where cider meets condensed milk: Nights out on the sort-of-town

where cider meets condensed milk

Monday, January 09, 2006

Nights out on the sort-of-town

On the nights we weren't at the orphanage, we spent the evenings lounging at the cafe after dinner, drinking juice-box Ovaltine and gossiping in the cabins, or out at a little joint in town we affectionately called the Beer Chang, since that's the only beer they serve there (real name "Cofe Bezo"). Chang just means "elephant", but adding "chang" to anything makes it more thai and thus more appealing to tourists. Koh Chang (elephant island), Beer Chang (elephant beer), bottled water chang... the list could go on. Pizza Chang! Laundry service chang! Toilet paper chang! Hostess bar chang!

Behold the power of the CHANG.

After Environmental/Littering/Steal the Heineken day, the Italian Didi had dinner with us and told us lots of stories. (We didn't see much of the Norwegian Didi because she was recovering from dengue fever. It is mosquito-borne, like malaria, but is extremely painful, and thus is known as "breakbone disease". I am a bug magnet, but warded off most bites by using a 50% DEET spray that has probably given me cancer. I think that Uncle Scott, the walking All-You-Can-Eat Buffet for insects worldwide, should not visit this area.) She began with philosophies of Ananda Marga, which included a long and awkward discussion about retaining body fluids in order to fuel your brain, and some obscure connection about how being exposed to sexual imagery or thinking about sex will drain your bone marrow. Or something. We were a little fuzzy on that part. (I began to feel guilty for purchasing an Australian Cosmo in Bangkok. Bone marrow is, like, important, right?) The phrase "seminal fluid" was repeated at least 20 times, which is rather weird for the group of us to hear from a middle-aged yogic nun.

It was fascinating to hear about how she inadvertently started the children's home-- it doesn't really seem like a project you just stumble into, but that's nearly how it happened. People just kept giving her children, even though she didn't know how to raise them, and she had to enlist the help of a local granny when someone gave her an infant and she was at a loss. One of the children she was given was initially sold by its mother for 500 baht (about $15), and then sold again for 1000 baht, and then that woman tried to get money from Didi for it. The baby was beautiful and sweet-tempered, but also HIV+, and as soon as this was discovered, no one would keep it.

Didi set up a home for mothers at the school, since she wants the mothers to feel like they have a choice to keep their children despite being poor. (The weaving center is there for that purpose, and I bought some beautiful blankets from the shop. Anyone who ventures to Kamogawa can come admire them on my sofa. They're soft and pretty.) Didi said it's particularly hard for the single Burmese mothers because they are not accepted by the Thai people, and they have no family in the country if they come as refugees. One of the heart-breaker stories she told us was about a woman with 3 children and a dead husband who left her children with her mother in Burma, and went to work in Bangkok. She worked for 5 years in construction and saved up 5000 baht (about $150), but was raped by co-workers, became pregnant, and was forced by custom/law to marry one of the men who raped her. He resented this, and constantly beat her and forced her to eat poison to cause an abortion, but it didn't happen. Very pregnant, she fled and tried to return to Burma, but the border guards stole her money and beat her and wouldn't let her cross. She was taken to Didi's by townspeople, where she gave birth, but she resented the baby and tried to abandon it. Didi tried to talk her into staying with the child, but she would not, so Didi gave her money to cross back into Burma to be with her existing children, and the child is still at the orphanage. Each story kept getting worse than the next-- depressing stories revolving around abuse, HIV, and mentally-challenged women that didn't understand why babies kept popping out. I kept feeling worse and worse, and the suicide-inducing tales hit a climax when we heard a motorcycle zoom by followed by frantic bark-whine-howling of pain. We rushed out to the street to see one of the many local stray dogs barking like crazy and writhing in the street. Jerk joy-riding boys had run over a dog and not even bothered to come back... it was sad, but none of us really knew what to do. One of the older girls from the orphanage went to take care of things, and we all wandered back cabinwards feeling melancholy.

And now to contrast all of that with some happier evening moments at the Beer Chang... they had exactly one Gaijin CD that they would start playing whenever we showed up. I don't know the name of the compilation, but I imagine it was something along the lines of "Every Bad Movie Theme Song and Biggest Hip-Hop Anthems Since 1995". Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" was a popular one, along with several songs by Toni Braxton. "California Knows How to Party" was appropriate since California was a well-represented nationality group.

Evil Annie on karaoke doesn't want to miss a thing... while Clay Pigeon dreams of being on the mission to save earth from a meteor in "Armegeddon."

Rachelangelo, Richard "Left-eye" Shelley, Leader Richie Rich, Evil Annie. Funny that Left-eye is inexplicably living up to his nickname with this bizarre facial expression...

It got old when they would run the CD on a loop, and by the 3rd night we began bringing our own music for them to play on the speakers. (I think Elisabeth and I were the only ones to truly appreciate the beauty of Platinum R&B HITS, though.) I rather miss the ability to drink beer, but I hear that Beer Chang and Singha are better than the Japanese stuff. The lychee-mint ice shakes here were amazing!

posted by Raychaa @ 12:15 AM

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