Kamphaengphet Tomorrow, Burma Run Saturday

Americans don't need a visa to visit Thailand - they get 30 days. My thirty days is up this weekend so we are making a border run in Maesod on the Burmese border. You can go into Burma, but not very far. I'll probably go in, get my passport stamped, and come back. But we'll take advantage of having to do that and get the bus tomorrow to Kamphaengphet where I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the late 60s. When we were there last year I mentioned that they didn't have very many photos in the school museum. They said there weren't very many. So I promised to digitize some of the many slides I have and I did just before we left. So we'll deliver the dvd and I also found some copies of the English newspaper that my students put out and I have those too. The winner of the name the newspaper contest was Sakchai and the winning name was "To You With News." I know all this because there's an article about who won and how much he won (10 Baht)in the September 1968 issue. To Sir With Love was a very popular song at the time, which I'm sure played a role in Sackchai's winning entry.



I snapped these pictures when we went to eat tonight down the street. First is Ozone Net, one of the many internet shops on the street just outside the Chiang Mai University campus. I'm outside on the street. Double click on the picture to enlarge it.



And here's a woman, at one of the many shops along the University outer wall, cutting the mango to put with my sticky rice, that I'm just now finishing while I post.

Oh yes, I met a Belgian on Saturday who lives in our building. He was going out 'shooting' and was wearing camouflage pants. I saw him again tonight as we were walking out and asked him how his shooting had gone. He immediately pulled up his short shirt sleeve to show me the marks of the BB's that hit him. I'd heard of paint ball, but I didn't realize people went out shooting each other with BB guns. I asked if he had eye protection and he assured me he did. He goes to some large warehouse nearby where they have various vehicles and other things to hide behind. And there's a Thai military base where you can do this outside. He said people come from all over Thailand, including Thai police and soldiers. I jokingly said, "They like shooting at foreigners" but he didn't seem to notice I was joking and said sincerely that he thought so.

J asked if any women participated. He said no, they don't like getting all marked up with BB wounds. He said he spent three hours the other day and five hours yesterday doing this. I live such a sheltered life.

Work, Lunch, Assessment,Sunbird, Heinrich Böll

Bird Call and Construction Wat Ramphoeng uploaded by AKRaven

I heard this bird outside my office window. It was somewhere in the tree on the temple grounds. I put these two pictures together so you can get a sense of the view. Yes, the orange is monks' robes drying. I spent a lot of working on the vocabulary of the work plan so I understand

• what they are supposed to do and what they have completed, and
• so I have the vocabulary to talk to them about it.

I also worked on a couple of pages on how to run meetings. I had the English knocked out in 30 minutes. Then I spent a long time getting the right Thai words - and not sure I did all the time - and plugging them into the page. Mostly I cut and pasted from Thai2English.com, but I'm also getting better at remembering where the Thai letters are on the keyboard. Since my keyboard doesn't have Thai letters on it, I've cut out pictures of the keyboard and taped them to my laptop. I'd say I remember about 15 or 20 now. If I only knew how to spell right. I really need a Thai spell checker on my computer.






I was invited to lunch that someone had brought into the office - sticky rice and various kap. When you eat a meal (as opposed to snacks) you "eat rice." All the curries and other dishes that go with the rice are "kap khao" or 'with rice." One interesting dish was kwitdiao noodle, but not as a noodle. Rather a big piece was used to roll up vegetables.


In the early afternoon Grib showed up. She's the local American Jewish World Service coordinator. It was time to do some assessment since I've been here almost a month. So we sat outside with Pet, my boss, and talked about how I'm doing outside. I said I eat, I work on the computer, watch birds... and Pet added "takes pictures." We got her a copy of my workplan - Pet got her the Thai version. I'd emailed one to New York when Dorcus had asked for it, but I'd forgotten to get a copy to Grib. We all agree it is overly ambitious. But it also includes local people working with me on each part so they can follow up when I'm gone.

The good news is that I think my perception of things and Pet's are similar. Since it was almost all in Thai, (I had to explain what 'getting up to speed' means) I'm not going to say I'm 100% sure what the others said. Language is still an issue - which is why I'm working hard to get enough of their workplace vocabulary - potential, negotiation, coordinate, state agency, experience, reform, take action, proposal, etc. - to be able to talk about work more easily. I also explained about A.D.D. when I got distracted by the sunbird and pulled out my camera. I'm pretty sure it's an olive backed sunbird - that dark throat on the yellow, the long curved beak, and hummingbird like activity all seem to fit.

When I said that Pet and I don't say a lot to each other, but we communicate without words, he looked surprised and said, "how did you know?" The workshop I did Monday was the kind of thing he wanted his staff to do and he'd like me to do more. He also told Grib how much time I spent in preparation - showing how I'd typed the handout in Thai. Too much time? Should I have an assistant? Grib asked. At this point, I replied, doing it myself means I'm learning it. After a while, having someone else type the Thai would be a lot easier and faster. Right now I'm trying to understand the organization before I start doing too much. But the short time I have left - about six weeks - does focus things and I will get, I'm already, moving with a sense of urgency. It was a useful chat for us all I think.



Right next to us were some of the election posters of the candidate the organizations here were supporting, but who lost. I'm still trying to get the vote count. Someone gave me the url of a Thai website, but I didn't have the time it would take to find it in Thai. I might not even know it if I did find it.



I've been taking different routes to work and back just to know the little streets around here. I was also trying to find a little place on the map called Pie Sabai which appears to be a little Western style bakery in the neighborhood. I saw it several times when people were taking me around in their car or motorcycle looking for a place to stay, but haven't been able to find it since. Even though it looks on the map I have to be on the way to work. But here's a picture of the sunset on the way home - it was about 5:45 and by 6:45 it is dark.

I also found out the Heinrich Böll Foundation is very near us. At least that's what the sign says, I didn't find the foundation itself. He's a Nobel Prize winning German author for those who don't know.

Why Clark Will Tell What He Knows

Anonymous asked in a comment on my earlier post on the Clark plea:

I believe that he is guilty as charged-- but do you think he would tell more and fib a bit and tell the FBI what they want to hear, as well?

Well, the 2nd Addendum linked by the ADN shows the Prosecutors have the same concerns, and they pretty much locked him in. Basically it says if Clark

• lies, fabricates, or implicates innocent people
• if he tells the truth, but withholds something relevant because they didn't ask the right question,
• if he stops cooperating after sentencing

it will be considered a breach of the agreement (and all promises to ask the judge to reduce the sentence are off) AND he could be prosecuted.

I don't know what charges the prosecutors might have had on him that they dropped or what else they may have ceded to him (like they promised Bill Allen they wouldn't go after his kids), but on Clark's side it looks like total surrender.

Detail below. The whole document at the 2nd Addendum link. I was hoping these would be a little bigger, but you can double click on them to see them more easily.








The rest is about how the prosecutors can only recommend, but the judge has the final decision and things like that.

Morning Birds - Black Crested Bulbul

It's at times like this that I'm jealous of whatever camera Anonymous has at Bird Anonymous. But I've left my ancient pentax and telephoto lens at home because the Canon Powershot fits in my pocket and I can have it conveniently with me all the time. But still, times like this I wish I had a better camera. My pics here are only to help me document that I saw them and to help identify them and I leave the fantastic close ups to Anonymous and the lucky times a bird lands on my nose.

So, here are some sketchy shots from our fourth floor balcony of today's visit by the Black Crested bulbul. Also saw to greater racket tailed drongos fly by. Thought maybe they were the ones making the the two toned doorbell like call in the video. But a little googling got me to Dave Farrow's incredible pages on SoundSnap which have different calls for that drongo.

So turn on the video and listen to the bird calls while you look at the bulbul shots. And you can go here for some better shots of the black crested bulbul.







It's in the middle, just to the left on the branch in the middle of the tree. You can double click all of these to enlarge them a lot.

Khao Lam - ข้าวหลาม

Tuesday, March 4, 2008, 11:30pm

While I was going through goals and objectives and outcomes earlier today, someone came in with two Khao Lams. Khao lam, one of my favorites, is sweet sticky rice, in this case with some black beans, cooked inside bamboo. mmmmmmmm.

Plea By Jim Clark, Frank Murkowski Chief of Staff, Means He's Helping Feds

Chiang Mai Time: March 4, 2008 1:50pm


Reading this ADN headline from Chiang Mai means everyone else knows a lot more about what's going on than I do.

Former Murkowski chief of staff pleads guilty to corruption

The charge to which he pleaded guilty, is relatively minor in the big scheme of things - charging $68,000 in political polls by Dave Dittman to Veco - but is bigger money than any of the three already convicted legislators saw.

Specifically, from the ADN link to the plea agreement, here's what he pleaded guilty to:

[NOTE: Double Click on the Images to Englarge Them]

For this, according to the documents, he's facing:

These are recommended sentences from the prosecutors. Nothing binds the judge, and all this is dependent on how well Clark cooperates, meaning how well he shares what he knows, testifies as a government witness in court, etc. The recommendation is for a three level downward departure from the sentencing guidelines. So far Judge Sedwick, in the one case of a cooperating witness in this series of cases - Bill Bobrick - has followed the recommendations of prosecutors.


From the ADN link to the Factual Basis for the Plea are more details:





More important, is that Jim Clark must have worked out a deal, meaning that he's been telling the FBI and Federal Prosecutors what he knows about the Murkowski administration. This could get interesting.

Thanks to the ADN for posting the court documents on their website.

Tarongchai's very special hand made cards

You never know what you'll see in the night market along Thanon (Road) Suthep. Mostly it's food, but there's a guy who just sells cardboard boxes, and stalls with clothing, and one with potted plants. And then we saw this one tonight.

These are popup cards that the man you see in the picture makes. A college grad, he finds this more satisfying. And his cards are really special. They all close flat like normal card, but they have intricate cutouts inside.




He gave me his card and I said I'd post his email. He has an online catalog he'll send you. There's a chance the email address isn't quite right. My email to him hasn't come back yet. So maybe it's ok.

ken-popup@hotmail.com

Bugs

The grasshopper was on our sliding glass door yesterday - on the outside.




On the east end of the Sunday night market there were lots of bugs flying around the lightbulbs in the stalls. They weren't very big and looked a little like termites. But then we got to a point where we could see the streetlight and there seemed to be millions of them.

Meetings

Monday night, March 3

I did my seminar this morning. We got into things like productivity and time management - particularly identifying the task people do then trying to connect them to the organizational goals. I've had several weeks to hang out with these people and the organization. They've got good documentation because they had to set up standard international mission statement, goals, objectives, etc. for their grant from Oxfam.

My Thai continues to frustrate me at work, but I had the Powerpoint (had to save my Keynote presentation as powerpoint then fix a few things that got lost in the transition - I have to see if I actually have a cord for my Macbook to a projector so I can just present from my computer) with enough Thai and pictures that everyone could understand what I was trying to convey. Well, even American students have problems with the concepts, but they at least understand the words.

When the boss came in - he had to go visit someone in the hospital and was late - my sense was that he was pleased with the message I was giving. At the end when I told them to talk among themselves, from what I could understand, he was reinforcing many of the things I'd been saying.


Then we all had a lunch that someone brought in. The afternoon was another meeting. Same six people with several more people from another office. The pictures are of the meeting, not the morning seminar. I tried to understand and I caught phrases and words regularly, but not enough to be certain what the point was for sure. It's clear that people's northern accents are one factor, but I just don't have the vocabulary I need. So when I heard them repeating a word, I tried to write it in Thai in Thai2English.com and see if I could get the English word. The problem was spelling it right because that program doesn't give you things that are close, only the right
spelling. At least in Chinese you write the pinyin (phonetic in western letters). But I did get, finally, ข้อมูล spelled right and learned it meant data, information.

The organization's candidate didn't win - #1 did. Apparently vote totals weren't available today, since no one new how many votes those two candidates got.

When I got home, J told me about her first Thai lesson. This is out of sync for the classes so she has a one on one lesson with what she described as "a real teacher" who knows how to get the most out of their time. She likes her so much, she rather go there than to the University class (which she checked out) even though the university is much closer.

We met Melissa for vegetarian dinner. This was the third time I've been there in a week and they were very nice to us and the food is really good. In the restaurant and in the shops I can tell my Thai is much more fluent than when we first got here, something I don't feel at the office where I'm always listening to and stretching for words I don't know. Talking about the meaning of efficiency, organizational goals and objectives, and how to measure one's work output is a lot more abstract than ordering food or asking if they have a lid for the frying pan.

I've got some catch up posts and pictures and I'll do those separately.

Zohar Offers Onion Video and Other Good Stuff

I don't remember how I got to the The Zohar Class a while back, but I went back again today. It's worth plugging. (I have absolutely no personal connection to Zohar, just found him on-line, never met him, and think his blog is terrific.) He says he's a 'non-stop' reader and that's reflected in the kinds of things he finds to post and how he comments on them. Recent posts include videos on Facebook's and Google's threats to your privacy, books being given away on-line and why, what I think is Zohar's map of corporate connections, and this great video from the Onion.


Breaking News: Series Of Concentric Circles Emanating From Glowing Red Dot


Why great? Because it makes us to look at things we take so for granted that we don't actually see them for what they are. After watching this video, who can ever look at tv news visuals with a straight face again? Great satire.

I can only guess that the ridiculous cigar in Zohar's picture is also intended to be satirical, but I think he should get a new pic without it.