Yesterday was my first personal day in about two weeks. One thing about our program is that they really, really keep us busy. They don't give us weekends off, and they randomly give about 2 personal days every two weeks. But even in those days, I feel like I've had to work at least a little bit to keep on top of my assignments and such. I finished half of the work I had to do, so I decided to capitalize on the free 2-hour Thai massage that the program allowed us to have.
In order to find a picture of this, I had to google "thai massage." For future reference, don't do that. So here's a nice picture of Khon Kaen city shrine that walked by today when I participated in a protest. Will get to that later.
So I get to this place, and I immediately had my feet washed and had to put on a loose-fitting white cotton shirt and huge brown, loose-fitting linen fisherman pants. The woman that was preparing to do the massage asked if I was Korean, as usual. Seriously, I don't even get Chinese anymore. It's either Korean or Japanese. Anyway, that's neither here nor there.
I laid down on a super comfortable mattress-ish pad and pillow, which was quire a relief from the floor that I've grown accustomed to sleeping on. The massage started at the feet and legs and went all the way up to the head. At the feet/leg and arm/hand stage, they would be massaged and then put into odd yoga positions and then lotioned with some mint/lavender mix. For the back, she also massaged it and lotioned it. And, oh yeah, there was an outside-the-clothes butt massage. I mean, it was fine but.. I was super caught off guard, mostly because I had been falling asleep until that point. And honestly, the head massage was kind of weird because it was like a scalp massage that turned into rubbing my temples and neck. Also fine, but kind of strange.
After the whole ordeal, I was treated to a cup of tea that tasted kind of like the herbal tea that the herbalist in Yasothon gave us during one of the exchanges, except this one had an extra kick of vanilla. Overall an awesome experience, I would have to say.
Our next unit is about urban livelihoods, which includes a homestay at a landfill as well as exchanges with the members of the Khon Kaen Slum Network. We're also going to visit a community of people who live beside the railroad and have a market over those railroad tracks. Whenever a train comes, they quickly close up their things and... Well, just take a look at this one in Bangkok.
So today, at 8 AM, some of the members of my group and I went to a march for World Habitat Day, where members of the Slum Network as well as other organizations that are similar came out and marched around downtown Khon Kaen. They were fighting for more money devoted to the slum community as well as other rights. They appealed to the mayor at the municipal office, and theyw ere promised that the upper levels of the provincial government would also look at their demands. Then we listened to a few speakers who went into more detail about the issues at hand. It was super hot, but I was really happy to see so many people coming out and participating on a Friday morning. Can't wait to learn more about it! :D
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