Living in the moment

I was very aware of living in the moment, today. I don’t yet have a strategy for sustaining that state of being, but I like it and I think it is worth pursuing.

I was also very aware of what a privilege it is to be welcomed into the cultures and communities of this area. It would be impossible (and I use that word carefully and deliberately) to see and experience a fraction of what we are treated to on a daily basis if it weren’t for the generosity of the staff and students of Ban Na Toe. I visited three hill tribe villages today, each of which was home to one of the students we are working with. I’m sure that if a felung (foreigner) such as myself were to enter one of these remote villages on his own, people would simply stare or retreat to a safe distance. Many of the hill tribe peoples do not speak Thai (they speak their own particular dialect, which might be from China or Tibet or Mongolia or Burma or Laos) and most of the peoples in this particular region of Chiangrai maintain a very isolated way of life. A Caucasian felung like me must seem a very strange creature!

Peter