Wow. So its actually been a really long time since I've blogged. HR reports are long over, as are so many things I can't even get into now. Tomorrow, the program ends and we all have to leave Khon Kaen. We keep hearing that going home is a really hard thing and a lot of people go into a "dark period". It kind of feels like right before coming here, when I had no idea what it was going to be like. So I'm a little nervous and I think when I get home, I'm going to have a lot of processing and readjusting to do.
But before going home, I'm going Laos and Cambodia and Vietnam and finally back to Bangkok on my birthday for a big bash and then home on June 5, all of which I am REALLY excited about.
Going home also is exciting. It is definitely sad to leave and I'm going to miss being in this group allllll the time and of course being in Thailand and all the communities and the Thai friends I've made who I won't be able to keep in touch with. But also, I'm going home with a whole new set of skills, and a new perspective, and finally this huge new support system and people I love scattered around the United States (and the world) and the knowledge that when I return to Thailand (soon I hope) I will be welcomed with open arms. And those are all really positive things. So I'm off now to my last night out in Khon Kaen!
I'll be back in the western hemisphere sooner than has entered comprehendability yet!

The Urban Trends Unit is officially over. First we lived in a landfill community called Kambon Noi. My family there was really great, and I went scavenging through the landfill with my meh for recyclables. I definitely have a new definition of jobs worth complaining about: they have to include at least some combonation of extreme heat, extreme smell and extreme numbers of maggots. It was really gross. But really, it wasn't THAT bad. I had a great feeling at the end that if I could do that, I can do anything. And I'm sure that the line between not that bad and awful is somewhere along with the difference between doing it everyday with no end in sight and knowing that 8:30 the next morning I was leaving. The problem in the landfill community is that scavenging is in the informal working sector, so it isn't really recognized by the government. They don't get fair access to water, electricity, education, healthcare. There is a mobile medical unit that comes every two months to help them but they just treat symptoms instead of providing real diagnosis. And with the cost of transportation, plus their lost wages from missing a day of work, going to the hospital is too expensive. Plus it is really unclear under what jurisdiction the landfill is under- the mayor of Khon Kaen or the TAO, which is like the head of a district- so they are fighting to get funding for a few community-organized programs and its all fruitless because no one takes responsibility for them. About ten of us have formed a landfill interest group and are taking on a few different projects. Mine involves getting in touch with the TAO for an exchange and probably with the mayor of Khon Kaen again (who we already met with and ended up a little frustrated, to say the least. He had some good ideas but also some vast misconceptions about the landfill community and about the role of students and youth activism) and find out just WHO exactly is the representation for the landfill community. Tomorrow, I'm going back to the landfill to really understand their perceptions and also just to hang out and be a friend instead of this intrusive and presumptuous American student. Hopefully, by the end of all this, we could organize a meeting between either the mayor or TAO and Paw Cam, the head of Kambon Noi. Other people are trying to get in touch with the KKU medical school to maybe arrange a volunteer program to help improve the medical care.
After the landfill, I lived in a slum called the Land Development community. All of the slums are on state land, next to the railroad. The government agency that owns the land is called the State Railroad of Thailand and it doesn't actually have to work through parliment so its this weird separate entity. Anyway, the problem in the slums is that without ownership of the land, they don't actually get fair access to water and electricity and always run the risk of being evicted. So the communities are working on getting leases from the SRT but in order to do so, they are not allowed to build on the 20 meters closest to the railroad, for "saftey reasons" but really so that SRT can rent it to high paying corporations at a more opportune moment, and while that is ok for some communities, some just don't have the space to rebuild the houses that are on that front 20 meters.
Our next unit is a little different. First, because I'm going to be a Unit Facilitator. Basically, each unit is actually run by a group of students who run the exchanges we have and organize the group before and after the homestays, etc etc. Unit 3 is also different because we are writing these Human Rights Reports. The HR Reports were started last semester and have actually become kind of a big deal. They get sent out to interested local, national and international NGOs, including ones like Amnesty International, as well as to the communities who use them to phrase their struggles in a more legal and politics-friendly way. My facilitator role will also include a lot of editing and formatting and deadlines. The reports basically frame the plights of a community in terms of the violations to the International Covenent on Economic, Social and Culture Rights, signed by many countries not including the United States. We are split in two groups, one going to a gold mining village in the mountains and my group is going back to the village in the national forest where we had our first little one day homestay. I'm a little nervous but it should be good.
Before that gets started, we have our first actual weekend since arriving in Thailand. Today we are all going to the fancy 5 star hotel in downtown to go swimming and eat some good western food, and some people are going to stay the night there and use the spa, etc. Then tomorrow, as I said, I'm going back to the landfill. Should be some pretty crazy juxtaposition there.
From what I hear, the unit 3 facilitators basically have no life but the reports until they are done so this might be the last entry for a little while.

this is one of the really scary fire ants. This one is huge but even the tiny ones can be really really painful.
Me, Tany and our Meh. She got all dressed up for our exchange with the villagers and looked SO cute. She also got really annoyed that we kept taking picture of her.
This is our house.
The view from the kitchen. We basically were living in the most beautiful place ever.
Meh's vegetable garden. They had ten rei of land though (about 8 acres, I think) 8 of which was rice fields.

This blog comes at the end of Unit 1, our first real foray into this program. We were studying sustainable and organic agriculture. I missed the first couple days of the unit due to my rogue appendix but when I arrived, it was amazing. I lived on this self-sustaining farm with two other girls on the program and our meh and paw, who were just the cutest, nicest, warmest, most hospitable people. I felt completely at home with them and I am seriously considering going back when the program is over to help with rice planting. We had exchanges with the Alternative Agriculture Network, which is a nationwide NGO that helps farmers become organic, then we spoke with a man who runs an Herbal Medicine Center, a group of villagers who all farm organically and live in sustainable villages, and finally the governor of the province we were in. We also had a couple chances to have the ajaans (teachers) come translate for us with Meh and Paw and got to know them a little bit. We also used the little Thai we had to communicate and joke around. Paw even told us if we wanted to live there, he would build us a house and give us away when we get married.
I also came out of the whole thing pretty empassioned about sustainable and chem-free foods, which was kind of surprising. I didn't really expect to get emotional about it or want to really change the way I live when I get home. I'm starting to think that if each unit affects me this much, I really am going to be a whole new person when I go back to America. Well, mai ben rei. Then we went on a retreat to sort of regroup. It was so beautiful and relaxing and there was a pool with a waterslide. Besides one little incident involving a snail, the whole thing was really great and brought the group together even more.
Next we are studying Urban Trends, and living in a slum and a landfill community. All of the staff say that this is usually everyone's favorite unit, so I'm excited.
The newest craze to settle over CIEE Khon Kaen is the Silvermav alter ego. On my hospital bracelet, my name was written "Miss Margo Sil Vermav" and now whenever someone is being dramatic or needy or doted upon, they are being Silvermav. Its become a verb, adjective and noun. Don't know why being dramatic and regal and lugubrious would be connected with my name, though.
Anyway, there is a beautiful day outside that I should be taking advantage of.

For a more detailed look at my hospital experience (including pictures) take a look at my friend, Cortney's blog entry dedicated to me:
http://cortneyswanderings.blogspot.com/2009/02/puud-pa-sa-thai-appendicitis.html

Also, while I was in the hospital, I missed the KKU international night. For a week, we practiced a dance to perform in order to share American culture, and I can't even express in words how upset I am that I missed it, especially after all that practice. I mean, I probably was going to steal the show. Anyway, here is a video of CIEE Thailand's representation of America:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er7YaRnqDH8
at aproximately 2:35 is where they say "Margo this is for you baby."
Enjoy!

This is just one of the many adorable babies in Thailand. I took this photo during an assignment to make a photoessay about work. That baby means business.
This is the market in downtown Khon Kaen. It goes as far as the eye can see.
This is the house I stayed in while living in the illegal forest village and that's my Paw just getting home from a motorcycle ride, hence the Bandit Chic look.
In the illegal forest village


Well, I think the word has traveled pretty fast, but the big news here is that I was given the opportunity to fully experience the Thai medical system! The other day, I wasn't feeling very well, and the general protocol around here is to go to the hospital if you aren't feeling great, or are a little exhausted and want to get a saline drip to perk yourself up. Here in Thailand, there is universal healthcare, which is something the USA could learn a little something about. (Barack? You reading this?) Basically, any Thai person can buy a 30 baht health card (that's about $1) and and they are pretty much covered. We talked to some very poor, rural people living with HIV/AIDS who said they get all their medications for free. So anyways, I wasn't feeling very well and had been up all night so I popped into the hospital. Turns out I had to get my appendix out that afternoon. The hospital was clean and the doctors (maa) and nurses (payaban) were all super nice and attentive and my room looked like it was actually in a resort. Besides being lonley and bored and now behind in my work for the program, it was overall as positive an experience as getting an organ removed can be. Plus, appendectomy in Thailand makes for a pretty bomb story.
So now, I'm missing a few days of the next homestay in an organic farming village, but at least it will give me time to catch up on the paper and Thai language midterm I missed while I
was recovering, and then on Saturday (Valentines Day!!!) I'll meet up with the group in Yasothorn (the village). There are a bunch of great exchanges we'll be going to so I'm sure I'll have lots to talk about next week when we get back. Meanwhile, there are those few pictures at the top of the post.

Since last I blogged, we each lived alone with a family in Khon Kaen for a week. I lived with Ing, my nung-sao (little sister) and my Meh and Paw. I know there are a lot of other people in our family because Ing kept pointing out people and telling me they were her brothers or sisters, but I never actually saw them around and it is HIGHLY possible we had a misunderstanding (many) due to my lack of Thai and her lack of English. Ing was a very cool 11 year old. We hung out and bonded and sometimes held hands when walking home in the evening and cuddled at night sleeping on her floor. But as soon as other kids were around, she didn't want to be seen with some silly farang so she would peace out. My family owned a store that Meh ran. People would be coming in and out basically at all hours. And all of them took a peek at me, some even tried to talk to me so I did lots of smiling and nodding. In the afternoons, Ing and I would go with her friends and their farangs (that means foreigner. We often use it to refer to ourselves. Maybe it helps us fit in because the Thais always use it to refer to us.) would go play tag and soccer and badminton and the like on this cement slab. Then at 6 there was an aerobic dance class which we always took part in for at least a while. The farangs were getting in shape and the kids thought it was hilarious. Then it was home to gin cao (eat. literally, eat rice but they use that for any meal) whatever Meh cooked us, tam gan ban (do homework), apnaam (shower), do tiwi (watch tv), then nawn (sleep). Meh was a great cook, and sometimes I'd help make breakfast while Ing was in the apnaam. The only complaint there could possible be is that we had hot dogs with many meals. I think it was an attempt to make me feel at home, which is so amazingly sweet, but really. Hot dogs. In Thailand. I helped make these fish cakes that were SO GOOD, except you could look in the bowl and see little fishes still swiming around right up until they hit the pan. Good thing I'm not Jae (vegetarian).
On my last morning, Meh showed off the English she'd been working on and said "I love you. I miss you" and gave me a present. Which was a toilet paper holder that is a doll on top and the toilet paper goes under her floofy skirt and comes out of her butt. No one should ever get me a present again because that one can not be beat. The school held a farewell ceremony for us, at which most of the kids were bawling. I asked Ing if she was going to cry and she laughed in my face. But really, she loved me.
Since we've been back, we have been having a lot of background lectures to prepare us for the weeks ahead. Yesterday was a writing workshop led by a Sri Lankan journalist and today was a photography workship led by a British guy who is currently making a photo book as well as a documentary about a Burmese refugee and activist. Pretty cool. It also meant that today we got to spend most of the morning taking cool pictures. I've also been getting up to go swimming or to the gym before class every morning. We call it the CIEE Celebrity Fit Club. We were inspired by the first homestay, when it was 7 30 in the morning and we had already accomplished more than I usually do in a day. No more sleeping in. It's the Thai agrarian life for me!
I'm still loving all the people involved in this program. Even though my roomie just told me that she is planning to get up at 3 am to do some homework, I think we can work past that too.
For the rest of this week, we will continue having background lectures on Thai culture, politics and history, as well as other things to prepare us for our work once we begin homestays again. Then I'm pretty sure we go away next Tuesday to a rural village to learn about sustainable agriculture.
So that's all for now. Pictures to come. I miss everyone not here with me, but there still is no place else I'd rather be right now. (except maybe to gin cao with Meh again).

Ok, so the last blog was a little disjointed and I have some more time now. So the village we were at for our homestay are living in the forest that the government wants to use for tourism. Right now they have an agreement with the government that basically says if the government can find them land somewhere else they have to leave unless they can prove that they have been on their land for over 50 years. Unfortunately, there just weren't legal land titles and other documents like that 50 years ago so they have no way to prove it. What they want to do is increase tourism so the government will leave them alone while at the same time maintaining the lifestyle they have. The next day we woke up at 6am, helped our meh cook breakfast and then we hiked up a mountain to get to these caves that I think are the big tourist draw. They had cave drawings and chrystals and stuff. The villagers asked if a historian could help date the cave drawings to prove they were over 50 years old. And then we traveled to Khon Kaen. Its kind of a crazy place. The actual campus is maybe 20 minutes from the city but the campus itself is a city. It is HUGE. Everything you need is right here or you can get a tuk tuk, kind of an open air taxi, to go into downtown Khon Kaen. Tomorrow we are meeting with the president of the University to officially register and stuff, then heading off to a homestay in Khon Kaen until Friday. I don't know if it's because every bed and pillow in Thailand feels like sleeping on a cement block or I'm just not adjusted to the time yet, but I've been waking up at around 6 or 7 every morning. In the village, it was because the roosters were cockadoodle-dooing. Seriously. Then I ahp-naam (shower) which in the village was dumping buckets of water on myself and in the city is standing in the bathroom and using a hose. Also there is no toilet paper. Again, buckets of water or a hose. Its quite an experience.
We've only been here for just over a week but already so much has happened that I can't keep it all straight. I'll be sure to put up pictures soon.