Number 3

Several of you have emailed me directly with questions and comments about the blog and I welcome that. I'm sure my stream of consciousness style lends itself to some holes in the story.

So tonight I'll start with dogs. Some people think they eat dogs and cats in this part of the world. In Thailand they don't and in Vietnam they eat dogs but not cats. In some ways it would be helpful if the Vietnamese could teach the Thais to develop a taste for a dog or two. There are a lot of dogs in our neighborhood. When I say a lot, think of what that suggests to you and triple it. They run loose and seem to be relatively disinterested in people. I walk in the neighborhood during the day and sometimes at night and they don't bother me. They lay in the street. They wonder around. Occasionally they bark at you but never in an aggressive or threatening way. It's intimidating at first but quickly becomes simply a part of the ambiance. They do go wild when the fighter jets go by overhead. We're a few miles from the airport and the first few times I heard the jets I assumed they were commercial jets. Then one time I looked up and realized it was an F-14 streaking across the sky at an altitude that would bring a pretty stiff fine from the FAA. Frankly, it's a pretty cool site. I can't tell you exactly what breed the dogs are. Though they aren't all one breed, the majority of them closely resemble a mix between an overweight Basenji and a pit bull. I'll try to get a photo and post it on the inbox.com site.

Now about the monks. We live a short distance from Wat Suondak. Wat means temple and this one is quite large with a lot of monks. They're classic monks with shaved heads, orange robes and flip flops. Right out of central casting. Late yesterday afternoon, Mark, the other Senior lawyer volunteer who has been here for almost 2 months, took me out and about to begin to learn my way around. We walked up to the main drag which has stores, street vendors and an amazing amount of traffic. Hundreds of scooters with 1, 2 or 3 people on them zipping around unconstrained by either traffic rules or fear. Lots of cars and trucks and bicycles and very few people wear a helmet. The cars drive on the "wrong" side of the street which works out since the steering wheel is also on the "wrong" side. So, we're walking along and all of the sudden here's a 7 11. We go inside so Mark can treat himself to a diet Coke and I see a monk on a cell phone inside the 7 11. I started to laugh at the incongruity of it and told myself if he bought a beer I was going to take his picture. He bought milk.

An update on my bathroom and it's shower without walls. So I notice, next to the toilet is one of those sprayers attached to a hose like you have on your sink in the kitchen. I assume it's a poor woman's bidet but was told that it is an alternative to toilet paper. I think I'll pass on that one...

Tonight Mark took me to buy some groceries and a few hand towels. We went to the Central Market which has a Thai name but is referred as the Central market because the anchor store is the Central department store. It's a mall that's a cross between Ridgedale, a flea market and Rainbow foods. It has 4 floors. Movie theaters on 4, Tech City on 3 (over 40 separate cell phone stores), 2 has a bustling American food court with, among others, DQ, KFC, Sizzler, Pizza Hut and a Thai food court that no one was at. Mark wanted American food so we ate at Black Canyon Coffee. I had a tuna sandwich and it was quite good. There's no tipping here and they don't rush you. You often have to find the waiter to get your bill. The bottom floor has several stores and Topps supermarket. Actually a lot of fun. All kinds of prepared foods to eat in the front, nice produce, lots of aisles of all kinds of food and your basic health and beauty aids. I enjoyed looking at and trying to figure out what a lot of the things were. Many were marked in English but many weren't. The house provides breakfast ingredients and we go out for dinner because it's so cheap, so I was only shopping for lunch. Got some Thai chunky peanut butter and some Thai exotic berry jelly.

We're having a Thanksgiving meal for the staff and friends to show them about an American holiday. I saw photos of what they did for Halloween and have high hopes for Thanksgiving. I'm making the traditional potato latkas (Bruce wanted them for Hanukkah but since he'll be gone I'm making them for Thanksgiving). I'm also making the ubiquitous green bean with mushroom soup and dried onions topping casserole. Anyway, on the way back, we rode a "red truck" as far as the temple and walked from there. It's too hard, even for Mark to explain how to get to the house. Red trucks are like mini troop carriers. You ride in the covered back for 20 baht (58 cents) to anywhere you want. Coming back at night it was 40 baht ($1.16). We could have taken a tuktuk which is a three wheel motorcycle with seats in the back, but for 15 baht we splurged.

Today I began working on my project for Vietnam in earnest. I'm reading books and law review articles on the philosophy, theory and practical application of starting a Community Law Clinic. I have 2 weeks to become an expert, draft a proposal to submit to the Law School for the establishment and implementation of policies and prepare a myriad of documents and lesson plans. I thought I was just coming to help but with Bruce unexpectedly going back to the states for 2 months I'm "in charge" of developing the curriculum and getting it off the ground. Fortunately I don't lack for confidence and if I can pull it off I'll really be doing something. It's quite the challenge and I'm really enjoying it. Tomorrow I've been "drafted" to work at the Wildflower project all day. We are doing something with mushrooms and planting to help out a non-profit organization that helps battered women. BABSEA is way into community involvement. We have English classes here, we do outreach at the prison, and work with a number of agencies that help disadvantaged people. Kind of like being a Public Defender except your helping nice people who appreciate it...

Ok, enough for now. Sorry for the rambling but as Popeye says; I am what I am.