One week in Thailand

This is the team arriving by song tao (taxi truck) to our new "home" in Chiang Mai. The songtao is the way to travel round here. 6 people on each side and if it's full you jump on the running board at the back and hold on. It's Ok, I've tried it.

I thought it time to fill you in on my activities. I have now been in Thailand just over a week although it seems much longer because things being so different from home, I guess. Things are very different.

All 37 VSO volunteers in Thailand and half a dozen staff have attended the annual 3 day conference which was at a resort in the mountains about 45 minutes from where we are staying in Chiang Mai. The conference is now over and all the new volunteers are now back in Chiang Mai. We start our language training tomorrow
and other in- country training things. learning the
road rules for riding a motor bike here is one of the
workshops - That'll be a joke as it doesn't look like any rules exist.

There are many things that surprise me;
One is the huge variety in the volunteers in gender, ages, nationalities and of course experiences. A 21 year old guy from the states who is here for a year working on developing sustainable practices in the migrant Burmese population is taking a break from his uni course and may consider trying to renew for another year. One of the the oldest people is a 65 year African woman who looks like a 45 year old. She is working at Mae Sot in the education sector.
Another surprise is the trouble people have with my kiwi accent and kiwi words. I am having to speak and clearer and without the kiwi isms. It is not easy to remind myself all the time. Of course, I am also having trouble with other people's accents. It is quite tiring having a discussion with some people as you have to concentrate so much. Thank goodness for 2 other kiwis, some canadians, americans and British. It seems every other nationality is represented.
Another surprise is the large VSO contingent in Mae Sot and they love being there. There are many other NGOs (non government organisations) as well and many of them are expats. It seems Mae Sot is almost more like Burma than Thailand as there are so many migrant Burmese people there. That is why VSO is there - all the work that VSO do in Thailand is with the Burmese migrants. There are 3 areas that VSO work on - education, advocacy and something to do with human rights (can't remember the correct term). The volunteers all have to develop sustainable skills with the Burmese teams they work with. There are people here involved in advocacy who are making movies with teams of Burmese travelling into Burma to get footage which is edited and up-loaded to youtube in Thailand. This team of Burmese migrants lead by a young dutch woman have put some very recent and amazing stuff together. The migrants travel into Burma at great risk from bullets or imprisonment to get the footage.

Next surprise is how good the food is and how little it costs. We do have a lot of rice - fried rice with eggs for breakfast, rice with chicken for lunch and rice with pork for dinner at street stalls. Each meal is less than NZ$4.00. The Thai beer, Singha, is fine to wash it down with too. However, we have had a break from rice which has been great but sometimes expensive. Good to have the choice though. Most people know I struggle with spicey food and only once have I chosen wrongly and nearly burnt my mouth right out. My stomach is managing fine and I am having no problems there at all. Surprise surprise!

Also I have not found an undesirable toilet yet. The worst was on the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Most of my trouble was because the toilet was wobbling with the train movement. By the end of the trip ie after 14 hours I was avoiding the toilet as it had to be bad by then. Earlier on it was OK.

Anyhow, 4 weeks more before I get to Mae Sot to start work. It will be good to eventually get there. My Thai language is the next challenge.

Hope all is well at your place.