*i left, or rather escaped, from burma in september of this year. i returned home to visit with my mother, family, friends and fergi the pomeranian in nashville, tn and reconnect to the home that once was. after the first week of being there i was officially offered the job with clear path international (www.cpi.org), so knew that my time in the states was dated. so i spent lots of time talking, laughing and watching dancing with the stars with mom, visiting my aunts and cousins in atlanta playing table tennis and playstation, catching up on my nearly two years without microbrews, and fighting jetlag. it was a phenomenal.
*then i was back to asia. i stopped through bangkok to visit my boyfriend peter for a few days, getting reacquainted with the thai lifestyle. after a couple of days, i jetsetted to vientiane, laos, my new home. i'd never been to laos before, but was told by many friends i knew from thailand who'd gone there before that the only reason to go was to get a new visa for thailand. i can't speak for the rest of laos, but vientiane (the capital, where i now call home base) has brought me to levels of boredom and near depression previously thought unfathomable. for those of you who know me well, you know that i'm fairly adaptable. i rarely complain about my condition and am usually able to make the best out of any situation, no matter how grave. but laos has/is doing me in. granted, i've only been there for a month, but in that month i've had little work (starting an NGO in a new place is slow tedious work in the beginning); no family; no internet; and most importantly/shockingly, no friends. and if you don't have work, family, internet and friends - what's the purpose of living? there is none. so the answer to alleviating my sorrows in vientiane is, simply, to not be in vientiane. travel. travel as much as i can. travel so much that i'm so tired of traveling that i welcome the work-family-internet-friend blackhole that is vientiane. with that said, i know that other parts of laos are far more intriguing than vientiane, so i do plan to spend a fair amount of time doing other regions justice. so with that, here's my plan for the next couple of months:
Dec 4-16: Cambodia (Phnom Penh, Kep, Kampot, Sihanoukville, Battambang, Kamrieng)
Dec 16-22: Vientiane
Dec 22-25: Chiang Mai
Dec 25-Jan 2: Cambodia
Jan 2-12: Vientiane
Jan 12-Feb 5: Thailand and Burma
Feb 5-14: Traipsing with a friend throughout Who-Knows-Where-Land, SE Asia
*but in during my last month of solitary confinement, there has been an oyster. a mighty, pearly one at that. i've had time to reflect on where my path has lead and realize that, now that i'm now officially working in the field of international development, i've found my calling. and i've also realized that my self-deprecating tendencies of second guessing my own abilities needs to stop. so with that, i've enrolled in a harvard economics distance program with the hopes of passing this level and enrolling full time into the kennedy school or london school of economics (or school of oriental and asian studies) masters in public policy/administration in international development program within the next two years.
*i'm currently on my first leg of my work site visit/anti-death boredom trip - in phnom penh, cambodia. this, i've decided, is my favorite city in the world. there's literally no other place where i'm constantly having my heart broken (4 year old prostitutes; remnants of contemporary genocide at every corner), nor my heart ignited (random street people wanting to shake your hand because of you believe in the prosperity of their country; 80 year old blind blues singers who survived the war by making music that even the killing forces couldn't resist). i've never had such amazing food in my life. and i've never been so sick after eating food that had apparently been contaminated with insects (i only found this out because when i ran to the bathroom after the initial onset of symptoms what came out in the toilet was chocked full of small bugs). my heart rests here. and here: Cambodia Living Arts
yes, that's a picture of tree roots that looks like a person's bare ass
yes, that's a picture of the most beautiful child in cambodia standing in front of angkor wat
yes, that's a picture of skulls exhumed from mass graves following the khmer rouge genocide
and yes, that's a picture of a plate of rice shaped like a teddy bear
2 comments:
yay! guess what? I'll be in Chiang Mai from Dec 19-26. Holy cockroaches!
need more info about the small bugs. i can't believe you're going to chang mai. are you spending xmas with my cousin? becuasce i'm spending xmas sad in san francisco jobless and friendless. i totally can't afford a ticket over there or i'd be there.
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