Amazing things

It's quite amazing what you can find on the internet..I'm not that big into computers but sometimes I end up spending hours just surfing the net. Today I was trying to find a quote I've been meaning to look up for a while now and found this blog - unsent letters. Basically, anybody can send in a letter to whoever.If the letter is interesting they publish it on the blog.They even have a book now. So on the eve of Valentine's Day weekend I thought it was a pretty good experience to read through letters people never sent to their ex friends, ex-spouses, ex-boyfriends/girlfriends etc. This worked especially well: letter to the other man category "But I do" by anonymous with Melody Gardot's "love me like a river does" playing on youtube in the background. Beautiful!

Bicycle

Ever since I came to Khon Kaen I've been dealing with staring and looks of disbelief when I WALKED to work. It's about a 20 minute walk. But nobody walks here. EVERYBODY has a scooter. Nobody even rides a bike. Even though everybody wears T-shirts "Save the planet" and the university has loads of ecoprojects and stuff. (I sort of understand that now when it's getting closer to summer here). So around New year I got a call from I guy who works at the same school who I saw only TWICE who said he got me a bike for Christmas. Now, if that doesn't spell weird I don't know what does. I hardly know him and he gets me a bike...That's a pretty big present for somebody you just met. I actually thought it was a joke first but then realized it wasn't. But he didn't actually give it to me for another MONTH - couldn't organize delivery. That's also a bit strange - you go to all the trouble of getting a bike and then you don't hand it over for a month?
But now I got a bike! I have to be honest I haven't been using it much..it's pretty scary here - the whole driving on the left doesn't come naturally to me..but I'm practising! I've got loads of bruises to prove it too. My first ride was quite an embarassment really - I got double the usual staring..Now it's getting a bit better. Hope to master it soon so I won't have to be under this scorching sun for long!

Haiti

I tried to follow everything happening in Haiti. But after a while it just became very depressing: especially this CNN report about medication stuck in the airport. They showed all these hospitals in desperate need of antibiotics and other medication and how it was in boxes at the airport. Then the reporter went to the airport just asked for some stuff, got it and took it to the hospital. The reason hospitals weren't getting the medication was because there was no fuel to get vehicals to the hospitals. That seemed so stupid to me - there were thousands of US military there - why couldn't a few dozen couldn't just pack backpacks with medication and bring it there themselves?! It's not like food and water where you need loads, you would need a backpack a day...
So I stopped following the news. I actually thought of going there to volunteer. Maybe I still will when I figure out what I could possibly do to be of help! Not feeling particularly useful at the moment...