virgin province

I was in Nan earlier this week, a Thai province that is a 5-hour drive east of Chiang Mai & on the western border of Laos. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, for centuries this province was a kingdom all its own, leading to the flourishing of ethnic hill tribe minorities and flora that are unique to the region, and led to the romantic labeling of it as Thailand's "virgin province." Until only recently Nan was deemed too dangerous for travelers to visit due to decades of armed conflict with Thai rebels. Things have since calmed down & despite the instability, the region is now coming into its own as a new tourist hotspot. For local tourism that is. Foreigners still rarely make it out this far. I was quite the novelty to the locals.

My boss invited me out here to accompany him to a "small NGO meeting," which to me sounded very brief & informal, & he had been talking up all the touristy, rugged, adventurous things we could do after our meeting. After all, Nan is also well-known for its hiking trails & waterfalls. So I was not at all prepared when we arrived there & were promptly ushered into a large conference hall with all the movers & shakers in Thailand's NGO world, including the Department of Health, all with suits & heels & briefcases, while I was in frickin' fishpants & tsinelas (slippers)!!!! [The way we do business at my organization, & Thailand in general, especially in rural-y areas like Chiang Mai, is always informal] I wanted to die. I didn't pack at all for this. (damn that language barrier & mixed messages yet again!) I threw on my denim jacket & Pumas for slightly more "professional" look, & then suffered all day sweating sweating sweating in the intense summer heat. I don't know how everyone else was managing it in their suits. I wanted to strip off my skin, it was so so sooo hot.

Then to exponentially multiply my mortification, I was asked to give a presentation!!! In Thai!!! I prayed frantically to the Lord above for the ground to swallow me up right then, to no response. (Lord! I gave up chocolate for Lent, does that not count for anything?!) So all eyes burned on me as I struggled through my feeble Thai & then apologized profusely for completely butchering it. Twitters of laughter & then applause as I finished. Die.

But despite all that, I am so glad I went. The conference was about management & capacity-building of healthcare systems of communities in northern Thailand, some of the poorest in the country. Really fascinating stuff (to me, but I can be nerdy like that). Everyone shared stories of successful public health projects in their community that they were involved in & afterwards we took a tour of one of the local communities. We visited one self-sufficient community that farms all its own organic produce & has collectively agreed to an area-wide ban on alcohol & tobacco products. Fruits, veggies, flowers, animals, handicrafts everywhere. I was enthralled.

This is Prim & her little boy, Piyu (picking starfruit off the tree).

She was also an attendee at the conference who specializes in Thai massage therapy. Her story is truly fascinating. Some years ago she was in an accident that left her crippled. Doctors couldn't help & no medication or treatments worked until she tried Thai massage therapy with a blind woman. She's completely cured now, & has used the experience as a sign to spread the benefits of Thai massage therapy to others in need. She regularly sees cancer & AIDS & depression patients & has improved the quality of their lives considerably. She saw an infertile woman, who got pregnant after one session with her. The real beauty behind her technique is not just in the massage itself, but the human contact- physical & emotional. And how incredibly lucky was I to have her as my roommate for the night! & especially so since she was eager to "do me" & naturally I was equally eager to comply. So that night I was treated to a 3-&-A-HALF-HOUR massage. Wow. She pressed buttons on me that made my hands open & close, my heart rate slow down or speed up, certain parts of my brain tingle. Amazing. & even more amazing, when I offered to pay her for that she declined, saying only in her broken English that she wanted to take care of me. I'm a believer now!

The rest of Nan was also amazing. Temples galore. Wat Phumin is the most impressive:

This is me & my name tag for the conference, in Thai.

"Erin" is hard to pronounce for Thai-speakers, but there is a Thai name that is similar so that's what people call me here instead. It's pronounced "Ah-ree" & it means kindness. Hahaha, I kinda like that. ;)