Kinetic Energy

Dancing with the Village Headwoman (as opposed to Headman) of village 1.

First of all, I need to make a shout out to my mom for the wonderful package she sent that I just received today. Thanks mom! Especially for a little Easter love =)

So, where to begin? A lot has been happening in the last couple weeks in the country and for myself personally. I've been thinking for days now how am I going to approach all the things I want to talk about. I guess I just have to start from a couple weeks ago and work my way up to the present. Subsequently, I hope to devote additional posts which elaborate on certain events that continue to build kinetic energy (ie: the Thai New Year, Drama in Bangkok, and Community Development Planning) A synopsis of recent events is as follows:

March 15-19: Went on a week-long expedition throughout the sub-district ( 11 villages) with my SAO staff to conduct community development planning session. This is done annually and gives villagers the opportunity to address issues and strategically plan to resolve and improve circumstances. Unbeknownst to me, the community planning sessions would also provide a resurrection for my long-lost-buried-and-forgotten environmental awareness projects and recycle bank. More on this later.

March 28-31: Was out of site for 4 days visiting my host family in Lop Buri, celebrating my birthday, visiting the soon-to-be-volunteers at their training site, and dr. appointment. My Dr.'s appointment was a culmination of my headaches. Discussing the headaches, we came to the realization that the headaches, which I've had since August were probably resultant of hyperactive allergies, stress, the heat, and diet (ie: white rice every day, saturated fats via cooking oils, refined sugars, and MSG) This was an awakening conversation and has since, made me scrutinize my daily life and try to weed out the things that cause my headaches, opting for a healthier lifestyle and ultimately, more proactive approach to work, etc.

April 7: Went on a field trip gone horribly wrong and had my first, near breaking point where I had visions of home blurred by soft bubbly tears...definitely more on this later!

April 7-April 12: Did extensive research on pollution/pollution reduction, environmental awareness, and recycling to prepare for the tentative enviromental awareness training to take place at the temple on April 23--definitely had my doubts about this even really happening but I was assured it was to be. So, I did and continue to do the leg work necessary to pull of the training by the end of this week.

April 9-11: Met my friend visiting from Hong Kong in Bangkok and bore witness (albeit at a distance) to red-shirt and army clashes, which, was relatively unavoidable to a certain extent throughout the city.

April 12-15: The official Son Kran (Thai New Year) holiday followed suit April 13-15. I was able to give my friend, Ashley, the full experience of Son Kran and other cultural/local Khmer traditions in my villages. We dumped and threw water on each other per the traditional water throwing customs of Son Kran, joined a Son Kran procession to the temple, and sat in on a 'pou kahn' ceremony (more later) and monks chanting. Otherwise, we were trying to avoid the heat like the plague, eating delicious Thai food, and hanging out with my neighbors and friends. It was a whirlwind going from Bangkok to the village and then only after a few days putting her on a bus back to Bangkok to catch her flight. But, it was a great time and I was so happy to have a visitor.

April 15-16: To my chagrin, I found my phone did not make it through the rip-roaring-water-throwing-funfest and it died. RIP Nokia 260. On the up side, I invested a bit more in my new Samsung E250i and now I have way better reception, Internet, and Bluetooth. It was bound to happen sooner or later!

April 19-20 & Beyond: Back to work. Preparing fervently for the upcoming environmental awareness training on Friday...scrambling to translate things into Thai, access powerpoints,and activities to engage participants.

April 23: If all goes to plan, the environmental awareness training will take place and all my planning will not have been in vain...fingers crossed.

Ongoing: Working on a project and grant proposal for the PHA (person's having HIV/AIDS) Hope group with a fellow volunteer. We're looking at our first of three business training's and product development workshops to take place in early May.


That pretty much brings everything up to speed. I will admit, I've been completely engrossed in this trilogy of books by the Swedish author, Stieg Larsson which, has undoubtedly take up a lot of my free time. It's still outrageously hotter than a brick kiln here, the fields are brown and dry (hough, planting season should start next month), humid, and the mozzies are providing no mercy to their wrath. Otherwise, business as usual.

Expect more in-depth posts soon!






A preview of the Son Kran procession and festivities