volunteering & international women's day

today was international women's day! there wasn't much celebration in chiang mai but karyn had tipped me off to a march/cultural show/celebration at Thapae Gate sponsored mainly by Empower Foundation, an NGO for mostly women CSW's where i volunteered teaching english during my year in bangkok. there's an office in chiang mai and it focuses on migrant issues as well as many of the Shan (and others) fleeing Burma become involved in sex work as they don't have many other options as stateless and undocumented people. this year's theme for the local international women's day was therefore fittingly named 'women in transit.' chris and i missed the march but enjoyed some acts of the show, including a Thai man who sang and played a Karen harp, and a Norwegian woman (who works on the border and speaks fluent Shan) singing both English and Shan songs she had written herself about the political situation in Burma. all the Burmese women in the audience waved rolled up pieces of paper and use them like lighters, waving them back and forth in the air. it reminded me of anti-war songs and rallies in the us, but smaller, and more intimate.

at the show, there was also a pick up truck housing an art exhibition called 'Labour sans Frontieres', a collection of handmade paper maiche dolls made by migrant women. The dolls, or 'kumjings', are meant to bring attention to the issues facing migrant women in Thailand and also convey their hopes and dreams. Each doll has a 'passport' written by its creator detailing where she has been and where she would like to go. So far, the kumjings have traveled within Thailand and to many countries abroad, including Singapore, Canada, Spain, Japan, Cambodia, Korea, Austria, Sweden, and many more! For more info on the project, just click on the Empower link I posted above.

i haven't been into empower in chiang mai, but have meant to go for months. i got their contact info from one of the mc's at the gathering today, so hopefully i will go and visit next week! maybe i will check out volunteering opps there as well, although it is a little late...and i just started volunteering at another NGO, m-plus. read more below:

since i was in maehongson last week, i didn't go to ben's first meeting with people from m-plus (this NGO directed at gay/transgendered men and male commercial sex workers, or CSW's) where we had volunteered to teach english for the next two months. instead, i joined him for the first formal class last night.

i was expecting the class to be made up of m-plus clients, much like the women i taught at empower. instead, it was a mix of men and women, mostly from an NGO a few doors down called Project HOPE that focuses on HIV/AIDS education and prevention. from what i gathered, m-plus and Project HOPE collaborate a lot. there was also a fourteen year old transgendered MTF (male-to-female) who has a HUGE crush on Ben (but he is convinced that Ben is Japanese).

it's been awhile since i taught English (and it was Ben's first time) but as Ben had told me, the English proficiency of the students in our class is surprisingly high. It seems like a lot of them have college educations and we have some recent college grads in our class. One of the outreach directors of m-plus also sat in and participated in the class (I think he also wanted to check out if we were legit or not - he said we passed the test after class was over). :) For the first class, Ben and I focused on introductions and then months/days of the weeks/seasons and other measurements of time. after class, some of the women approached me and asked why i spoke such great Thai (rare compliment to hear in Thailand if you're Thai-American). i chatted with them for a bit and expect to become better acquainted with them in the next few weeks. :)