Life In The Kingdom

Sawwadee bii mai ( Happy New Year)

As we enter 2551 ( Thai lunar calender) we hope the year is filled with wonderful moments to savour.

The Thai New Year is actually celebrated on April 13th. There are three New Year celebrations in Thailand - the Western New Year on Jan 1st, the Chinese New Year on February 7th and the Thai New Year in April. Fireworks for all!! The Thais believe in "sanook" - fun and celebration in everything.

The past couple of months we have explored outside of Bangkok on the weekends. Bangkok with its frenzied pace and diversity of people. This multi faceted city contrasts with rural Thailand with it's old ways, breathtaking landscape and rudimentary way of living.

We spent part of the holiday break traveling in the north of Thailand. We visited Chiang Mai, a popular and beautiful city. During our stay we visited an elephant camp and saw elephants in their natural habitant. The Mahouts (elephant keepers) gave us a wonderful demonstration of elephants performing work of loading and stacking logs as well as other feats such as bowing royally and even painting with their trunks. We stayed at a unique...guest house which was staffed with Katoeys. Katoeys are lady boys. They are very visible in Thailand and very flamboyant. One of the quirks here is the ability to balance deep rooted conservatism with high levels of tolerance and integration. A case in point is the astonishing population of transvestites and transexuals. To get a sense of their wonderful sense of humor I've included a photo of Michel and Kelsey having morning coffee served by Katoeys at the guest house where we stayed.

A trip to a hillside tribe gave us a look at how some of the people of Thailand live. They welcomed us with their famous Thai smile and we were able to see some of the beautiful handicrafts made by the women in the village. Our trip was capped off with a raft ride down the Ping River and a visit to one of Thailand's famous temples called Doi Suthep. The temple overlooked the city of Chiang Mai and the view was breathtaking.

Michel is enjoying his work. The project he is working on is on schedule and he particularly enjoys working with the Thais. Fun at work is a part of their value system and Michel enjoys joining in ! Kelsey is back at school after a three week break. I continue my Thai language training and continue to try to get the tones down. It's quite hilarious at times since Thai is a tonal language and one word can have five meanings depending on the tone. My weekly orphanage visit continues to fill me with a sense of groundedness.

In February I will begin designing and facilitating leadership workshops for staff of the Thai Burma Border Consortium. The TBBC is a group of ten NGOs from eight countries working to provide shelter, food and capacity building support to Refugees from Burma. They work with 150,000 refugees who live along the Thailand Burma border. The Human Resource Manager is from Cape Breton and we realized that we actually met before at a meeting when I worked with the Hants/Kings Community Business Development Association- Talk about a small world ! I'm looking forward to this part time work and a trip to the border field offices and camps in March.

We have observed a number of Buddhist ceremonies and we have been touched with the reverence and attention to ritual displayed by the Thais. As I learn about other religions I am aware of the commonality we share in our humanity, coupled with a deep respect and admiration as well for my Christian heritage

Until next time.... Blessings and Go well.

Love, Kelsey, Dorothy and Michel