The Lung, Photographs, the kitchen is done, and a Seminar at STOU.

Sunday 10/23

There was an article in the Bangkok Post today about the Bang Krachow area. I saw it online, in the area that I live, and even at both Big C's, I can not get the Bangkok Post or The Nation, so I still read the newspapers on the Internet, just like in Alaska. I copied the article and Jit translated it for Juke. I wished people had Internet access because information like the newspaper article are crucial for the community decision making. I wonder how the new road, that was approved at the community meeting, relates to the developments discussed in the newspaper article?

I did three Thai lessons and am making some progress, still very slow, but progress. We went with Juke in the afternoon to drop by the film and the CD for printing.

It was a productive day.

Monday 10/24

Today was cool and cloudy, relatively speaking of course. There was heavy rain last night.

We walked to catch the bus and went to Phra Pradaeng to get the pictures, we then took a taxi to Kong Chai to look at a stand for the stove. We saw a cabinet and also ordered another set of shelves for the kitchen. We actually had a fully cooked meal at home. The kitchen, the cupboards, the sink, and the laundry are all working, we even have water. I might get spoiled.

We also went and did a large shopping at Big C so that we could use our working kitchen. We even ate at KFC which was just the same as in the United States. KFC makes me feel fat in the USA and I feel the same way in Thailand. At least I tried it once, but not again.

The pictures look good, I am still looking through them, throwing out the pictures that have no value, and letting other pictures "simmer". Many of the pictures do capture the Chinatown experience. I think that I might try to start organizing a web site with my Thai pictures. The problem will be uploading them with the poor bandwidth. Maybe I can load them on a CD and take them to STOU. I know that my Blog is getting too slow because of all my pictures.

I gave Juke the pictures of the community meeting. I hope that people keep the pictures and look back at them for memories.

Tuesday 10/25

It has been cloudy and cool for three days, it is nice, but the light is sort of ugly for photographs. We went to STOU for the seminar with Leslie Richards from Waterloo University. The seminar is excellent, practical, pointed in its opinions, and very useful. It would be great to bring Leslie Richard to Alaska for the College of Rural and Community Development. His perspective on technology and learning is practical and refreshing. You can read the previous blog entry to see the seminar content. I am very satisfied with the content and it is fun to meet more of the professors at STOU. No surprises or traffic jams.

Tomorrow we will go to the seminar again and then, during lunch, go to the Siam Discovery center to meet with John Morris of Virtual Hill Tribes Musuem.

This morning when we got off the boat there was a person playing a single string Thai musical instrument. The sound was moving and evocative, it tugged at my feelings.

I visited Counseling Center at STOU and they are experimenting with my database. There are over 300 records entered in the database. It was strange to see it in Thai. I demonstrated Filter by Selection. I also had a great cup of real coffee at our favorite coffee shop at STOU. I was looking forward to the coffee and it was as good as I was hoping for.

I also got some information about Summer School. It looks like I will get to teach Digital Photography which should be fun, I really want to teach Digital Photography during the summer. I have many photo assignments ready for the students.