We’ve been in Mae Sot for about two weeks now, and we absolutely love this town! It’s a small town with an official population of 40,000 people, although the actual undocumented population is much higher. In addition, I would estimate there are 500 foreigners from a handful of nations doing humanitarian work. Because we all eat at the same restaurants and drink at the same coffee shops, we are quickly getting to know people.

Tuesday, October 12 – Amber really enjoyed her first day of teaching at her organization. She teaches about fifteen young women, between the ages of 19 and 33, from an ethnic minority within Burma. She teaches English for about three hours and spends time afterwards hanging out with them as friends. Amber will probably post here about her experiences soon, but I know that she and the girls are going to get along great! While Amber teaches, I ride my bike around town looking for a good cup of coffee, shopping in the Burmese market, eating vegetarian food at the Chinese temple, etc.

Wednesday, October 13 – Not much different than Tuesday.

Thursday, October 14 – Heavy rain during the day today. I observed an English class at my organization, where I will begin volunteer teaching next Monday. I will have five young adult students from the same ethnic minority that Amber teaches. In the evening, Sofia’s organization held a 10th anniversary celebration at Rujira Bed & Breakfast. A number of other ethnic minority organizations, including Amber’s, attended the event. There were dances, speeches, traditional clothing, etc. On Thursday night, Amber spent the night at her organization for a sleepover, watching movies and having a lot of fun.

Friday, October 15 – I was invited to play soccer (known as football here) with my organization in the evening. Mae Sot has two full-size soccer fields with stadium lights, astroturf, scoreboards, etc. Different ethnic organizations compete against each other, and some teams even have uniforms. Women, children, and potential players all come out to watch the matches. I was the only foreigner on either team, so I definitely stuck out, and my bright yellow running shorts probably didn’t help me blend in either. And since I haven’t played football in ten years or more, everyone was running circles around me!

After football, Amber and I had dinner with our friend Samuel and his family – wife, three children, and 72 year old father-in-law. And after dinner, we went to Aiya for an open mic night to mingle with friends, listen to music, etc. One volunteer even taught the young adults in his organization how to sing “We are the World, We are the Children,” and they all performed together while the standing-room-only crowd swayed their arms and sang along. Our friend Tito, a guy from Spain who was in our orientation class, even surprised the crowd by banging on the guitar and singing an energetic rendition of “La Bamba” in his native Spanish accent!  Very cool. A good time was had by all.