Opportunity Blog

New house from the road.

I have been in and out of Thailand since September, but have not had much time for this blog. Anyway, our first house has been finished since September although it was only about three weeks ago that our family moved in. We have temporary water and electric power hooked up. In a bit less than two months we will have the permanent water and power in. The second two pictures show the back porch cooking and eating area.

Back porch kitchen/living area.

View from the back.

It’s nice having someone there now. I usually visit with them when I go out every other day to run. We have some packing gravel on the half of the road we frequently drive on and the other half is dirt. Both held up very well to the worst area flooding on record earlier this year. It makes a great running surface, and since the ring road is exactly one kilometer around it is easy to track how far I run.

I normally get there at seven in the morning do five kilometers. I have been trying to get a couple of the older girls there to run with me a lap or two. One especially is very sports minded and likes me to come see her at her games. I think she would do better in basketball especially if she ran more. I noticed she has trouble hitting the basket when she is tired from a lot of running back and forth on the court.

Yesterday, Saturday, after visiting a bit I was just ready to ride off when some of the older girls came out and told me they were all going swimming later that day at 2:00 PM and asked if I would like to come. I have heard about the pool somewhere in Nang Rong but had never been. I told them that would be great, and I could bring my SUV and haul a bunch of them in that.

I got there later and found out the parents knew nothing about going swimming, but since I was there ready to go it would be fine except that the weather had turned out a bit cool for swimming that day. It was not cool by my standards, since I grew up in north Idaho, but these were Thais and they were concerned the girls might get colds.

I guess I got snookered. The girls knew that once the farang volunteer had driven up all ready to go their parents would not have refused to let him take everyone if conditions had been reasonable otherwise. My Thai is still not great and that can also lead to a bit more confusion in situations like this. I’ll have to be a bit more careful.

Still, it is great to see our girls getting happier and living normal lives. In the past some of them have had much more serious situations to contend with than figuring out how to outwit the local farang.

Holding the khom loi while its air heats up. Our fearless leader Walai to the left in the purple shirt. Right with the green purse is our bookkeeper and launch manager Pisamai. Our current youngest and third youngest girls stand in front of picture. You can see candles placed on the rail all around the reservoir in the background.

The Loy Krathong festival came with the full moon near the end of November this year. Everyone seemed to be out to celebrate at the big reservoir in the center of Nang Rong. For such a big deal it seems strange you can’t find it in the Wikipedia list of Thai Holidays. I asked someone and they said “Because it’s not a holiday! We just celebrate it for one night so no one needs to take a day off from work.” There is some religious significance about an offering to the river goddess for granting water, etc., but most everyone these days are just out for the good time.

You can look up “Loy Krathong” (literally “float bowl”) in Wikipedia if you want more general information. Notice the third picture down in the article. I saw that in Chiang Mai a few years ago. I looked up and saw a great number of stars showing brilliantly in the sky. I finally realized that the sky had high overcast and no stars were showing through, but a thousand students at Chiang Mai university had all launched khom loi, 5’ high hot air rice paper balloons using a fuel cell ring underneath. The fuel cell flame is bright and shows strongly from a long way up.

Part of one of several parades that night.

There is a long straight wide street in front of the reservoir with restaurants on the other side. This night there were a great many food carts and sellers along that side also. Several parades, each complete with sound carts (see my article on that) came by during the time we were there. My camera is not made for it, but I caught a small section of one parade with local ladies dancing. A lot of tents, a performance stage and other things were on the peninsula out into the lake. We did not get out there but I show a picture of it from across the lake.

More activity across the lake.

We got snacks from the vendors, floated some Krathongs and my favorite, launched a few khom loi balloons. I hope this tradition can go on awhile more, but you never know. Last year a house in Nang Rong burned from a balloon that went the wrong way. This night was great with no wind so the balloons could go right up while travelling very slowly out into the lake.

I drove one of the vehicles to haul all our kids and some staff the few blocks to the lake. Later I took the 3rd family back home. They are the family that had just moved into the new house. I took a picture there just before I drove off.

Our new family home at night. Just moved in!

A large song taew ready to go.

Yesterday we went to the “Baan Song Muang” children’s rights conference in Baan Kruad about fifty kilometers southeast of Nang Rong. It is a two day conference with children invited for the first day. Most of our staff and kids went, and I went along as well. We rented a large song taew for transportation.

Countries in this part of the world have various ways of transporting groups of people on the road. Of course the bus is present in all of them, but if you do not wish to meet the bus lines schedule and route, the distance is not too great, and you want to save money you may end up riding in the back of some sort of truck. The less well off in India often ride long distances standing room only on large flatbed trucks with wooden fencing stuck into the holes around the beds edge. The roads are so bad, and the trucks sprung so harshly that I doubt you would want to sit anyway. In Myanmar the small sized pickup (I can’t remember seeing any full sized ones) is often used. It has a rack placed over the pickup bed and benches along the sides and center on the bed. I’ve seen 20 on the benches down and another 12 on top. Add to that three or four in the front seat and you have 35 people as seen in the photo taken on our second trip there.

Traveling third class in Myanmar. Taken on the way to Moulemein. Would you feel safe sitting on the tailgate?

In Thailand we have the song taew. In small form this is like the pickup seen in Myanmar except I’ve never seen people seated above on a small one and the center bench would only be there if children are carried. For more people the large song taew is a standard flatbed truck with the song taew framework over the bed. There are benches down the sides and center, although with about 20 people we did not need the center bench. I think they ease up on the suspension a bit as well. With that and the better roads in Thailand and just a small amount of padding on the seat the ride was not so bad.

It certainly is breezy. Usually the wind is welcome in place of air conditioning, but for our trip we closed the front vent and a few of the side windows. With a light jacket we were quite comfortable.

In the back of the framework there are ladders up to the roof. I see the students up there often when a song taew, the common form of school bus here, pulls out at the end of a school day. I would have liked to try that, but the school kids take the bus every day and know where the low hanging branches are and lately the police will stop you if they see someone up there. Besides we don’t want our kids doing that, and I have to set an example.

A nap before we get there.

It’s handy not needing the middle bench. We left a bit early, so on the way we spread a mat out in the middle and some of the kids rested. Having our new two year old girl was great, as each of the girls wanted a turn holding her. In fact, we really could have used her twin sister as well, but unfortunately she had a touch of flu and had to stay home.

Anyway, we got to the conference fine. I’ll describe that in a subsequent post. When we returned the lack of the middle bench was again appreciated. The kids first held a dance game. One starts dancing and then points to someone else who must get up and dance briefly before again pointing. Dancing was never my strong point but the kids seemed much amused when I was called upon. Next came the “heavy load” game which I won’t describe and finally some practiced their traditional Thai dancing. Maybe some of the grace and ease seen in this dancing comes from practicing on the deck of a moving song taew. It should be pretty easy on solid ground after that.

The little one crashed on the way back.

With no seat belts I’m not sure what U.S. lawyers would think about it, but speeds are less here, so I did not feel as unsafe as I do in my car facing the faster traffic on Thailand’s major roads.

A Visit to Grandfather

Here it is November before I have had a chance to write anything. I have been back since late October getting settled. Sue and I came over from the U.S. to Thailand mid September, but stayed only long enough to go over a few issues at the foundation here. The main issue was how to make the best use of the house just completed. We need to get the power hooked up more permanently. The water/sewage issues are handled now.

We used some gravel on our road that held up really well to recent epic flooding. The water got within a foot or two of our new house. Since the house is built on concrete pilings and its floor level is nearly a meter above the surrounding ground level, there was no chance of water getting inside or damaging the foundation in any way.

Maybe you have read about the recent floods and severe damage in Pakistan. These rains and flooding extended into northern India as well. Sue and I ran into some flood caused transportation delays when we were touring India last month. Well, I guess they even got over to Nang Rong. They say this was the worst flooding ever. Worse than two years ago, which was the worst flooding ever. I know some are saying the world is undergoing climate changes which are not necessarily related to global warming, just cycles that can occur over thousands of years.

Anyway the flooding was pretty much over with when we first arrived in mid September, and the weather since then has been really great. Always shirtsleeve weather, but very seldom what you would call hot, and very little rain except a couple of times at night.

The foundation work continues. Last week we received identical twin two year old girls along with their very young mother from the Buriram shelter. I really wish I could show you a picture here, you would fall in love with them for sure. Looking at them in detail however shows a few issues we should deal with. Our first priority is to keep them with their mother and get her independent. Right now that seems like a tall order, but we won’t consider other options until that has been fully tried.

We have other new faces since I was last here. I have had a bit of time with two of them. One wants to work on her English but is having the typical shyness problem I see with most Thais, especially girls. They hesitate to speak for fear of speaking incorrectly. Of course they will do just that as they learn. I keep telling them they cannot get anywhere unless they just go ahead and not worry about the mistakes. I’ll be talking more with her and see how we do.

I went along on a short road trip to a wat (temple) in Buriram to visit an elderly monk who is grandfather to two of our girls. These two, along with the girl I just mentioned above and a social worker went with us. Relatives were going to sell the two to traffickers, but the grandfather was able to intervene. I can’t remember whether he directly contacted us or whether we got the girls through CPCR or one of the government temporary shelters, but we have had them for more than a year. The grandfather is too old to care for them, and being a monk would make that difficult anyway.

We had a great visit. I could understand some of what was said, but my Thai still has a ways to go. The monk was clearly concerned about the girl’s welfare and asked our social worker many questions. He appeared very satisfied with the foundation family’s care.

This is long enough for now. I’ll try to start posting again in the near future.

Am I going to write a Thailand Trouble IV, V, …? I hope no one is coming here to get the latest news on Thailand. I don’t update as much when I’m in the U.S.

The Thailand situation continues to surprise me as well as many others. The state department warnings are getting more firm. Non essential embassy personnel have been sent off. But they are all in Bangkok. As a CNN article shows, things remain peaceful in most (not all, read the State Department warning) areas outside of Bangkok. Buriram province, where we are, has had no unusual activity. One problem with the CNN article is that if you come to Thailand, you will come through the international airport just east of Bangkok. Will protesters close it down again? I don’t think so, but I’m not sure of anything there anymore.

The best thing now is to wait and see awhile. If I already had my non refundable tickets, I’d go ahead and go, otherwise I’d wait. 36 people have been killed in demonstrations so far in Bangkok. Whether that seems a lot to you or not, you should still remember that loss of life in Bangkok alone from car and other such accidents has been much more than that. As I have said before in Thailand II, if you are ever to get hurt in foreign travel, it is most likely to be in a car accident. Even now in Thailand.

I do wonder about that airport. Trouble still seems unlikely there, but…

I have talked about travel in Myanmar in the past. I will certainly be going there again when I can. Just to keep you up to date, here is a link to a recent article on a website sponsored by what I think is a group in opposition to the government. Please read Derek Tonkin’s comment below the article. I think this explains the often heard phrase “Don’t spend tourism dollars in Myanmar, the money just goes to the government .”

Well, I hope no one took my advice and immediately went off to Thailand, especially if you were from Europe or came from the U.S. eastward connecting through Europe. The demonstrations got worse than I thought they would. Originally I was reading how they were taking over the Sukumvit area, where Sue and I used to stay. Now I see they are at the Silom road area, around the Saladang skytrain station. That’s were we stay now when we are in Bangkok. I also noticed that the demonstrations were close (although not in) the Khaosan road area where a lot of the backpacking crowd stays.

They are certainly not everywhere in Bangkok, the city is just too big for that, but they have hit a lot of the tourist areas where Farangs will at least be passing through, if not staying. If we were going to Bangkok now, the only thing we would do different is not stay in the Silom area. We’d probably stay out by the airport or just catch a bus immediately to Nang Rong.

Now along with that we have the airline disruption in Europe which stuck a lot of long distance fliers wherever they happened to be. Some of these were in Thailand. They could not get out of the airport, but did not want to go back downtown where they had been staying either.

As far as loss of life and limb, I am still of the opinion that there is little to fear. I suppose you could get blown up by one of those bombs that were planted, but the likelihood of that is still very slim. Now, as well as any other time, the most likely cause of you getting hurt is a car/vehicle accident. The chance of you catching a bomb or a terrorist bullet is vanishingly small compared to that, provided you stay away from trouble wherever you see it.

Being severely inconvenienced by this current air travel mess appears more likely, however.

There is trouble in Thailand. You can read the US state department warnings here. I feel like I should say something, even though I really don’t know much about the immediate situation.

Opportunity Foundation does not involve itself in politics and does not take sides in issues like the current one, so I will not comment on my feelings about the political issues. I will say that if I needed to get back to Thailand in the next few days for some reason the current political unrest would not have the least influence on my travel plans. The only thing that might bother me is if they shut down the airport there again, but I really think that is not going to happen a second time.

I would avoid the areas of demonstrator activity, however. Unfortunately, one of these near the Chidlom BTS (sky train) station is in a tourist area with some major hotels. The Holiday Inn, Intercontinental and Hyatt Erawan are among them. Other than that there should be no problems for a foreigner in Thailand.

There is no anti American or anti European sentiment that I am aware of. The problem is entirely domestic. I have never heard anyone say they thought foreigners have anything to do with it. Thais are still friendly to foreigners. That has not changed. If you need help out on the street, ask a Thai.

The basic rule in Thailand, Myanmar or any other country is, if you see a political demonstration or some other form of unrest, go the other way. The Japanese news photographer killed recently in Bangkok as well as the one killed a few years ago on the streets of Yangon, Myanmar two weeks before Sue and I arrived in that city were obviously not following this rule.

Our first child home is progressing.

Sue and I are now back in the U.S. We find that tax time is always a good time to be back. Most of our bills get paid by auto deductions from bank accounts, but piles of mail, a few pieces of which is actually important, have built up while we were gone. Anyway, we’ve finished figuring our taxes and have a bit of time for other things, like this blog entry.

I have wanted Walai to contribute more to this blog, but she has not had the time lately. Last month Walai became the managing director of the foundation, and so has been pretty busy with literally everything that is going on there. She did have time to send me a pictures of the village’s first two buildings, which appear here. She also told me that 68 trees averaging about 30 feet high have so far been moved from the forest and planted in the village. I think we are shooting for about 200 trees this first time.

This Sala will provide shade and a place to relax for our children, staff and volunteers.

Our children there are doing well. We have seen some improvements in their academics.

We are enjoying being with our children and grandchildren here, but are already missing Thailand.

Buddhist ordination parade late this morning. Morning market building behind.

It’s time for us to leave Nang Rong. There are already some hot days in late February this time, although there are number of cool ones as well. A few things have happened.

Regarding restaurants and chain stores, it appears the local KFC may make it (refer to previous blog entry). I do often see it empty, but on a hot day the air conditioning is a draw. I remember two years back when I first brought my wife Sue to Nang Rong. I think it was a hot day in March. I can’t remember what we were doing, but when lunch time rolled around she just had to go to an air conditioned restaurant. At that time there was only one choice. We ended up standing in a corner in Seven Eleven with a hot dog and a slurpee.

Anyway, Sue has hauled me over to KFC in Nang Rong three times now. They now have the complete KFC line of food. In addition, rumors are floating about that the large area of land being prepared on the highway seven kilometers west of Nang Rong is going to be a new Lotus Tesco, which is a large discount store with groceries.

The new highway 24 just went all four lane as far east as Nang Rong last year, and development will come more quickly along its route. This will be at the expense of the old east west route 50 km north of here which passes through the capital cities of Buriram and three adjacent provinces.

Times are changing, but it will take years for change to get into Nang Rong once you get off the highway. Land rights and existing buildings will keep the old layout. Roads are narrow and corners are sharp, with most turns made at 1 – 2 miles an hour. The growth will be east and west of town along the new four lane road.

We have a foundation board meeting this Monday, then we leave for Bangkok the next day. We have a few doctor appointments there (we are certified medical tourists) and then we’ll leave for Singapore. We’ll be back in Nang Rong by early October for sure.