Akah girl getting bathed

Akah men hanging out

Akah people

Akah Village

Akah Village

Akah shower area

Akah Chris

Akah demon scaring post

Akah Village

They may look like women; but they're not. Thailand is the place to be for transvestites.

Post monk fireworks

Just before people start to run and the fountain of fire grows

Some of the children monks

Walking around the temple

We had some free time tonight and walked to the Internet cafe to check our email. I think the man who runs the place lives here with his family. We have to remove our shoes before entering (Kosher for entering almost every indoor facility), and he has about 18 computers upstairs for people to use at just 10 baht an hour. The hour is precious sometimes as the group we walked here with plans to leave when that hour is up, and we need to be finished checking our email, facebook, and giving these fantastic blog update shout-outs to our family and friends.

But tonight, I had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad. (I think the pumpkin curry did something to my intestines). I asked the Internet cafe guy "Hong Nam Uni?"- Where is the bathroom? and he said something back in Thai and pointed downstairs; so I jetted out of the room. When I got to the small tiled bathroom, I realized that I forgot something; the Thais don't use toilet paper. (This fact of life is really intriguing to me. What DO they uses? Their hand? Do they even wipe? I am waiting to meet someone who I feel comfortable enough with to ask this important question. Our two country leaders, who served missions here, don't even know the answer. So I raced back upstairs to grab my pocket pack I carry around for such occasions and ran back downstairs to take care of business. But when I pushed the door shut behind me, I saw the biggest millipede I've seen in my life crawling across the floor- right in front of the toilet seat. (I know it was a millipede because Chris told me so when one came crawling into our room this morning). I had two choices: run back upstairs to get Chris to catch the millipede-- and risk an explosion in my pants, or, sit with my feet up and a careful eye on the worm while I take care of business. I did the latter, and no barefooted feet or legs were swallowed by the millipede.

Last night we celebrated Buddha's birthday with the devoted Buddhists in town at the Wat just up the road from where we live. We sat on our knees through a Sanskrit reading about the life of Buddha- and what ever else I cant tell you, I don't speak Thai. Or Sanskrit. Then, we were given flowers, three sticks of incense, and two candles to light. We followed the mass of barefooted Thais around the wat in reverence. (They probably laughed at the foreigners who were in the BACK of the line-- walking on the hot wax dripped off from everyone's candles. (I know I would have laughed). I still have wax on my toes. We were told that to celebrate the religious occasion, the Thai people would walk around the temple three times: Once to represent their old life, second to represent their current life, and third, to represent their new life. I thought it was pretty cool following the line of incense smoke and Chiang Rai community, then, all of the orange robed monks began to follow us in a single line while chanting. Maybe, if I knew what they were saying, it wouldn't have felt so much like a scary movie.

After the walkabout around the temple, we stood around while people placed their candles on the outside Buddha shrine and the little boy monks gathered around the center together. They stood up and started to part after saying to one of the members of our group, "You please move?". We all nodded our head and smiled and took a step back- curious about what they were clearing the small circle of people for. Suddenly, sparks of fire shot up from the ground. At first, it was a pretty little gold show of fireworks. But the fountain of sparklers grew bigger, and bigger and suddenly people were screaming and running to the back side of the temple as the sparks were burning people's arms, and holes in shirts. The Thai people all got a good laugh from that one, as for the American people - let's just say that things that fly in Thailand would never be approved by the fire department in the U.S.

The next day, after volunteering at the hospital and meeting up with a man who is interested in teaming up with us to work with some of the hill tribes around Chiang Rai, Chris, Dave, Jordan, Todd, and I walked to the wat up the road from where we are living. We entered into the head monk's living quarters (I don't know his name or what his official title is). We were led to a small side room and followed Dave's lead in kneeling before the shrines of Buddha and pressing our foreheads to the floor three times. We then stood and were seated in the main room of basket bamboo furniture to discuss the possibility of us teaching at the school. Dave pretty much handled the discussion; we tried to be polite and stay attentive to the Thai conversation. But the big fish tanks of catfish, the pictures of past head monks and the king, and the different religious relics around the room definitely took my attention away. It was hard to follow whether it was going well or not. The head monk didn't have any animation or expression throughout the conversation. Just a grunt here, or an elaborate speech of Thai there. After the "discussion", Dave stood up. We each bowed and said "Kab Coon Kah" and walked down the steps. Dave told us they would love to have an English teacher. He said they would talk with the boys and the council of monks for that wat to approve everything and would get back to us. Dave had asked if there was any special rules we should know about the monk lifestyle to keep in mind when teaching. The head monk had thought a second and then told Dave that the only rule of concern was that I was not allowed to hit the boy monks. "It would be ok if she was a man, but it would be weird for a girl to do such a thing".

Today we visited some other wats to set up teaching English, a hand washing station HELP had built last year to assess the project and any potential ideas of improvement, a soccer school that was also wanting English teachers and soccer coaches, and a hill tribe community known as the Akah people.

The Akah village looks just like a picture you would see from National Geographic, or a history book. The hillside village has about ten huts made of bamboo and grass with mud floors. Most of the people wear old, faded American looking clothing; some of the people wear their traditional head dress of the Akah people. Last year, HELP had built them a bamboo hut for the traditional medicine man to treat sick people, but the medicine man had migrated to another village and the bamboo hut was vacated. One of the biggest causes for death and illness within many of the tribal communities are consequences of cooking over open fires within small huts. The smoke gets into the small children's lungs, which are still developing, and the children are then at risk of dying of a simple cold that can turn into pneumonia. Last year, HELP built them one big adobe brick stove, however, it seemed that the people only used it for religious ceremonies and for bigger village gatherings. They still continue to cook for their individual families within their own home over an open fire. We are considering possible solutions to this and other miscellaneous problems of the community.

I am learning so much from this experience in Thailand. My understanding and perspective of child trafficking, and of the solutions to such issues have changed. Honestly, I don't know what I think about the solution to such a complex problem. A man comes into a poor, struggling village, such as the Akah hill tribe, and offers the family a "future" for their children. "If they give the man a lot of money- sometimes everything they have, the man will take their child and educate them, shelter them, provide them with food. Then, the child can really be saved from the poverty lifestyle of the community. Sometimes, the children are willingly given up by their communities to receive such a future. But a lot of times, the man promising the villages a future for their children, takes the children and uses then for anything from sex trafficking, to child labor, to tactics to get donations from tourists for the "orphans" he is caring for-- only to starve them and keep the money for himself. Either outcome is bad for the children and the communities. The latter being obvious, but with the first outcome- of receiving an education and shelter-- what does that do for the family? or for the children? Many times they end up at the shelters we are volunteering at- only to grow up without any knowledge of their families, and without any recognition of statehood from the government. Without such, the tribal communities deteriorate, and the children grow up only to be rejected such privileges of the Thai government such as official education, employment, and health care.

I don't feel like there is anything wrong with the indigenous hill tribes in the first place. Their culture may have different values than western culture; money. luxuries of home, toilet paper. But that is THEIR culture, and I don't really feel at liberty to suggest anything different. As long as they're happy....I think it's better for people to offer education within the communities- to not separate families. Education that could help them understand the world better, and dangers such as cooking with an open fire in an enclosed grass hut.