What I'm doing and Where I'm doing it

I'm three miles from the Burmese border. This is an interesting place to be. I try to stay up on current events and what goes on around the world. I knew a bit about the situation and that it wasn't great across the border. However, the proximity somehow makes it much more real. For some background on Burma/Myanmar, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar, specifically the history of the last 20 years or so.

I'm staying in a house shared with some public health students working in town. It's a nice place -- a house-mate commented yesterday that it's like we are in a Jane Austin novel, sitting around reading, fanning ourselves, checking email etc amoungst such poverty. It's not perfect, for instance the foot-long lizard that lives in the kitchen, but it's a different experience than I've had before. I spent a few hours today in a air conditioned coffee shop catering to westerners and spent an outrageous amount of money (for this area), about $4 US. I don't really feel bad about it -- I wish I could integrate into the culture more, but the language barrier is significant. The big questions around here is "which language should I learn - Burmese or Thai." A little while ago our land-lady came in and someone said "mingalaba!," which is hello in Burmese. She said "yes, but I am Karen. Hello is 'o-may-weel-eya'"I'll probably come back knowing bits of all three, but not enough to do anything more than order food or introduce myself.

I know more about what I'm doing now, which is nice. Several organizations are working together to perform a survey of various groups of Burmese people. My job is to figure out what they want to ask and then do the grunt work for putting it all together. It's not as overwhelming as I had first thought. Now I'm getting their goals and revising an old survey to reflect the new goals. Then it's just a matter of logistics -- translating, training interviewers, organizing transportation etc. The last step will be analyzing the data. I don't think they are looking to do anything too fancy, so that shouldn't be a challenge. There are plenty of people around who know a lot about it, so I should have help.

I initially had reservations about taking on a job this summer, but I think this will be a good thing. It's something that will serve a purpose, I feel like progress can be made, and it is something I can finish. These are all things that I didn't experience last year in school and am enjoying. Amidst being constantly overwhelmed at school, I didn't realize how much more organized I've become. This is helping me see that.