Here, Have Some Democracy! (If Only It Were That Easy for Burma.)

So, in looking over my (growing) list of future blog posts, there are some longer ones (like telling you all about the workshop I did, or about my trip back to the UK), but there are also a bunch of shorter stories and reflections.  That means it’s AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION TIME!


Pick one of the anecdotes below, and I’ll post that one next.  (No, I’m not giving you any advance information beyond the title :)):

1. Mullet adventures!
2. Good and bad dog days
3. The questions Thais ask… and the one they won’t
4. Soooo many tentacles (not what you think)
5. Jiggy-jiggy?
6. BUG PLAGUE

There is also at least one more post that’s going to have to wait until I figure out HOW THE HELL to transfer photos from my Thai phone to my computer.  I think there was a cord?  Somewhere along the way?


At any rate, today I spent the morning in Thai class – I’m finding it really tough, especially given that a) I missed several weeks, between work and travel and in-country training, and b) our class is pretty dominated by two of the students – one a retired language teacher and the other a resident of Thailand for ten years, married to a Thai woman – who can have extended conversations with the teacher that leave the rest of us in the dust.  But we’re starting to learn to write now, and even though I’m struggling, I had that one moment that makes it all worth it the other night.  I was waiting for my dinner at one of the half-dozen noodle stalls along my street, and I idly glanced at the menu – and realised, “Hey, I know that letter!  And that letter!  Fuck, I actually know that whole word:  ‘pad’!  I can read this menu!”  Which I totally, totally couldn’t, by the way; I could read the first word of each item listed, which, by a remarkable coincidence, was always pad.  (Pad means stir-fried.)  But still, it can feel isolating to live in a country where you can’t read signs, or menus, or newspaper headlines.  The first crack in that barrier is ridiculously exciting.