Here's the problem

It's really hard to make a Carmen Sandiego style post when you can just google any hint I give you. I guess this will just have to be an honor system thing? And I suppose it doesn't matter that much, since if you are reading this there is a 100% chance you are either my sister or my mother, in which case you already have a detailed itinerary, but:

A crime has occurred! A son of a certain fabulously wealthy ruling family has stolen the throne and locked his father up in the family fort. Unless you come to the rescue ASAP, the father will spend the rest of his days imprisoned and staring at the tomb of his beloved wife. Also, our insider spies report that in the country where this crime occurred the son's name is synonymous with deceit and cunning.

So, gumshoe, where am I? Hurry!

Yours,
R

P.S. My travel companions are currently disowning me over the lameness of this post.

And we've arrived at Baan Yuu Suk

Dearest Reader,

Sorry for the lapse in communication.

We arrived at Ban Yuu Suk last Monday with approximately five pick up trucks full of luggage and art supplies (okay, one truck). Mickey, COSA's founder, opened this place in October for girls who have experienced or are at risk for trafficking or sexual exploitation. The girls are incredible. Sweet and shy to outgoing and sassy: they run the gamut. The environment is positive, warm and open.

Since arriving, we've managed to unload about half our haul in the process of teaching everything from tie-dye to painting to jazz dance. I've absolutely butchered concepts such as perspective and contrast by reducing them into simple English and then translating that English into incoherent Thai, and accompanying that with dizzyingly confusing dry-erase drawings.

We are so grateful to our friends and family back home who have offered us support. Thanks to you, we were able to bring every girl a set of art supplies complete with pencils, charcoal, acrylic paints, and three canvasses. When I walked outside today after morning dance, I found several girls sitting at a picnic table painting in their free time. I managed to hold back the waterworks. That really freaks kids out.

Here are some pictures. If you'd like to read more about COSA or Baan Yuu Suk, check out the website.

First day of art class:


More art:




Yoga class:


Dance class (photo cred. to Ning):


We took the girls into the city for a day of pizza, bowling, and the mall. I mean, what else could a thirteen-year-old want, right?


Around Baan Yuu Suk

P'Fah whips up some fried rice:


Anna and Chelsea do laundry:


The chickens:


Volunteer Finn works on the organic plots:


I harvested my first coconut from this tree! I even climbed that bamboo ladder:


Trying to enjoy the fruits of my labor. It only took about five people showing me how to do everything for me to finally get it right.


Me and Ning in the kitchen:


Just because. Just because Aying is awesome. The most awesome little child ever:

Seriously, when we were in a book store I told her to pick out a book and she picked out a paper back with little black and white portraits of babies in it. Also, she is nine.

Mickey on his patio:


A group shot:



Thanks so much for your time. See you again soon for the next installment! Until next time, chok dee (good luck)!

Yours,
Rebecca

"Reds complete blood ritual"

Well, I may have a degree in political science, but I certainly never read anything about using this tactic to seek power. At least not in The Federalist. I don't think it's in Aristotle. Maybe Sophocles? It is very dramatic.

The opposition party, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (the UDD or "red shirts"), has been staging massive protests in Bangkok. As I drove north to Chiang Mai on Friday, I passed hundreds of pickup trucks and vans headed south to the protests, packed-full and with red flags flying.

With the protests in their fourth day, and man power waning, the red shirts adopted a new tactic. To underscore the seriousness of their demand that the Prime Minister step down, the red shirts have taken to pouring their own blood on the streets of Bangkok.






Read more about it and check out this video of blood collection.

And people thought ACORN was bad.

Intermission

Farewell little town! Goodbye students! It's been great, but my grades are all in, I'm done teaching summer school, and I've got a bit of exploring to do. I'm shedding my layers of business casual and striking out.



Begin my 58 days as a backpacking nomad. The clothes inside my approximately one million pound backpack must see me through the southeast Asian hot season, the himalayas, beaches, volunteering and two weeks of Fulbright seminars in Bangkok. I'm about to spend the next two months of my life in a perpetual state of being awkwardly attired. Oh, and, I'll make sure to upload the pictures of my soon-to-be-acquired henna and dreadlocks as soon as I can.

First stop: Chiang Mai for our workshop. Many thanks to the kind people who have supported our project!

Yours,
R

P.S. I just had this incredible epiphany about restructuring my blog into a Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego format for the next two months. Would that inspire you to finally comment? At least to inform me that I'm not as clever as I think?

Ummm...

"Protesters Surge Into Bangkok, Urging New Election"



Ballot boxes are so 2009.

R

12:11 a.m., Saturday night, Phitsanulok, Thailand

Fisch and I engage in cultural exchange.

Yours,
R