The rain season was coming to an end...

...and my stay in Thailand too...


Dears, dears, dears. Your post were too kind balm . Here is a little summary. There is quite to catch up, but you might have heard some parts of it. This is really factual as a summary.




Chiang Mai Here I am... Dance was awaiting there for me...and the rain too...and new culture too...

I moved to Chiang Mai in May. Many of my activities in Mae Sot finished with the end of schools and I took a volunteer research supervisor position there, .... but this was to lead me to some great dance opportunities and others.

Looking for a studio to continue to teach contact-improvisation workshops as I had started to replace Laura who left for the US, I ended up being hired by the Chiang Mai Royal Ballet Academy to train their students that were to compete in couple months in Singapore to the 12th Asia dance competition. Full time research and teaching 12 hours of dance a week for almost two months was a heavy but great time...before I got sick and could not attend the competition.

Sickness trip: ready for the list? Typhoid, food poising, tonsil infection, bronchitis. over 2 months sick... so not much to report on that side....

But my little dancers and their great efforts paid off. They placed first and seconds in their two choreographies we had worked on. I remember the little Maya (9) so tired to practice everyday with me and just trying to do her best to keep dancing. Ans Chan (17), exhausted but still pushing through.


Living in Chiang Mai
Totally different culture, and there also a mix however of the Thai traditional culture and the Lana culture (tribes that inhabited the land when the Thai King took Chiang Mai) . The last 6 months, I discovered the Burmese culture, and now another one: the Thai culture! Chiang Mai though is like an amusement park for foreigners: the city offers a plethora of well-being activities and alternative approaches to health. Although I did not like this foerigners focus, it revealed to be a really nice playground for me!!

But yes, mhmh, very different feel to be in real Thailand. I actually will leave that to another time where I'll gather my impressions about Thailand and that of other people so you'll have a representative spectrum!

But a fun event was to wake up and discover the water in front of my house: like in Venice. The rain season!! Also, one evening, the roads were inundated and I had to call a friend to find a bed for the night! The roads were non accessible. But rains are FABULOUS here. Just rainfalls falling from the sky with an intensity that is just beautiful.


Occupations in Chiang Mai

Research- About the research: our team is looking at the education situation for adult migrant workers in Chiang Mai. Some want to get a high school diploma, some want to continue to university in Thailand in international programs.
(top: The person who initiated the research. Bottom: teachers at the BEAM foundation)





Modern Dance- After the competition, I continued training a 17 year old Japanese girl for the America Youth competition. Beautiful dancer with a lot of potential.

There are no dance companies in Chiang Mai, however I ran into couple dancers wanting to start a company. I gave a workshop the day before leaving after meeting Yupin, dancer who was teaching at the Chiang mai Ballet academy and who is eager to see more modern dance in CM. Chiang Mai is a bit behind. Bangkok has modern dance companies, but CM is still on the jazz era, which has been long left a bit aside.




Contact-Improvisation- Contact-improvisation practice with Jay: yeay someone who wants to practice as often as possible. Very good match, many beautiful hours of dance and sweat in this country!! We were invited by a gallery to do a little presentation. "Bridges was the theme, and we tried to portray the process of building bridges between the different cultures living in Thailand. I left Thailand for Singapore where I was asked to come teach also during a contact weekend workshop.


NEW. I have been studying Thai massage since June and also oil massages. Studying, practicing, getting a lot of massages to learn also from locals. Finished level IV (last level). It is a really complementary approach to somatic therapy which I had studied in the US and very interesting because encompassing Chinese and Indian philosophies also. Let me know if you want a massage; you'll get a good deal since I will charge a little less the first few months.

Other occupations in CM: while I was sick: reading a lot and watching Asian movies, which helps me learn more about Asian wars, history, legends, beliefs.


And of course I made a lot of fabulous friends:
Among the locals:
KK: my boss whom after him all boss will look bad

The fruit vendor: teaching me the names of the fruits in Thai

LEK the indian social King: who makes stats on how many people he knows out of the people he crosses in the streets in front of his restaurant.

The market vendor-or my local grand-mother and personal CM information (she gave me fruits before I left that were given to the God so as to bring good luck to me). She would tell me where I can find things in CM for cheap, where Chinese doctors are, where the best doctors for feet are, she knew it all.

Meak: university teacher who studied in the US. Big thanks for the insight into Thai culture and Buddhism and for philosophical discussions.

The French cooking lady: such a warm and genuine kindness. At her Thai restaurant I could find mash potatoe!!

Yupin: such a strong revolutionary women who does not let undesirable cultural traits to persist, even at the price of judgments. A women with will and determination, who thinks and expresses herself and makes things happens. A women who does not the world walk on her feet although in a culture where women ought to be so gentle. I hope we can collaborate more on modern dance in the future.

Khay: vegetarian friend who made me discover vegetarian places in CM and with whom we shared meals over conversations about Thai culture.

Among the "falang"

Laura: who started the contact group in Chiang MAi and has been a incredible promoter of dance in the city and linking all types of dancers together.

Jay: many good hours of dance crowned by a little show together. Beautiful meaningful conversations.

Nick: has been a real volunteer facilitator although he worked for another volunteer organization.

Jonas: Pianist at the CM Royal Ballet Academy. From Belgium. I miss the laughters, gosh impossible to stop laughing when around him.

William: from France: there again: so much laughter, and a good pool teacher! But also like a father, telling me about life, having always good advices in a non-moralistic way. He also lent me fabulous books when I was sick about WWII in China, about women in China, about women in Japan, about WWII.

Paul: Thai massage teacher who was so ready to help me with little injuriesand who supervised my good learning of Thai massage closely.

Evan: very young new volunteer from the US who helped me do the shopping and decide what to buy. There again, so much good laughter mixed with philosophical conversations!

Guillo: Ah! Guillo is the listener and open heart gentle man from Mexico. His restaurant was a second home. The couch of the restaurant was the best in Chiang Mai!

The Sangdee Gallery: what a team!! I will remember the laughter, good group feel, evenings together. I wish I could have spent more time with the group. Really good artists among them.



Love to all of you my dear friends from Thailand, Europe or the US.

Atali

The hot season came, and I was still there, in Thailand

Hello from... Thailand,... still!


My four months original stay has taken the shape of a year long stay working among Burmese migrants in Thailand. But I am skipping 3 months of information, which I will try to shortly summarize here.

FEBRUARY
Teaching
Still getting used to teaching English: much time was spent preparing classes and energy used to face insecurities of teaching methods and approaches. Students are adults, older then me for many, leaders of main CBOs. Challenge: I was asked to make them speak in couple months. Unrealistic goal for students that had never studied English, but still working towards it. Patience, repetition, repetition, repetition, but one can not go against human abilities to learn. I first took on me the responsibility for students not retaining what was taught. Speaking with other teachers made me realize that I was too hard on myself, although I was still learning how to teach. Hard month: climbed over teaching frustrations and desires to quit. But things smoothed out and today I am even enjoying teaching! Almost no time for mental health work where projects are slowly dropping and not going really anywhere. Yea, was a hard month.



MARCH
Realizations...
Month of realizations of personal needs and wants and realization of where I am and where I want to go. Changing things around. I was then at flow with teaching and had more energy to start visiting more my environment, meeting more people, spending more time with people. It also took me to realize that for some reasons I felt something was not in harmony. Some pause and time thinking led me to realize that I was functioning differently then most of my roommates and that I had to do what I liked although I would not spend as much time with them anymore, but that I could not compromise any longer personal essences and ways of being for the benefit of staying with the house group. Different ways of functioning that are not compatible: I am a people person, love to meet and interact and talk and to people, some other people are more home stay people, but that did not work anymore for me. So I enfolded my wings and started to flight out. Balance recovered. I feel a lot happier!

Personal treats: Visits



More realizations...Identity Met a lot of people from the international community, and French people who asked me where I had learn French so well. I am apparently not perceived anymore as a French or Swiss European by my people and not perceived as an American either. But as a multicultural braided traveler I met told me, I have all of the parts in me and what through people off are the presence of the other pieces which makes them feel that I am not like them, when actually I have the same pieces and other ones I have gathered in my life. Beautiful way to see it, rather than not belonging anywhere. Really switched my perception.

Dance, dance, dance on...
Migrant schools end of the year. Long vacations are there and I am asked to prep dances with children to present at the closing ceremony! Children surprised me: hard work for couple weeks!

Contact Dance is in Chang Mai!!!! Going once a month to jam up there. This is tooo beautiful to be true!! There is contact dance in Chang Mai since this month!! Perfect timing! Thank you Laura and Travis and Mark!




APRIL
Water and dance with Burmese Friends!!! A modern dance prepared for a TV show with teenagers from a trafficking safe house, many happy hours together dancing hard and getting ready in one week!!!

Dancing continued for the celebration of Songkran (water) festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songkran). Exchange: I teach them modern and they teach me Burmese dances and we performed together! Happy times!!

Water fights with safe houses children of trafficked and child soldiers. Much fun and water to be remembered! Happy times, happy times.



Mental Health Project
I have been participating to a mentla health coordination group since January that aims at coordinating services in the area. The training director of the counseling center asked me to review part of a project she was asked to do by the director of the Burmese Hospital under which the counseling center is. She found my comments relevant and insightful and asked me to join her on the project. We started organizing how to map all the mental health services that are offered in the area as a tool to increase reference, collaboration, treatment efficiency. Beautiful project that I am really happy to work on.

HOT SEASON
SO I am in Thailand, am I will be for a bit longer. Different projects and positions/situations seem like they might change. Still waiting for confirmations but I'll update you if any big change happens.

Gratefulness
Your messages and "hellos" always bring sweet warming heart flames! Precious sparkles that reminds me how many beautiful are in my life. Thank you for the inspiration you bring me and support. I believe in believing in others to help individuals become more fulfilled and closer to self-actualization. Much Love to you all.

Overview of my Activities in Mae Sot

So , last time I wrote I told you about the situation of Burmese people in Thailand. I described the difficulties. This time I am going to describe a bit of what I do. Thank you for your comments and responses last time, it was nice to hear from you.

English Teaching
Three months have allowed me to have taken much work on. When I arrived here, I was eager to start to work and do things. Couple weeks in bed for couple food poisonings and a cold (!) kept me quiet and allowed me to take a rest!
But I soon started to volunteer teaching English because it is SO needed and wanted out here among the Burmese people since it is a key to opportunities in working with NGO and to enter Thai schools in English. Learning English is more appealing then learning Thai to them.
I also teach English for IRC. I took on this job to have a small revenue to live here in Thailand. It is taking a lot of time. I like that I can use creativity to develop activities to help them learn.


Dance Teaching
I also started teaching creative dance to children in migrant schools. This was a new experience and challenge. Children are used to be subdue to the teacher and to do what the teacher tells them to do; not the best background for creativity. Children were lost and would just copy every single movement I would do. When talking about creating a round shape with our bodies, I showed them an example, and asked them to find other ways. But they stayed still, repeating the same round shape I had shown to them. Thinking there might a translation problem I tried other things, but I soon had to conclude that the children were not used to do their own thing at school. Speaking with other western teachers, I learned that they realized the same lack of creativity at school just in assignments they gave. So teaching dance was a challenge also because children had poor coordination. Step, clap step clap was impossible for most of them. But we are now at a point where we are preparing a choreography to be performed for the closing ceremony. I am still not sure if all students like it, and I guess that for some it is like another school subject they have to take, but I see some others that really love the feel that their body can do new things and I see some practicing after the class some movement we did. To see that joy in a few students was really beautiful. It made me feel happy to see them happy to discover ways for their body to move.

Mental Health
On the mental health level, I am working on an activity book for Burmese HIV women to use to help their mental health. I am also starting a needs assessment for political Burmese prisoners that have been released and who come to Mae Sot, Thailand. I am also part of a team that meets once a month to gather local organizations that do mental health and that want to develop mental health activities. Also, here and there I am asked to do some workshops.

...and more to come?
Some other activities are at a gestation stage and not sure to fully develop such as teaching dance to teenagers and adults and to develop a center for the arts where visual and performance artists could have a place to practice and share their talents. We are researching the subject with Thelma Young whom many of you know.

Here is a little summary of my different activities on the Thai-Burmese border!

Landing in Asia

Last Saturday, I had to go to Burma to use my second entree visa: big realization: IT'S ALREADY BEEN 2 MONTHS I 'VE BEEN IN THAILAND.
I went to Thailand with a three entree tourist visa, each entree allowing me to stay 2 months in the country. However I need to go out every two months.

So little Update since I left the US: I left really fast. 5 days. I was not able to say by to many of you. Some of you still ignore why I left. Those who know you can skip this paragraph ;)




Leaving the US
So little Update since I left the US: I left really fast. 5 days. I was not able to say by to many of you. Some of you still ignore why I left. Those who know you can skip this paragraph ;)
I had been waiting for a US work permit since August. In October I learn that it was denied and had one day to decide to reapply or not. I needed to do the whole application process again and would only have been able to start in end-December. I really desired to travel for a long time and see the world. I really wanted to be in a developing country for a long time. It had been in my plan to work in the US from August till the spring to enjoy my “Utah family”, to save money and then move to new horizons for a little. The denial of my work permit precipitated everything. I left, but keeping in my heart that Utah had become my home. Some of you made me realize and allowed me to call Utah my home although I am a foreigner. It really feels like this to me.
Utah and the people I've have been surrounded by have participated to me becoming an adult and have been there supporting and believing in me; what a home should provide.I left knowing that I would be back some day. And I still see it as such.





Thailand
I arrived in Bangkok and joined Thelma who was attending a conference. I left for a developing country but arrive in a luxurious hotel, … and realized that this is very much part of developing countries and that if I wanted to see what the developing world was I needed to see all aspects of it and not only the aspects that I like.

The capital
People everywhere. Roads everywhere. Passageways everywhere. I though I had seen the biggest shopping malls in the US. Well no. Bankoke 's malls beat the US ones. The city is dirty. There are many poor people on the streets. It is really hot and humid.

Chang Mai
Right after, I went to Chang Mai for couple days. My friend needed to rest from a really stressful week. There I discovered Monasteries and Buddhist temples; respectively these being places of peace and places of insane tourism where the religiosity and sacredness of the temple seems violated. Clashing juxtaposition of beautiful works dedicated to the gods and tourists looking at it like a entertainment and keeping the same behavior as if they were in a shopping mall. At the monasteries I learned about Buddhist social work and this topic remains till today a subject of study for me. Buddhist monks have started providing social work services in Burma because the government does not provide for these. Their approach is based on religious concepts and principles. I will share more about it when I'll have a better picture of the whole.

MAE SOT
Thai Police and Burmese people.
The trip to Mae Sot was a bit intimidating. There were 4 police check points to get to the city. The Thai police does that to prevent Burmese people to migrate inside the country illegally. Papers are checked. When illegal Burmese people are found, they are arrested, and then sent back to Burma. However, in Mae Sot... one can hear the rate of Burmese migrant people to be anything between 65% and 90% of the population. I would easily say 80%. Burmese people who have a passport can buy for 4500baht per year a work permit that allows them to stay in Mae Sot, which is reasonable price (a lower class person usually spends 6 000baht per months to live total). However, to live in the city they need identification papers, which most Burmese people do not have when they flee their country. Most Burmese people do not have passports. Only rich people can afford them and people who have no political involvement. If one applies for a passport and the regime has doubts about the reasons to apply for a passport, investigations will be undertaken. Many Burmese had to flee, leaving their family behind, when they learned that the police was looking for them and came to Mae Sot illegally. They are now stuck in Mae Sot: without paper they can not go anywhere and they can not go to Burma to get a passport. They also live constantly running away from the police who has check points in the city also.

The People
Burmese people love to sing. It is said of them that they are passionate lovers. Many have long distance relationships that holds for years when one is in prison for 2-6 years or when they flee their country. There is a saying that says that if Burmese people would fight the way they love Burma would already be free. It is said that Burmese people work towards their freedom, but not hard enough and not well enough. Thai people when looking at the 2007 event said from the beginning that they Burmese people would loose against the militaries because they were not organized well enough and had not plan. The question is not to research who is right or wrong. I am just trying to give you perspectives that I meet here around. You can decide then what you think. The military regime in Burma has arrested and continues to arrests thousands of people who are politically active and belonging to a party that does not like the military regime. Burmese use of internet is limited. There are spyse everywhere and even here in Mae Sot because the militaries know that anti-government activities are growing here. There is the need to send Burmese people inside to help after having organized things outside. So people, when in Mae Sot, use wrong names on internet which they use a lot to get organized. I will tell you more when I come back.


OK I have a lot more to tell you, but I think it is more pleasurable to receive news fdrom time to time, then a brick to ingurgitate at one time. So I will write sooner next time and give you more news.


Now that I have settled down I am a bit more organized, and not biking all around all the time to discover things!!

I love you all and miss you, really. I remember talking and laughing with you. Mhm.

Atali