Is Asia For Me

No, I don't think so, or at least Thailand. For those of you that have been following along in the past emails... There is just something that doesn't sit well with me in this particular part of Asia. It might be the deference shown, the respect, I'm not sure. Maybe it's because the alphabet is different and I have no inkling of what is being said or being offered. The extent of my Thai remains, hello, goodbye, thank you. And in a conversation I've learned to murmur a lot and make sounds that resemble "ka ka ka" and "ka boom ka". That is just imitation. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and so far, no one has looked at me oddly for doing these things. Of course that's part of the problem for me. I felt like that in Peru if you did something wrong, inappropriate, or really screwed up, you could tell. Here I feel like it is all just a blank mask nodding and smiling. So I have no way of knowing if I am the ugliest of foreigners, have insulted the king, or something far worse. But at this point I think insulting the king may be the worse thing you can do.

Today, a well deserved break (I think), from continual meetings with people that work in HIV/AIDS in Thailand. I've picked up a few things, if there isn't a Thai word, they just throw in the English word. So in a meeting, my translator (again, that term is very loose) asks some questions in Thai and the person starts to respond. I don't understand until I hear words like "peer to peer", "counseling", "sexual diversity", "MSM", "vulnerable populations", and then the last one caught me off guard, "ladyboy". I kept hearing "ladyboy". I'm thinking, do I even want to know what "ladyboy" means...

But, I know you want to know. Ladyboy can mean a few things. Can mean transgendered, can mean gay, can mean a man that acts like a female. But, according to my translator, ladyboy's are clever. He knows two, one went to Oxford and the other that went to the best university in Thailand.

The incredible thing about Thailand is that anyone that wants ART (anti-retroviral therapy) can have it. It is a universal right in Thailand. I think that is awesome. It has helped reduce stigma among those that are HIV+, but not enough. The bittersweet story of the day is the following. I was meeting with a man from the Wednesday Friends club, which is a club for HIV+ individuals of all types (straight, MSM, sex workers, etc.). He found that hairdressers would not cut HIV+ people's hair for fear of contracting HIV. So he has volunteer hairdressers come in and cut the hair of people with HIV. What is also really sad is that people from other parts of Asia fly to meet with the Wednesday Club because such organizations don't exist in their country or they are too scared to get help in their own countries for fear of stigma.

I am meeting with a woman today at 1pm that works with intravenous drug users. I forget that not all of you know the MSM, CSW, IDU, lingo. There is a little problem about reaching IDUs because of extrajudicial killings of drug users. And I thought US drug policy was lacking...

Oh, and no one actually wants funding from the US government because of the strings attached in terms of US money can't help commercial sex workers, drug users, etc. That is very upsetting. Especially when I walk through the brothel zone and all I see and hear are Americans.

So today's email was not as upbeat. My apologies. Hopefully I will have something better tomorrow!

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