Happy Birthday to Me

I have officially been 28 for about 5 hours, but here - it has been my birthday all day. Today was the first day of my placement at HAT - Reproductive Health for Quality of Life Association of Thailand and it is going to be a busy 11 weeks! (I can't set up links at this cafe, so I am going to have to come back and add them later). This week I will be visiting - you'll never guess - another day care! This one was set up by HAT with the local community to improve the health of the local children and is in a low income part of town (don't worry mom - I will be chaparoned!). Thursday, CCS is holding an English training day for teachers at a local school, so I will only be at the daycare for two days. What a disappointment! ;)

The following week I will be working in the office - they want me to redesign their brochure - a contribution I will be happy to make. The third week, I will be visiting various local projects (HIV/AIDS education sites, an anti-drug and tobacco program at a local school and a consumer protection project). The forth week is Songkran, Thai New Year, so I have the week off - Hello Paradise. The fifth week, I will be traveling with them to their elephant trail project where they are working with the local population to permit the wild elephants to cross their land in a predetermined path so that they can reach other herds and not have to resort to inbreeding or come to their end at the hands of locals who don't want elephants in their fields. I was asked if I would mind sleeping in a tent. Would I mind?!?! The rest of the weeks are more projects sites and a few trainings. It is going to be busy.

The organization is really fascinating. It started off as a reproductive health organization, but has morphed with the needs of the communities they serve to working on any project that promotes "quality of life," which include sanitation, anti-drug campaigns, micro-enterprise projects, the promotion of bio-fertilizer over chemical fertilizer and more. Their approach is the find out what the communities need and form steering committies of local citizens to run the projects themselves. HAT simply trains the volunteers and supervises the project providing technical training. A lot like where I worked in NYC and very much my ideal. It's amazing the path life takes.

Tonight, CCS staff took all of the volunteers out to dinner, Thai style - which is basically copious amounts of food that never stop coming and you are expected to EAT. I really enjoy the staff and they are so much more like family and friends than people I just met last week. We had two birthday cakes, one for me and one for another volunteer, whose birthday was yesterday. It was a great way to spend the day.