a muu-muu and a basket

you will never guess but i pre-ordered a muu-muu! that is the most exciting news i have to share!!!! woo hoo!! my life is so crazy, so on the edge. oh, and one of the medics from the jungle wove me a basket. it's so beautiful, i'm flattered. i think he has a crush on me.

did you know that muu-muus started in hawaii? mine won't have the crazy bold floral prints, it will have a more subdued pattern, but floral nonetheless. if i like this one a lot, i might go back and custom request another one, but maybe with a sexier bustline this time...

potlucks

Ahh...reminiscing the days of grad school and thursday night potlucks...

aizawl, textiles and pineapples

this is aizawl. for those of you who have heard me talk about this city, i make it sound really just gross and unpleasant, but it's all part of the grand plan to counter any tourism efforts made by the the government of india, because i want to keep it my little secret. this last trip was the longest i'd stayed in india, an entire 30 days, and i managed to channel the powers of an ashram into our hostel room every morning. and it worked. it also helped that we brought yoga mats and the awesome yoga shakti dvd by shiva rea.....during the rest of the 14 hours of the day, we did the usual international health stuff.

you never know who you're going to meet when you're doing a little pretesting in a developing country. we ended up meeting b------ migrant village full or textile factories, and the women were making the most vibrant fabrics. a lot of the traditional textiles in the mizo culture have actually been adopted from the b------ textiles since so many of the weavers migrated to india. the pens with the thread are shot through across the big old textile loom like contraption, all powered by women textile workers pedaling of their feet.


of course, i had to take another picture of a dog with gigantor mammaries. this is not uncommon but still, something about this dog's boobs intrigued me enough to send this out in the information superhighway thinking it might intrigue someone out there as well...




...and in another village we went to i came across the most wonderful thing! wild pineapples! wild pineapples!!

some pics

Another latrine pic. Also serves as shower. Like you haven't seen enough latrines and dogs already.




Church deck floor made of bamboo.











Skinny tree produces absurd quantities of papaya. They knock the tree down to get the fruit. I'm not sure if it's because they don't have a fancy ladder, or the tree dies once the fruit gets picked. Probably the former.

Trip back

This is not the most flattering photo of myself, but what I want to point out is the beautiful and serene S------ River pictured behind me that is clandestinely carrying us away from B----. Its calming current and pristine sandy river banks (softest sand I've ever walked on) belie the madness going on in this country. On the other side is the Thai national park. The only difference? Landmines. Ironically, the landmines that have been laid throughout the jungle terrain along the eastern side of the river has inadvertently preserved its beauty.



Walking down from the church on the hilltop where the training was held. The rice bag I'm using to protect the laptop and my hairdo from the rain.

Rambo the movie

I'll be going inside to a camp of internally displaced persons in eastern b---- to conduct a malaria workshop. It's pretty close to the border, but it's also only 10 minutes away from three b---- army camps. And we have to cross the river accompanied by either the thai border police after greasing their palms (i think that's the term) or the ethnic armed group. Thousands of people fleeing their villages now live in this camp. There have been major military campaigns in northern k---- state, which has resulted in 6 of our program sites to cease operations. There is speculation that many more clinics and villages will become inoperable this coming year as the b---- army plans to push force a ceasefire with the k----. It's bizarre that my life parallels this ridiculous movie coming out, the same weekend I'm heading in. I will be incomunicado for about 9 days. Will write when back! Then i'm going up to chiang mai to see this movie for myself.


link to rottentomatoes RAMBO

LYCM!

Language lessons finally

I'm embarrassed to admit, but after so many years I've finally committed to learning urmese.
Today I learned how to read and write "the fat elder sister dances every night". MAMA WA NYA NYA KA. Easy, right? And I can also say "Really, I'm not lying!" TE GEH MA NYAAR BU! You're probably thinking that these phrases might not be the most practical, but you never know when these might come in handy for me. It's actually a really beautiful language to the ears, one that ranks high up there for me like the Dutch language. And like Korean, you have to memorize the different gender/age titles and conjugate the verbs according to who you are and to whom you are addressing. And although it's difficult to write the letters, I always get a kick out of looking at the words. Each character reminds me of people in different positions because there are a lot of circles and sticks. And then there's the character that...OK imagine a guy naked, lying supine, knees up and you're looking at him from down below, as if you're an ObGyn. Always get a kick out of that one... OK, back to practicing the script and working on some malaria data.