Beth Adam Letters From Afar - Asia

Tuesday, 10/30/07Gotta go, gotta go…many partners to visit but so little time. Chiang Rai and north to the Golden Triangle is a beautiful and rugged area that certainly deserves further exploration but we are off this morning to Chiang Mai. We start off at 8am sharp except, as I explain to our Thai guide for a couple of “stragglers”. Straggler is a word unfamiliar to him and I must explain this bit of English slang to him. I’m not used to group tours but being a “yekke”, straggling is something that I personally do not do. Once the “stragglers show up, he fully understands the term and we get on our way to Chiang Rai’s southern cousin, Chiang Mai. By this time in the journey, all study tour participants have removed the name tags and are getting to know each other. We have a very diverse, interesting, and compatible group of 13 tour participants and 4 AJWS staff. Major cities like Boulder, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Sebastopol, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, and

Loveland are represented. It is a fun and interesting group. It is a very scenic 4 hour drive and we have several stops along the way to break up the drive, buy unknown and interesting snack foods and the very, very best iced Thai coffee. I’ve traveled in

Thailand several times prior to this trip and seen many, many temples on those journeys. It is still quite a draw to many, but honestly for me (and with no disrespect), visiting temples is something that just doesn’t do much for me and honestly, if all I do is view them from a distance and see all of the glittering and shining structures, I am OK with that. Nevertheless, our first stop is at a huge white, glittery structure which was is still in the process of being built after many years by I believe a king who passed away with the knowledge that it wouldn’t be finished in his lifetime. As I described my interest in temples, I sort of “zoned out” the explanations but did walk around and look at the structure inside and out. Some very contemporary paintings were on the inside of the temple and I can describe the whole thing as interesting but let’s get an iced coffee and move out… Our next stop an hour or so down the road would be more interesting and would help set us up for our meeting with our afternoon partner visit.

Control over the HIV-AIDS epidemic has been a relative success story in

Thailand. In part, this success has come through the efforts of a creative Thai social entrepreneur. There are a group of retail shops/ cottages that go by the name of “Condoms and Cabbages”. Proceeds from this venture fund sex education and distribution of condoms. Several of us purchased memorabilia and souvenirs from this enterprise.

We continue our journey and arrive in Chiang Mai, where we check into the beautiful Chedi Hotel and have lunch. Now fat and happy after our very physically active morning bus ride, we proceed to our visit to AJWS grantee EMPOWER FOUNDATION. One of Judaism’s highest values is that of freeing a captive. EMPOWER is a great example of people gaining freedom through empowerment and education. In its most simple form, EMPOWER stands forE =educationM =meansP =protectionO =ofW =womenE =engaged inR =recreationEMPOWER is a sex workers rights organization that promotes economic opportunity, training, education, outreach, and support for migrant sex workers. This is accomplished through computer training, Thai and English literacy, non-formal education, counseling, health information, alternative livelihood, advocacy, and translation.As many here are migrants and have no education at all, EMPOWER provides collaborative education opportunities. These efforts help to give these people confidence to become part of the wider society.My sense is that they do great work here and the results are obvious. We had discussions with this group and the pride, self confidence, and empowerment of these women is impressive. We had a very candid discussion and question and answer session that were inspirational, enlightening, and thought provoking.By now my study group partners were learning about me what my wife already knows…I am “THE INTEROGATOR”. I have a great interest in knowing about things at a detail level. Many of these women were the primary providers for their extended families. I had a question that was gnawing at me…How did these women feel about having the responsibility…the burden of being the sole support for their families, even to the extent that they were putting brothers through school? They unanimously said that they felt a great pride in supporting their families. They then asked me if I had a family, how many people I supported, and if I was proud of supporting my family. I answered Yes, 3 and Yes again. They responded rightfully that they are supporting many more people than I am so they are even more proud…touché’! These are confident, proud, empowered and responsible young women. I am very impressed. They also expressed that for many people, it is more important what they do versus who they are. They are correct. Think outside the box.We headed back to the Beautiful Chedi Hotel for a quick shower and to our dinner program. We had a guest speakers from AJWS grantee MIGRANT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (MAP). MAP program areas are community health, education, women’s empowerment, and labor rights and advocacy to assist the large number of Burmese migrant workers. Recently their work has expanded to address violence, exploitation, and human rights.

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