One day last month in Ubon Ratchathani province in NE Thailand 3,405 people received free eye exams and glasses if they needed them, thanks to an organization called Give the Gift of Sight. "Slow day," one of the volunteers said. Farmers, monks, and villagers come from miles around to get their eyes examined. 
This humanitarian mission has just wrapped up and the group is hoping to have given away all of the 65,000 recycled glasses that a family of eye glass specialists brought from Italy. [Last February 26,282 people in the Chiang Mai area were also seen.] Give the Gift of Sight is also handing out heaps of sun glasses as well to stop the sun damage they're seeing.
This week, I waited with a friend for several hours at Chiang Mai Ram Hospital. The large waiting area was centered in a large atrium with all the medical specialty offices radiating out from that with lots of glass and few doors - great opportunity to get an overview of all that was going on. Many of the Thai nurses were wearing very attractive form-fitting white uniforms and heels; they looked very sharp, efficient and. . . lovely. This was the kind of nurse image little girls used to daydream about back in the 50s (and men probably still do.) [Photo of nearby Chedi on my bike route.]
Perhaps the time is coming when I shall have to move on and explore somewhere else, somewhere not quite so comfortable and seductive with all it has to offer. I just read in Chiang Mai News, "Last week I realized I had managed to reach the stage where it was possible to take the whole day just to make a cup of tea." [I'm not quite that bad yet, but what an simple life this is.] The trouble is that I enjoy being here so much that it's hard to break free. But so much more to explore - here and elsewhere. I still haven't decided how much adventure I want in my life and how much I want to stay put, relatively speaking, and become part of a community. [Photo of another one of my favorite shops.]
Yesterday, I was standing outside Kun Dtuum's home taking photos of her hanging orchids. Her husband drove up and took my camera so he could take a photo of the two of us in front of their home. "Some journeys take us away from it all, to places no one knows us; some take us to where it seems we've always been. And whether we venture to a new part our country or into an entirely new culture, travel forever changes the boundaries of the world we once knew."
