Creatures In My Bathroom

Three plane rides, two ferry boats, and one taxi later I've arrived on Koh Lanta. What a disorienting trip. I got on a plane Wednesday night and arrived in Taiwan 14 hours later. Then there was a 4 hour flight to Bangkok and a 1 and a half hour flight to Krabi. From there a 2 and a half hour taxi ride that encompassed the two ferry boat rides. By the time I arrived at the Lanta Animal Welfare shelter it was about 7pm on Friday. On the ferry ride over I saw my island for the first time and smiled as I thought of my home for the next two months. It seemed so surreal...and then reality hit.

In my state of exhaustion and confusion I had a pretty pessimistic outlook upon arriving and viewing my surroundings for the first time. I could only focus on the negative, such as the cockroach in my bathroom, the cobwebs on my bed frame, and the fact that five recent volunteers came down with Dengue Fever. I also couldn't get my Thai cell phone to work so that I might call home, and there isn't actually an onsite communal computer as I was led to believe. In that moment, sitting in my room, I felt the most alone and scared I have this entire trip. That was the first time I really thought to myself, "I don't know if I can do this."

But that's not the right attitude to have. So I killed the cockroach in the bathroom, swept the cobwebs off my bed, and gave myself a good coating of bugspray. After much frustration my parents and I were able to talk on the phone, but I was still feeling pretty discouraged by the time I fell asleep. However when I woke up I was able to see things in a new light. Yes, these are some of roughest living conditions I've experienced, but they're not bad at all. I have an attached bathroom with running water (it's cold water only, but with the temperatures here that's all you want). There's electricity. I have a fan. I have a bed and clean sheets and a room to myself. It could be infinitely worse. And the living situation isn't the reason I came. I came to volunteer at the animal shelter. Priorities.

After my first shift yesterday morning from 7-1 I feel like I'm really putting my time to good use. The shelter is a bit understaffed right now and there are a lot of animals that need to be taken care of. There are about 20 cats and 30 dogs. I'm sad to say that I've never seen so many animals missing limbs or eyes or tails; it's heartbreaking. This place and these people work so hard to make these animals comfortable and keep their environment clean; it's really a wonderful effort. After my morning shift with Marcus from Germany and Fon from Thailand I went out to lunch with Fon, which meant I got my first motorbike ride! I haven't rented one yet but I think I have to. There just isn't any other form of transportation and things are too spread out to walk. That also means I need to learn how to ride one, but how hard can it be? The lunch we got was so delicious and cost less than $2. That's the amazing thing about Thailand - things are cheap. Really cheap. Afterwards we went to the beach and lay there for hours under our covered rest place, drinking beer and watching a thunderstorm rage around us as the afternoon progressed. This is undoubtedly the wildest place I've ever been.

As far as food goes, it seems that the volunteers typically buy lunch and dinner out and pick up a few groceries for breakfast. I haven't figured out exactly if I'm going to follow that same guideline but we'll see as time progresses. Yesterday for dinner I went out with all the volunteers to a market in Saladan, the main town on the island, and ate fried food off a stick. I kid you not that everything was on a stick and fried. Vegetarian options are limited but available and I found some battered quail eggs (fried and on a stick) which was weird but not too bad. The rest of the volunteers went out to a bar later at night but jetlag insisted I go to bed. Seeing as they didn't get back until 5am I think my decision was a good one. I'm trying to fit in and be part of the group but everyone is considerably older than I am and much more alcohol-oriented than me. Everyone seems really nice though and there's always an invitation somewhere.

I think I can do this. It's had its ups and downs in the time since I got here, and I'm sure it will have more, but I think I'll be okay. And the island itself does seem pretty cool. From my drive-by's there look to be a lot of cool stores and there's a huge amount of delicious food. We'll see how it continues, but for now that's all I have time for since I'm in an internet cafe and being charged by the minute (though cheaply, since this is Thailand). Also, this morning, I found a gecko in my bathroom. I don't know how he got in there since it is sealed everywhere as far as I can tell. He and the cockroach are in cahoots.