On to the next steps...!

My last entry for a while I think, as I finally managed to get a concrete plan and am heading north to a little village along the border called Ban Luang on Saturday. I'm quite excited actually, both to get out of Chiang Mai and to finally get further with my research. I will get in touch with children that have recently come over the border from Burma, and are living in a near refugee- like camp situation. Though it will be a short stay -3 days- it is a good start and might lead me to some other villages and contacts. From there I have more stops. I see this as the beginning of a bigger trip around north Thailand!

So tomorrow I'm debating heading up the mountain here around Chiang Mai called Doi Suthep, kinda as my last thing to do here b4 moving on...but who knows what mood i'll wake up in, haha. Besides that, I'm gonna have to repack all my crap, which of course I managed to bring unnecessary items that i'll just leave behind at a local NGO here.
Managed to visit a Shan wat (temple) here today and talk to one of the young monks-in-training via the translator I've found, Nam Pun. Though it wasn't the greatest convo, didn't learn as much as I would've liked, it was somewhat insightful in that it shows how the Shan are networking to provide the children that have no proper papers to get an education etc. Most of the boys there were recently come from a migrant farming community and from Burma, which does say something about the aims of that particular wat. Also, a wat is considered safe b/c monks cannot be picked up by the police, and on top of that Shan and Thai are freely taught in the wat with the added bonus of basic needs of the children being met (though of course this only counts for the boys).

And although I've mentioned that I'm not the biggest fan of traveling alone, i have found that in this way i am forced to immerse myself in local culture faster, and that is a big plus. Finding those yummy cheap food stalls, that cool fruit shake for only 10b, the little words and customs that make it easier to connect.

hmm, somehow my silly ramblings have reached a dead end now. oh i don't know if i mentioned the Shan migrant family I met here in Chiang Mai this week. Got to meet them through a guy named Mario Lao, who has set up a team to provide extra education/other needs to the Shan living in urban Chiang Mai as construction works. The families live in basic bamboo shanty houses, which have been know to burn down. They live on the land of their latest contractor, until the next job when they move on. Its an unstable life, and the major worry for the parents is that the children don't have a stable life and future. With the current way papers are giving to these migrants, children will end up with temporary work permits like their parents or will end up back in Burma with no proper birth certificates or any kind of citizenship there either. They basically end in a no-man's land.

Well, this gives more of a glimpse of the types of children I am seeing here. I find it hard though, to try to stay neutral, to just be 'doing my research', asking questions but not doing anything...it seems a bit hard to be treating real human lives as 'specimens for research', something i don't think i will ever get over.
--> pic: sunset over the hills surrounding Chiang Mai, and a take-away meal when i get tired of hunting down food 3x a day ;-). they've got some yummy, spicy food here, and i'm constantly asked if its too spicy, at which i shake made head bravely, saying "just a little bit but its good" with a smile, while my nose is running and my lips are burning haha!