Insert. Process. Regurgitate.

After spending my first week in Chiang Mai I feel that I should take some time to emit the things I have been processing during these 7 days.

Where to begin? The good or the bad?...let's start with the bad and end on a happy note.

Burma.

My heart is has been ripped out by a breast ripper and placed on a rack to be stretched and torn apart into billions of pieces. I'm in emotional pain for the people of Burma and most of all the Karen hill tribe. It's not fair. Living on less than $2 a day is not fair. Running for your life is not fair. People being destroyed by land mines is not fair. Watching your children skinned is not fair. Seeing your mother and father killed before your innocent eyes is not fair. Mothers, sisters, daughters, and children are being raped and it's not fair. Being told you are not a citizen of the country where your greatest of great grandfather was born and lived until his death is not fair. 50 years of war is not fair. Living in fear of your government is not fair.

I am paralyzed and it's not fair.

Mekong Region. (Burma, Thailand, Souther China, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia)

Why is it that my education is revolved around other people's atrocities.

At the age of 12 years old a Burmese girl was brought to "work" in Thailand. When she was told that she had to sell her body she thought it meant that she would have to cut off parts of her body and sell them for money. She quickly found that selling her body meant being raped by

6-10 men a night. In a years time she had 1,000 customers...she was stuck in prostitution for 6 years. She could not figure out how many customers she was forced to sleep with since she was never able to go to school. For those of you who haven't been able to attend school either, the number is 6,000 men. At one point in those 6 years she found out she was 6 months pregnant. She begged for the doctor to take the baby out..to get rid of it. The doctor told her he couldn't because she didn't have the money. When she returned to the brothel she took pills until she blacked out and woke up in the hospital. When she touched her stomach the bump was gone. She was successful in killing her child. She rather take her unborn daughter's life than to have her grow up to be sold as a prostitute.

These are the realities of the people of the Mekong Region.

These are becoming my reality.

On a happier note...

There are wonderful things about Thailand that have made me fall in love with the place. The citizens of Thailand are magnificent. The land is simply magical. and the food is mind-blowing! I have found a piece of my home. Chicago to me has not felt like home for probably about 4-5 years now...I have found that there are multiple locations for my home. Thailand is just a slice of it.

My home is where the majority of language spoken is not English. Where the people work as one. The weather is warm. Where there is no t.v. The internet is slow. Where rice is served with most meals. Where there is sand, lakes, oceans, and mountains. My home is where I can help the oppressed. Where I am friends with those who have no one left.

Our House

Living with 10 other people has opened up a whole other learning experience for me. Books, films, technologies, opinions etc. have been revealed to me. I was worried about living with 10 other people because for the majority of my life I have been alone. I enjoy my solitude more than I do groups, but these people I am experiencing life with isn't so bad after all. I'm enjoying watching movies with them, reading next to them, sleeping in the same room as them, showering side by side with them, eating my meals with them, and learning the difficult subject matter with them. We are our own community here in Doi Saket and I wouldn't have it any other way.