First day in the field

It's getting late, so I'm going to try to keep this short. Plus, I'm exhausted. This weather just sucks the energy out of me.

I left at 8am this morning for Phuket. I woke up around 6:45 to get all my gear together, get dressed, and eat breakfast. As I was getting dressed, I was thinking "I don't want to offend my subjects, so I should dress somewhat conservative and nice." But then I remembered my subjects are blind....hahaha. I wore my wrap-around skirt anyway, which turned out to be SO comfortable. It's so light and airy, perfect for this weather.

Anyway...after breakfast, I got on a van around 8:20am with my translator, Nuum, and Abby and her translator, Meriem. It took about an hour to get to the pier where we dropped off Abby and Meriem. On the way, I saw lots of rubber trees, tons of green, the city/town of Phuket, elephants, and a bunch of other stuff. It's so different here. We dropped off Abby because she is going to a muslim village until Saturday.

Then the van took Nuum and I to the blind massage place. Nuum was awesome and introduced me and told the manager, Phom, what I am doing. Then we sat and talked with about 6 of the massagers for about 2 hours. I asked them all sorts of question about the massage training, being blind, their families, their lives, the challenges, etc. I got a ton of information, but I still need a lot more.

Twelve blind massagers live in this tiny tiny massage place. There is not a single seeing person that lives there, so they cook and clean for themselves. The whole place is about the size of an average classroom. It's very narrow and the majority of the place is taken up by the two massage areas. It's like two mirror image store fronts side by side, connected in the back by the small cement patio. More on the place later.

Squatting and eating in the hallway. This is the main area of the place. Off to the left is a bathroom and a small area partitioned off by a curtain. Down the hall on the left is a small room that they just keep dark and sit in. Down the hall is a door that leads to the massage area, where there are 6 beds. Behind is the patio, which doubles as the kitchen. There is the mirror image on the other side, except it doesnt have the dark room.

Nuum and I went to lunch at the restaurant next door where I had some great fried rice. I chatted with Nuum and he's such a cool guy. We've been teaching each other our respective languages, although he is GREAT at english. He plays guitar at a bar in Khao Lak and leads snorkel/diving tours to the Similan Islands (except in the rainy season). I learned today that on the day of the tsunami, he was out on the tour boat. The water kept rising and falling (not like waves...like a pool draining), but they didn't know what was going on. When they got back to land, he learned what had happened and that many of his friends had not survived. He went into the mountains because he and others feared it would happen again. His parents traveled from far away because they couldn't get in contact with him. They found one of his friends, who then found him. He said his mother just cried and cried.

Nuum sleeping while I took pictures...although he later claimed he wasn't.

So after lunch, we talked a bit more with the massagers and then I started taking photos. I realized that there really isn't much there to photograph. Since they're all blind, the walls are blank. When they're not massaging, they just sit around. Occasionally they make food, which is pretty interesting. They just put a bunch of stuff in a bowl, squat on the floor (as seen above), and eat right on the floor in the middle of the hallway. The massage is very slow and simple...they just find pressure points and apply pressure with different parts of the body for a few seconds. So I left feeling like it would be too plain and boring for still photography.

While I was there, I had to walk all around the tiny place and it was truly disgusting. To the point of being unsanitary. I had to take off my shoes before entering the place (it's expected here), so I was walking around barefoot. The front area where they do massages is fine. But then you go through a door and enter a new area where there is no air conditioning and it smells like straight up urine. They cook for themselves, so food gets left out or dropped or spilled all the time. They clean it up, but they can't really see if they cleaned it all up or not. There was a bowl of fish oil and chillies on a shelf with some spillage beneath it...and it looked like it had been there for days. There are bugs crawling all over because of it all. There is also a lot of loose hair on the floor, which we all know is a pet peeve of mine. The back patio area and bathroom is soaking wet and really dirty. I forced myself to get used to it and tip-toed around while trying not to smell or look down.

This is the kitchen. Out on the patio. You can't see the bugs or hair, or smell the urine.

The van picked us up around 3pm and we went back to the pier to pick up Miriem. We had to wait a little while at the pier, so we sat in a little shop. There was a cat in there with two kittens, so I played with the mama cat for the whole time. Then Miriem showed up and we drove back to Khao Lak. I slept most of the way.

When I got back, I talked with Pat and Pailin and they kind of restored my confidence. They said to focus on the themes of isolation and loneliness in my photos. I have to use the starkness of the place and the boringness of their lives to my advantage. I just have to make it look good by utilizing light, focus, motion, etc. They also recommended that I do it in black and white, which I think would definitely add something and set it apart from the other stories. Pailin recommended that I get a photo of blurry silhouettes to kind of show people what some of the blind massagers see. Later at dinner, I talked with Nacho and Selket about it and they also gave me good ideas. Nacho said to do a sequence of photos to show change (or lack of) over time. Selket recommended doing close-ups of their eyes or portraits. I really like the portrait idea. So now I'm feeling a little better about it, although it's going to be a BIG challenge for me. It's good though...it pushes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to do things I usually don't try.

The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the disgusting back area. I'm going to bring a pair of "house shoes" to wear inside.

I'll probably stay in Phuket for at least a night so I can photograph what goes on after hours. I also hope to get them doing things outside of the massage shop, like grocery shopping or going to the doctor.

I'm leaving at 8am again tomorrow and probably staying until 5pm. Nuum is coming with me again because I want to ask more about their lives and meet the other massagers.

After meeting with Pat and Pailin, a bunch of us went to dinner in town. I ordered massaman curry "mai (not) ped (spicy)." It turned out to be the spiciest thing I've ever eaten. Usually I don't eat things that spicy, but I really had no choice. I figured out that soda water really eases the pain. Fortunately, that dish was the only thing I've had a problem with so far!

We have a nightly meeting at 9pm where we talk about the vans and translators for the following day and any announcements. Since then, I've been sitting here talking with people and blogging.

My laptop just started shocking me. There is a little edge around it and every time I touch that part with my forearms, it gives me a tiny shock. But when I touch it with my hand, nothing happens. Who wants to explain that one?

My eyes are barely staying open, which means bedtime. Please leave me comments or e-mail me to let me know how you're doing! Sa wat dii ka, all.

(note: I had originally typed "home" instead of "open" above, and I have no clue why. Obviously I need to get some sleep.)

Padet, who had a wonderful smile and great expressive face.