And All that Jazz...

With Jazz Fesival on our minds and in our hearts, we share the following history and continue to discover that there are so many connections between Thailand and New Orleans...
Did you know that... "The current King of Thailand, Rama IX, is an accomplished jazz musician and composer, known particularly for his works on the alto saxophone. He was the first Asian composer awarded honorary membership of the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna at the age of 32. He used to play jazz music on the air on the Or Sor radio station.(like our WWOZ?) In his travels, he has played with such jazz legends as Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Lionel Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, and Preservation Hall Jazz Band!!! (WOW!!!!)His songs can often be heard at social gatherings and concerts.
On 27 June 1967, after a 30-day concert tour, the University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band performed at a White House dinner for President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson and Bhumibol and his wife, at his request. In 2003, the University of North Texas College of Music awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Music."
Rama is highly respected and is the longest serving crowned head of state and the longest reigning monarch in Thai history.
I say LONG LIVE the King and JAZZ!!!

Tie For Victory; FED Boys Soccer Team Make the Semi-Finals!!!!

We told you to stay tuned. It is now time to deliver the news. On Wednesday April 27 FED boy's U-14 again prevailed 1-1. Coach Myat Thu played no role in the ultimate outcome (except for his masterful coaching) as the game was settled on PKs---best of three. FED made its first 2 and the opponents missed their two kicks rendering third shots unnecessary.

The excitement was palpable at Ban Nem Khem stadium with FED amassing an enormous fan base comprised of international soccer afficionados. The announcer was carried away by the enthusiasm.

Once again FED trailed at half only to catch fire and dominate the second half.

FED plays again on Sunday. "God willing and the creek don't rise" and we are in the country, we will be there. I suggest you book your tickets now as aaccomodations will be hard to find.

As an aside, FED's strongest player did not even suit up as he still lacks identification satisfactory to tournament officials. Boo!

Soccer mom!

Mango and Sticky Rice

the vendors and the fans....

Thailand Fans Up For Hornets vs. Lakers Game

Even though Mickey and I are getting paranoid that it literally takes our being OUT OF THE COUNTRY for New Orleans teams to win (anyone remember Super Bowl 2010 in Buenos Aires?), we fanned up this morning at work in Thailand to catch the fourth game between the New Orleans Hornets and Lakers at the New Orleans arena. After all, Lisa had predicted we would win, so we had to experience the thrill of victory right along with the rest of the city, even if we are half way around the world and 12 hours ahead. (We had actually already won the game here, right?)

We could envision it all…the anticipation before the game, the stupid pregame comments from Phil Jackson, the decibel level in the arena, Brent dancing in front of the cameras, and all our friends in attendance or in front of their tv’s, ready to email us the play by plays as they have every game! We thank you all for that! It is really fun hearing from you from different vantage points during the event.

So, taking matters into our own hands, and desperate to catch the game regardless of our absence, we searched on line, but to no avail for LIVE coverage. Next step a skype call to Hallie who is probably the ONLY person who would ever be willing and crazy enough to accommodate my request to watch the game through skype on our wide screen at home. Without going into all of the details, “that dog was not going to hunt”. After too many minutes of shaky, distorted picture, Marissa trying to sleep, and my desire to talk to Hallie more than watch the game, we disconnected.

We then settled for NBA “Game Cast”, not a bad alternative, and finally settled in for the second half. I still kept receiving emails from my loyal friends. I loved it! And guess what happened? WE WON! Almost as good as being there? That’s a stretch, but we will take it. Not sure where we will be to watch the Hornets in the FINALS, but if we are NOT in the USA, our chances of a win will be greatly increased.

I heard today that Jazz Fest could be downloaded as an “app” on my IPAD. Now, that would really be pushing the virtual experience!. You could NEVER duplicate the Jazz Fest experience from afar. And, if we have anything to say about it in the future, we do NOT plan to be out of the country again for Jazz Fest. :)

School’s Out…Indefinitely

On Friday, April 22, I traveled with several members of FED to the small fishing community of Susamalan in the Province of Ranong, approximately 100 km north of Khoalak, where Mickey and I have been living and volunteering. The community is comprised of about 100 Burmese migrant families, who are primarily fishermen.
The area was impacted by the 2004 Tsunami.

Amongst the FED staff was the Education Coordinator, the Deputy Director (the young woman I have been mentoring) a teacher (who is currently earning her masters degree in Bangkok) a Burmese woman who was taking her vacation time away from her work in Burma to help FED, and a project supervisor of FED, who is himself a former fisherman and whose wife conducted the Human Rights training sessions the week before. He also drove the truck to our destination.

We all piled into the organization’s truck, with multiple stops on the way for treats and bathroom breaks and to pick up and drop off folks, which is very typical. The purpose of the trip was of extreme importance to this community and FED. The community “leader” of Susamalan, a local fisherman and father, along with several parents and teachers, requested that FED meet with them and consider lending them assistance in reopening the local school for their children, which has been closed for over a year, with no near future prospect of reopening any time soon of their own volition for economic reasons.
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Following the Tsunami, another organization had taken over the school, only to abandon it over a year ago. The 50 or so children of many different ages have not gone to school now for over a year. When the former organization ran the school, the parents contributed about 100 BAHT a piece, or $3 a month, towards school. The organization was to take care of the remaining expenses, which included salaries for two Burmese teachers, two Thai teachers (who are traditionally paid almost twice as much in any school here), a “general” employee and a cook to make lunch for the children.

I was astounded and deeply saddened that there is no alternative for these children but to wait and see if someone can step in to help get their school going again and how inexpensive, by our standards, it would be to do so.

FED is very willing to lend assistance to the community in terms of training and guidance, but FED must support its own learning centers and the Outreach for High School students, with rising costs and expansions in the future.

In order to succeed, the community needs to guarantee the number of students who will attend the school should it reopen, and the parents need to make a financial and philosophical commitment, designating someone to take care of financial issues and who is fiscally responsible.

During the meeting, which took place in one of the small rooms of the school house, (which is a small wood and brick structure, comprised of about 4 small rooms), there were young children playing in the overgrown yard on swings and a slide in dire need of repair and paint. They had accompanied those parents who attended the meeting. The schoolrooms are dusty and filled with small blue desks and chairs, and blackboards also full of dust from not being used in too long.

It made me incredibly sad seeing these adorable and engaging children playing in the overgrown yard with the school rooms dusty and vacant, chairs and desks stacked up, or overturned and unused.

Worth the Wade

Not much to report over the weekend...

Mickey revised some materials for some upcoming reports. Some of the papers have to do with recent flooding and the very dramatic damaged caused not far from our location. Other material has to do with what amounts to slave Burmese labor in a factory outside of Bangkok.

Marissa returned from a great couple of days in Bangkok and we spent some time with her before saying goodbye.

Saturday evening we were to attend a going away party for a Burmese woman who came to observe FED for three weeks and who assisted in a number of different ways. We like her a great deal. We were to attend the party briefly because we had to get Marissa off to Phuket, over an hour away to catch her plane. Because we do not drive we booked a cab round trip and arranged to have it wait for us for 30 minutes so we could pay proper respects. Only problem is that Mickey (and he will admit this) got lost and we could not find the party. By the time we thought we were close, it was nearly time to turn around and come back to get Marissa finished packing and on her way.

Sunday, we sat out and read for the morning. We went to eat lunch at a favorite spot just a short walk down the beach. Since the Tsunami in Japan the sea here has intruded on all of the beaches and at least temporarily eroded pretty good chunks. The place we like so much has seen its beach decimated. Water actually entered its kitchen. To get there we normally wade through a little wash. This time the water was up to our chests. Worth the wade! Food was so good! Phak Bung or Morning Glory fried with some onion in lime with prawns belongs at Jazz Fest (so do we). As it is now low season here the Sunset Bar (it's name) will close until October with next Sunday as its last day. We will be there.

We also handled the mundane today. Picked up 3.6 kilos of washed and ironed laundry. It smells so good now when just the other day it smelled so bad from sweating (100 degree days). Had my feet sand blasted to take off some of the coarseness walking barefoot causes. Mickey got his HAIR CUT. No, really. If he were a sheep and his hair wool, some farmer would make a fine pullover sweater with what he gave up today. That presumes there is a market for coarse gray and brown, and gray wool. Always looking for value. Mickey sees it this way---The hair cut was $2.20 including the razor cutting of neck and around ears. He gave all the hair he had. By the pound he got by far the better bargain.

TO AND WITH RESPECT FOR KING LOGAN

Friday, April 22, 2011:
FED's all Burmese U-14 boys team beat the all Thai AIG U-14s 1-1. Victory was not achieved in overtime or by PKs. Rather, at games end two slips of paper were placed in a container. I am told one slip informed the lucky recipient "you win". You can guess what was written on the other slip of paper. Our coach, Myat Thu, pulled correctly and FED lives to fight another day.

The game was great. Unlike what we are used to with parents pulling up and dropping their kids off or driving hundreds of miles to a game far away, Myat Thu drove a FED truck deep into off road territories on rubber plantations at which point one player would jump off the truck, run out of sight and return minutes later with another player. On the way to the game we stopped for Ice, to pick up balls and, as noted, stock the truck with our players.

We arrived at Ban Nem Khem about 35 minutes from FED headquarters about 90 minutes after we started on our way. When we arrived around 2:30 our seven players took the field to practice for a 3:00 game. The other team was nowhere in sight. The vendors were selling sweet corn and soft drinks. Music blared over a PA system. Our spectator chairs were placed under tarps to keep off rain should it come as threatened and to keep us out of the 250 degree heat.

As I watched our players practice I was drawn to a tall thin boy whose hair dye job was pronounced (almost all the kids had dyed their hair for the team.) He was left footed and when he struck the ball it didn't merely move, it jumped and curled and laughed at the goalkeeper. The other kids were also skilled and all but one significantly shorter than our number 9.
It was good that we arrived with 7 players because that is how many play at one time in each of the 15 minute halves. The other team made its presence known shortly after the game was due to start. There was no yelling or threats of forfeit. We simply started when they arrived. There was one problem however. Our number 9, lefty with the most excellent foot, looked to be to old to the discerning eye of the other team. Since he is Burmese and lacking in the demanded identification he was not allowed to play (unless he was willing to serve in goal which he could not do because of a mending arm). Might I say that he was not as tall or stocky as the other team's goal keeper. Our player was clearly upset, but as I learned, this was not the first time an opponent had made him sit on that premise.

With one player on the sideline we were down 7 players to six. Our ever resourceful coach, Myat Thu, spotted a short thin exuberant young Burmese boy and conscripted him into the service of FED. He played like a lion while looking like a newborn rabbit. He was short on skill but long on enthusiasm.

The entire game, every moment, was announced by a play- by -play broadcaster. "Mai Dai"--that didn't succeed, "Mai Pan" -the pass did not work and so on. Thai AIG was skilled. They passed and moved the ball. We were more aggressive. At the end of the first half, it was AIG 1 FED 0. The second half went back and forth when our player, the young man who played goalie in the first half but moved to the field when one of our players hurt his ankle and moved to goal, dribbled past the AIG defender and put it in the net with less than a minute to play. The game was tied at the end of regulation when coach Myat Thu pulled the winning ticket and FED moves on to play next Wednesday. Stay tuned.

Perhaps FED would have lost had the best player been allowed to play. It has been suggested however that this result is Karma.

I don’t carry a camera but pictures taken by others may post later.

It's Not a Holiday for Everyone

Songkran and the Holiday ended and we returned to work. Mickey traveled to Khura Buri on April 20, a small fishing community about one and a half hours from here with the FED migrant team to provide Human Rights training and discuss Human Rights concerns. Here is Mickey’s description of the day's events:
Too often, I believe, we measure our good fortune in a thimble when we should use a bucket.

The meeting took place in a second floor room of a concrete building near the piers and docks in a fishing village.

Upon entering the village I noted many people walking or riding bicycles, wearing orange sleeveless vests with numbers. The sight of Burmese workers wearing these vests was not a surprise, as I knew of a local rule requiring Burmese migrants to wear the orange identifying clothing from my work on a human rights paper. Nonetheless it was disturbing to see, not only in its own right but, and I hope you will pardon me for noting, as more than slightly reminiscent of other events in history. While many wore the vest, many others walked or rode without it. In so doing they risked arrest and abuse for that reason alone.
The village is very spare by any reasonable standard. There were open canals with mold or algae growing and a small pond with a substantial amount of plastic garbage with children swimming or playing. There was much activity around the pier where colorful two and three decked fishing boats were docked. Each boat had laundry hanging from every line and men lounging. The two-decked boats use a crew of 32. There is no place on the boat to sleep but that does not matter. The boats go out for two days and the crews work without sleep for the entire time they are at sea. Larger boats, which were not at dock can go out for months at a time. It is not unheard of for one captain to force a migrant fisherman from his boat on to another boat such that the migrant may not return home for far longer than ever expected.

The village contains a library. Fishermen, who are already paid far below the wages of Thai workers, voluntarily pay dues for its support and use. The library is one room. It goes without saying it is not air conditioned, (I saw no air conditioner anywhere in the village) There is no computer and there are no computers in the village.

On one wall is a small Buddhist alter and a slightly elevated platform with a prayer rug on which the librarian sat engaged in prayer at the time of our arrival. The other walls have three level shelving containing books pressed close together and standing totally erect. Each book is marked with lettering, which I assume, was a cataloguing system. There were tables in the room with books stacked vertically. There was a condom dispensing machine Sitting near one stack of books. There were three slots from which a selected condom could be pulled --size 49--size 52 and gel. (Shockingly, there seemed to be many more condoms available in the smaller size!)
Above some of the shelves the walls are decorated with informational posters: Fresh Water Fish of Thailand and animals of all types including a Polar Bear, a Walrus and a Sea Lion, none of which is here in abundance.

One of the posters was directed to the causes and consequences of domestic abuse. The pictures are simple and of cartoon quality, but the message is clear. The issue of women's rights is being raised throughout the migrant community. Indeed, the condom machine itself is present to promote women's health. The fishermen are often gone for long periods of time. It is not unheard of that when they put in at other ports (both their boat and their other vessels), they return with HIV or an STD. Great effort is being made to educate both the men and the women about these issues as well as about general contraception.

The librarian is a delight. She is paid a pittance and has had opportunity to leave for more pay in another position. She knows the importance of the library to this marginalized community and she takes great pride in the library's appearance and its efficient service.

After leaving the library we went to the Community Center, which seeks to bring the fisherman into closer contact with Buddhist values and away from drink and violence. When a Burmese injures another Burmese the police care not at all. They do not investigate and they take no action. The leaders of the Center realize that the community itself must take the lead in changing behavior. Included in that effort to change is our human rights training.

Make no mistake about it, the concept of human rights and these people's right to exercise those rights are novel if not alien concepts. What we take for granted they, as adults, were to hear about and grasp to understand for the first time.
Before the activities began in earnest we were treated to a delicious noodle vegetable and fish dish with just a right amount of chilis. My spice meter and digestive capacity has changed materially. Also, I need to confess, that while all sat on the floor, I was forced for a period of time to ask for and use a chair. Seems I could not find a way to sit on the floor without experiencing serious discomfort in my knees. Eventually I chucked the chair and found a way to sit without too much discomfort.

Before describing the training event, let me first note that the dignity of those in charge of the center was palpably evident. They want to improve life for themselves and for their community. The session was led by a gifted FED trainer. She engaged the group of 15, comprised of fisherman and their wives or mothers, in a series of games aimed at identifying several human rights and then visualizing those rights in action.

What we would appreciate as a first grade level exercise had the group enthralled. The leader had each person pull two pieces of paper from a jar. They then read aloud the contents of each slip of paper. Each slip described or identified an essential aspect of an identified human right. After discussion, the leader taped a poster to a wall and the group asked to tape each sheet of paper to the appropriate depiction on the poster. That exercise provoked much anguish and took an hour of intense discussion. 28 of 30 paper slips were applied to the correct picture. Not lightly do I torture you with this description of events. Rather, I hope to convey the proposition that what our children do in their sleep by age 6, these adults agonized to visualize and comprehend.

After the training ended a vigorous discussion began and did not end before we had to end it. A fisherman asked about the orange vests and pondered the legitimacy of the requirement that the vests be worn. The question posed was whether the order constituted discrimination. From that seed, lively discourse ensued. As my Burmese is limited to one word, I had to follow through with the aid of a periodic translation.

Whether or not I understood each word is not important. What is significant is that those in attendance seemed moved by the very thought that they may be able to influence in some way the way in which they are treated by others and how they allow themselves to be treated.

Gena's 19th Birthday and Quiz Night at Mars Bar

Ayarans disappointed at another 4th place.Should have used the joker on the Thailand questions! Sorry Orowan!

Oysters on a Sedar Plate?

See: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/opinion/19greenberg.html?src=recg

One year since the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf Coast, we need to seriously reflect on what it has done to our food chain and wonderful seafood in Louisiana. So sad.
The fishermen in Thailand are similarly proud of their profession and lifestyle on the water. We have visited and seen many fishing villages.
There are hundreds of oyster farms in Thailand. Delicious too!

Long Overdue...3.8 kilos 19/4/2554

baby....

babysitters....

Full Speedo Ahead!

ELSA!

Where Y'at?

A Bar in Ko Samui. Always reminded of home....

"Resting On Our Laurels" (dedicated to Hallie)

Follwing two days of hot sun, rafting, trekking

hiking, caving, rowing, sitting in the van, and ferrying...we needed to just sit and take it all in and enjoy one another's company. Happy Songkran at Tongsai. Missing Hallie!

Ferry Cross the Gulf of Thailand....

Making our way to the island of Ko Samui and the Tongsai Bay-an eco friendly family owned resort built into the cliffs without disturbing even one tree. This was truly paradise.