california here i come

Hello everyone, I am finally writing this post while being back in the United States of America, specifically Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, which has been experiencing some rather unpleasant weather, but that in no way can mask its beauty nor damper the happiness I have finally being back here. I’m sorry this post was not more immediate, like my last day in Chiang Mai or the first day I got back, but there were many other activities I wanted to accomplish before logging onto a computer…I hope you all understand.

Songkrang was everything I expected it to be and more, including buying large slabs of ice, placing them in our coolers and dousing everyone we came in contact with an icy surprise. We paid dearly for our actions, but it was so much fun. We left early Monday morning to head back to Musekee (the name of the village, in case I have not already mentioned that). We were all somewhat bummed to leave so early on Monday, especially when, on a break on the road, we asked what we had to do in the village and were met with “oh, free day!…..so why did we have to leave Chiang Mai so early? However, by that time in the trip, we just figured out there are some things we just do not understand and equally have no control over.

The last two weeks were devoted to pursuing additional interviews with residents in the community who could help us with our research papers. My friend Lauren and I decided to write about the changing environmental issues in the community and the different actions that have been taken to prevent some of these problems. It was a fascinating topic and since our paper was 28 pages long, I feel that it does not do justice to discuss it in passing here in this blog entry. Basically, the Karen people have had this conservationalist mentality for generations and it has effected much of how they see nature; that they should always be in constant harmony with it.

I did a lot of traveling to different homes, families, and research projects throughout the community. As fate would have it, when we all had our computers and were in need of power, the power tended to go out even more, resulting in my having an interview with me, my translator and friend Kae, and a teacher from one of the local junior highs, by candlelight and an assortment of insects that were attracted to the flame. We were able to make it back in the pitch blackness by the light of Kae’s cell phone and made it into our houses before all hell broke loose in a rainstorm.

However, the rain and power outages in no way stopped the heat coming on often in the late afternoon. It was not until the last few days that we finally experienced rain all day and actually felt pleasantly cool. The rest of the time, such as the Sunday of my birthday, it was extremely hot…actually, now that I think about it, my birthday was probably the worst heat wise and things got better after that.

And yes, my golden birthday of twenty years was a great experience in the village. Everyone was really nice about wishing me a happy birthday and I received a loaf of banana bread as my birthday cake, which makes me pretty happy. I also shared my cake mix I brought with everyone, which made the whole group pretty happy.

Now, anyone who knows me knows I have a very minimal understanding of technology, to the point where it could a problem working in the twenty-first century with this dependence upon electronics. However, as most also know, this is often not my fault, but usually the blame should fall on my “chaos hands” or simply my inability to read instructions on a computer screen (if it were on paper, I’m sure it would not be a problem). Well, I had gone the entire semester with no technology problems. None. I had even written 11 pages of our paper before Lauren finally began some of her own thoughts to the mix. And then the storm came. And while our documents were saved on the desktop, there was a virus, and three days before our paper was due we lost everything I had written. I blamed myself really for not having found someone else’s flashdrive (mine stopped working) and saved it there, so I wasn’t too upset, and besides, what does frustration do in that situation? So we sat down at the internet cafe, where Eddy allowed us to use his computers, and began once again to write out our paper. In one day I wrote 9 pages and the next day was able to polish up 14 pages. Lauren commented I truly was an IB kid- I would hope after seven years, some of that would have stuck.

The last few days we all began missing home and just wanting to see our loved ones once again. We also accomplished some of what I consider the most impressive feats of the month – watching the entire first season of arrested development. We had a talent show on the last Sunday, which varied from 11 of us girls dressed as the 11 boys and performing what I consider a rather accurate impersonation, an original SST ballad, and a boy band dance. It was memorable to say the least! The last night we had a farewell dinner with our friends in Musekee. Many of the young girls whom we had befriended began to cry at the thought of us leaving, and our hearts were equally broken with that thought as we pulled out that morning.

Chiang Mai consisted of shopping at Gat Luang, or the Day Market (not what it means, but it’s what the farang call it) with Kara, who needed to find lice-free clothing for herself since she and about five other girls on our trip had contracted these pesky little visitors. Kara took it as a sign she should just go through with the extreme and shave her head, so Thursday night consisted of that little adventure! Friday was our last dinner together and before we could realize it, it was a gloomy Saturday morning and the waterworks were already beginning as we said goodbye to the first group of seven people traveling for an extra week to a Karen refugee camp on the Burma and Thai border. For anyone wondering, they have not been effected by the cyclone, thankfully, and we did not experience any weather problems as we flew home on Saturday.

Saturday was an emotional day for many of us, but not all, as we all slowly realized we would no longer be together as an SST family. I know I will see many of these people again, but it seems so odd to not be hearing them around me or seeing them in class on a daily basis. I don’t believe I have experienced true re-entry culture shock yet, since I am currently amusing myself with these amazing classes in Mayterm and reveling in the joy of having five weeks to live back at Westmont. While many of my friends here want to be home already, I just keep telling them I am home.

Our group diminished throughout the day until Saturday evening, ten of us arrived at LAX and I finally got to see my parents and sister after four months. My mom came prepared with my favorite sweater telling me I would probably want it, and boy was she right – I am so cold here! We had a rental car and the CRV to hold all of Ali’s things from packing up from APU and then all my belongings, and then we drove to Westmont.

I don’t know if I stressed enough how much I missed people at Westmont this semester, but I did, in ways I do not even know how to express. Saturday night, though I was tired, I did not sleep. Instead, I was shown a video that was intended for me to watch on my birthday in the village, but instead I did it here and opened up my birthday gifts. After the important activities, aka watching the four episodes of the Office that I missed, it was about 3:30 in the morning and time for our tradition at the close of every semester – going to Denny’s at 4 in the morning for breakfast before taking my friend Wes to the airport for his God-early flight back to Texas. I opted for a hamburger; I had eaten a lot of pancakes in the last month.

The past few days have been re-adjusting times back in Clark M, the same dorm (but different room) I lived in my freshman year. There are so many little things that I miss, like the beautiful flowers, and still other things I never noticed about Westmont before, like that the nature around here is fairly quiet…although I do not know if anything can top those demon-possessed trees!

There is probably so much that I left out of this blog entry and much of the excitement has been diffused due to the fact I am simply so relieved to be home. It’s an odd sensation to feel so content and excited about being back, but still missing much from Thailand. I was showing my pictures to my friend Ali a few nights ago and I was reminded of all that I did more than two months ago and thought “Oh yeah, that was fun.”

Thank you all for putting up with my ramblings and enjoying my photos this past semester. I cannot believe that all just flew by and another year of my undergraduate education is completed. There is so much I have taken from this experience and hopefully I shared with you all a tad bit of the insight I have acknowledged – hopefully much more will come down the road. There is much to talk about and see in this wonderful country formally known as Siam – I hope one day most of you will visit “real Thailand (aka not just the beaches) and if you do, can I come?

Till next time,

Sarah

ps- you thought I wouldn’t at least put some pictures up?

our bedroom. you can’t really see sarah clemmer’s pink lair next to our large blue net, but we called it her princess bed. princess…sarah…..okay, it’s funny if you have the name!

one of my many paths for walking around the area

Me and Kae, one of the amazing translators and a good friend

Krathai….the phrase “holy mother of pearl” has a new meaning for me

June- she’s been a friend since day 1

volleyball 24/7 in the village….in the rain….

the result of me playing volleyball all afternoon….i’m still trying to get the mountain dust off… although our pedicures in chiang mai helped!

birthdays in musekee.

blowing the 20 candles out.

cake baking round 2 with lindsey, steph and sarah. yes that is a mortar and pestle….

we used it to mix sugar and margarine together to make frosting for our cake…a roy mack mack

Yu Paw and Yu Pi- seven year old twin sisters who two of my favorite people in Thailand.

banana bread round 2 – best 30 baht i ever spent

cutting and eventually shaving kara’s head.

she can pull it off so well!

the sarah’s – clemmer, davis, and rinko- on our last night in chiang mai.

Me and the Piis- Katie and Keith- two of my favorite people. keith’s creepy face is completely intentional.

(notice how wet i am because it outright poured our last night).

our dysfunctional but lovely westmont family.

taipai airport. “children’s playroom.” i guess they want the parents to feel like kids too. (this is the result of putting anxious twenty year olds with a layover that is too short for them to leave the airport, i couldn’t snap the photo in time of security walking over to us as we played on those sweet moving, sliding floors…)

there’s more, but i’ve concluded i have too many pictures!

~ by sarah davis on May 8, 2008.