On my last day in Chiang Mai I helped take the girls to school and when I came back I helped create COSA's July news letter.

Around 3pm Sandra and I attended a cooking class. 

total: 150

2nd day of Workshop:

• -­‐  Review and discuss photography using the story teller narrative
• -­‐  Post productions, writing and telling your story to a mass audience
• -­‐  Summarize expedition and Q&A with Mickey Choothesa
• -­‐  Receive certificate 
  
  
  When the girls arrived home from school I helped Laura with an English lesson. 
  
  
  Total HR: 143

Travel back to the COSA shelter in Chiang Mai. On the way back we stopped at a temple known as monkey temple.

 Conclusion workshops was held in the afternoon/evening. Worked on editing photographs and writing articles to accompany photographs. 


Total HR: 136

Continued with photography assignment and lessons during the day.

Evening explored the area that the bar/brothel Monkey Island is located. 

Total: 128

Woke up at 5am to go to the border crossing between Burma and Thailand. Mickey wanted to gather stories and images of the women (much like Maya’s mother) who come across the border every day to work. It is a grueling process and not everyone makes it through. Often, the women are harassed by the border crossing guards. 

Total HR 122

One Girl's Story

Met up with some of the girls Mickey rescued from a brothel last year and learned their stories.

Maya grew up in Burma with her mother and father. When her father passed away Maya’s mother was forced to commute to the Thai border to find work. With the family making so little money, Maya was unable to pay the fees for school. She started traveling with her mother into Thailand to sell vegetables. One day while in the market a woman came up to her mother and offered Maya work as a waitress at a bar called Monkey Island. Her mother agreed to let Maya stay and work with the woman. That was the last time Serey saw her mother.  Many massage parlors and tourist bars, such as Monkey Island double as brothels. Maya worked in the brothel for two years before she got in touch with Mickey.

She is now in a foster home and attending school. 


Total: 116

Went into Burma today. Crossing over to Burma I had to hand over my passport. I felt slightly nervous about giving it up but quickly put my anxiety aside as the promise of exploration awaited. Once across Mickey hired to rickshaw drivers to take us to one of the nearby villages. On our way there we made several stops to photograph different wats and temples.

At the village we sat down with a family and talked about their culture as well as neck stretching. I was able to ask a lot of questions with Mickey as my translator. Even though the family smiled throughout our talk it looked forced. 

Total HR: 110