Week 1, Sunday: Ranong, at night

I'm typing this in what is probably the most rediculous internet cafe known to man. The owner, who knows me and remembers me from last year (a late 20's woman with two kids already) was happy to see me and usually charges me like 5B (30 cents) to use the computer, regardless of how long I use it for. The rest of the internet cafe is full of boys between the age of 5 and 20 playing rediculously loud computer games on all of the computers. They always come look at my screen hopefully, then see I'm just typing something, and walk away looking somewhat disgusted. The computers are packed into a small noisy room. The kid right to my left is probably nine and playing a dance dance reviolution computer game where everyone tries to dance in a group and then they seem to have some sort of dance one on one's where you try to pull special dance moves and everything...yeah...

The bus ride down from Bangkok was uneventful, for the most part. It left at 8:20PM and got in at 5:30AM and I walked to the church, which took about 20 minutes, and then had to wait at a restaurant that was just opening outside for an hour before they opened the gate. I slept on the bus but lost my cell phone...who knows how. Possibly my fault, possibly not. I wasn't careful enough, either way. I've already got a new phone with at new number, though, if you're interested in calling me via Skype (Sarah says it costs you about 12 cents a mintue): 08-1397-5133. I had trouble with my last phone making international calls and I'm wondering now if it was because I was trying to call cell phones. So if you want to call, you're more than welcome, and I'll answer at almost any time, and I'll evidently still have good reception at all the islands I'll be going to over the next month. (crazy, huh?) I'm 11 hours ahead of the east coast time.

It's good to be back in Ranong, but it's always such a drastic change from Bangkok. I'm going from a megacity that's totally westernized to the smallest provicial capital in Thailand, and there's 76 of them. It's a totally different feel, needless to say. I think I'm starting out on a much better leg than last time, though. Last year I was relatively shell shocked at this point, and thought I needed to start the work immediately (like the morning I arrived) and wasn't fully prepared for all the complexities of the situation here with the church and everything, which I might write about more but I know I've talked with a lot of you about.

The good news is that everyone who knew me is glad to see me again. I start my fieldwork tomorrow. I'm actually feeling a little overwhelmed and underprepared right now, that said, so I won't write for too much longer. Despite my days of preparation for the last few months, I've still managed to put off the last crucial steps of preparation in planning out each day and getting specific sentences ready for each of them, which means I have the double duty of analysis and preparation on many upcoming days, which probalby means I'll get far less done, sadly. Hopefully some will be enough, though.

I love you all and hope things are going well. More pictures will come soon.