Don't feed the Humans!

Argh first case of food poisoning abroad...not so fun. I had an "authentic" experience puking and pooping my guts out in a Lahu village a couple nights ago. I can't be sure what did it, but I was the only one in the group that got sick, and all I really did differently was sample the sugarcane we were feeding our elephant earlier in the day (what?!!).

Prior to the whole clutching-my-stomach-in-agony thing, the trek experience itself was really awesome. We went with a friend of Amanda's named Kit who has a travel business here in Chiang Rai. The day started off with a boat ride up the river to an elephant camp, where we took a little ride through the village. It was bumpy and not so comfortable; the coolest part was touching their trunks and feeding them. I couldn't help but feel sorry for them...having to lug silly falangs around so we could get a photo op. They didn't seem very happy. We had lunch in the elephant camp, and then headed out on foot from there. I don't think any of us (me, Laura, or the three Italian dudes who completed the party) were prepared for the intensity of the hike. It was really beautiful, but pretty steep in parts, and our guide Win was not one to go at a leisurely pace. We got to an Appa village first, and didn't have much time to do anything. I could go into the cultural intimacies of all the tribes here, but I just don't feel like I absorbed all that much (I'll report back once I hit the Hilltribe Museum here in Chiang Rai). We got to the village around 5 or 6 and all had showers (awesome!!!! I was literally, SOAKED in sweat, head to toes) and chilled out on the deck of our bamboo bungalow. The bungalow was built above ground to prevent flooding in the rainy season, and it was so clean and comfy and cozy that Laura and I prompty set about making plans to build one of our own. Win cooked us dinner and passed around a water bottle full of homemade moonshine. We luckily enough showed up on the first night of New Year's celebrations in the village, so everyone was in the mood to party. In the middle of the communal eating area, a tribute was set up with a pig's head and some other food items around it. The dancing centered around this, and was accompanied by drums, chimes, and cheap tinny sounding Thai pop music from speakers a few meters away. It was pretty neat, but us Westerners FAR outnumbered the villagers, so it felt a bit contrived. The foundation working in the village was called the Mirror Foundation, and they had set everything up on solar cell batteries which was pretty neat. In return, I think there was an arrangement that all us whiteys could come and gawk at will...oh well it was still very cool.

The PLAN for the next day was a hike to a waterfall and hot springs. In REALITY I gratefully accepted a jeep ride back to Chiang Rai with Kit and slept the rest of the day. Thankfully Laura was able to report back to me on all the adventures I missed out on, and provide pictures for my viewing pleasure. She also returned with well-wishes from the Italians, which I thought was very sweet.

Exciting stuff is happening every day at the center. Laura is working on an aquaculture project, whereby the swimming pool is slowly being converted into a Tilapia pond. This is a totally exciting advance in IHF's goal of sustainable development, and interesting for me as it brings me back to my days at the Salton Sea (Tilapia are like, the cockroaches of freshwater fish...totally indestructable). Two other volunteers, Adam and Eleanor, have been diligent about finishing a chicken coop so that we can keep chooks here at the center and harvest eggs. Atticus and Dan have been working really hard on the garden, getting it ready for planting this week. BEFORE THEY LEAVE. Everyone's leaving all at once! Of course we'll have new volunteers, but it's sorta sad to see the band break up. We've got a pretty fabulous dynamic going on right now.


The weather is really heating up; it seems like it turned overnight from fairly chilly to downright HOT. But, I don't think it's anywhere near as hot as it will be in a month or so. I keep playing with the idea of extending my trip (again) but we'll see how I hold out with the heat as I am a notorious whiner when the temp exceeds 80 F or so : )

Ahh yes and I finally have a story about dirty cops in a foreign land...Juan and I were riding scooters back from the Internet cafe one night (I'm a total 2 wheel whiz now, and it only took one minor crash) and we got stopped at a checkpoint up the road from a nearby festival. The cops REEKED of booze themselves, and wouldn't stop hassling us for our drivers licenses, which we kept telling them we didn't have on us. They had the gumption to actually start opening our backpacks and rooting around! It was completely cavalier and pissed me off to no end but I realized I probably wasn't in the position to have a full-on hissy fit in the middle of a dark road in a country where I didn't speak the language and was breaking the law. We promised them we'd return with our passports and licenses, and then sped off and never looked back. So there!

I'm trying my best to find time to get pictures up, but the days are so so so full right now. Juan is off to Bangkok tomorrow to do a television interview promoting IHF (yay!), and I've been left in charge. Watch out! I'm having quite a bit of fun getting to know the kids better though. We've embarked on getting them all checked out at the local hospital, so each week I'll be trucking a few more of them down there for a fun-filled Saturday doing things kids love like getting their blood drawn, hanging out in waiting rooms for hours, and being told they can't run, yell, or hit eachother. I'm holding on to my popularity by a thread, people.

Being immersed in an indiginous culture that is so TOTALLY different than my own is really bringing up a lot of personal moral and ethical dilemnas, which I won't get into on a public website. Needless to say, every day brings new experiences that smash all my beloved Western paradigms to pieces.

But overall, I love it. I'm trying to figure out how to move here. Yah, it's really that great!