Number 37

I think this is the earliest time of day I've written a posting. It's around 7:30 and the Lao professors have just left for the bus station. They're going home for the first time in 2 months. Sam (Mr. Subine) and Dave (Mr. Kahm) each have 2 small children. Thip and Nang both have large families and many friends they talk about often and miss a lot. There's no class for a week at Chiang Mai University so Bruce agreed that when they went to Laos on a visa run they could stay for the week. They invited me to go with them to see their country but I felt uncomfortable for 2 reasons. First, after having been gone for 2 months they don't need to entertain me, they need to spend time with their friends and families. And secondly, Ei Ei would basically be here by herself at night. She comes from a small place in Burma and is afraid of more things then I could list. She's trying really hard to experience new things and everyone, especially the women, have been trying to include her whenever they go somewhere but she's still intimidated by the big city as well as things like ghosts and new people and waiters and the traffic and so much more. She's very sad that Thip and Nang are gone but Moon is going to spend more time here and invited her to spend the nights at her house. She likes me and laughs at my silliness but I think she feels her foundation of security left with Thip and Nang. Sam and Dave have been pushing hard for me to come visit and I found a cheap flight to Vientiane so I agreed to spend a few days with them. I'll go on the 29th (after they've been home for a 5 days) and return by bus with them on the 2nd. We actually leave on the evening of the 1st but it's a 13 hour ride. This includes about 4-5 stops for food. My sense is that it's one of those rides you read about in travel blogs that are either really interesting or really bizarre. Either one works for me.

I have enough work left to keep me busy for awhile and time to shop and see a few places in and around Chiang Mai that I haven't gotten to yet and it just feels right to have one last adventure before I head home. I insisted on staying at a hotel in Vientiane and was told that would be a direct insult to them and their whole families so I'll be staying with somebody and that, in and of itself, should be interesting. They live in "compounds" where all the brothers and sisters and parents and grandparents and nieces and nephews all live on the same piece of land. Apparently it's no big deal to have 20-30 relatives all living together. So it's Hanukkah and Xmas in Chiang Mai and New Year's Eve in Vientiane.

Today Moon and I went to the "other" Western style mall to buy gifts for a few of the Vietnamese students who were really helpful and gave a lot of themselves. After we finished, we stopped for a coffee frappe and some pastry just to make the trip worthwhile, and then back to the house. On the way back we stopped at the Wat (Temple) and I got my luck string bracelet from a very old and wise Monk who took the bad luck out of my hand and replaced it with good luck.

I had a debriefing meeting with Wendy where I basically told her where BABSEA and VNU had let me down and made my work harder then it had to be. She knew it was coming and it was a constructive session rather then a bitching one. The Vietnamese had made a point of writing Bruce and Wendy to express their appreciation for the work I did and to complement me on how much we got done and their perception that the work was done really well. It was nice to hear that they expressed their gratitude to BABSEA, but they had already been very clear and generous in their expressions of appreciation to me. I have reports to prepare for the group that sent me here (ISLP) and I hope to persuade them to send more people to VNU as it seems like a perfect place to "invest" their money in helping people who could use some help. I think it's a natural fit and hopefully I can make them see that. I also have to prepare a report on what I did in Hanoi attaching all the materials we generated and all the materials I brought as resources that the students used. The next person coming in January is apparently going to use it in Laos, though I don't know how, as there already is a clinic up and running there. Wendy suggested they might methodology that I used with the students in Hanoi as a teaching model since the way I taught it apparently hasn't been done before and the Vietnamese have convinced them that it works. I think the system was nothing special (it just seemed logical to me and had no basis in any theory) but the students were. Anyway, I'll do the report and they can do with it what they will.

And now a quick note about last night. Since the Lao's were leaving today it was a good reason to have a party last night. Besides, Bruce has been pushing Aom and Ei Ei really hard, by email, and they both needed a break. I bought a bottle of whiskey at the 7-11 for Sam and Dave. Dave went off on his bike and came back with his basket full of hot food from a nearby neighborhood place and Thip and Nang made desserts. Moon stayed for dinner and the party and later in the evening, Nang's brother, who is in Chiang Mai for awhile, joined us. It was a classic BABSEA night. A lot of eating and laughing. Aom, who decided to stay to drink whiskey after his long frustrating day gave Sam and Dave a run for their money when it came to the whiskey. Moon had a small whiskey and Coke Zero (yuck) and Tip and Nang, who don't drink, each decided to try one too. Thip shared hers with Ei Ei, after tasting it and not liking it and Ei Ei chugged it down not realizing it was spiked. Everyone stared in amazement and then the place went wild when she looked up and said the Thai Coke is better then the Coke in Burma. (she explained to me the difference between Burma and Myanmar but it's too complicated and not important. The short version is all Burmese are Myanmar but not all Myanmar are Burmese) We ate desserts for about an hour while we watched MTV Asia, and 2 Thai music video channels. The TV was really loud and people sang along with the songs when they knew the words. Every time Brittany Spears would come on naked in a bathtub or some "sexy" girl would be in a video Mr. Kahm (who was pretty buzzed) would exclaim; oh, I like!! And it was really funny every time he did it.

Eventually, Kahm and Aom and I went and sat outside. Kahm is hysterical when he's drunk and Aom and I were laughing really hard. Nang cam out and asked Kanm what we were doing. He looked at her and with a complete deadpan expression said in English; oh, we are looking at the beautiful stars! She looked up at the cloudy starless sky and gave him a dirty look. He shrugged and Aom and I fell out as we were laughing so hard. Mr. Kahm is easily one of the funniest people I've ever known when he's drunk. He's a good guy and we, along with Mr. Subine have become really good friends, but when he's drunk he's hysterical. Thip had told me this but I hadn't seen it before. I guess maybe that's why I bought the whiskey...

Anyway, that was last night and tonight it's quiet. It was another blue sky, low 80's kind of day in Chiang Mai. I don't mean to rub it in as I see what the weather is doing back home and in most of the US. It's just a Chiang Mai thing. Another beautiful day in Paradise and a pretty darn good day in general.