t-minus 18 days: a new wardrobe, my fellow volunteers, and all the things I still need to do!

I got my official placement email for Bangkok a couple of days ago--I'll be at APSW, or the Association for the Promotion of the Status of Women. APSW has an Emergency Shelter, which includes a clinic serving mostly young, unwed pregnant women, a Children's Home/Nursery, a Rape Crisis Center, an HIV/AIDS shelter, and a couple of youth programs that do reproductive health education. Awesome! I'm sure it'll be sobering and difficult at times, but I'm feeling pretty pumped about it as well.

At the same time I got my placement, I got a list of fellow volunteers: there'll be 18 of us arriving at the same time, joining 3 people already in the house (which has an in-house cook and snacks--including fruit--available 24/7. I'm embarrassingly excited about both of those things. Fruit! All the time!) Today I got an email from a 16 year old girl on the list; the only Trang volunteer I've talked to thus far is a 17 year old Italian boy. They both seem very sweet, but I'm hoping there'll be a few people a little closer to my age (oh god, how old am I that 16 sounds young?)

Today I went shopping with my sister, mom, and grandma and added some very light weight skirts, a dress, and a couple of tops to my wardrobe for dealing with 80-90 degree heat coupled with 60-70 percent humidity. Yipes! Actually, though, it's been so cold and gray in Spokane that I'm look forward to being able to walk around the house without wrapping myself in a blanket all the time.

It feels like there's still so much to do! Trips to REI for hardcore bug spray and sunscreen, locating a backpack that's big enough for three day weekend trips but small enough to be managable when I'm dragging a suitcase, the beauty supply place with my sister for new shampoo/conditioner/"product," packing, un-packing, and re-packing to make sure I haven't forgotten something or brought way more than I need.

I can't believe I'll be in Thailand in less than three weeks.

Travel Medicine

This is the first time I've ever traveled to a destination that actually requires me to know something about travel medicine. In Mexico it was basically don't drink the water and don't buy food off the street, orders which I followed to a T and never had any kind of problem. Thailand is different. First off, I'm getting a bunch of shots before I go, including:
-a polio booster (this not recommended by the CDC, but IS recommended by Group Health, so what the heck, better safe than sorry)
-a diptheria/tetnus/whooping cough booster
-a typhoid vaccination

These shots make me feel as if I am about to travel the Oregon Trail (You have Typhoid! What would you like to do: a) administer laudanum b)rest for two days c)do nothing)

I'll also be carrying with while in Thailand two prescriptions, one to treat "severe gastrointestinal distress" (because I'm basically seven in a lot of ways, I find this both gross and hilarious) and one to take while I'm in Cambodia and for four weeks following to prevent malaria. Not to mention as Pepto-Bismol (8 a day!) as I can fit in my suitcase. Lonely Planet tells me I can eat the food from street vendors, much to my delight, but I imagine it can't all be a hundred percent safe.

Then there's the question of preventing bug bites....

OK, so...

I'm not actually in Thailand yet (obviously--I'm in the snowy tundra that is the 7-county metro area) but I'm going.

The nitty-gritty:
I'm going for nine weeks, July 7-Sept. 12 or so. I'll be spending the first five weeks in Bangkok and the last four in a small town near the southwestern coast, Trang. I'm going with an organization called Cross Cultural Solutions. They'll set me up with a Thai non-profit, hopefully an orphanage/preschool/something where I don't have to know a lot of Thai, and I'll be volunteering in the mornings and exploring/taking Thai language classes/going on what amounts to field trips in the afternoon, with weekends free to travel the rest of the country.

One of the things that I really like about this program is that they work with existing Thai non-profits. As much as I think it's a great thing volunteer anywhere that extra bodies and extra hands are needed, being an American going to a developing country to work with the underprivileged smacks of imperialism. That's at least partially mitigated by the fact that all my supervisors will be Thai and that I'll be doing work in the community that Thais think is important, not work that Westerners think is important. Of course my motives for going are not as altruistic as all that: I found the program because I was looking for a long term (well, more than a couple of weeks, anyway) experience abroad where I could be more directly involved in the culture than most tourists tend to be. I leapt into this one, there's no question about that. Less than two weeks passed between the time I found the organization and the day I called them up and gave them $500 to reserve my spot. But I'm really, really excited.

The impetus behind this blog was the realization that I won't be in close contact with a lot of important people for the two months that I'm there, and that last time I was abroad, and internet access was limited, I wasn't always great about keeping in touch via email. As much as I feel a little silly about putting my life on the internet, I like to think there are people (hi mom and dad!) who'll be interested, especially once I actually get to Thailand. So leave a comment, I'll be happy to know you're here.