"Cheerfulness, it would appear, is a matter which depends fully as much on the state of things within, as on the state of things without and around us." Charlotte Brontë

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Chiang Rai area pictures


So this morning we had breakfast, but I actually just ate the bread I bought last night from the village shop. It was real good—had some green fruit (?) in it. After that, we had an orientation for all the new volunteers. Very interesting. We learned about the Mirror Foundation—it was started by college students boycotting the military rule. Today it serves to help the hill tribes who have migrated from surrounding countries over the centuries. These hill tribes were forced from their homes and lifestyles in the high mountains down to the foothills—their livelihoods were taken away, and since they don’t have citizenship, they are prone to drug use, trafficking, etc. They can’t be employed or receive education. So the Mirror Foundation has a ton of projects going on. Really cool.
Next week we’ll go on a homestay for 5 days with one of the tribes (Lahu or Akha). We do labor and possibly teaching with them. That should be a cool experience!
Lunch was fine. Sketchy at first—whatever they had cooked to go over the rice looked like chicken attached to arteries. They had some yummy cabbage and pork though. We found out from Pear—the Chinese volunteer—that the mystery meat was actually mushrooms. It was still hard to eat it. Luckily any food we don’t eat gets taken to the pigs.
After lunch we had a bit of down time until our teaching orientation meeting with Wendy—she’s Australian and heads up the Indoor Program here. We cleaned the volunteer office. EWWW. It was nassssty. Seriously. I cleaned out the fridge. Super gross, but it was nice to be able to help.
We just finished our orientation. It’ll be cool—we teach at childcare, primary schools, kids with disabilities, novice monks, and some adults. This week we don’t do much teaching because the kids are still getting back from a break.
Don Mueang Airport restaurant



Spider in the room :(


Our dorm room


Heading to Mae Yao village


A very persistent millipede


Steph at the girls' dorm




The pig sty




Mini pineapple

The kitchen area



The road to the village




Mae Yao





The village shop





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