Sleepover!

On Saturday night we had a sleepover! Erin invited us to join her for a party and sleepover with the kids at her Burmese migrants school not far from our guesthouse. We played around with the kids for a long time, then had a meal of rice noodles with spicy sauce from some kind of fish and and veggies and stuff, then marshmallows to roast on the bonfire! Finally, the younger kids got toothbrushes and toothpaste and went home. Then about 15 or so of the kids around age 8+ watched School of Rock with us before we all went to sleep on the floor. Just before bed, as I sat outside talking to one of the two other Westerners staying the night, staring up at the stars in the night sky, we saw a plane which we originally thought was a shooting star or something. Then, right as we had noticed its flashing lights, just to the left of it in the sky we saw a meteor streak through the sky! It was a very clearly orange ball of fire with trailing tail of smoke. So cool!

Here are some photos from the night. The stuff on many people's faces is thanaka. It's traditional for Burmese women and children of both sexes to have thanaka on their face pretty much every day. It's made from sandalwood and apparently keeps their skin very smooth and nice.











"You put your left hand in." Erin leading the kids in a round of the hokey pokey.





Hong Sar providing the musical accompaniment:




Some of the students took turns taking care of April, who was featured in a previous post on the 16th.










I met Matt last week and he joined us for part of the evening at the school. The kids loved him of course.














Roasting marshmallows:




He doesn't actually know how to play, but he still does a great job and sings with a lot of gusto!




Toothbrush and toothpaste distribution:




Up just after 6am! Just before I headed home after 7am, got my standard flag photo. The Thai national and royal flags are found all over this country.




The school is called Good Morning School. Who would have guessed...




In the afternoon I rented two motorcycles, one for me and one for Hong Sar ($5 for 24 hrs), and we took Claire and Rachel on a trip to the two dams outside town. We also taught them how to drive motorcycles!

Looking west from atop the dam:




Looking north along the top of the dam:




Posing for the camera:




Across the water:




Learning:




Sunset approaching:




On our way home we stopped to take this photo as the palm tree was perfectly positioned!




And Hong Sar took a short vid that shows me driving in a straight line. Not impressive or anything, but it wasn't convenient to film when we were offroading on the bikes.





And that was another weekend in Mae Sot!

Meal on wheels

On Thursday I was woken up at noon by a phone call from Pieter and within 10 minutes I was in the back of a pickup truck. Tommy kept his head shaded with a towel and Pieter stayed hydrated with a water bottle, while I tried to figure out where I was and what was going on.






We picked up a huge pot of food and some toys, and off we went down the highway. Two random pics I took on that ride:






This is the massive pot of meat and potatoes:




After a while we reached a small school for migrants from Karen State, in Burma. We were invited to stay for their Baptist Christian worship service, which was already underway it seemed. It took over an hour nonetheless, the vast majority of which owed purely to the sermon and final prayer (which itself was 8 minutes of uninterrupted speech by the pastor with his eyes closed). Quite painful due to our sitting arrangements, but the children were great and the singing was nice and it wasn't too hot.

Everyone's shoes outside the classroom used for the service:




Some of the kids:










With that over, we headed past the takraw court (like volleyball but only feet, knees, chest, and head can be used to hit the ball)...




...and on to the dining area. Here, the kids lined up and received a bowl of rice prepared by the school, and meat and potatoes (with great spices, it was really tasty!). The servings were huge and every hungry kid seemed to finish it.










You can't tell unless you zoom in on my full-sized version of this image, but this boy's shirt says "Wasilla, Alaska" on it. Yep, the town where Sarah Palin used to be mayor.




On the way home, Pieter showed off two mosquito bites on his arm which caused him great anxiety. Unlike the rest of us, he never gets bitten.




That evening, Federico visited us again. He seems to come by every night and hang out in a couple of different places. As I write this I can see him walking over toward my shoes. I hope he doesn't take up residence inside one of them.




On Friday I heard a loud commotion out on the street, so I grabbed my camera and put my shoes on and found a series of marching bands. It was some sort of national sports day, and each school prepared some sort of parade group. Some of the outfits were very strange (mainly the shoes).




Others were really fancy and neat!




Saturday night was another, even bigger, adventure but that'll be the subject of the next post.

April, Cows, and Orphans: 40 photos.

Summary of my first 10 days in Thailand: Landed, met up with old friends in Bangkok a few times, caught a bus to Mae Sot, hung out with new friends, worked on thesis stuff, ate tonnes of good food.


Then, today, I woke up and went to an orphanage.


My new friend Erin, who's staying at the same guesthouse as me, runs some really neat schools in California, here in Mae Sot, and in Palmerston North (New Zealand). I still don't fully understand the entire deal, but it's quite amazing. Anyways, she has all these connections here and so this morning she was heading to an orphanage and invited me and Rachel, another girl staying at this guesthouse, to join her. What an adventure!

A tuk-tuk was called to pick us up, and we joined Erin's friends Cathy and Gloria, local artist and philanthropist Maung Maung Tinn, as well as May (a very kind Burmese lady who works at Mae Tao clinic) and her amazing daughter April with thanaka on her face.















As we drove along, I couldn't help shoot a couple of photos of others sharing the road with us. In both cases, I got huge smiles back after they noticed the camera.







After arriving in the neighbourhood with the orphanage, we walked toward the open area where the children were playing as there is no school on Sunday, and this big cow was chilling in the grass:




The kids were eager to show me the cows grazing on the other side of the fence (they later came and shared our play area, then moved further on).






This is the gentleman in charge of the cattle:










We brought along a big tin of small cookies for the kids as a treat, and because little kids in developing countries generally benefit from the energy in cookies whereas kids in developed countries often don't need that extra energy source, and become fat instead.

The children lined up and each took his or her turn greeting the woman in charge and saying thank you before leaving with five small cookies.
















This girl showed up late but wasn't upset at all - she was SO happy to join us and seemed to have a natural leadership instinct among her peers:




If you know me well, you know that I can't resist joining children for playtime. I let the adults have their conversations at parties and barbeques and I join the kids, cuz that's where the fun is at. Luckily Maung Maung Tinn was very happy to take charge of my camera for a bit, and later on Gloria took a turn taking some shots with it, so a big thanks to them for capturing some nice moments.






I really like taking photos of children fooling around but getting along with each other at the same time. These kids were really good at playing together!








This girl is a bit older than the others, and I think she was there to help handle the large number of kids.





This girl was 20, and helps her sister who has some position of responsibility at the orphanage.




This kid actually liked me, but the photos of me holding her in my arms were completely out of focus, so I can't prove it.




These kids were bursting with energy; everyone wanted a turn being spun around and flipped in all directions!









After a bit of this intense activity in the hot sun, with many kids wanting more rides and me needing a slight break, I pretended to faint (but with a big smile on my face). The kids surrounded me like the Lilliputians around Gulliver, but trying to pick me up instead of tie me down.









Soon I was back up and carrying multiple children around again.




Some time later, we had to leave. As we walked away, I couldn't help but catch this guy on camera. Look closely and you can read that his shirt says "Je ma'pple" instead of "Je m'appelle" (My name is).




Cow (left), Gloria (centre), and Erin (right).




We then walked a few minutes to a small house where two artists have their studio. One is from Rangoon (Yangon), in Burma and has been here only about 6 months. The other, Nyan Soe, (seen here) is from Mon State, Burma, and has been in Thailand for several years now. Both have produced some amazing artwork, and Nyan Soe's stuff is currently on exhibit at the Borderline gallery here in Mae Sot.




After a nice visit, we caught a tuk-tuk back to the guesthouse and I took a nap.