Village Voice
Amy Salmon's E-Mail from Thailand (Part 6)
We had an exciting week in Chiang Mai because Jenn had her baby, 10 days late, on June 20. It was quite a stressful ten days leading up to the birth, because she didn't know whether to induce labor or wait, and was in general hot, uncomfortable, and extremely cranky. Not an easy week to be a friend, but I agreed with everything she said, even when she was wrong, and it all worked out. We think that they originally got the due date wrong, because she wasn't sure when she had conceived, and all along the baby had seemed a little underweight for where he was supposed to be. She was in labor for 12 hours -- I was there when it was first beginning -- at her house for one of our frequent evenings of dinner and The West Wing, which she's completely hooked on and which sometimes inspires spirited discussions about issues raised on the show -- but she didn't want to worry me so downplayed it a little. I left around 11 pm and told her I'd call her around 2 the next day to see if she'd had the baby and if not, whether she wanted me to come over again. I called at 2:30 and he'd been born -- at 2:13 pm. It was really fun. I went to see him the next day in the hospital and have been over a few times since they've been home. He was around 7.5 lbs. when he was born and is in perfect health, so it seems like he just needed the extra ten days. His name is Aidan Welsh Pouteela, and he's a doll. And he's going to spend a good part of his infancy with The West Wing in the background, from all early indications. Maybe he'll move to the States and run for Congress.
Turns out I seem to have missed the hoopla around
the King's
accession celebrations that took place here in Chiang Mai --- Jenn was
in town
that day and said there was a big parade and such at Thapae Gate.
That
was the day I was in
Now it looks like we'll be lucky if there's not
major political
upheaval surrounding the "Caretaker" Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawat,
who in theory stepped down in April but in practice is still running
the
country and is much disliked in
The Muslim population in Chiang Mai is virtually
nonexistent
as far as I've been able to tell, but there is a prejudice against
them, and
against people from southern
Some things are the same all over the world; it's
just a
matter of degrees. Who decided that white was good and
black was bad? It's incredible how widespread that
feeling is,
and how deeply ingrained it is in so many people. The Thais
here in
Chiang Mai aspire to be white. There are all manner of whitening
creams
and powders for sale in the stores, and I've had more than one Thai
tell me I
was beautiful -- "Your skin is so beautiful!" -- mostly because of
its color. It's interesting, in a disquieting sort of way.
You'd think after nearly five months in southeast Asia, nothing if not hot and humid with very strong sun, I'd have something of a tan, but my face looks pretty much like it always has, as does the rest of me. The only place I have any kind of a tan is on my feet, where you can see the lines from the flip-flops I wear pretty much every day. It's pointless to wear anything else here, really, because you have to take your shoes off lots of places before entering, including business establishments.
Shoes aren't worn at NES -- I teach barefoot to barefoot children. Thai culture regards the feet as dirty; I think that's at the root of it. Although your feet get far dirtier being barefoot all the time! Especially now that it's starting to rain more -- the drainage systems in the street are horrendous and so are the "sidewalks" -- more often than not they're made of tile that instantly becomes like a skating rink the minute it starts to rain. It doesn't help with the nature of tropical storms, from 0 to 60 in no time flat, so the puddles appear out of nowhere when the skies suddenly open. In those situations barefoot is better, if you can't just avoid the rain altogether.