My first week in the land of smiles...

Monday, I worked in the Chiang Rai Regional Hospital. In the morning, I worked with two boys. One was part of the Akha hill tribe and the other was Thai. The Akha boy seemed very sick and the other boy recently had an operation. We painted papier-maché balloons. Around halfway through our painting, a man in the next room was very audibly dying or in serious pain from a moto accident. I saw the Thai boy put his head down and the Akha boy start to cry. It was terribly sad. In the afternoon, we worked on medical supplies. It is a very important job to make dialysis packs. It is also, unfortunately, painstakingly boring. After that, we met with our country director and I talked about project ideas that I had. Dave called three of the projects and set up meetings for Thursday.

Tuesday, started off at a village school called Nam Lad where we are building a wa

ter station. As one of the teacher's was giving us a tour of the school while we took a break for water, we saw Céline Dion lyrics on the board. She said they were translating the lyrics into English. I under my breath sang to Ryleigh (another volunteer) a line of the song. Ryleigh said "you should sing that for the class, Amy." We laughed until we remembered that the teacher spoke English. Before we knew it, the four of us were singing "Because You Loved Me" for a room of 11 year olds. The teacher was crying after because she said it was "so beautiful." I can assure you readily that it was not. She was so touched that she gave us all bracelets.

After working through the afternoon, we finished much of the wash station and started heading home. On the way, we

passed a very steep set of stairs with what looked like a temple at the top. Blake and I raced up them to find a monk's burial site that was quite beautiful. We hitched a ride with a truck back home and got ready for the evening.

Rose, Emily, Kenny, Pim and I went to the Samah Mit Community. The previous few weeks, the group had been teaching them about

finances and keeping records; we went to do house calls to check on our students. Soon after, we were offered dinner by family of the community elder. We had rice (as always) with mackerel and fried fish eggs and greens. It is apparently expensive and rare, so we were quite honored. In the village there was a little boy named Golf. Polio had crippled his hands, so he could not hold anything with them alone. He loved to draw, so that's what he would do. It reminded me of Helen Keller when she said that "although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it." He would use his leg to guide his hand across the page with a smile on his face. I was truly inspired by his patience, perseverance, and joy.

For the trip back to the house, Kenny, Rose, Emily, and I rode atop the taxi. It was incredible feeling the wind in our hair and in our faces. I felt so free. In Thai, Farang is slang for a white person. So on the way home, it was hilarious to watch all of the Thai people stare in awe at four Farangs senselessly riding atop a taxi.

Wednesday morning, we headed to DEPDC (Development and Education Project for Daughters and Communities). It is near the border with Burma, so we had a long and bumpy bus ride on the way. DEPDC works with trafficking victims and those at risk of being trafficked. In the morning we taught English in two classes and in the afternoon we did square foot gardening. That morning, as I was catching up to the group I looked both and ways and didn’t see anyone. A group of Thai people gladly pointed me in the direction of the other Farongs and I found them without difficulty.

Thursday was meeting day. At 9, we met with Pi Ti who worked with the Akha hill tribes on cultural and self-sustainability. We were able to go to one of the hill tribe communities where they organization and community members are building a clinic. As we were on our way to the site, there was a large snake in the middle of the road. Pi Ti stopped the car suddenly. My first thought was that he didn’t want to run it over until he pulls out a knife as he gets out of the car. He says something in Thai, which Dave translates as “that snake is delicious; it can be our lunch.” Unfortunately, it slithered away too quickly.

Our second meeting with Dr. David was no less exciting. He worked in remote villages on sanitation and medical supply. He had no funds other than what each volunteer brought. He condescended on other NGOs with their grants and offices and salaries. We later learned his mistrust of organizations like those came from his days as a Burmese freedom fighter. Our third meeting was rescheduled for Monday. That night, we went to the night bazaar—always entertaining. There were quite a few Farongs in the center of town, however, that I was not accustomed to seeing. I slept under the stars and a mosquito net.

Friday morning, we were back at the hospital. In the morning, we arrived early to the Pediatrics unit. Hoo-aay took the time to teach us some Thai. I worked with a brother and a sister. The little girl had stomach surgery earlier that week. We colored and painted. I played a few games with them and sang some songs. They were more lighthearted than my previous two pediatrics patients. Mae, one of the Pediatrics workers, and her friend Koi taught us a Thai song about elephants to prepare for our weekend and we all went to lunch. Afterwards, we sorted and organized medical supplies. That afternoon, we were meeting with the director of an AIDS orphanage with whom we might volunteer. We went around the bazaar that night with two Thai girls we had met and watched the US v. Serbia World Cup game. Saturday morning, I climbed some trees and went on a run around our village, excited about the upcoming events of the weekend.