:Title:    Freedom
:Author:   Linda Nowakowski
:Date:     Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:55:25 PST
:URL:      http://www.ned.com/user/u523412994/news/19/

Ahhh.....

The semester is over. I still have about 8 term projects to mark and grades to assign and post. 

The sun is up, barely.

It is incredibly quiet with many of the students and faculty already cleared out from the Uni.

It is the first day of March and the weather is still unseasonably cool. (I am not complaining!)

Christina and Norbert will be back tomorrow morning (oops...I had better clean the house again.  Amazing how that slips out of my control so easily!) I am looking forward to spending time with them to hear what they have learned and working with Christina on the survey questions I have put together for our work together.

Getting older (note, I did not say OLD) is getting painful, literally.  Many years ago now, I tore a ligament in my knee.  It required some very expensive arthroscopic surgery to repair but fortunately, I had insurance.  When I was in Uganda last year, working on the water project and foolishly riding through the hills on  the back of a boda-boda, I re-injured that knee.  There is no one in Thailand who can do the repair work and over the last year it has gotten seriously worse. The cold nights here right now don't help it.  I am now learning to deal with the chronic, constant pain. Like many things, I am discovering, injuries can get into a spiral and in this case it is a downward spiral.  

In hurting the knee, my mobility was restricted, which leads to gaining weight, which stresses the knee, which limits the mobility, which...I think you get the picture.  When you study anything about Buddhism in English, it seems that the first thing that is said is about recognizing suffering.  "Being born is suffering.  Getting sick is suffering.  Getting old is suffering.  Dieing is suffering." I am here to be a first had witness to this truth. But even this is an opportunity to grow.  I have been given the opportunity to witness and experience the generosity of complete strangers. People who step forward and offer assistance. It is such a blessing to have the help and it is also a joy in seeing the satisfaction that comes to the people offering the help to be of assistance.

At this time, in a week and a day, I will be arriving in Mae Usu with two of my students. We will spend about 6 weeks working with these Karen children, getting to know them, helping them in their new farming adventure, teaching them English, and maybe even teaching them some other things like making soap or tofu, tempe or soy sauce. Next Friday we will all go on an over night train trip to Bangkok and then Saturday  evening, we will begin our journey north and west to Mae Usu. It will entail about 11 to 12 hours of bus rides on successively smaller buses. The last "bus" is a songtow - literally "two benches" - a pick up with 2 benches in the back.

To get ready for that trip, I need to get to the doctor on Monday morning to get my medications for 2 months, I also need to get a mosquito net and a new first aid kit. I do not lead a very complex life here anymore but I have to tell you that thinking about living for a couple of months in a place where I am hours away from a reasonably large store of any kind, and a couple of hours away from medical attention, is pointing out to me how much I really do appreciate "the developed world." 

OK...off to a day of getting things wrapped up and starting on new adventures.

tata