Globe Trotter

So this is it, I have arrived at the other side of the world. So far, my first impressions can be summed up in five words: humidity, culture, happiness, poverty, and food.
My weekend was spent meeting the other volunteers at CCS, some of whom have been here for a few weeks, others who have just arrived like myself. The home is beautiful and is located in the north of the city where most are upper middle class. In comparison to New York though it is more like the lower middle class. I am in a room with three other girls and we share a bathroom with hot water (yey!) and a western toilet, though here you have to throw out the toilet paper in the garbage and not the toilet. We have a tv, some movies, and comfy couches for lounging when we're tired.
We spent our first night at Kao San Road, which for those who've been here know it as the expat street, probably the most touristy area of the city. But for what it's worth, it was a great introduction to Bangkok. The street is basically one block long, is closed off to cars and tuk-tuks so the shops extend out to the street where people buy knock-offs, thai clothes (gorgeous btw), jewelry, or get their hair dreaded. I have seen many drunken people of all races with crazy dreads and its really funny. You see many white men chatting up young Thai girls, most of whom are dressed very lightly. It's quite disturbing actually. We even saw three Thai girls dancing in tiny leather shorts trying to get people into a club. Oh, and I've been offered a "ping pong show" many many times. The bars are made for expats, menus in english, music that comes from the west (they play Mika here!), and food like burgers and fries.
The second time I went to Kao San Road was Monday night and we found a bar called Brick Bar where we were the only white people. A Thai band of reggae/ska music was playing great stuff and if you look at the pictures you'll see how different each of them were. Apparently the guy on the percussions (with the earrings and crazy hair) was on Big Brother Thailand and is super famous. We had a great time and even played pool with two Thai guys who seemed to be richer than the norm. They were great great fun and danced in very silly ways to the cancan ska style and other songs.
Sunday we had orientation at the home and they sent us on a drop-off "mission" where each pair of people was given instructions and money and only two hours to complete it. I had to take a tuk-tuk to a temple where only locals go, located on a temple compound for monks. The nun in the temple helped me place the candle as an offering to Buddha and I made a wish with a lotus flower and incent sticks. Then I got a chance to get my fortune in front of Buddha by shaking a cup with wooden sticks, each labeled with a different number. Once a stick falls out I had to look at the number and get the fortune associated with that number.
Then Aaron and I went to a market where I saw my first Thai roach and all sorts of foods and clothes.
In the afternoon we went throughout the city of Bangkok, riding all forms of public and private transportation: taxis, water taxis, water ferries (where we saw monks), and even the sky train and subway. We visited the Royal Barge Museum, where you can see a few of the barges that the Kings have used through the last centuries. The current King's barge is also there. It was absolutely gorgeous. The strange thing was that you had to go through someone's home to get to the dock for the water taxi, only one example of how poverty has forced many to live alongside the river whereever they find room, in homes made of wood that seems to be falling into the river. At some point a man in a small barge approached our boat and offered to sell us bananas, coca-cola and beer. He even placed bananas in a bag and handed them to Ken, one of the volunteers, hoping he would take them and give him money. We also rode towards a point in the river where people throw bread to humongous catfish that are there by the hundreds. We also visited the Temple of Dawn, a temple that dates back to centuries ago (in fact no one is sure how far back). The pictures will hopefully show how stunningly beautiful it was. We went around the temple's higher level three times for good luck, which proved to be a lot harder than we thought in the current heat and humidity.
I have been soaking it all in with big eyes and an open mind, and I hope my pictures will help you experience it too. I have no photos of my placement at the orphanage but I started working today. There are over five hundred kids with disabilities, most with physical and mental disabilities, some with only physical. The staff mostly ignores them and they are left alone in rooms, thirsty and often wet for their diapers aren't changed. Having us there, if only for a touch on their arm when they're in pain, brightens up their day. I have played with them, learned Thai words and taught them English (the alphabet, numbers, writing), and plan to do much more tomorrow with more tools. It's going to be hard but very rewarding, but mostly I hope we can help them not just survive, as it seems it is all they are doing now, but enjoy the life that they have.