade classroom, watching the games we were playing. Then when we began teaching 5th grade, they kept saying “six, game”. They wanted to play the same games as 6th grade. Hopefully, this will motivate them to learn the alphabet and to pay attention better in class.

After school, I quickly packed for a wonderful weekend trip to Khao Sok National Park (www.khaosok.com), about an hour and a half north of Khao Lak. Limestone mountains covered in diverse rainforest foliage surround rivers and a gorgeous lake. Jiri went too, but it was great to make some new friends. There were 7 of us total, Jenny and I being the only girls, a guy-to-girl ratio I’m sure the fellas would’ve liked to change. We went tubing down a river and had great fun knocking each other off the tubes and into the water. Our guide looked for snakes in the trees hanging over the river after we stopped at a rock with a rope swing and all had a chance to be Tarzan or Jane.

Left to Right: Ed, Jenny, Andy, Eddy, Fred and I just outside Khao Sok

King Rama at Khao Sok

There was supposed to be a spot on the river where people throw bananas in the river and monkeys dive for them. We went after the tubing, but were unlucky. Turns out the monkeys only show up some days.

The river we went tubing on. This is where the monkey diving takes place

Still, we enjoyed hanging out at a restaurant on the river and played card games like S&%$ Head and Speed until the rain stopped. Once the rain stopped, we were all keen on getting a Thai massage. I was so excited about the massage, but I ended up getting sick during the first 15 minutes. I think the lady working on me may have released something that had been stored up for a while. I ended up in the bathroom for almost the entire hour. The Thai lady didn’t understand when I asked for water, so I asked for Ed, who was in the middle of experiencing his first massage from a guy. After some water, deep breathing, and a release of which I’ll spare you the details, I felt much better.

After our massages at different locations (none of the places could do 7 of us at once), we met up at the Poor Bar and relaxed. Some of the guys practiced muay thai on the punching bag hanging in the corner of the bar. And later, Ed continued to practice the Thai form of kickboxing with a tiny Thai guy until they interlocked and just appeared to be hugging for a few minutes- very entertaining.

Before we headed back to Khao Lak, we attempted to find the lake and go for a swim. After being lost for a while, we found an edge of the lake. It looked a bit dodgy, but everyone jumped in before a man in uniform came to tell us “no swim”, everyone except me. The man arrived immediately after I had changed into a bathing suit and walked down to the water’s edge. Still, the ride back was beautiful and peaceful.

The Lake at Khao Sok

Later that night, was the weekly poker tournament and an English Premiere soccer game. I played some pool at the Marlin Bar and then allowed myself to be talked in to joining the poker game. I ended up winning 100 Baht. I was also told by a great pool player named Beth that I should pursue pool if I’m not pursuing any of my other talents because I “have what it takes”. She said she could see that I was thinking through things, working it all out in my head, and that I was a natural. So by the words of drunken Beth, I’ve decided to stay in Thailand and fine tune my magic pool playing skills. (The last sentence- True/False).

And that takes us to Monday…

Monday was a holiday, the king’s birthday. In addition to the sales of alcohol being prohibited that day, there was no school, so I joined my new friends from TVC on the Tap Tawaan project of building houses. I helped mix cement, lay bricks for a toilet and a step, filled in the step with sand and cement, and sealed the pipes to the septic tanks. At lunchtime, a freelance journalist who said he was seeking the source of compassion in people interviewed several TVCers at Tap Tawaan. I wasn’t feeling his vibe, so I declined an interview. On a different note, an English bloke named Jamie almost sawed his leg off with the circular saw. He was miraculously lucky in that he suffered a mere flesh wound on his thigh instead of having accidentally amputated his leg.

When I went home to shower after Tap Tawaan, I met 5 of the new V-STAY volunteers (1 guy and 3 girls from Australia, 1 guy from Malaysia) who had arrived earlier that morning. They all seem nice, and it was comforting to have some new energy in the house.

Natty Dreadlocks…

Sebelle (Aussie) and DJ (American) working on my dreads

That’s right, I have finally had them done. For the past 2 days, I have been blessed with the giving spirit of an Aussie named Sebelle. She and I hung out at The Well and watched ELF last night while she began to dreadlock my hair. It has taken about 5 hours so far, but there are only 2 locks left! After that, she says I’m supposed to keep messing with them, knotting them and putting dread wax or beeswax on them every chance I get. I’m also not supposed to wash my hair with anything moisturizing for the next 6 months. That’s when they should start to look like solid dreadlocks. I had no idea it was such a long process with so much maintenance involved, but I’ve always wanted to have them for a while, so I’m committed.

Lam Pi Waterfall

2005-12-01T23:50:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from my little excursion to the Lam Pi waterfall after school yesterday. It's just about a mile down the road from the school.

Sticks and Love

2005-12-01T01:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I saw almost all of the teachers carrying a stick around at some point during the day. The woman who used to give me some of her home cooked lunch is almost always carrying something to hit the kids with. She taps it on the wooden posts and railings and even I get scared. I guess the rumor’s true that the Thai teachers hit the kids with a stick to discipline them. That would explain why the kids are not as behaved with us- they know we won’t hit them.

4th graders at Lam Pi

The other day, this woman chased “Bubba” around and whacked him on the butt. It made him cry and I wanted to take the stick away from her and tell her there are less violent ways to discipline that can be just as, if not more, effective. At the same time, I must admit there have been a few times when I wanted to throw the volleyball we have at some of the kids just to get them to turn around and pay attention.

The other night the guy who gave me a ride home had given me a ride home once before. He kept speaking to me in Thai, but the English words he did manage to get out were “Chai (his name) loves Koura”. It reminded me of the kids at school. I wonder if they have several different words for love, or if they only have one word that describes liking and loving someone.

A Reminder of Tourist Season

2005-11-28T03:23:00.000-08:00

In addition to the flood of people continuing to flow through Khao Lak, an experience I had this morning signaled to remind me that it is definitely tourist season here. Eit and Jay, the new V-STAY project managers who are here to do some errands and update us on the project, hitched with Carrie and I to school this morning. A guy in a car with plastic covering all of the seats picked us up, dropped the guys off at Chow Tai Mei School before taking Carrie and I less than a mile further to Ban Lam Pi. When we were exiting the car with “kob kun ka’s” (thank you’s) for his generosity, he blurted out “300 Baht”. Even more upsetting than this being a ridiculous amount to charge us (a taxi ride to the school would only be around 40 baht) was the fact that he didn’t say anything about paying when he picked us up, in which case we would have waited to catch another ride. No, he waited until he was dropping us off to let us know that he wanted us to pay for the ride. We called Eit, who is Thai, and asked him what we should do. While he and Jay walked over to help resolve things, Eit told us to have the English teacher talk to the guy in order to “shame him” out of making us pay. Seeing as how our “English teacher” doesn’t speak the languag he supposedly teaches, we called Eit to talk to the teacher after failing in our attempt to communicate via hand gestures and small words. The teacher walked out to the car, and instead of telling the guy that he was trying to screw over volunteers, Mr. Non-confrontational whispered two words- probably “’’tao rai”, which means “how much”- and gave the guy in the car 200 Baht.

We were all bothered by how the teacher decided to handle the situation despite the conversation Eit had just had with him. Interestingly enough, he wouldn’t allow Jay and Eit to reimburse him when they arrived.

This is the first time someone’s ever tried to rip me off by charging me for a ride in Thailand after they’ve driven to the destination without mentioning pay…It must be tourist season.

The rest of the school day…

Fourth and fifth grade were frustrating to teach because it seems they’ve forgotten most of the alphabet and letter sounds, which they appeared to be retaining last week. There is, however, always comic relief in at least one of the classes to help get us through such a challenging day. Today, this took place in fourth grade. We were making a circle when the girls, including myself, began to scream after noticing a spider nearly the size of my entire hand crawling up a wall next to one of the girls. One of the boys began kicking the spider, eventually knocking it off the wall. As soon as the spider landed on the ground, the rest of the boys joined in, smashed the spider, and began to play soccer with it, passing the spider to each other’s bare feet, and ultimately scoring a goal by kicking it out the classroom door.

New Pool Tournament Champ

2005-11-27T03:06:00.000-08:00

I got sick again (just a head cold) on Friday, so I’ve been spending a lot of quality time with the pillow I don’t have this weekend in an attempt to dream the illness away. I also treated myself to an aromatherapy massage. It wasn’t very good- they should probably stick to Thai massage- but it did remind me that I want to take massage classes and become a certified masseuse. This in turn led me on a train of thought about other classes I’d like to take for fun- singing, music theory, ceramics, glassblowing, painting, cooking, and yoga instruction. Oh, and can’t forget the foreign languages- German, Italian, and French for the near future.

New restaurants are continuing to open and pop up all around. There are too many now to keep track of which ones have the best pad thai or fried mixed vegetables. Some of the restaurants are having a free dinner for volunteers as their grand opening. After trying out one of these new restaurants last night, a group of us went to the Marlin Bar to watch an English Premiere soccer game.

There is a pool tournament every Saturday night at the Marlin Bar. I felt like playing a game, so I joined in the tournament for 50 Baht (~$1.25), not expecting to play more than 1 game. Well, check out http://fishing-khaolak.com/marlin_bar/ to find a picture of the first female pool tournament champ in Khao Lak. Although there was one very good game, I must say it was mostly luck because each game was ultimately won by the competition doing something wrong with the 8 ball- scratched, sunk before the other balls, or sunk in a pocket different from the one called. Check out the website before next Saturday because there’s sure to be a picture of a different pool champ after the next weekly tournament.

Thanksgiving in Khao Lak

2005-11-24T23:49:00.000-08:00

So I’ve been hearing today is Thanksgiving…hope you all are enjoying it back in The States. I’ve been invited to an “Americans ONLY” Thanksgiving celebration tonight, but I don’t plan on going. I don’t want to be part of something that excludes people of other nationalities just because they decided to have it at a small bungalow and they’re afraid of not having enough turkey for everyone.

Last night was Quiz Night at a local restaurant. I helped score the different teams’ answers and am still so intrigued by the massive amounts of random trivia people have stored in their memory. Quiz Night has become a great event to encourage unity and interaction among volunteers in the area. It’s also probably the highest sales night for Jai’s, the restaurant we patronize every Wednesday.

After Quiz Night, there was a brief bonfire before the rain came. A bunch of us huddled around a mini acoustic guitar and sang. Sebel, a kewl Australian girl I met just the other night, has a great voice. I wish I could sing like her. We had a great time taking turns playing the guitar and singing Jewel, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Counting Crows, etc. together.

Sebel leading us in song next to another chill beach bonfire

To keep a little Thanksgiving tradition, here are a few of the things I am thankful for:
- a loving, caring and giving Mom
- a Dad whose wisdom and integrity never cease to amaze me
- a forgiving brother who seems to have taken on several of Mom and Dad’s character traits
- loyal friends who have been there for me and helped me work through challenges in life
- music, dance, and other art forms- what a great outlet for expressing the spirit inside!
- the opportunity to teach and participate in yoga classes here in Thailand
- mentors/people who I admire- Zach, Steve, Weaw, Ben, Emma the list goes on…
- the opportunity to travel, to live abroad and to have such a wide array of experiences
- the people I’ve met in Khao Lak with common interests, allowing me to enjoy things I haven’t done in a while with them
- the serenity and joy that nature’s beauty provides me, and....

...Tofurkey! (not really, wouldn't touch the stuff any more than I'd have the real thing)

A view from where we did yoga this past Tuesday

Singapore and An Extended Vacation...

2005-11-21T01:55:00.000-08:00

Next day, we went to Singapore. You have to get on and off the bus a couple of times with your luggage in order to go through customs and get your visa stamped. Singapore reminds me a lot of a big city, perhaps San Francisco, except it's emaculate compared to SF. The Inn Crowd hostel is the place to go. Only S$18/night and there is a pool table, fooseball table, books, TV, bar kind of area to hang out in, guitars lying around just waiting to be played, and a ton of friendly people from all over. Posterboards cover the walls with announcements for shows, plays, bars, and various events taking place in Singapore.

Jess and I met up with Ben, a friend from Thaikea who had a job lined up in Singapore, a few hours after arriving at the hostel. We all watched the Australia v. Uruguay soccer game at a bar with a bunch of Aussies who were just as entertaining as the game, which went into overtime and a shootout- the Aussies won and are now going to the World Cup.

We walked around Singapore, through Little India, China town, and along the river, briefly seeing a mosque and a temple during our walk. We had to catch a bus back to Johor Bahru (JB), Southern Malaysia for our flight to Borneo at 6p, so our time in Singapore was unfortunately very limited.

The monsoon that booted us out of Taman Negara must have followed us to Borneo. Once we arrived at the Mt. Kinabalu park, we walked around for about 20 minutes before experiencing terrential downpour for the rest of the day. This meant no hiking, and without much else to do in the local area, we jumped back and forth from a lodge to a cafeteria, read our books, watched a little soccer and bought a deck of cards to play with. It was the first time I had been cold since arriving in Southeast Asia.

Mt. Kinabalu Park

The next day we were blessed with decent weather for a few hours, so we decided to try a hike. About 3/4 of the way through our hike, it began to rain and as we came to the end of the trail, we discovered we were about 5 km from the entrance to the park. One guy tried to charge us a ridiculous amount to take us back, so we started walking in the monsoon and eventually got a hitch back. I definitely want to return to Borneo when the weather is better. There is an overnight hike up Mt. Kinabalu that sounds spectacular. And, one of the world's 4 orangutan locations is in Borneo.

Jess and I missed our flight from KL to Phuket. We had arrived too late to catch any transportation from JB to KL the night before, so we slept in a ghetto for a few hours and then got up early to catch the first bus available to KL. We couldn’t get to the airport until 20 minutes before our flight left. They wouldn’t let us check in, so we had to buy a new ticket for the next flight (same time, next day). We returned to our fave Number Eight Guesthouse and took some much needed time to ourselves in KL. When I returned to the hostel that night, I saw 2 volunteers from Khao Lak, Scottish Chris and Phil. They were both passing through for a few days before leaving for Australia. So random running into people the way I have been in Southeast Asia.

The Number Eight Guesthouse...Home Sweet Home

Overall, a good trip. A lot of traveling, but a lot to see and learn. After catching our flight to Phuket and hitching home, I was exhausted and glad to finally be back in Khao Lak.

Monsoon Season in Malaysia

2005-11-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

Jess and I are about half way through our 10 day trip to Malaysia and Singapore. We met a German guy named Chris (I think I've met a Chris from every continent besides Africa in the past 2 months) at the Phuket airport in Thailand and have been sharing our traveling experiences with him ever since.

We stayed in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia, and saw the entire city at night from atop the Menara tower. We walked around a lot and took pretty much every form of transportation you could think of- taxi, boat, bus, train, light rail (monorail), subway/metro, and plenty of our own 2 feet.

We missed the National Mosque, but walked around the beautiful Lake Garden nearby. We also missed free tickets to the Petronias towers because they only hand out 1,300/day and we arrived several hours after the ticket office had opened.

No making out in Lake Garden

Next we went to Taman Negara, a beautiful national park northeast of KL. We did a lot of hiking, almost went in a cave, but were too scared of the bats, slippery rocks, and snakes, without a guide. We enjoyed meals at different restaurants on the river, and took a boat to a hiking trail near which was living an aberigine tribe. There are 39 members of the tribe. Two of them spoke enough English to show us how to make fire and shoot through a blowpipe. We took off that night and were completely soaked by a monsoon that rushed in right before our departure.

In the aberigine tribe

We are now back in KL, attempting to see what we missed before- tickets to the Petronas towers, the National Mosque (surprisingly plain/empty because they don't pray to an idol or any thing), and possibly Times Square (a large shopping/cinema building). A lady explained some of her Muslim religion (Islam) to us- 1 God (Allah), you are closest to Allah when your head is touching the ground during prayer. Inside the main prayer room of the National Mosque can fit 3,000 people. Outside, the mosque can hold 12,000. Every Muslim has to pray in a mosque on Fridays. They pray 5 times a day, facing Mecca as a symbol of unity. Jess and I had to wear robes and handkerchiefs to cover ourselves before entering the mosque. After visiting the National Mosque, we walked through India Town and enjoyed eating with our right hand at a delicious vegetarian restaurant.

Reflecting at the National Mosque in KL

Another Fun Day & Night in Khao Lak

2005-11-09T00:22:00.000-08:00

I played guitar with Scotish Chris today, taught him how to change a string, and recorded him performing Wonderwall. The best recording, though, I must say was English Chris singing part of Under the Sea from the Disney classic, The Little Mermaid. He sang loud enough in the shower and the acoustics were great, so it’s a pretty good recording, and of course it’s hilarious.

Quiz night was moved to Jai’s, a better restaurant with quicker service and lower prices. I am amazed at the trivia a lot of people know about various topics, such as world culture, world geography, Thai culture and movies scenes.

A cochroach almost the size of the palm of my hand landed on me at Quiz night. Seth (old friend) tried to flick it off, but dug further into my pants and it started hissing when he missed. I begged someone to just grab it and take it away. I freaked out, but I guess it wasn’t as big of a show as I thought because no one noticed the noises I was making except the people sitting directly around me.

After Quiz night, I was going to go home and get some sleep, which I will probably think I should have done when I wake up tomorrow. However, I had a fun time playing fooseball with my talented Spanish partner, Joaquin. I am so glad to have the opportunity to practice speaking Spanish with him.

I got some email addresses tonight because I leave for a 10 day trip to Malaysia this Friday and a lot of the people I’ve met recently will be leaving before I return. I am so grateful to have met Trish, Dianne, Joaquin, Melissa, all the Chris’s, Ashleigh, Stuart, Kathy and Lara.

Left side: Joaquin, Me, Melissa. Right side: Ashleigh, Kathy, Chris

More pictures of these new friends to come…

Cultural Observations 2

2005-11-08T01:25:00.000-08:00

Peace and Quiet: There is none of this while you are eating at any of the events I’ve been to. Instead, there is always a guy on loud speaker talking during the cooking and eating of the food. I’m glad it’s in Thai though, because I think it’d be more annoying if they were saying the same things in English.

Body Hierarchy: The head is superior to the feet here. I discovered this in Bangkok, when 4 of us squeezed into the back seat of a tiny cab and I was laying across the other 3 people. I put my feet up toward the ceiling at one point and the Aiesecer that was with us told me not to do this, especially in a vehichle with a Buddha hanging from the rear view mirror. I have also heard more about this characteristic of Thai culture since I’ve been near Khao Lak. It is rude to point to anything with the feet. It’s ok if I sit with my knee to chest as long as the bottom of my foot is facing down toward the ground. However, I often catch myself and other foreigners sitting with one leg across the other, bottom of the foot facing out toward the side. This is considered rude.

PDA Forbidden: I have not seen more than 1 couple holding hands in Khao Lak since I arrived. However, it is culturally acceptable for girls to hold hands with other girls and for guys to hold hands with other guys as a sign of friendship. If a Thai woman is seen holding hands with a foreigner, she is often assumed to be a prostitute, something I’ve read (“Thailand Fever”) is very common for both foreign and Thai guys to partake in. Supposedly, Thai women know that their men will have Thai girlfriends, even when they are married. Yet, these women are supposed to remain monogamous. Can we say double standard?

Hand Placement Shows Respect: Where you place your hands when you nod your head or bow to someone indicates the level of respect you desire to show. Placing them around the throat/chin is normal to say “Hi”, but when saying “Thank you”, the hands often go up to the mouth or higher. Monks and other very respected community members often receive an even higher level of respect, with people’s hands coming together at the forehead.

In-Your-Face Advertising: Cars and trucks with loud speakers often drive along the main highway yelling things that of course I’ve never understood. I thought it might have been a way for them to communicate some of the news, but apparently it’s usually some sort of advertisement. They announce deals on produce at nearby markets, or for products they have in their truck.

Out in the Open: Trucks and motorcycles drive around with the flames on their stoves on and with their vegetables out in the open, uncovered on the highway where exhaust and other pollution is very prevalent.

Sending Fire and Worries into the Sky

2005-11-07T01:06:00.000-08:00

Tonight all of the TVC projects got off work a few hours early so that they could opt to go to Nam Kem, a town about 30 minutes drive north of Khao Lak, for a celebration put on by some Swedish people. I believe these people lost friends and/or family in the tsunami, but this party was to celebrate new life and to let go of troubles from the past. They had a ton of freebies, which included food from nearby hotels and foot, back, and hand massages. It was incredible to sit back and get a food massage with Tiger Balm lotion after playing soccer the day before. A rainbow appeared and I enjoyed paradise with several other volunteers who were partaking of the free foot massage as well.

The celebration had tents with vendors and was similar to a typical festival for the most part, with music, dancing, singing, modern dance performance, and a beautiful sunset. I went into a room and found people making “ratongs” (sounds something like that) to send floating out into the ocean later on in the night. We used parts of banana trees to cover a cylindrical base with green leaf designs and flowers. Everyone had 3 sticks of incense and a candle sticking out of the base as well.

Making my "ratong"

These “ratongs” are symbolic of past troubles, fears, worries, etc. in life. I believe the actual date for this festival is in about a week, so I’m not sure exactly why the celebration and ritual took place last night. In any case, it was an incredibly unique tradition, unlike anything I have ever witnessed or participated in before. It’s difficult to describe how we looked and how people felt walking down the street to the river together with our candles and incense lit, letting our “ratongs” go in the river, and hopefully releasing all of our burdens along with the “ratongs”.

Letting my "ratong" go in the river

As we were walking back from the river to the main festival area, I noticed some fiery UFO looking things soaring slowly through the sky. Turns out they were lighting a small version of a hot air balloon into the sky. It was fun to try this, and to watch others try to release their miniature hot air balloons. Some fell to the ground and caught fire, others went up a little and then came back down and threatened to fall on people’s heads, a few became tangled in the palm trees above, and several floated up into the night sky, creating a beautiful image to observe. It was an unimaginable end to a night for beginning anew.

Letting homeade hot air balloons into the sky

Bonfire Day

2005-11-06T00:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Bonfire Day for the UK. It’s when a Scottish (or Irish- I always get the 2 confused) man by the name of Guy Fox tried to bomb the British houses of parliament. He was caught before he was able to commit this crime and he was burned on a steak as a result. The English here have told me they celebrate this day with huge bonfires and fireworks all over.

Celebrating Bonfire Day at Khao Lak beach

TVCers celebrated here by having a bonfire on the beach last night along with a scarecrow replica of Guy Fox, which was later tossed onto the bonfire. Matt, a guy from Alaska, brought little candles to stick in the sand, which created beautiful circles of people forming one huge circle around the bonfire- very “hugge” (Danish term for a warm, relaxed, comfortable kind of atmosphere). We had 3 guitars and several guitarists/singers, which of course made my night. The music was amazingly unifying, especially when all 3 guitars were strumming the same songs (Wonderwall and Imagine ) and everyone was singing along. The Monty Python acts put on by the Brits were hilarious. A few people said that last night was the image they had pictured of being in Thailand before they arrived.

I am feeling much better, good enough to play soccer today!

An Old Friend

Soccer was fun. We had a few new players, Swedish Chris (so named because there are about 5 Chrises in town at the moment) split his big toe open, and I have plenty of bruises from being tripped by Eddy, a very good English player.

Playing soccer in Ban Niang

We all met at the Marlin Bar before 11p to play a fun Irish card game called S*!% Head and to watch the Manchester Untied v. Chelsea game. It was a great game. Man U won 1-0 with a beautiful goal with a cross over from Ronaldo and a perfect header from a difficult angle that went right over the goalie and a Chelsea defender.

Here’s a crazy random story…Two people from Mercy Foundation gave Jess and I a lift into Khao Lak for dinner earlier. We started the usual conversation…What volunteer work are you doing? Where are you from? Etc…Well, I didn’t see the guy in the passenger’s seat, but the driver said he was from California too. I asked what part and when he said Fresno and turned around, I was so surprised to see Seth Reid, a guy I haven’t seen for about 8 years. He used to go to Mt. Hermon family camp every summer the same week I went with my family. How random is that?!

Not Feelin’ Too Well

2005-11-04T00:38:00.000-08:00

I haven’t slept much since Halloween, which I hope is the only reason I haven’t felt well today. Last night I had a sore throat and today I felt a little achy, so I left work early and slept all day. Hopefully, sleeping a lot tonight will leave me feeling anew tomorrow…I really want to go elephant trekking in the morning and to play soccer in the afternoon.

It’s good to see that the tourist season has begun in Khao Lak. Over the past two weeks, the number of people in this area seems to have doubled- a lot of German tourists. More restaurants, bars and shops have opened, hopefully providing the locals with a sufficient source of income now.

Another positive note- I got to practice conversing in Spanish last night. Juaqim is a TVC volunteer that arrived from Barcelona this week. He was just as excited to have someone to speak his native language with as I was to be able to practice my Spanish. I can’t wait to find a job in South or Central America!

Laughter at School

2005-11-02T01:40:00.000-08:00

School was hilarious today. We played a game where we taped pictures of vocab we had taught the kids before the break to the walls, divided each class into 2 teams, said a verb + noun (i.e. swim in the sea), and then they would race to the picture and act out the verb. Well, “B”, one of the big girls in 4th grade had a false start from the front of the class. When we told her to come back, she quickly turned around and without any help fell with a huge thud on the ground. Not too long after that, she was being loud and Carrie kept telling her to be quiet. She wouldn’t, Carrie got fed up, and pretended to hit her lightly on the head with a stick. If only it hadn’t actually hit “B”…Carrie cracks down on the kids. What can I say?

In 5th grade, one of the boys who didn’t want to lose, but didn’t know his verbs or nouns would follow hit opponent to the correct picture and then begin to act out a plethora of verbs at once.

Then in 6th grade, after saying “swim in the sea”, I saw a girl act out swim, so I pointed her out and almost said “no point” for the team, but I suddently realized that it was one of the younger kids that roams in and out of our classes sometimes. How brillant that she understood the word “swim”.

We gave stickers as a reward for the winning team in each class. Thanks mom for sending these motivation materials!

Pouring Blessings

2005-11-01T01:36:00.000-08:00

There was a pool party at a beautiful and cheap hotel room on Saturday. I had fun playing the a similar game to 3 flies up with a bunch of big guys who I strategically beat by letting them all jump up and wrestle to catch the ball and waiting for it to pop out of the madness somewhere.

I also finally met some people I easily feel really comfortable around and connected to this weekend. I got to play soccer with some of the guys from TVC and had a round robin with about 30 Thai players that showed up a few hours later. After soccer, I tood a lovely dip in British Chris and Christian’s pool, had dinner with them and the rest of our soccer team, and watched Legally Blonde 2 and Hitch with British Chris.

Last night there was an awesome Halloween party in Khao Lak. I witnessed some great last minute costumes, not including mine, which consisted of dressing normally and telling people I was a supermodel. My favorite costume was a chicken cooking in the microwave. This guy, James, wore a latex glove on his head and wrapped himself in aluminum looking stuff from a survival kit. He also had a whistle around his neck, which he blew every so often to let people know “the chicken is done”. There was much better music to dance to than the last party at the Eurasia bar, although they began repeating songs way too many times at the end.

We used someone’s toga outfit as a limbo stick and jump rope, and I had a great time dancing with people in a joyful spirit.

Today was first day back to school after the break. The 5th and 6th grade classes went well, but I got so frustrated with 4th. I felt like a bad person getting upset, but they just would not pay attention. This evening was better…

I taught the yoga class for the first time tonight. It was a great experience, very different being the teacher and talking the whole time. There was a lot going through my mind and I wasn’t able to pay attention to everything. I was so busy thinking of how to explain the postures, reminding the class to breath and demonstrating some of the postures that I didn’t keep track of time for each pose and I mixed words up a few times. Still, most everyone seemed to really enjoy it, or so they said. I’d like some more constructive feedback, so I’ll ask Peter and the others at another time.

After yoga, I went to dinner Stewart, a 18 year old world traveler who was born in South Africa, and has lived in the UK and then New Zealand. We joined a big group at a table, and for the first time I felt sincerely comfortable in the situation and easily joined in conversation. I am so grateful for this recent turn of events.

After dinner, we went to the beach and joined in the bonfire and fire twirling, minus the fire for me. I’d really like to learn how to do it, but I think I need some help because without any guidance I kept hitting myself with the ends of the chain and returned home with black marks all over. We went to Fisherman’s too and played fooseball. Swedish Chris was my superstar partner, who won all of the games for us.

A New Yoga Teacher- Me

2005-10-27T01:09:00.000-07:00

I took the second yoga class at TVC today- amazing. I did Bikram’s on my balcony yesterday and it felt wonderful, but there’s something different about enjoying the experience with others that made today exciting and replenishing. Trish, a girl from Seattle, taught tonight for the first time and she did a great job. It was very different from Jen’s class on Tuesday, wonderful in its own way. My desire to try teaching yoga has grown significantly since Tuesday. I shared this desire with Trish and she invited me to teach next week, so I’ll be thinking about what flow of postures I can put together for a sensational yoga class. What an incredible opportunity!

Shout out to my parents for sending me a care package full of organic, whole grain oatmeal (the fact that I’m writing about oatmeal says something about the lack of several healthy foods I’ve grown accustomed to in the US) and coloring books, games, etc. for the kids. Looking through all of the cards and stickers got me excited about teaching again. Thank you! Perfect timing since we start teaching again on Monday. Unfortunately, this means that tomorrow is my last day at Thaikea. Steve, the project manager who has been here for 5 months, will be leaving this week as well. He is a great example to me of a great person and an excellent manager (values everyone’s opinion, encourages group decisions, includes us in everything that is going on with Thaikea, and has a heart that is truly vested in what he is doing to help rebuild community and normality here). He showed us a video with pictures of Thaikea from a few months ago to remind us what it’s all about, especially during this “sticky time” where finances and the future of Thaikea are uncertain and plans are changing on a daily basis. Then, he began crying because he the realization that he is leaving very soon had just hit him. If you want to learn more about Thaikea and how it has evolved over the past 5 months, or if you’re interested in coming over and participating in such a rebuilding effort, visit Steve’s blog (http://www.ontheline.org.nz/diary/). I think there is currently more information there about the Thaikea than is on TVC’s website (http://www.tsunamivolunteer.net).

Other great news- the playground project that we have been building furniture for celebrated its completion today. We were asked to create a basketball hoop for the court 2 hours before the party, and of course Thaikea delivered! As some of the guys were installing the hoop, a little Thai boy waited anxiously with a basketball in hand to take the first shot. It was such a positive experience to see local Thai’s and TVC volunteers celebrating the completion of this community project that is sure to bring life and good energy back into the village.

Team Thaikea with local villagers

Back to THAIKEA

2005-10-25T01:05:00.000-07:00

The last day of English camp at Chao Tai Mai School was cancelled because the Aiesecers and other volunteers needed to return to Bangkok by a certain time and were afraid that flooding would prevent this if they did not leave early this morning.

Instead, I met with the Thaikea crew and we discussed where the project is, where it is going, and what we could do to help raise needed funds. We decided to work a half day rather than at night and tomorrow we’ll return to a full day at the workshop in Thap Tawaan. Surprisingly, we had a few villagers show up today to make furniture. Hopefully, we’ll have some more to help tomorrow.

After work, I went to yoga at TVC. The class was rejuvinating. It felt so good to be doing yoga again. I’ve had a hard time practicing on my own in a house full of people, so I was thrilled to have someone lead and to be on a balcony overlooking the beautiful Khao Lak beach at sunset, enjoying yoga with a group of people who obviously share some sort of common interest with me. It is still warm enough to do yoga outside at night and we gazed up at the stars during several postures, which is how I want to do my practice from now on. I am so grateful for this experience today.

Thailand Fever

2005-10-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

This morning I went to Chao Tai Mai School to help teach at the English camp that’s mostly taught in Thai. I felt much more useful today than yesterday though. We helped the kids plant morning glory, the purpose of which was to teach them to appreciate and respect their natural resources and the hard work it takes to get something like a seed to the dinner table. We were pressured into eating lunch at the school- Thai culture. I’m reading “Thailand Fever”. It’s written for couples with a Western and a Thai partner, but I’m reading it to find out more about Thai culture. One of the sections I read today was about how generosity is very important to Thai’s. They want to be hospitable, which explains why they insisted so much that we eat lunch with them today. They also find it important to keep each other company, especially guests, so there’s rarely a moment alone. This tends to clash with the Western value of privacy.

Now that I’ve begun to re-write the book, on to something else. There were a lot of new volunteers at the TVC Monday night meeting, which is exciting especially since I think most of the projects could use a lot more help.

I’m at the Khao Lak Nature Resort at the moment. Just finished a BBQ with the English camp volunteers who are staying here until tomorrow. There’s a guy named Gan (kind of sounds like “gun”) who’s been really friendly, including me in everything.

It’s difficult to tell which guys are gay here because most of them dress and/or act “camp” (British term for a guy who appears gay). I asked Ae, one of the members of the OC (organizing committee) for the English camp and a member of Aiesec Thailand, what the long pinky fingernail means on guys here and he said it means they’re gay. I have a feeling it might mean something else as well since one of the guys at Thaikea with the long fingernail hit on one of the female volunteers, and the other is married and has 1 kid.

It’s been raining hard and not so hard for 24 hours now, and I hear it will be like this for the next 4 days. However, the end of the rainy season is supposed to be the end of September. I wish the weather would just follow the calendar sometimes. It’s been cooling down a bit too, which means those cold showers that were feeling great just a couple weeks ago aren’t as pleasant anymore. Hopefully my Southwestern experience of cold showers to help wake me up at 5:30a will help out here.

English Camp and Football

2005-10-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of the English camp at Chao Tai Mai School. Only 2 hours between 8:30a-3:30p are set aside for English lessons, but even during that time I heard mainly Thai being spoken. Actually, I ended up questioning why I was there because I felt so useless. Still, it's always great to see the kids and their bright smiles.
Eating lunch with the kids
Everyone helps clean up by washing their own dishes after lunch

Football (soccer) makes everything better…
I watched Chelsea play Everton at the Marlin Bar tonight- good game with a tying score of 1-1. The English Premier is the thing right now, I think because there are a ton of Brits present. It’s great!
I feel so filled up with smoke right now. This is still probably the only thing keeping me from moving abroad for a more permanent period of time. Thank God for California, where smoking is not allowed indoors. Everywhere else I’ve been in the world has smoky bars, cafes, restaurants, etc. which makes it difficult for me to go out and enjoy some of the things I love, such as live music, dancing, relaxing and chatting in cafes, eating out occasionally, watching football matches in a pub, etc. Thailand has been no different in regard to the smoking situation.

Night with Aiesecers

2005-10-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

Aiesec Thailand seems to be great at surprising us. All the housemates and I had planned on visiting Phang Nga Bay this weekend, but we had a surprise visit from Ae (pronounced like the English vowel “a”), who is on the MC for Aiesec Thailand (national staff). He said there would be an English camp Sunday-Tuesday and that our help was needed.

The lack of equality (not a Thai, but a Western cultural value, I’m discovering) is not very important here. For example, if I respond to an American email immediately in the US, I usually expect to hear back quickly. If I take a while to respond, however, I don’t expect to receive an immediate response. This expectation does not hold up well as far as I’ve experienced with Aiesec Bangkok and Aiesec Thailand, which led to some frustration when I was told that we needed to stay in town for the English camp this weekend. I feel like we give them plenty of time to respond and they still usually don’t until the very last minute. However, they also contact us with a need at the last minute and expect us to deliver. According to “Thailand Fever”, a book I’m reading, this might be accounted for by the clash between the Western values of fairness and equality and the Thai value of generosity. The book implies that they are giving us an opportunity to show that we are generous, which is looked highly upon in Thai culture, by requesting things of us in the manner they do.

Anyway, Ae invited us to a “cooking party” with the 40 volunteers from Bangkok who came down to teach at the English camp. I was excited because I have been wanting to learn how to cook Thai food since before I arrived. Unfortunately, I did not learn in a very hands on way because there were so many people, speaking in Thai, running all over the place to cook all at once. I’m thankful I was still able to see how some things were made, and I asked about the sauces since they seem to be the only part I’m unsure of for my fave dishes.
At the "cooking party"

After dinner, there was an Aiesec meeting, even though the volunteers were not all Aiesecers. Just before dinner they had asked us trainees to make up a roll call and amazingly enough, we came up with the best one I’ve seen in a while, inspired by one of Will Ferrell’s SNL cheerleading acts (“sha sha booya”). After roll call, I was asked to help lead some of the Aiesec dances- Represent! The Indian song that makes Aiesec look like a cult instead of a CULTural organization, which is one of my faves, is not as popular here. And, they have a different dance for it- so unfortunate.

Later, all of us trainees talked about why we were here and what we had gotten out of the experience so far. During our mini speeches, one of the monkeys from the Khao Lak Nature Resort decided to join the meeting, which freaked everyone out. It looked so cute and cuddly until it opened its mouth and its fangs popped out. Eventually, someone from the resort came in, first with a rake, then with a banana, and the monkey left the meeting.

THAIKEA Update (Funding Needed) and Visa Run to Burma

2005-10-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

I haven’t written in a while, and it’s not just because I don’t want to pay at an internet café. I’ve been working hard and playing hard. Today we delivered 2 pieces of furniture to an elderly couple who are not capable of coming to THAIKEA and making furniture. They appeared extremely decrepit and still the husband was able to smile with his 4 brown teeth. I had brought my camera to take pictures, but when we put the furniture inside of the house, I felt that would have been inappropriate. I don’t think the couple would have necessarily minded, but I just had a disturbing feeling about it.

There are a few girls that always visit and play around THAIKEA. There were only 3 of us volunteers working- a ton of people left last week- so I think the girls felt comfortable coming into the shop and using the tools. I ended up babysitting for a couple hours throughout the day because they were playing tag around the tables, taking the tools from each and other and from me, and kept plugging tools into the outlets immediately after I had unplugged them for their own protection. I got really frustrated at one point and then Steve, our project manager, told me the youngest girl had lost her mom in the tsunami. I wish it wouldn’t have taken that fact to extend me patience, but it did. I also found out that Lek, one of our local helpers who speaks some English, lost his baby girl in the tsunami. He saved his son, who was clinging onto his neck, but his wife wasn’t able to hand onto the baby. Lek has moved back into a house in the town he lived in before the tsunami, but he will not go near the sea’s edge. He doesn’t want to see the ocean. I think almost everyone in Thap Tawan, the village that THAIKEA is currently located in, has a similar story, Every single villager was affected either directly or indirectly by the tsunami taking away their loved ones. The courage and strength these people have to move back into their houses near the water is incredible, especially when there are still no solid warning systems or protection in place. Supposedly, the government is in charge of this and corruption and greed have kept them from rebuilding southern Thailand. I believe economy comes into play here as well. The number of people who live in this area is insignificant to the government. Their only interest seems to be in tourism.

Visa Run to Burma (October 16, 2005)

I have no interest in ever going to Burma again, and not just because of the story I’m about to tell.

We left Khao Lak at 10am on Sunday and arrived in Ranon, Thailand on the border next to Burma a few hours later. There is a small bay where Burma and Thailand connect, so a couple of the immigration offices are on the water, or shall I say sewage, in the bay. We had to get departure stamps on land in Ranong, then drive and walk to a nearby boat dock. Once we got on the small long boat, we waited for our “boat driver”(?) to dock at an immigration checkpoint and have them check our passports. Then we took the boat across the bay to Burma. After another immigration checkpoint, we docked and went onto land in Burma. Our passports were stamped again for entry into Burma, and we were taken away by local teens to a nearby restaurant. We ate quickly as these boys waited for us and then told us we needed to get back on the boat because the tide was going down. We hurried back onto the boat and made it most of the way back to our original boat dock until we got stuck. The low tide was stopping several boats, but a few were getting by alright with just a few people on them (we had 11 total).

An important note is that the immigration office in Ranong closes at 4:15p, and if you don’t make it back to get a re-entry stamp in time, you have to do the entire boat ride/visa run over again. Another important note: It was 3:45 when our boat got stuck. The boat driver held his open hand up and said, “5”. He didn’t mean 5 minutes, he meant wait til 5pm until the tide rises again for the boat to continue on. Since none of us wanted to stay in Ranong or drive back again the following day, we all jumped out of the boat and waded through sewage water to get to another boat, which took us back to a different dock, from which we had to walk speedily to our truck and drive back to Ranong’s immigration office. We made it with 1 minute to spare! And, we had a free mud bath! What more could we ask for? ☺ As gross as it was, I was happy to be with the people who went. We all laughed it off and agreed that our visa run would go down as one of the greatest visa run stories for TVC.
Katherine (British) wading through the nasty sewage water to complete the visa run in time

Despite all the excitement and adventure, I am not interested in going to Burma again. I realize we were in a border town, but it was a slum- way worse than Tijuana. Little kids help people smuggle drugs across the border every day and they are beaten on a regular basis if the higher ups think they’ve been sending people to the competition. The people were friendly, but the filth and poverty were completely overwhelming.

Other than working at THAIKEA and having a memorable visa run, I have been having some good conversations with people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds; reading more books for leisure than I ever have before; playing a little guitar; teaching my roomies guitar; singing; dancing; eating a lot of tofu, vegetables and rice; witnessing incredible sunsets that blow my mind and put me in a state of awe daily; trying to decide when I should attempt dreadlocks followed by a shaved head; playing British and Thai games like deck tennis; swimming in the warm ocean; and playing fooseball at the local Fisherman’s Bar.

I recently found out that some people from TVC are going to Pakistan as soon as they raise enough funds to go. They will be doing immediate relief, helping the numerous people who just suffered a huge earthquake. I’m not sure if I could stomach some of what they are sure to see, but a part of me really wants to go help there for a while and then come back to Thailand to help with the reconstruction.

We were also informed at tonight’s weekly TVC meeting that we are broke and will have to stop some of the projects if we can’t raise funds. If you visit TVC’s website (http://www.tsunamivolunteer.net\), you can see exactly what we are doing to help the local people get back on their feet and have some normalcy in their lives after a deeply wounding natural disaster. On the TVC website, there is a link for donations- you can even make $1 donations. I know, personally, for the THAIKEA project, that we need more funds to move into our new location to help a different village. We have already met the needs of the villagers in Thap Tawan, but it will be extremely difficult to move on if we cannot raise funds so that we can pay for the tools, wood and other materials that will provide furniture to yet another tsunami affected village.

Joining THAIKEA

2005-10-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

I started working with TVC yesterday. Anna, one of my housemates and I are at THAIKEA. I’m enjoying it so far. I’ve learned how to use all of the power tools and a Chinese saw. I helped assemble a TV stand and saw it through the entire process of cutting wood, sanding, measuring, drilling, assembling, sanding and staining. The villagers want to build TV stands even though they don’t yet own TVs. I don’t know, maybe they use them for something else, or maybe they just want the stands because they know we are leaving soon.

Our work schedule goes something like this:
~8:20a Picked up on the side of the road in front of our house
~8:45a Arrive, briefing, set up, begin to work
~11a Short break
~11:30-1:30p Work
~1:30-2:30p Lunch
~2:30-4:30/5p Work

Today we got to be really creative. Instead of just making the normal pieces of furniture. We were told that a nearby playground, which is being built by TVC, needed some benches, chairs, and tables. We are building these things from scrap wood from the boat yard project. The girls I’m working with decided to make a bench using coconuts for the legs.
Kattia (German) and I sanding the bench top

We were also invited to a vegetarian breakfast in Thap Tawan this morning. 3 monks were present to bring the villagers out and to teach vegetarianism, vegetarian ways of cooking, etc. I guess the monks are kind of used as celebrities to draw in a crowd.