Freeing cats and rats

This night had to be the most interesting one of all my nights at the Mirror Foundation. It started just after dinner when Annelies, the girl from Holland, comes and says that someone has set a rat trap in our house and it's caught a rat. It's stuck to a tray of glue. "What can we do?" I have no idea. So we go and find someone "in charge". He takes the tray away professionally and we think, how sad. But that's life. The rat -which is really a mouse - will die.

So later, we're all hanging out in the office. The cuddly calico cat that frequents the office at night wanders in about 30 minutes later. Sadly, she has gone after the rat and is now attached by glue to the tray and a there's a dead mouse hanging off of this tray as well. All the girls in the office are screaming and standing on chairs. They chase the cat out. I'm freaking out because I can't stand the idea of this cat walking around with a tray of glue and a dead rat attached to it.

So, we catch the cat and slowly peel it off of the the tray, all the while trying very hard not to go near the dead rat. We finally got it free, but the cat was covered in glue. Luckily one of the new girls had vet training and was able to give it a bath and cut most of the glue out of the fur.

I'll tell you what. Freeing that cat was one of the most disgusting things I've ever done.

Waking up to pigs screaming

The first weekend after coming to our volunteer program, we went on what's called a "Home Stay". During this weekend, the organization arranges us to stay with two villages, one Lahu and one Akha. We also do a bit of sight-seeing.

First, we went out to breakfast in town. Then we went to the local market. There we were able to see all kinds of colorful foods - fish on a stick, cockroaches, and sticky rice. After that, we visited the temple in Chiang Rai.

Early afternoon took us to the Karen village to do some elephant riding. Then we headed for a banana-leaf-wrapped lunch at a nearby waterfall. After lunch, we visited the waterfall to cool off. Then we went to the hill tribe museum in Ban Jalae village.

Finally, we started off for the steep hike to the Lahu village. It was one hour, uphill, in the sun, and in the heat. But the views from up there were unbeatable.

The Lahu people are quite shy and it's hard to feel welcome in a town where everyone is shy and no one speaks your language. We felt even more uncomfortable with their living conditions. We slept in their above-ground home, on the bamboo-slatted floor. So, we could see the pigs that live underneath the home through the floorboards. And, boy, could we hear them when we woke up. They were screaming for their breakfast. It was quite unnerving to wake up to that sound.

The next day we spent at the viewpoint while our guide prepared us lunch using bamboo as the cooking instruments. It was delicious. Sleeping in the sun at that viewpoint was delicious too.

At the end of the day, we trekked to the second village. The Akha village had a completely different atmosphere. The minute we came to town, the kids shouted hello at us. They dragged us off to play tag. The families let us help cook and they taught us the tribal language - as much as we could handle. That night, they invited us to the bonfire to dance with them.

As interesting as the experience was, we were all very glad to come home and get showers, of all things.

Getting started

So, after we got settled in to our new "home", we dove right into some of our teaching assignments - sometimes without being told what we could expect. I volunteered to teach a group of students that come on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays to the organization to get extra English work. It turned out to be a fantastic group of kids that I look forward to seeing every Monday-Wednesday. They are really sweet.

The other things that we do include day care, teaching at local schools, teaching the Thai staff at the organization, and teaching other adults that come for lessons.

The other volunteers here with me actually don't have any experience teaching, which makes things a bit interesting at times. I think I would like to get more involved than I am, but am not sure what more I can do.

On the bright side, we have a lot of down time to get on the internet and make our next travel plans.

Arriving at Mirror

I arrived at my volunteer organization on Monday Nov 3rd. I was pretty shocked at the living conditions. I mean, I knew it would be basic. But I didn't really think about how basic.

Here, four women live in a room about the size of a 6 man tent. We sleep on mattresses on the floor. The slats are open. As I'm typing this, the girl that stays upstairs has just ran downstairs because she saw a rat. The bathroom has a toilet - but it doesn't flush with a lever. You have to pour water into the toilet to make it flush. We are not allowed to use toilet paper. You shower out of a bucket and the water is cold. We wash our clothes in a bucket outside. No TV, no refrigerator, no conveniences. On the other hand, the food is AMAZING. I couldn't imagine better cooking. And so simple.

But even with the cooking, I wasn't entirely sure at the beginning if this is what I wanted. I mean, I know that I'm volunteering. But does it have to be so basic?

I'm learning that I have luxury accommodations compared to the ones I'm helping, as you'll see throughout the blog.

First weekend in Thailand

It's been a long time since I published a blog. I think the last time was one day when I went to Ireland. I really thought that I would be able to keep that up - but um....no. Well, I think I'll start again so that everyone knows what is happening with me in Thailand.

I arrived on October 30th. I spent one night near the Bangkok airport. Then next day I flew to Chiang Rai, up in the northern province, the largest Thai city before the Burma/Laos border. That Friday and Saturday, I didn't do much, other than try to get used to life in Thailand and figure out what there is to do.

Chiang Rai has a Night Market where locals sell their goods, where you can get dinner for cents, and free night entertainment. I didn't buy much, but it was nice to be out of the hotel room. The first couple of days were pretty lonely. But everything picked up on Sunday.

Sunday, I was able to get on a tour. We left at nine a.m. We drove to Mae Salong village. This is a Chinese settlement in Thailand. A part of the Chinese army came and settled here years ago. They are no longer considered Chinese, but they speak Chinese and have a Chinese school. In this village we did some Tea taste testing. They served worms as a snack on the side!

After the village, we walked to a hill tribe village. I am working with people from hill tribes in this region of Thailand. They have not integrated into Thai society and are sometimes not considered citizens of Thailand. The organization that I am working for tries to help their problems.

It was terribly interesting to see how these people live. But I will get to that more later because we will be spending the entire weekend there this coming weekend.

On the way out of town, we stopped at the Tea plantation. Then we moved on to a Jade factory.

Then we drove to the Golden Triangle. This is the part of Thailand that touches Burma and Laos. It's called the Golden Triangle because of the drug trade that used to be prominent in that area. Opium used to be called Black Gold. So, here they have an Opium museum, which was really interesting, but unfortunately they didn't hand out free samples. : )

After the museum, we stopped at a very old temple in a very old city. And then, finally we went home.

It was such a long day. I decided that I had to have a Thai massage. That was great. Then, I met some of the other volunteers from my program and we got a bite to eat. They seem really nice with some very interesting stories. I was excited to start working.

I was so in over my head...

Ireland - June 18th

I had some time off from work and some of my friends had a trip planned to Ireland.  I decided to go with them on their journey.  We had a great time.  Here's the recount.

So we arrived in Dublin in the evening of the 17th.  So the 18th was our first adventure in Ireland.  We drove to Northern Ireland to a small town called Seskinore, near Omagh.  This is where my friends, the McClintocks, had traced some of their ancestry.  We drove into the town of about 100 people and started looking around.  Sure enough, the McClintock roots were here.  The primary school was named after a Col. McClintock.  We started asking around and some of the locals invited us in for tea and to chat.  Then, we explored the graveyard where some McClintocks were buried and the place where there was formally an estate.  

On this day, I had my first impressions of Ireland.  I was surprised by how much more like the US it appeared than other European countries.  Of course, it's as green as they all say.  But I was also really impressed by how friendly the people were that we met.  The were so willing to be hospitable.  And I loved all the stonework in the buildings, and the exteriors of the houses.  The houses were gorgeous with perfectly manicured lawns.  

At the end of the day, we made our way back across the border to stay in a town near Cavin.

paris in april

april is long gone. but my pics - and my memories - are still with me. i'm finally taking a moment to let you see paris in the springtime. paris is THE BEST in april. the weather was warm, but not unbearable. the trees were in bloom. the feeling was romantic. i just wanted to sit in the parks and read books. paris is certainly my "happy place". even while visiting the Catacombs - where all the skeletons are - I can't help but be blissful!

Spain and Semana Santa

Late nights, crowds of people, beautiful parks, incense, orange blossoms, and mullets! Oh yes, people, mullets are alive and well in Spain. Look out! I think that they might be all the rage in the US in a few years! Here's a creative recount of our trip to Spain.

6 - number of people Ben and I hit in the back of the legs when our suitcases fell over

4 - average number of hours that we spent walking every day

18 - number of Motrin we had to take for the pain in our feet

175 - pictures taken

1 - number of times we ate the pork there before vowing never to eat pork again

3 - number of Spaniards that actually speak English

1- number of Americans that refused to speak English with us

45 - minutes rowing on a lake in the park

7 - number of people in the Flamenco show in Madrid, the most amazing show we've ever seen

8,600 - number of paintings in the incredible Prado museum

2 - hours we waited at the train station to buy tickets from Madrid to Seville

100,000 - number of crazy Catholics that go to see the "floats" for Semana Santa in Seville

Millions - of iPods in Spain

5 - hours that it took us to find our hotel in Seville trying to get through the thousands

2 - average number of hours that it took us to find a restaurant where we wanted to eat

2 - also the average bedtime!

over 30 - times we went to Starbucks

hundreds - number of Catholic churches in Seville

9 - hours in the airport waiting for our, finally, cancelled flight

8 - days total in Spain

2 - happy travelers who had an adventure!