Chang

Alright alright, I know it has been awhile, but sometimes you just get busy when you are traveling around.

After LAOS, I headed back into Thailand to meet up with Brad. He flew in on April 17th and was here for a week. We definitely enjoyed our week together, although I would of preferred it to be longer (of course) I was happy to see him for a week. You'll be jealous to know that most European countries get about 6 weeks of paid vacation a year, and are much more lenient on leaving work for extended periods of time and still having a job. I know I'm jealous! But, within the week that we were together we spent a couple of days in the big city of Bangkok. Exploring the Grand Palace and lovely architecture, eating yummy food from restaurants and street stalls, walking the entertaining street of Khao San Rd. - "The Backpackers Ghetto", going out and dancing and partying it up, then more eating, frequenting 7-11 of course because they are everywhere, and lots of walking around and seeing the culture and enjoying eachothers company.
But after we'd had enough of the city, we headed east toward Cambodia by bus and ferry to reach the tropical island of Koh Chang. (Chang = Elephant (in Thai)) We had a scary taxi ride in with some new found friends from Britain, and found a nice bungalow in the small village of Lonely Beach. We spent quite a few days relaxing here on the jungle clad island and swimming around in it's aqua marine blue waters and white sand and beautiful sunsets. (See facebook pics) We also did a fair amount of trying the local cuisine like Pad Thai, Thai curries, fruit shakes, ginger chicken, seafood, etc... and going out at night and meeting fun people and hanging out. Two of the adventure highlights were one; going the the treetop adventure park. Here Brad did ziplinning, rope swings, shaky bridges, and a whole assortment of 'George of the Jungle' like activities. He was like a kid in a candy store. Especially on the 400 feet zipline over the jungle canopy! Second of our adventures was riding elephants at the elephant sanctuary. We had an amazing time with our elephant named Rambo. We rode through the jungle and headed to a stream/pond where we got to bath with Rambo and sit ontop of him and have him splash us and throw water all over us. It was a fantastic experience!!! They really are huge amazing creatures, and it really reminds you how different you are from these types of animals. Plus we got to drive Rambo back! Check off the bucket list!
The week that Brad visited was a fantastic part of my vacation and I had a wonderful time with him being out here.

Min Ma Haw

Min Ma Haw, post-10 school for Burmese refugees. My school.

The homework question was...

"If you had a cap of invisibility (like the one from Perseus and Medusa greek mythology), what would you do and why?"

Well, I imagine if you were to ask any class of teenagers in the US or other countries what they would do, you'd receive answers like, sneek into the girls locker room to the showers. Or sneek out every night to party with my friends. Or break in to a bank and get rich.

Well if you had a cap of invisibility, what would you do?
I didn't have an answer, but was pretty stunned by the answers my students presented. My students who are 16-22...

When my Min Ma Haw students read their individual answers aloud to class this morning, the answers seemed to range in a similar style, but definitely differed.
Their answers included

- "Return to Burma and sneek into prison and free all the political prisoners"
   Recent counts on the amount of political prisoners range very high, and most are imprisoned for no reason at all. Others for being pro-democracy. Others for simply standing against the Junta. I believe this website is based here in Mae Sot, an association to help the thousands of political prisoners (http://www.fbppn.net/). I met a man last night who wrote a book I have, he was imprisoned for 17 years, many of those years spent in solitary confinement, and the others in torturous conditions.

- " I would return to Burma to see my girlfriend, even though she is in love with another man, I will go back because she is the love of my life and to steal her back and be with her"

- A handful of the young students said "They would sneak into the government/parliament and kill the head general of Burma and the members" in order to do the bad things to them that they've done to us.

- "I would sneak into a bank and rob it, and give the money to all the poor families"

- "I would travel around the world" These Burmese students have very few options of where they can go. They can't legally move around Mae Sot, a small city. If they are caught, even here in Mae Sot, they are sent back to Burma. The LAST PLACE in theworld they want to be. They can be in dangerous Burma, under risk of death, slavery, rape, beating, and fleeing, or they can stay here in Mae Sot. It is very unlikely these kids will see past Mae Sot in their life, unless Burma's regime ends.

- "I would go to the beach to see the sunset"  A novel concept, to someone who has never seen the beach.

There were other just as meaningul answers that kinda left me jaw-dropped. I couldn't believe that these kids, so young could have such a passion to change things, to do such good. I have a lot of respect for these kids,and hope that someday they can get their hands on such an 'invisibility cap' and do all the great things they want to...the world would be a better place.

---

Many of the issues are very hush hush in Mae Sot. Also, it is known that there are Burmese spies here looking for certain key individuals that have fleed and are attempting to start an uprising from Thailand. Don't worry people at home, foreigners are not in danger (including me- don't worry!) Everyday I meet somebody doing something interesting. A lot of NGO workers, or journalists, or aid workers are here. Yesterday I talked to a guy from Spain, a journalist staying here for 2 years. He is focusing on Burmese migrant workers and the horrible conditions they are put under because they are illegal.

I'm keeping my heart, ears, and eyes open still. I'm only sharing partsof everything that comes up, i know there is so much more but I can't rememberit all to write it down. I want to learn more. The situation is complicated and intricate, and what I learn here only seems to be a piece of the puzzle.

One of the most prominent helpers in Mae Sot- The Best Friend Library ( http://www.thebestfriend.org/ )

Devil´s Point and Devil´s Throat

The Devil?????



Well after Buenos Aires, Beth and I headed to our next country. URUGUAY

Uruguay, yea where the heck is that??? Well in between Argentina and Brasil, you find this little drop of a country where things are priced like the states and the country as a whole has the bigest addiction I´ve ever seen, maté. If you don´t know what maté is, i will try and explain it to you, but you gotta see it. It is a hot tea drink that they make here and drink here. They also drink it out of a hollowed-out gourd and drink it with a decorated straw. People have it here at the park, at the beach, on the bus and EVERYWHERE in between. It is not just one of two people, it is literally everybody in the country. They drink it all day and night. This is also an addiciton of fellow countries, Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay, but Uruguay takes it to a NEW level.

Beth and I spent a couple of days in the developed, Miami-like, beach town of Punta del Este. A popular beach resort for wealthy Uruguayans and Argentinians. It was a little too developed for us, because things were priced in American dollars and you see Fendi and Dolce & Gabana stores. SO we decided to make our way to the anti- Punta del Este beach, Punta del Diable (Devil´s Point).

Devil´s Point is further east on the coast but has a much smaller town feeling and beautiful beaches.Said to be one of the better in South America (after Brasil and all...) but it is all personal preference. After being chased by the biggest lightning storm I´ve seen, we arrived at night and used the lightning to light our way to Casa blanca. There we rented our own room, two beds, kitchen, baño, T.v., and patio with beach view for 12.00/night each. We spent this week as a detoxication of the big city....spent it mostly anti-socially, with the exception of the Casa blanca owner, store-guy, and our Buenos Aires new found friend David.

The days we spent cooking and watching the 2 English channels that came in. I caught up on many of the movies that have come out, so i´m not TOO far behind the times (Including Blades of Glory and the Simpsons movie....really important historical deep movies) We also spent our days lounging on the beach and reading 100 years of Solitude and A long way gone (story of Sierra leone child soldier) The beach looked like something out of Martha´s Garden, rolling grassy dune hills, cottages, woods in the back, and little art places and stores. It was the most relaxing week, not to mention I hadn´t been out of the mountains since the beginning of the year. It was a breath of fresh air.

From Punta del Diablo, we made our way, by boat back to Argentina. Rosario, Argentina, the birthplace of the famed, Ché Guevara. Other sites included the Flag Monument, dedicated to the Argentina flag and the fact that it was the first flag in South America to be raised for an independent country. They are proud, it was a Washington monument look alike. In Rosario, which is up river from Buenos Aires is in the area where the Atlantic Ocean last reaches. More of a river, the ocean creates a series of islands. One day we traveled out to Deja vú and laid on the beach all day in the baking hot sun and continued reading. Now this is probably what everybody at home thinks I do ALL the time, but your quite wrong. This was like a vacation from my travels. (believe you me, it is sometimes needed)

From Rosario, accompanied by David, we made the 22 hour bus ride to Puerto Iguazú. In Argentina, 22 hours is nothing on a bus, it is more relaxing than troublesome. We arrived midday and realized we were in the Amazon, so were pleased when we found the ¨greatest deal¨ I´ve had on a hostal yet, which included a pool and ¨super¨ breakfast (when you get anything more than bread, butter, and jam, I consider it a super breakfast...can´t wait for pancakes and eggs benedict when i get home!). The next day we hoped on the minibus to head to the Argentina side of the famed IGUAZÚ FALLS. I will say right away that this is one of the most amazing things I´ve ever seen. Pictures, movies, even description doesn´t do justice to Iguazú Falls, a must-see-to-believe place. We spent the whole day, 6 hours, walking and exploring the jungle and falls of the Argentinian side, which provided an up close and personal look at Garganta del Diablo (Devil´s throat) and many other falls. This is the Grand Canyon of Waterfalls. There was plenty of wildlife and scenery to blow your mind, not to mention water falling from the sky or blowing up for the heated rocky part below, where the most water i´ve ever seen falling at once pounded rocks. We also watched boats attempt and prevail to go under some of the smaller falls and soak all the screaming excited tourists on board. Within a day, it was impossible not to find a scene that would stick in your head for the rest of your life.

I didn´t take this picture, but it captures a SMALL portion of Iguazú Falls.

The next day we spent the day exploring the more panoramic Brazilian side, where at one point you could see the whole set of falls. If you´ve never looked into it, you wouldn´t know that the visa for Americans to enter Brasil costs 135.00 flat. But Brazilian side was a must see according to other travelers, so we sneaked across the border for a day and axplored the constant views of the amazing falls. (pictures to be seen when i get home in May) Iguazú Falls was an incredible magical place that I would recommend not only to waterfalls, jungle lovers, but to ANYBODY.