All Kinds of Critters

Hello hello again. Thanks for coming, you've been a great crowd.

I know everyone must be thinking: "Beky please please please give us an update on the solar oven!" Well it turns out it was a big flop. The first two days I tried to make rice, but it took so long it rotted. Ouh Tai was really into it, and carried it out to the sun the second day, and would check on it for me and rotate it to face the sun throughout the day. (He's so nice). On the third day I successfully made a grilled (imported) cheese sandwich in it, but I suspect the full sunshine and temperatures reaching the high 80s could have melted the fine Danish Mozerella cheese as well if it were just sitting in a bird's nest. Oh well, the sandwich was still so delicious. I made the oven out of a cardboard box for the outside insulator, and the inside was a large aluminium box. They actually call for using two cardboard boxes, but I thought the metal would be a better heat conductor, but guess who thought wrong. I hope to make another/better one. So keep staying tuned ;<

Crawly Critters
Since its summer vacation for the school kids not too much teaching has been occuring. So this little post is dedicated to all the cute, fuzzy, cuddely, crazy, and slimy critters, that aren't going to school.

One evening I walked out of my room and towards the bathroom and see this litte fuzzy crawly friend on the ground. The next day I saw him on the wall and took a photo of him. It was kinda crazy, because he's actually all yellow when you first see him, then I blew on him before I got up close to him and his little body squished up and this black dot appeared. I supposed its supposed to be like his 'super scary-I look like an eyeball-self defense mode.'


The third day of our bumping into each other, Mr. Fuzzy Wuzzy, wasn't so fuzzy anymore. I promise, this was the day after the last picture. Way uglier right?


Here's a side view to see how much it sticks off from the wall, kinda...it was dark in the hallway and the flash was needed. The point is, it protruded about half an inch.


This is the little hallway to the bathroom area, because there is no door to the outside, there are tons of bugs that just creep or fly right in and make their little macro-cosmic life in the mortar of our brick wall. Please click to enlarge the photo to get a good glimpse of all the details. I mean really one square inch of this stuff prolly has about 26 dead bugs in it, and about enough cob webs to clog your ear. Gross, I know, obviously I walk right down the middle of the hallway, staying clear of accidently having my pj's brush up against it.


Just an extra bonus shot. I thought the flash really hilights the powerful cobwebs (the brown, non-reflective surfaces) that somehow can stick to the glass window right next to my bedroom door. Now this window, unlike the brick wall, I really like wiping my wet hair on it right after I take a shower.

Crazy Zany Critters at Tesco Lotus

Kelly, another volunteer and I stopped buy our neighborhood Tesco Lotus (the Thai version of a Target) last week. We were walking down a main aisle, and I saw a man whip around and start running to the back of the store. It seemed so urgent I said out loud, "Hmm I wonder if he forgot his kid in the back?" Nope turns out he was running to the back to get in line to buy these sodas that just came out and must have been "Priced to Move." Now this picture doesn't really show the frenzy that was had, but there were people pushing and shouting and fork lifts of soda being moved.


Maybe this photo will be able to sway you. Yes, as we drove out of the parking lot, we see this one shopper's jackpot of soda. I repeat this was just one shopper's goldmine of on sale Sprite and Coke, waiting to be loaded into the red pickup truck. It was a madhouse.

Chiang Rai Critters

Clever packaging. Cats are Critters.


Giraffes are critters. Pilar and I rode a bus an hour south to Chiang Rai to buy mozzerella cheese, cream cheese, and Cheetos. (There is no non-processed cheese in Mae Sai). This little girl was driving this large giraffe around the store.

Slimers

Slimers are slimy critters. I just love it when people do their impressions of Slimer from the Ghostbusters movies. It was Jamie's half birthday party, and he celebrated. Slimer was my favorite character from Ghostbusters.

Tookgeh

There is a crawly critter here...can you see him? He's about 18 inches long and likes to yell "Tookgeh.....Tookgeh.....Tookgeh" all night long, while he hangs out at the playground next to my bedroom.


Here he is, without the camo.


And the ever popular side view.

Jingjok

Tookgeh's little cousin, he's about 3 inches long, and likes to hide in between the crack of your door while its open, don't worry, I shooed him out.


Here's another little dude.


And three other little Jingjok, they're all over the place here, and always get inside and like to poop on the walls, but they do eat the insects!

Cuddly Critters

The first time it rained in a month here, I walked down to the volunteer office in the morning, and found the little puppies all curled up on the little mat sleeping so cute I had to take a picture.


Then I walked inside and looked left and saw their mom, sleeping on another dry spot-our little activity table. So cute, I had to take a picture.

But things quickly turned from cute and cuddly to sad and depressing. (read only if you are not too sensitive to animals). Little black puppy was accidently hit by a car at school the next day, and passed away. So sad, the kids were sad too.

Little white puppy had a little accident. She was sleeping under a car and was accidently run over. But the kids made her a little cozy place to recover, and gave her the little green stuffed catepillar, and toys and milk and cookies to eat and drink.


Here she is looking so sad that day, she went to the vet, and they said that she didn't break any bones.


She could sit up and eat and drink a little, but was just dragging her right hind leg and foot.


But the next day she was reallllly better, and back to her super cute self!


Here she's eating some rice, and you can see how she drags her right foot. She can't seem to lift or bend it. She went to the vet this second day again, and for some reason the vet said she'll never be able to use it again. (sob) I hope the vet was wrong, I think she was a lot stronger just after one day of resting. Isn't her tail adorable-black with the white tip, and on the underside of the tail- its beige.


I'm full and happy and sitting on my rice bowl.

Border Critters

This is the sign about a mile from the school, on the main road-facing Burma (Myanmar). northern most point of thailand how exciting.


Burmese border guard critters with guns.
And welcome to Burma/Myanmar. I didn't actually go, just turned to my left as I was at the northernmost point in Thailand.

Batman, Fatdog, and a few other things

This week had many random happenings. First was some kids around the school grounds.







The Akha hill tribe girls do this cool embroidery. The girls sit around the picnic table chatting and sewing. The fabric is later sold to help support the school. Originally they use it to decorate their traditional outfits. The middle photo is from graduation. One of the 6th graders graduating, Saifon, is Akha, and her mother came in her traditional clothing. The Akha, have a seperate language, not similar to Thai, and they use the Roman alphabet. There are a lot of students at DEP that are Akha, and because they are born in the hilltribes, they don't have citizenship, so they are not eligable to go to government school without help from some one.
This site has some good information and photos about the other types of hilltribes found in Thailand. At our school we also have Hmong, Lisu, Lahu, Karen, and Thaiyay hilltribes. Its these hilltribe children who are highly at risk of being trafficked either for the labor industry or the sex industry, because if they were just roaming around their villages during the day, it would be easy for them to be kidnapped, or for their parents to try and get them a "better" job in the city, and be tempted to sell them. So its good that they have a free school they're allowed to attend, regardless if they have papers or not.

THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE

We had a niece of one DEP's partners come, and we took her siteseeing to The Golden Triangle.


I'm actually not exactly what the golden triangle is, but its something to the jist of being the area of the Mekong River, where it borders Thailand, Laos, and Burma. As you can see on the map, Thailand is in brown, Laos in yellow, and Burma in green, China is the pink at the top. Back in the day, this area used to be famous for all the poppies that were grown for opium, but the King has since replaced the poppies, with legitimate agricultural crops, that the goverment helps support the lost crops.


Lots of rice patties. Its the dry season. Thats why it looks like downtown L.A. This was around four in the afternoon. There is a lot of burning going on, people burn their fields in preparation for the wet growing season, or they're burning their trash, or just yard rubbish.


Me looking goofy on the back of Pilar's bike. I learned how to drive a motorbike. I would have put a photo of me driving, but that would have been dangerous. I drove the thirty minutes out to the golden trianlge, then Pilar drove back. The hardest part about driving her bike is remembering what gear you're in, because her lights don't work. Other than that, it mostly handles like a bicycle with slow brakes. (update, I have since, driven with Pilar riding on the back sidesaddle. [She wore a skirt one day]. It was a little shakey at first, but I only needed to remember that the faster you go, the steadier your bike gets).


Oh look there's the sun, looking so far away. This is about what its looked like for the past month here up north, warm yet overcast (with smoke and haze)

Weaving for a Living

This student is about 13 years old. She's also Akha. Here she is weaving the purple scarves that we sell on our website to help support the school. The older girls that live on site, have to work to earn their keep, so from 1 to 3 everyday they weave scarves or tableclothes.


I think she's so pretty. Looks like she's making the pink and green scarves to sell.


This is my other weaver friend. She's the one I help tutor English in preperation for her acceptence in the Mekong Youth Net. She's 18 years old but looks like she's 15. She's the one from Burma, and just learned to speak and read Thai.

Happy Saint Patricks Day

Molli, will understand this. Although there's not too much to understand...I like to take pictures of my feet, and sometimes dress them up with drawings and characters (to hide how dirty my feet are- since the water at my house has been out of comission for the past 2 weeks). Here I've drawn four friends, 3 boys and 1 girl, in their black tie attire. They're getting ready for their big party night at:

"BATMAN", or as the secondary sign says "BM pub"

So ya, this crazy place in little old Mae Sai, population like 20,000, has this huge club/concert venue, and its really called Batman, or BM pub. We heard that peolple drive atleast an hour to come and dance or party or listen to music here. It was pretty fun. They also have a lot of ladyboys. I like to check out their crazy outfits.


Our thai friends/coworkers from DEP, Gong, and Glooey. They're actually having a good time, but were tired of dancing. And yes she does have green St. Patricks Day face paint around her eyes.

Graduation

The kids don't have to go to school after the sixth grade here. If they can/want to go to college they can continue to high school. But I think most of the kids here might go to vocational training. But now that I think of it, I was the team teacher with Jamie for the 6th graders, which happened to be 6 girls, three said they wanted to be nurses, one wanted to be a teacher, one said a policewoman, and the last wanted to be a boss or a saleslady. They were all from Burma, so hopefully they'll be able to continue their education even tho they aren't citizens.


Here's Jamie tying on a cotton bracelet on one of the 6th graders. If Iremember correctly, the bracelets are kinda symbolic, you tie them on holidays like mothers day or graduation, then are supposed to leave them on until they fall off by themselves. Kinda like as a reminder of an accomplishment. All the teachers tied a strand onto the graduates.


Even Carol, another volunteer tied some on. Side note about Carol, she's from NY, but her parents are from Laos. Its funny to chat with her about having a South East Asian mom, and all their funny quirks. She also was called 'ee dta doh' = 'ya big eyes', by her mom, like my mom calls me, when I my eyes were bigger than my stomach.


Our little 6th graders...oh but 6th graders are actually like 15 years old here in Thailand.

Fat dog section


This is Oscar, my parents dog in Virginia. He's a miniature pinscher, cinnamon colored. I think he weighs about 10 pounds or less.



Here we have fat dog, he lives with a street restaurant that sells Pad thai. He's a cinnamon colored miniature pinscher too, but I think he weighs about 30 pounds, I'm not sure since it was too hard to lift him up.


As you can see he 's in top shape, sleeping and eating all day and night.


Here is the view of the restaurant with the sleeping doggy. Its my favorite Pad Thai in Mae Sai, because in addition to noodles in Pad Thai, you could also choose to add crunchy won ton wrappers (gil glop glop), or instead of traditional noodles, use rotini pasta, or crunchy green mangos. But most of all I like the name of the place: "Hi-Tech Pad Thai". Awesomeness.


Oh his little jokster owner took him on a run. (Just for the camera I'm sure).


Hi, we're fat! I actually love this dog and think that he's really cute. Every time we go to Hi-Tech Pad Thai, I like to play with Fat Dog. They told me his name but I forgot it. I think its something like Ee Ourn. (ha ha thats a thai joke for thai speakers only).

Thats it for now. Upcoming events...I'm making a solar oven to try and make some baked goods, since ovens don't exist in Thailand. I'm hoping to go to Chiang Rai to buy some cream cheese to make a cheese cake in it.