Hazel!

My days usually consist of meetings at the local partner's office, meetings at our office, and meetings at someone else's office and none of these places have AC. So if I can find time when I don't have to be in meetings, I can come to Hazel, my favorite coffee shop, to get my work done.

Sure, there isn't much competition as it's the only place I know in Mae Sot that has a steady supply of air conditioning and wifi, but it's more than just that. There's a big, comfortable couch if you're feeling lazy, or tables and chairs if you feel like getting down to business. They make adorable designs for all of their hot drinks. They have a frequent drinker's card. And best of all, because foreigners seem to gravitate towards AC and wifi, there are always interesting meetings to eavesdrop on.

For example, a couple of weeks ago I heard someone in a group of Christian ladies say, "if you really need someone, you know god will provide someone," which I thought was kind of nice. As I listened longer (not my fault, we were all on the couch and they were talking really loudly), I realized the lady had been referring to her friend's search for a good housekeeper. Really? God provides housekeepers too? I had no idea. Anyway, because I don't work with or see native English speakers that much outside of my organization, it's really nice to just sit and listen to other people talk every once in a while.

Only downside: no toilets, have to walk to the other side of the parking lot to the semi-nasty squat toilets. Not the nastiest, but still not very fun. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.

Pictures below: Mocha and White Chocolate Latte

Read this! (10/6 Edition)

This is why I work in Mae Sot, Thailand and not in Rangoon, Burma. (And why the Australian government is a little dumb.)

The Need for Border-based Aid

Picture below: a map drawn by one of the MCP (Malaria Control Program) medics showing where the clinic is, where the villages are (with 1 MCP Village Health Worker, hopefully!) and where the Burmese military (SPDC) is set up. Pretty much, neither transportation nor security are ever safe or easy even to the clinic, which is why we try to have someone trained in each village to help diagnose, treat, and education about malaria. (I deleted the names of the villages in case there's anyone from the SPDC trying to read my blog!)

Cows!!!

Today on my way to work I drove by 9 cows. This is pretty average.

On good days, I pass three albino water buffalo too.

(Picture below: My neighbor Bobby! For real!)

Mae Sot Thai Massage

I realize that I say this a lot, but, I'm going to try to go for short posts often, rather than long posts not often.

I start today.

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Today I finally got the 2-hour Thai massage at the government run massage place on the highway. I'd heard good things about it but it was always full whenever I've tried to go. This time they were closing, but a nice lady decided she would stay to give me a massage.

I thought the 2-hour massage would be like a 1-hour massage but doing each thing twice as long. I was totally wrong. There was a whole new set of twists and pulls that I had never done before!

2 hours, 180 baht ($5.38, 3.69Euros, 44.68 Quetzals).

I'm on a mission to find a place that smells nice, plays nice music and gives good massages. I have a feeling it's not going to happen in Mae Sot.

They scored super high on giving good massages.

The room didn't have any nice smells, but the clothing they gave me to put on smelled nice and the lady's hands/soap in the bathroom smelled nice too.

There was no music and the lady had the TV on playing horrible Thai sitcoms, so no points there.

Very good to know about, but I'm going to keep looking.

(Picture below: Not the place I went)