It's almost done

As the program winds down, and everything comes to a end, looking back it's surprising the amount that I've done here. The program itself is a little unconventional and not exactly what I was thinking it was going to be, but it was exactly what I needed. Coming to Thailand I felt that there was a void, that something in my life just wasn't being fulfilled. I was quiet nervous about coming here and about what was going to happen. Was I going to find out more about myself? Was I going to change my career path? was I going to even come back to the states? to be completely honest, those are all questions that I asked myself many many times. I had alot of internal conflicts to think about through out this program, and while I don't think I've hashed out any of them, I do think I've gained the proper insist I needed for myself.

Firstly I know FOR A FACT that what ever I do in the future, I has to involve some type of activist work. Weather I become a doctor, go to graduate school, Or just end up coming back and living in Thailand, I have to be doing something that makes a difference. There are so many people in the world that have no desire to do anything for any one else, so many people who are apathetic, and even more that would love to help but physical just can't because they have too many problems of their own, so why should I , a person who has been blessed with such opportunity and chance not do my best to help make the world better. It would make no sense for me not to even try.

Secondly, I've learned an incredible amount about myself. I have to say my level of confidence has gone up increasingly. I am not only impressed by my ability to engross myself in to a completely different culture, I'm ever impressed by my ability to learn and grow as a person, and learn about the things I do as a person, and accept them instead of fight them. What I;m really impressed about is my reaction to the "slump." As much as I loved Thailand, I'm not going to lie, I went through a pretty bad slump. but after a few days of it, I just thought to myself" what the hell am I doing?" Why be in a slump. I was in fucking Thailand. There no excuses. Enjoy every part of it while your here because in another month your going to be back in Boston, at the info commons working on something that you really have no desire to work on. So as you realize this, transfer it on to your life ahead. Live for the day. the most out used phrase of the day to day optimist, but it works. In some sense i don't think I really understood how to go about abiding by that quote..... until now.

Pak Mun Dam

Pak Mun Is the second village that I visited on the third unit of the program. This village has a similar problem to that of Rasi Sali, however it’s much furthur down the timeline, and sadly not in a good way. The Pak mun dam project was built under the guish of a mass development plan that the Thai government was under going created by the World Bank. The dam was supposedly supposed to be built to create a significant amount of electricity for the region surrounding the dam, but is not producing efficient amounts of electricity. The dam, like the one at Rasi Sali, has severely destroyed the environment around it as well as affecting the livelihoods of the villagers in the surrounding areas.

My initial view of Pak Mun was very different then my view of Rasi Sali. While I could see a Young movement and active community involvement in the issue, there was none of that at Pak Mun. The whole community seemed more beaten down and tired then unity and active, due mainly to the huge timeline stretch and the way the issue was being treated by the Thai government. The most significant difference I saw in the two communities was the way of life, and the work. While in Rasi Sali you would still see rice fields and feel a sense of community, in Pak mun I only saw broom making, the way the villagers compensated for their lost income from ruined rice field and fishing, and seclusion.

I think what affected me most about my time in Pak mun was the image of the river and the fishing boats along the banks. Rather then farmers, the villagers of Pak Mun are more considered to be fisherman. Since the building of the dam, the migration of fish up stream to where they fish has severely decreased, and in turn affected the villagers way of live.

This being said, In the morning of the first day that I stayed in Pak Mun, I went fishing with my homestay father. As I walked to the river, I was astounded by the sight of fishing boats laying all along the river side, many destroyed and unusable. It turns out that the day before, the gates to the dam was open in order to let the water through for the rice fields for a small time period, but that night they closed the gates for 4 months because the government decreed that it was time. In turn the river shrunk, and all the boats that where on the river washed a ashore on to the bed. I was again astounded by the advances of “development”.

Projec Time begins

So it's come time for final project to start. I'm actually really excited about what I'm going to be able to do, but I'm not going to lie, I don't exactly know how I'm going to do it. I was debating between two different projects,. One was going to be the human right youth network, which is a network of youth groups through out Thailand and Myanmar that was started this semester through the efforts of a group of us students. I've been involved in this project for a bit, but don't really feel a deep connection to it. Ultimately I decided on Na Nong Bong, the village where my heart lies.

I'm actually really excited to be going back to Na Nong Bong and to be able to finally do something that will help the community. The project should be interesting because the group that We have for the project is interesting. After some deliberation, We decided to do a media project that we can transfer on to the villagers to raise awareness of the issue that is happening to the their village and the surrounding area. We decided that we're going to make a short video outlining the human rights violations that are occurring and match them with the faces of people that are affected. For instance one of the main rights being violate in the village is the right to water. WE plan on interviewing a person's who's right to water has been severely affected and hopefully illicit a emotional response out of those that the video is being presented too. The most important part of the project is the sustainability aspect of it. The protect has to be sustainable and thus has to be able to be used by the villagers. We shall see how this turns out...

The Golden Cycle

Leaving for my second trip to Na Nong Bong, I was excited to return to a village that has struck me in a certain way that none of the others have. On a near by mountain, a company known as Tung Khum Limited has been operating a mine for a number of years now. The mining process has [allegedly ed.] affected the environment and water sources of the surrounding areas. This includes the ground water that the people of the surrounding villages use to drink, wash dishes, and bath in. Na Nong Bong being the closet to the [claim that the ed.] mining site, [has caused ed.] severe health affects and reduces crop yields in their fields. This has lead them to take measure against the mine in hopes that their way of life may be restored to the extent where they do not have to worry unnecessarily about the basic human rights of water, health , and a proper environment.

The first time that I went to Na Nong Bong, the village was in the midst of excitement. They were about to protest a vote that would extend the current mine that is severely affecting their livelihoods to another part of the mountain, furthering the risk that was involved with the mining process. We were witness to the preparation, act and then success afterward. The more I learned about the situation, the more I was impressed by their passion to push for their livelihoods.

Coming back to Na Nong Bong, there were no protests, but the sense of the community and passion to maintain their livelihoods was still very apparent. I was incredibly struck by the villager’s ability to keep up the fight. Personally, I had my doubts about what the people of the village could actually accomplish. The mining company has made a large effort to slip through cracks in the political bureaucracies and make a solid effort to disprove the rather obvious effects of the mine, that it seemed like the viscous cycle that normally occurs in the realm of development was continuing. The demands of the many are out weighing the needs of the view.

The cycle seemed as if it was going to occur in this community as well. One thing that I thought to myself was if I am getting discouraged over the issue, then how could the villagers, the people that live with it on a day to day basis really work past it. It seems as if everything was working against them. The first issue that I made note of is the health aspect. Proper health is obviously an essential part of having a proper life. Without proper health, one cannot work, and if one cannot work, one cannot properly provide for their families. In the case of Na Nong Bong, chemical poisoning, and irritation has caused problems for the people in the village. However, the government and the mining company some how find a way around each and every medical problem that happens. They have even gotten a hold of the ministry of provincial health, an entity that should in all honesty know better and understand the problems that are being caused. Yet again the few are suffering for the demands of the many. To what extent can this really be acceptable.

When will our own lust for more demand be outweighed by the lives of the few? It seems like a fairly blatant resolve, however in reality it’s not so black and white. At some point the people’s lives have to outweigh the benefits…. right?

Full Moon And reverse Culture Shock

SO during the only break that we get on this program, me and a few friends decided to take advantage of the time we had and go down south to the islands of Thailand, and more specifically to koh samui and Koh Pha Ngang. Luckily enough, our break coincided perfectly with one of the largest events in south east asia, the Full Moon Party. The full moon party is a large rave that happens on a remote beach on the island o Koh Pha Ngang. Its come tobe a large gathering of forgieners, mainly europeans and australians, for a night of what most would call debauchery. After having spent the majority of the last two months in Thailand living in villages and picking rice, we thought that this might be a intresting break from it all and a return to some of the things that we know best. While it did have components of that, it also had a large component of "What the hell is going on?"

We flew in to kho Samui the night of Halloween. Koh Samui is the larger island and the hub i guess you would say of the islands in the south. AFter we arrived we made our way to the island of Koh Pha Ngang were the party was going to be. The only way to reach Koh Pha Ngang is by ferry, However before we left I personally made a reservation for a room on the island, and the time was getting too late to check in. So since I got the reservation, i rushed to the isalnd as fast as I could while the others waited for the next ferry at the hour. I had to take a speed boat with two chilean couples. As we rode the 45 min journey, the sun set on the water, islands surronding us, and paridase engulfing us. it was amazing. Once I got to the island, I immediatly realized that the place was not the Thailand I knew. There was pizza and t-shirt shops every where, and excitingly enough mexican food. I walked around to area ammazed at all the lights and western culture that was stuffed in to a small island, and to be compleatly honest, I was a little freaked out. haha

As my firends arrived, We realized that the hotel I booked was on the other side of the island and that It would be impossible to travel that far everyday. Instead we found a place that had three rooms on the beach amd stayed there. That night, the beach was filled with fire and peope from everywhere. While walking from one side of the beach to the other I heard probably 5 different languages and accents. It was amazing. Then in the distance I saw something I thought I would never see in my live. It was a 20 foot fire jump rope, being twirled by two of the scranisest thai men I had ever seen. I ran to the rope as fast as I could and immediatly jumped in.... did 4 jumps and tripped on the rope.

And that was only the first night.

The second night was the Full Moon Party. AS I spent the day exploring the island and even snorkeling with a burmesse refugee, who told me the story of his live and how he escaped the Myanmar government by walking across the boarder with just a plastic bag, I couldn't help but think about the immense differences in culture and ways of life the locals on the island must live compared to those where I come from. While they don't have to deal with flooded rice fields, they do have to deal with asshole tourist, a huge loss of culture, crime, and many other things. It was a intresting contrest to the program, but had great parallels.

The night of the full moon was incredible. While within 1 our I lost my firends, i had a blast, and at one point looked up at the sky, saw that huge ful moon and thought" Where the hell am I?"

U-Facing

I have to say, being a unit facilitator was interesting. A unit facilitator is the person that basically leads a unit in the programs. They make sure that all the exchanges go smoothly, which is when we meet and talk to people involved in the issues that's being discussed, and doing the briefing if the unit and the workshop, which is sort of like a debriefing. While it seems as i many people in the program did not enjoy the position, I surprisingly did. I some how discovered that I missed working hard in a way. I'm so used to the hectic schedule and long night that I have at school, that I began missing it in a way, which I don't know if that's good or not for my sanity in the future.

As a unit facilitator we had a few extra duties then the past 2 unit facilitator groups did. We had the job right in the midst o what they we were calling the slump. The slump is the period on study abroad were most people start to go in to hiding in a way, they start to miss home and people, and because of that go through a sort of depression. This was not exactly the funnest time to be doing the job, as many people has really begun to hate the program, and in turn retaliated using passive agression. So to try to liven things up and get the group past this slump, we tried to change up the way the unit was runig for once. It seemed as though everything had gotten a little too monotonus and that because of it people were unhappy.

When I normally do these types of things, I love to really have a ineractive component to them. While at home, I'm the president of a club called Globemed that does similar things in informing the student population of northeastern, so I wanted to try and mimic some of the things that I did back home a little bit. What we came up with essentially was a water ballon fight. It was genius. The fight was done in such a way that a feelings of emotion could be envoked. We made it so that one side was the villagers, and gave them limited supplies, and limited space to move, while the other side we called the governement, or in general terms, "The Man." We gave that side a larger ammount of water balloons and oppertunities to get the other team wet. In the end the mesage was that with a certain ammount of reasources the villagers or any marginalized group has to face difficulties in order to accomplish their goals.

Development???

Rasi Sali is the first village that I went to on the third unit of our program. The issue of this unit is water, and more specifically dams. In Rasi Sali, the government of Thailand built a dam for what they say is irrigation purposes, but instead the dam has done nothing more then flooded crucial crop fields for surrounding villagers and diverted the fish that normally come up stream. This has in turn severely affected their livelihoods, mainly due to violation of right to culture, food, work, health, etc. The situation has been happening for quite some time now, and the Thai government is well aware of the issue at hand. The most inspiring part about this is the activism of the locals in the village. A few years ago, the elders of the Rasi Sali village decided that they were not going to stand for the violations that were occurring any more, and in retaliation and pure civil disobedience style, they set up a protest village outside of the entrance to the dam. The village includes members from many families through out the village and come to show what a community with an issue can do when they mobilize.

My own experiences and impressions of the village were interesting. I have to say that I never really thought of right to culture as a huge issue. Rights seem to be tangible things that are or are notgiven to someone, such as food, water, work, right? How can one measure the right to culture anyways? Well I guess I have to then think about what exactly a right to culture in America would be maybe to find a parallel. In the case of Rasi Sali, the fields of which they plants cow neow, or sticky rice, were flooded. Cow neow is a stable of the northeast region of Thailand and in a way culturally defines the region. It’s in many ways seen as a lower class food to many of the people in the rest of Thailand, but that’s also in many ways why its so important. On top of that the people in the area have a long history of working as fisherman and farmers. It has become part of their culture and even has been integrated in to their holiday system, with the month surrounding harvest season being vacation time for the children of the area so that they can help their parents harvest rice.

The conclusion of this is that the people of the area have a tradition to their land and their work, a defining part of their culture. The dam has essentially forced them to look for other venues of employment, abandoning what they know best from years of training to do “new generation” jobs such as driving taxi’s in Bangkok, and running shops in Bangkok’s tourist hot spot, Khao San road. It does not really seem fair does it? And all in the name of development for new times, seems more one sided to me.

Monutains of trash and development theparkak 2

My last unit was on urban developments, specifically focusing on Landfill and slum communities. Over the last few days, I visited and stayed with a family that worked and lived on a landfill, as well as a slum community in The city.I spent three days and 2 nights at the landfill community , working with the family and other students collecting recyclables and other materials that the family can use for extra income.

I have to say that this was a interesting experience. I don't think that i would have ever thought that I would be living in a landfill community, or that a landfill community even existed. i mostly thought of people more so to be scavengers working on their own terms rather then living and working in a community. The first day that I was there, we went on a tour, with all the little kids of the community quickly latching on to us and following. At first glance I couldn't ever imagine the amount of thrash that had piled up in the land fill. There were mountains of trash that were maybe 50 feet in the air and solidly wide as well. The thing that most struck me was the presence of needles and other medical wastes. supposedly due to loop holes in the law, private clinics were allowed to dump medical waste in to the landfill along with other wastes.

The first day on the job was a interesting one. Me and the other students got out to the land fill at about 9 in the morning to work, equipped with nothing more then boots and gloves( which is actually more then some people who work there daily have.) I began hoeing away at the trash that was being hauled in to the landfill, picking up any piece of glass , metal or hard plastic that I could find and tossing it in to my homestay father's bin. After a little while, I felt like I was getting the hang of it. i was never really taken back by anything in the landfill surprisingly. the smell hadn't bothered me too much, and the fact that I was working in other people's trash never really struck me as odd. This was until I hoed at a pill that had just gotten out of a trash truck and found a dead baby cat. For some reason the image of that disturbed me and reminded me a little bit about the type of work that was going on. After a little while, we all went home, gin chowed( ate) and then played with the kids basically for the rest of the day until the next days work. The people who live in the community work at the land fill for about 15 hours a day, working days, and nights. The night of the second day I went over to the Land fill to discover at least 15 people busy at work still hoeing away at the land fill, just trying to make a living.

After two days at the land fill, we said our goodbye and went on our way, with out really knowing what was going to happen. Once back on campus for the hour or two before leaving for the slum, man of the people who lived at the land fill with me started getting sick. As soon as we made it too the slum community, people started dropping like flys, and had to start going to the hospital. I think I counted that 7 out of 16 people ended up going. While that sucked in and of it self, it started to make me wonder. The land fill community that we all lived in by no means was in any sort of financial burden. the families could very well provide for themselves and their family members with out any problems. However the health risks of working at the land fill were incredible. I couldn't help but think that if 16 healthy young adults could come in for only 2 days and a majority of then get sick, then what toll was the landfill having on the people that worked there day in and day out. not only that what about the kids that ran around the piles of trash with flip flops, or many times even without shoes. What was the effects that were happening to these people?

I came out of there intrestingly enough not thinking that the people working in the land fill were working in filth, in such a way that was deaning. I actually came out of there thinking the exact opposite. The people there are just making a living by collecting the recyled materials that they can find so they can provide for their families. The omai thing however in my opinion was why should they have to worry about serious health concerns ( medical wastes, gas) were they work .

The secodn homestay was teh slum homestay, To be honest with you. i felt pretty shitty the whole day that I was staying in the homestay due to cathcing something from the landfill, however i still had a great time. The night that I was there, i spent having a chat with another student and her homestay father, a really cool thai guy that drinks close to every night and somehow has english music playin during the day. we spent the might trying to understand each other and talking mostly about thai beers. It was great. haha

The " Slum" community that i stayed in was called Theparak 2. the intresting part about the community was the fact that in recent years they had developed so much , that it no longer was really a slum. The most intresteing thing that I found when being there was when i was talkinf to my friends homestay dad and asked hom about the slum, he corrected me immediatly ans sadi that " its not called slum theparak2, but development theparak 2." THis change in attitude about ones own community is pretty strong. ot be able to change to definition of ones own community is pretty amazing.

Buddhist Lent- Yea, apparently they do have one.

Recently I took a trip to the northern boarder of Thailand and Laos in order to partake in a Buddhist festival for the end of Buddhist lent … One which I don’t really know the name of in a village called Tamui. Tamui lies on the Mekong river, right across from Laos. The Village was a nice little place, and the people were extremely nice, and well aware of the tourist destination the village had become. The history of the festival was that there was a Buddhist myth that living in the Mekong river was a very big snake called the naga. On this day, the end of Buddhist lent, the naga is supposed to be spitting fireballs out of the Mekong river, and supposedly show its form.

The day that we got to the village, we were exhausted from the long ride. The bus ride had been about 7 hours on some of the most under done roads I’ve seen in Thailand. The village was getting ready for the huge influx of people they were going to expect the next day. Since the village was still preparing, as a group we went to a local national park that had paintings on the walls of the mountain that dated back to cave men. I have to say the walk was pretty exhausting and really mad me realize how out of shape I really was.

The next day we woke up to blasts outside of the window of the house that we were staying at. As I went outside, I realized that it was just the village kids throwing loud fireworks in too the air… not the safest of things, but to me it seemed awesome. I then spent the rest of the morning periodically buying large amounts of fireworks and throwing them in to the air, thus fulfilling the pyro of my youth. During the afternoon, I actually was invited by one of the villagers to the banana forest in the back of the village. There I found out that the villagers actually create boats out of the banana trees and send them down the river as a offering to the naga. Once the sun went down, the boats were sent down the river, along with hundreds of candle lit flower bouquets. Sadly though, I never got to see any fireballs launched from the river.

Na Nong Bong- The village that gold devastated

Two days ago I spent the night in a village called Na Nong Bong in the Loei Province of the northeastern part of Thailand. The community is being demolished f all rights to their livelihood by a near by mine, owned by Tong Kah Harbour Limited, a mining company that was originally based out of Australia. The mine itself has caused enormous amount of problems for the people in the area, and is likely to cause even more in the near future.

The mine that resides on a mountain top, sticking out like a blatant sore thumb as it is surrounded by lush greenery all around it. The Mine is situated on what is called the golden belt, a strip of land running through Cambodia, Laos and Thailand that has large gold quarries in the rock. The company claims to have " the cheapest method of goldminining int he world" which in turn matriculates to a huge effect on the surrounding population. Chemicals used in the mining process such as cyndide, and arsenic seep in to the water supply and in turn has drastic effects on te villages in the area. To put things in to perspective, I used the water in the village just to wash my hands and feet, and they were tingling for the whole day afterwards.

It was pretty incredibile going to visit this community for a day. In what seems like a impossible battle for their own rights due to the huge ammount of corruption, and governement stake in the goldmine company, the villagers have made a point to come toghtehr and protest for their rights time and time again. The day that we got to the village, they were already going to work making headbands and planning out the protest at the local governmennt office the next day.

After an incitful conversation with a NGO the next day concerning the village, we came back to the village in the afternoon to seem people happy, eating and drinking Lao Kao ( white whiskey, made only in Issan.... not aweful, but it has a kick, and leave a taste in your mouth). Apperently they made such a commotion outside the office that the government couldn't vote on creating another mine in the area.

Start of the semester .....Finally.

So it's been a little while since I wrote in this so i figured I would put my next blog up. Hmm lets see so much has happened in the last few weeks. Well I'll start at the beginning. Recently we began the srat of the actual semester here in Thailand. My classes are going to mainly focus on social issues and research methodology, both of which should be really interesting and a huge switch from the type of stuff i'm used to.
On of the first lectures we had was from a man named Sulak Srivaraksa. The man has been incredibly influential in Thai plitics and is supposed on the Thai governments wanted list for committing less Majestre, which is speaking out against the monarchy. In Thailand the government consists of a constitutional monarchy, where the King and Queen are the heads of the country and are held in the highest regard by most all thai people. Sulak has also been awarded many peace awards as well as being nominated for the Nobel peace prize a few times.

That being said, after his lectures, I don't quite know how I feel about the guy. I came in to Thailand thinking that my views on politics and how things should work was vastly liberal, leaning towards socialism. After lisstening to Sulak's complete mistrust in capitalist society in the past, present and Future, i began to question my own views. The one thing that struck me most about his lectures was when he declared that " social Justice cannot be accomplished in a capitalist society." Harsh words in my opinion, and also a very negative way to approach the problem. Social justice is not a matter of the political system as such, but more so the people in the society and their values. If those values drift away from human accountability and value, like its has in America and many other countries, then things become bad. However if you changes the way they view success and livelihood to such a way that it is not measured by the money you have, then I feel that human value can become more important. ... Well anyways haha.

After a few more random classes, some more exchanges with Thai people in markets, bars, etc. I was off to my next homestay. This homestay was situated at the home of an organic farmer. Apparently due to world bank loans and regulations, the subsidies that huge mono croppers in the us get in order to export to other countries has caused the organic farmers out of not only a job, but a livelihood. In thailand, rice is the major crop, and thus farming rice and other foods have become part of the culture. THe importation of crops that are cheapper then home grown crops creates problems for the farmers, and makes it so that they have to change how they live. My pa and a were old organic farmers that are making a huge push for reverting back to small organic farms around Thailand. we talked to a number of people, including the organic farmers in the communities, farmers that are stuck in contract to large mono cropping organizations, and two leaders influential in changing the way that Thailand agricultural sector is. It was pretty amazing to see how live was tied in to it all, especially because in america you don't normally question how you get your food, you just eat it. On one of the mornings , me and my friend even woke up early to go to our pa's orgnaic farm. It was incredible, like and oasis. Our pa even jumped in to one of the many ponds he had to get the 4 lotus flowers that were in the middle of the pond. it was pretty amazing.

after that homestay, we went off to another village for just one night, were we were all prone to get back in to the old habits that college students do. That night our homestay families took me and a few other people out to kareokee about 20 min away from where I was staying. we procedded on to crowd about 15 falang( foriegners) in to the bed of a pick up truck and went our way. Once we got there, i'm pretty sure we were the most obnoxious people in the world. We tried to sing " hotel california" as a group, and butchered the shit out of it. once we got on stage, we realized we knew only 2 lines of the whole song........ it was aweful. haha.

after coming back to Khon Kaen, life proceeded as it normally did. I took it upon myself to become more intrested in a NGo that was incrdibly influential in HIV/AIDS care in Thailand called TNP+. A few of us went on day to their reginoal meeting of wholistic care centers, and were engulfed by it. We even had to stand up and present ourselfs, emphazising if we were single or taken. Afterwards we met with a few of the leaders and heard their side of the current issue, focusing mainly on access to secondline drugs and their campaign against drug companies in the U.S.

The most recent occurance that happened that most will find ammuzing was my escapade to the Pullman hotel. The pullman hotel is the nicest hotel in the city, and as such has a huge penthouse suite. Me and 3 freinds dressed up in the best attire we had, acted like buisness men and proceded to get a grand tour of the penthouse. It was huge, and the view was incredible. it even had its own pool. haha

Thats it for now. I'll try to stay abit more up to date on the whoel blogin thing in the near future.

Land of Smiles

So this blog is way over due, so I figured that i would finally start it.

I came to Thailand on August 20th. I had no idea what i was doing. I had a interesting summer for one. as many may know I am trying to become a doctor and i just recently took my mcats. When did I take them you ask? Oh just about 4 days before leaving the country for four months. It was a little bit of a hectic process. I had a pretty excruciating summer that was riddled with a number of awful things that I'm positive most people don't want to hear about. ( And by awful, I really mean just exhausting and a lot of work. All and all it was a pretty great summer for me. ) But this blog isn't about what I did this summer.

I left for Thailand on august 20th, and like i said earlier I had no idea what i was doing. I had barely read anything about the program i was getting myself in to , let alone bother to learn ever the smallest bit of Thai. Normally i would consider myself a pretty flexible guy, and most things don't really get me anxious, but the second i got to the terminal at San Francisco airport and looked around, I'll admit, I was a little scared. I had a 18 hours flight to hong knong and then another 2 hour flight to Bangkok. The whole time I was a little anxious. The only thing that really would calm me down was the in flight accommodations. I got to watch Aladdin and drink Black Label, an occurrence that i have to say probably doesn't happen very often.

After getting off at the Bangkok airport i started to look around and try and get a feel for the place i was going to be for the next 5 months of my life. I looked around and tried to observe the people around me. The first thing i did was start talking to a young looking american girl, thinking maybe she had come to Bangkok for the same reason I did........ She did not. haha

Once i got my bags i began to look around for a way to get to my hotel room, the Viengtai hotel. Not knowing how to speak any Thai, i went to the first place I saw that said taxi. It turned out that i had rented a limo to get to my hotel from the airport. Surprisingly though it cost 1,000 baht, a mere 30 dollars in the states.

After getting to Bangkok i started to wander around with a few people that i met initially from the program. The street we were on was Khao San and apparently was one of the places that was a heaven for back packers. Initially i was a little taken back by the experience. I didn't really like the fact that i had come to Thailand and more then 7o percent of the people I was seeing on the streets were foreigners. However then i realized that it was just the first day and i got over it. After meeting the group, and some cool people the program began. The second day was a interesting time. While a group of us were in the pool at the hotel, it started raining harder then I've ever seen in my life. It was pretty amazing. We went out that night in the midst of flooded street and pouring rain.

After leaving Bangkok, we made our way to a a resort in northern Thailand for about a week. This was pretty gorgeous. the resort was in the hill tops and there was a creek running in the back and you could see the forest surrounding you.

This time periods was mainly for team building as a group. A major aspect of my program is international development and a strong component of that is working in teams to discuss problems that are faced with and observe. It should be a interesting experience because international development is a area that i want to work with in the future, however i dont think i really know the realities of the field. Reading journal articles can only do so much. Plus i haven't exactly worked in a group for quite a while, so it should be interesting.

After the retreat we immediately went to your first homestay in a village called Noon Jahn. This was kind of crazy. I clearly had know idea what to expect for our homestays. I had 4 days of Thai under my belt, and on top of that I really didn't want to insult anyone. At first i thought we were going to be living with a family in a town, with concreate walls and all. However while i was on the bus to the village, we kept climbing higher and higher and deeper in to the forest until eventually we reached a small Village.

Nong Jahn is a interesting village. It is completely self sustaining and ever house in the village has a solar panel located outside of their house in order to supply electricity. The village was located in the middle of a forest that the Thai government had declared a national forest various times. Due to this, the villagers at Nong Jahn had to repeatedly evacuate from their homes and lively hoods and relocate to a new area. However in the recent years they were allowed to come back, but not indefinable. When i first arrived to the village it was pretty amazing to see the sense of community they had. Everyone came to greet us with huge smiles.

My homestay in Nong Jahn was with a family of banana farmers. At first the communication was a bit difficult, but smiling surprisingly went a long way. The family had a 2 year old little boy named Poi Fai. At first the kid was pretty hesitant to come and greet me and my friend staying at the home stay, and he even punched me in the eye the first time i tried to pick him up, but eventually he warmed up to me. At the end of the trip i gave him the spiderman bracelet I had and he cried as we all went away.

After the homestay we reached Khon Kaen. At this point i was living out of my backpack for about a weekand a half, and was exhausted with no clean cloths, so being able to go to my room at Khon Kaen university was a refreshment. After exploring a bit i went out with a few people and a large group of Thai students that are our roomates and had a interesting time. Few things I want to say:

1.) Thai's love Likin park and limp bizkit. Its really odd. I hung out with a few thai guys on the street the first night and they handed e a guitar and asked me to play linkin park.... I can't remember the last time i listened to liknin park let alone played it. So i told them that, and they took the guitar away and played a song singing along to it in English. They can't converse in english, but they can sing Linkin Park. haha

2.) Thai's are extremely Friendly. I went out to the club one night, and just walking in, people started to invite us over to chill with them. At first it sounds a bit sketch, but it really isn't.

After staying at KKU for a few days I went to my next homestay. Originally I was told that this homestay was going to be with middle class families of students in the 4th grade at a school. The first day i went there i met Mooch, my little brother. He was a pretty shy kid, and didn't talk too much at first, but was pretty cool. We pulled up to his house in a song tau( taxi), and i realized the conditions i was living in were worst then the village. AS i walked in I realized none of the parents were home, which at first struck me as odd. So i dropped of my stuff and went off with mooch to take a walk. We walked around the area and eventually found a few kids that were playing soccer. So me and mooch took on 3 other 11-3 year olds in soccer. It was pretty hilarious. Doing rainbows over thai children to amaze them was pretty fun. Mooch liked that an warmed up to me afterward.

When we went home it was dark out. As i walked in the house, I realized that there were no lights on inside. The house had no light and eventually what i found out no bathroom. I began to worry a bit. However eventually the mother came and we had dinner and went to bed at about 9 o'clock.

The next few days were a little tough. I had to plan my days out and certain things. The experience i had leaving though became pretty crucial. I stayed with mooch and his family for about 5 days, and the one thing i will miss is walking in to and from school teaching each other words in Thai and english, and then going to seven eleven for a bowl of ramen. That homestay i have to say was pretty tough and exhausting. The conditions of the house just made me think about how the family lived, and what their daily reality was.