Starting to spend more and more nights out in the village that I work in. I've only spent one night at home this week; a testament to how much I'm starting to love this place. We also had a new volunteer arrive. It has been really nice to have someone who is going through the same things as me.
Life is laid back. Everyone, and I mean everyone, plays guitar as much as I do. I leave my guitar at the office now. I don't even have to ask people if they play the guitar. I just hand them a 6-sting and tell them to play a song. Knowing how to play the guitar has never been such a useful skill! To be more specific, knowing how to play Country Road by John Denver, and Hotel California by the Eagles have never been such useful skills. We'll see how much cheesy pop music I can take but so far I've been able to nod and smile at the N'Sync, or Katie Perry or whatever bull shit.
I just realized that I've never talked about what I'm actually doing here! Well, my organization develops projects on the Thai side of the boarder, and then we send our staff into the Karenni State to carry out these projects. Right now we're setting up community forest management bodies, doing research on the proposed dams that the military government plans to build, doing environmental education campaigns and researching traditional medicinal plants. Trade is blocked going in and out of conflict zones (this includes medicine) so we are trying to increase the knowledge about medicinal plants to be used as an alternative.
Another pretty cool thing is that I'm riding a motorcycle here, and it is freakin awesome! I feel like I'm dirt biking when I drive to work. And for all of my readers who are aware of my accident-prone track record, rest assured, I have not yet killed myslef!
OH YA! Last week 3 friends from Scarborough just popped through town. hahaha! I'm on the other side of the world and friends just happen to be passing through town. Ania, Ange, Tiana and I had a pretty good time. Although there was one minor blip in the visit when Ange put a 3000 Baht scratch into the truck of the chief's wife. Stay tuned for the “Cribs” episode we filmed at my house.
P.S. A dog that lives out in the village had puppies yesterday. I'll call them Mr. White, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, and Mr. Brown. Anyone who can guess the common theme in the names of the dogs wins a special video dedicated to them that I will post on this blog. Post your guesses as a comment bellow!! LET THE GUESSING BEGIN!!!
