Genelle A. Allen, '04
English Major

Greetings and a wai (pron. "why") from Thailand!

I hope you faithful internet fiends have enjoyed checking this fantastic website for updates about our trip. As I sit here and eat too many tamarinds flavored with sugar and spice right before we go out to a smorgasbord-board dinner, I can't help but take a deep breath and think, "Wow, what a relief." It's actually quiet right now, cool and outside the window is a huge tropical tree of oakish qualities. So different from the city of weaving cars, tuk-tuks and scooters milling around from place to place. I feel like a sardine. I am packed into a small can of time, absorbing the oil and brine of learning that will change me into something that tastes good (to some people). There have been moments where I think I have had enough time soaking in this culture but I am here, right now and I won't ever have these moments again.

Today was our first day with the service-learning placements. I had the fortune to go with three others, Annemarie, Lars and Catherine to the informal and very comfortable setting of Saori Creative Center. This oasis on the outskirts of Chiang Mai is a place where disabled people come from hill-tribe villages to learn a marketable skill, and they also run programs in the surrounding communities to increase public understanding of disabilities. It is small and intimate, full of warmth and affection. Everyone knows their role, has been trained how to weave, some are better than others, but it doesn't matter because it is taught as fun. The ages of the people there are roughly 16-30ish. It was a small group and the four of us were taught how to weave on the looms, participated in dyeing the cloth and then exchanged the English and Thai words for numbers, colors and animals. They love to dance and so tomorrow we want to show them some country line dances and teach them some American and Christian songs. Other people went to schools to teach or to local businesses to learn about the economy, and then we all met back at Payap University for a lecture on the role of women by an anthropology professor at Payap who has a vision for women's futures in Thailand. Following that two-hour session, we went to a brief lesson and demonstration that we'll continue next week on traditional Thai hill-tribe village dancing and instruments. Finally, dinner. We went to a Japanese Sukiyaki place and had way too much fun dumping in every dish of raw meat, seafood and tofu into a boiling pot of water, adding veggies, 'shrooms and noodles to create at each table a different tasting dish. I'm still waiting for my bowels to explode from every sort of bizarre and questionable substance I put into my mouth, but alas, some of us just have stronger piping systems than others.

Well, I win the longest-entry award. Everyone is doing well for the most part. Some are experiencing a tinge of homesickness to be alleviated only by Starbucks (sick) or ice cream or deep talk and hugs. Some of us are experiencing a different sort of homesickness as we crave tortillas and beans or English-style High Tea and cannot stop comparing Thailand to Latin America or the British Isles. What points of view we are all forming though. Thank you all for your interest enough to read through all these and also for your prayers. We are being transformed and cannot remain the same as when we left the States. We'll need you to be there for us when we get back and reading these travelogues will definitely help prepare you for our return. Until tomorrow then! Goodnight!

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