Falling in the canal, puppies, and a Father's day celebration

11/5
Monday was a busy day in the park, there were the paddle boats and kayaks for rent and many bike tours. Because of the gate on the main path to the park, to limit motor bike usage I guess, people are using the path by the house. A boy on a bike fell into the canal, but we fished him out. There have been four people who have fallen in the canal by the rough spot on the path since I have been here, luckily nobody has been hurt.

Jit came home for a little while, her Dad stayed at the hospital. We ate at the new food place in the park, the food was good. Nah and Oye go to the market every morning to get the food for the day, sometimes they cross on the boat to the Klong Toey market and other days they go to the Phra Pradaeng market.

We are having a puppy explosion in the community. Right now it is 6:00 in the morning and I can hear puppies yelping for their mom. There is a another bunch of puppies over by where the motorbikes are parked. I saw them with their mother last night. The puppies are sure not hidden, they are resting among the motor bikes near the big tree at the center of the community.

Monday night we went with Juke and Star and the family to a combination King's birthday and Father's day celebration at Wat Bangkrachow. The celebration was for the Bangkrachow Tambon. Each of the mu's, or most of them, had a free food booth. There was an amazing amount of food. At the celebration there were bright, very bright, fluorescent lights of many colors. Each of the elected representatives for the area were there in white military looking uniforms. At 7:19 we lit candles and listened to some speeches. There was a prayer and then a song, like an anthem, that everybody sang. After the ceremony there was Thai dancing and then a guy in a white suite, sort of like an Elvis Los Vegas costume, and eight dancing girls in feather head dresses and bare mid-riffs sang some popular music. It was sort of strange, we left early and headed home. As we arrived home it started to rain. I have no idea what happened at the celebration or how long it went on.

I was given a yellow shirt to wear to the ceremony that said in Thai, "I love the king". Actually, after reading his yearly speech in the Bangkok Post, I do. The speech was about accepting criticism and being thoughtful. I was impressed by the gentle humor and wise perspective of his comments. After all the issues of press freedom and criticism that have been going on lately in Thailand it was great to hear thoughtful in depth comments about public responsibility.

Tomorrow I will go with Jit's dad to the hospital and then we will go to STOU.

11/6
I got up early and went to the hospital with Jit's father. We then went to STOU. I am finishing up my hands on exercises for my faculty presentation. We visited with Tuk and Nun and then I met with the photographic department at STOU. The photographic department does everything from Photo ID's to documenting course content. We talked about photography and the process of taking pictures. I showed some of my photography web sites. I will also bring in some of the photographs that I took at the Loy Krathong ceremony at STOU.

It is hard to enjoy photography when it is a job. For me photography is about emotion and if you are having to take a photograph to represent a specific viewpoint it can alienate you from the joy of photography. We talked a little about taking pictures of things you hate! In one of the men's bathroom at STOU you can see outside through a slated window, there are pigeons roosting there and people throw out their cigarette butts, it is gross. I was thinking about how you could get in touch with the feeling of photography and recommended that people look for things they hated, sort of to clean out the system so you could feel the things you enjoy again. Taking photographs as a business could get pretty depressing. I will meet with the photo group again this Friday at the Photo Fair at Bitec.

One of the tasks of the photography department is to take pictures of the buildings at STOU. They are not happy with the results, the buildings just look like buildings. We talked about lights and weather and not just taking pictures when the weather is nice. People are not really taking pictures of buildings they are taking pictures of light reflecting from buildings. I was asked to go out with a few people and to take some photographs, if the opportunity becomes real it should be fun. If I get a chance I will try to wander around early in the morning as the sun is coming up.

11/7
Today I am staying home to finish my presentation. I have a lot more to write, but I should be done with the final draft today. The planning for Sunday's house ceremony is beginning. Jit is expecting more then 100 people. I have no idea how it all will work, but I will learn.