From Equator to the Polar circle

Ok, maybe not exactly, I was down to 7 degrees north of the Equator when I was on the Philippines, but I am 3 degrees north of the Polar circle now. I only miss 4 degrees for the heading to be exactly correct.

No matter the degrees; the weather and landscape speaks for itself. I went from having the sweat dripping down my back in Thailand to woolen underwear and thick socks in Lyngen in Troms in Norway. No mangos are growing here... But they do have fantastic mountains:

This satelite photo (from Google maps: Norway, Lyngseidet) must have been taken late in the summer, because is still lots of snow and the trees are just getting green here now. The landscape here is magnificent with steep mountains and snowcapped peaks divided by fjords where the water holds 4 degrees Celsius. Souds like something from a Discovery Channel program, but, yes, I think they could make a good program here. There are certainly a bunch of videos of skiing, climbing and hiking out on the internet from the Lyngen Alps.

But my stay here is not about expeditions in the mountains (just a small skiing trip on Saturday); I am enjoying Norwegian comfort and coziness! Western toilets, hot shower and ohh, the food: whole wheat bread with Jarlsberg Cheese! I also got my jello with vanilla custard for May, 17. And now I have made home made bread and cake for my sister's birthday tomorrow. And outside is 8 degrees, cloudy and Midnight Sun.

I got some pictures:

"Sigh heart, but do not break".

Should be something like "Sukk hjarte, men brist ikkje."

It is with a wistful (vemodig) mood I am sitting here in the sofa in the KRCEE office thinking about going home. The last 24 have brought with them a wide range of feelings. I happened to come by NATO's website (North America Telemark Organisation;-) and and on their homepage is a picture of a person skiing thorugh the birch woods in 1 1/2 meter deep snow. I could not help but cheer out loud by the thought of going to Lyngen in Troms above the Polar circle and find the last remaining patches of snow. I got some some oblique glances from the rest of the office because of my cheering, but; Ahhh, what a brilliant way of coming home; celebrating the national day, May 17, skiing in Lyngen! I must be the luckiest person in the world.

But then also I have to leave all the wonderful people at the KRCEE office. Before I came here I was of course very curious and a little anxious about how it all would turn out, but I was thinking if I meet people who are half as good hearted as my Karen friends in Norway it will be fine. And here I have come to learn that they are not only as good hearted, but also as hospitable and caring. So it is with a small lump in the throat I am looking over at my packed backpack and checking my watch to find out that it is 45 minutes to I am leaving.

Yesterday KRCEE gave me my own Good bye ceremony and here are some pictures.



My last day has been perfect with mix fruit smoothie at T-corner, cooking "Italian food" for everbody for lunch, swimming in the "pond" and for the first time in my life picking mango from a mango tree!!!



Excuse me for this post being made in a hurry, but I wanted to post before I leave at 8.30 pm. I am going to Bangkok where I have 18 hours before I am sitting on a plane home to Norway!

Thank you all for following me on my journey. I am looking very much foreward to see you all at home!!! And to you I have got to know the last nine months; I hope to see you all again! I guess there will be some more pictures here in the blog; Lyngen is my next stop. I would be happy to see you continue to drop by;-)

Tourists Roaming World Heritage Site

Sukhothai Historical Park is situated only three hours from where I am here in Mae Sot. I thought it would be to bad if I not got my butt over there to have a look before I went home. It is a World Heritage Site, which is like the three-star Michelin ranking of cultural heritage sites. Carmen, who have volunteered for another organization, was also planning to take the trip so we decided to go Monday and Tuesday last week. (I was working the two last weekends so I have no bad consciousness for taking two days off.)

The tourist factor the last weeks has been quite low, so we had a lot of "tourist energy" to spend and so we indeed did! We spent the whole day in the park with sun hats, sunglasses, cameras and audio guides.

After having satisfied our hunger for red brick ruins, we took our bikes and went looking for a swimming pool. The hats, glasses and long sleeved sweater was not a joke for the camera: it was a necessity against the sun! You can imagine we were good and sweaty and longed for a cool bath. We found a beautiful guest house w/swimming pool and it made me understand why Thailand is such a popular tourist destination! And they had the best strawberry-pineapple frosty/milkshake. Mmmm! So when I open a restaurant or café I am going to serve Thai soups (delicious!) and milkshakes like they make them here:-D Someone who can teach me?

On our way back to our own (and cheaper) guest house we stopped by a massage place and got foot massage while the rain suddenly was pouring down outside.

The historic park of Sukhothai (3.38 km2) are the ruins of the capital of the first Thai state. Beginning in the 12th century, a people from Yunnan in China settled here and got known as the Thai (free men). A Thai prince married a Khmer woman, then rebelled against the central power and created the first Siamese state.

Its architecture, built from brick with decorations in stucco and wood, has its origin from a mixture of elements inspired by the Buddhist Singhalese or Hindi Khmers. But the architecture of Sukhothai developed into its own style and have subsequently influenced all Thai art.

The site has been excavated and studied since the mid-20th century. In 1988 a 70 km2 area was declared a historic park and in 1991 it became a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was impressive to see, but maybe not stunning. A paved road was built through the whole site for lazy tourists and cars was driving through the park. It was very neatly tended and that made it look more like a leisure park than a historical site. But the result was that is was not grand enough to be a leisure park and not historical enough to be a historical site. Do misunderstand me right, it was well worth to go there and very well arranged for tourists. But imagine how exciting it would have been to go there if the jungle was still been covering the ruins and you could explore from a network of small paths, getting lost among lush green forest and ancient ruins!

I recommend a look at the historical park's website (even though it is a bit slow -be patient). It is quite nice. Unfortunately is it not all up and running; several links brings you only to "Error page: the page cannot be found".

Or you can have a look at UNESCO's world herritage list where you also can find a video from
Sukhothai.

And at end, a picture from "home":

It was raining the other day...

INTO the waterfalls

 

 

 

I was thinking... about external relations

This was planned to be a post about my organization, but then I began to walk on a berry trip in the thoughts/vandre på bærtur i tankene (write down what I was thinking about). Here is what I found:

My time here in Mae Sot has been spent on working on “external relations” for this organization. (What is the difference between external and public relations (PR: ER?!)?) The term external relations makes me think of important work which you need a lot of knowledge to do, and, secondly, something I would never be able to do. But I kind of have done it here. It feels a bit like when you write about your skills and experience in a job application. You do not lie, but you maybe sound a little bit more fancy and serious than you really are. It often turn out that way because you have to give the short version, like when you present your self to someone for the first time;

“So who are you, what are you doing?”

“Well, since you ask... Lately I have been working on external relations for a local organization who administrates the education system for 140 000 refugees on the Thai-Burmese border. Before that I was in India doing awareness work and patrolling a protected area on an environmental project, and before that again I taught English at a governmental school, also in India.”

Sounds quite convincing that I am a skilled, daring and adaptive person, does it not? And in the case of a job application; a person you (hopefully) would like to have as your new employee. What I just have not mentioned is that in Thailand I was sitting in front of my computer most of the time, either trying to understand things I did not understand or on Facebook. In India we managed to close down the environmental project (our part of it) because there was no project and in the governmental school I was teaching the letters A-R to eight children and they only knew the letters A-K when I left.

So what am I trying to say? When you think about your own life it usually never seems very exiting, glamorous or daring. I think that it is just because you know the whole truth about it; you know all the things you did in between the exiting, glamorous or daring things. All the time you spent on eating breakfast, sleeping, checking Facebook, watching TV or being fed up of everyone around you. No wonder that the percentage of “happenings” in your life is lower then in everybody else's; you have to divide them on every minute of you life, not just the small glimpses that you see of other peoples life. And, as if that is not enough to make your life more boring than that of the guy next door; it also seem like we tend to summarize each and everybody else's experiences and then compare it to our own. Everyone else seem to have been to every country in the world! Yes, they have in total, but not each and everyone alone. There is just no chance of winning. So what to do? Maybe change the way we think. For example make a list of your own life and then a list of each person you usually compare your selves to and check the validity of your perception of your life.

Even though I “lately have been working on external relations for a local organization who administrates the education system for 140 000 refugees and so on” I do not feel like a skilled, daring and adaptive person. I have never had a real job in my life! No children. No responsibility. But, after a second thought, I do think that I am quite adaptive. And I did dare to travel far away from home. Skilled? I do not know... That one depends on the context!

What made me think about this? The British royal wedding. So much publicity and money and cheering and crying people, and then it strikes you: this people also go to the bathroom, most probably they do it everyday too.

PS I: Let us (me) hope that no potential future employer is checking my name on the internet and read this. I am not planning to lie in my application, but maybe make my self sound a little bit more fancy and skilled than I really am.

PS II: Writing down my thoughts and publish it on the internet; What kind if external relating is that?

Happy New Year!

(a week ago...)

Thursday, 14th, the people I live with asked Emma and me if we wanted to come with them to Mae Sot and look at the Songkran festival. And again, yes to any suggestion that involves fun and "entering the unknown". We tried to ask what we should bring, what to wear, and what are we actually doing?! Finally we understood that we better not bring anything; we were going to be wet! How did we understand this? They loaded an empty barrel on the bed of our truck and began filling it up with water!

The point of the festival is to wash of everything bad from the old year, and enter the new one clean and new-washed. And then you add some loud music and a little bit of alcohol and you have got "Songkran"! It is around 32 degrees celsius here everyday, so it is no problem if you get soaked. BUT, it was still icecold to get splashed with icewater; water with ice cubes! The problem was if your truck got stuck next to a truck or "stand" by the road with icewater. The main streets are one-way streets with two lanes and the traffic moved in 10 km/h, if it was not standing completely still. If you had bad luck you got stuck next to a barrel of icewater. And of course you are a especially attractive target if you are a foreigner!

Pamo was going to sit inside the car and took pictures for me. Thank you!

There is text to the pictures in Picasa. 

Living Jungle Life

 

It is HOT: consider how you feel after a spinning or aerobic lesson when it comes to being red in the face, sweaty and urge for a shower before you meet anyone you know and have to talk to... That is how I feel from 7 am to 11 pm every day. And the shower is of no use. When I was jogging/walking this morning it actually dripped from my face. I do not think I have experienced that before. It is HOT, and we do not exactly have air condition here.

Thailand got lots of jungle and a large areas of it is protected in national parks. Here you have a good chance to experience real jungle life. And experience close up meetings with the animal kingdom, especially crawling bugs in various sizes. Now, this can probably be very interesting and fascinating if you go out there and look for them. But, as a matter of fact, have I not gone out there actively seeking to meet all these bugs; I live in a residential area, for Gods sake. And I think that my choice should be respected! Some pictures to show you our neighborhood:

In my months here in tropical areas I have had a lot of joy from photographing different insects, bugs, frogs and lizards, and I do appreciate their willingness to be photo models. I am not a ungrateful person (most of the time). I even put my pride in respecting them as fellow citizens of the planet Earth.

Just a little break; I am going for lunch. Wonder what is being served today? Oh, surprise; a pile of rice! (Deep) fried eggs especially made for me and some fried cabbage and a yellow soup. No pink-water-soup-made-from-leaves-from-trees or fried plants with spikes today. Yesterday we had fried fish, rice and raw baby eggplant. It was really good. I like everything (almost) they make with fish, chicken and meat, I like the rice, and I like some of the green plants too. For example the one we areserved with stem, leaves, root and flower, and the one that looks like tulips and the salads. But I am not that fond of the soups with gourd or the yellow porridge with some kind of grain/grits/beans/something. Everyone who has been in Thailand tells me to enjoy all the food here. Well, we do not eat Thai food, but Burmese/Karen food. I think it is nutritious enough, but maybe not gourmet. Actually am I eating rice from refugee rations. Hmm, I hope I can raise some funds through the website so I can make amends for eating UN rice. Our cook just came in with a bowl of sticky-rice balls and sago porridge. Sweet, taste good, but half the bowl is enough.

Back to the crawling bugs in various sizes. Where was I? Ah, yes, respecting the bugs we inhabit this earth together with. As you might have sensed by now there is something that has rocked with my faith in peaceful coexistence. Let me begin with a story from this morning, just to set the mood. Faint-harted people should maybe skip the rest of this paragraph... There was a 15 cm long millipede in the garden. It was just minding its own business when somebody by accident managed to cut of its “end”. Not very happy about this the millipede first twisted and turned around itself before it headed for a hiding place. It was obviously not planning to die there and then. But on the way it ran into a little problem. The “end” was not cut completely of and it got stuck between some plants. The millipede continued its rush towards its spotted hiding place but with some more difficulty as its internal organs was being drawn out of its body and left on the ground stuck to the truncated part of its body. Finally it reached its hiding spot. I wonder where it is now? (For the record, the hiding place was under our sofa; there is no wall between the garden and the sofa in the office) Is it dead or is it alive planning a conspiracy with its bigger and poisonous cousins to come back and get revenge on the humans who made it suffer like this?

I was not directly a participant of these events, just an ambivalent audience. The next stories are involving me in a larger degree. First it was the spider in my teacup. That can happen to anyone, but I discovered this one when I was taking the final sip of tea, making sure that I was not leaving any tea in my cup. Well, it was a small one an it was still alive when I let it out on the grass where it ran away.

Then there was the toad in my jogging shoe. Here I had good luck; I was coincidentally emptying my shoe for sand this particular morning when something like a big lump fell out on my hand and jumped away. I do not dare to think how the story would go if I had not tried to get the sand out of my shoe before putting my feet into it. Now I keep my shoes on the first floor, not ground floor.

Next up is the ants! They are just everywhere. For example did they find crumbs of peanuts in my jacket pocket. My jacket was hanging on a hanger on a free standing coat stand. How did they figure out that it was something eatable there?! But no hurt feelings; feel free to take my peanut crumbs, dear ants. But do stay away from my computer!! Ants likes electronics. And I have a ant path crossing my desk. It was doomed to only be a question about time before they would try to conquer my notebook! As I was sitting typing one day I saw them come crawling out of the keyboard. After a battle that claimed the lives of several ants and a tactical relocation of my desk away from the wall I claimed my self the victory of the battle. But safety in numbers; the ants are still living in the stationary computers in the office and the toaster.

I only have one more story for this time. Dad, I understand now why there was a lid on the bucket with water in the bathroom in Ninio. I was taking a bucket shower the other day when I discovered something swimming in the water. I was filling my hands with water to wash my face when I saw them. They were small, but there was many of them; mosquito larvas! THAT is a declaration of war!

Breeding ground for Dengue mosquitos!