We had a productive first day in Chiang Mai after our late arrival the night before. In the morning, we walked around the neighborhood and got some food and supplies before meeting Mai at the hotel and taking a cab to the KWAT Office.

Once there, we met representatives from all of KWAT’s programs and discussed their current projects and future plans. It was great to finally meet our partner!  Mai along with the entire staff located in Chiang Mai (about 15 out of the entire 43 KWAT staff) gave a really great introduction for us and showed us a video they have recently created about human rights violations in Burma. We talked about our plans for the GROW trip, about the future of our partnership, and even about a potential project that we could sponsor over the next year.

After lunch, we met with representatives from member organizations of ARHZ (Adolescent Reproductive Health Zone), a network of organizations that promote reproductive health in various ethnic communities of Burma. Members include KWAT, the MAP (Migrant Assistance Program) Foundation, SYP (Sharing Youth Power) and BWU (Burmese Women’s Association), the partner organization of GlobeMed at Whitman. Each of the representatives told us about the goals and activities of their organizations and then we asked questions.  They were also very interested in learning more about GlobeMed at Dartmouth so they asked us a lot of questions too. It was a great experience to feel a part of the greater network of organizations working in Chiang Mai.

After the meeting, we went running in the park. Later in the evening, we had our first Thai lesson with our teacher Khruu O. We mainly focused on pronunciation and learned some basic phrases. Tomorrow we will learn more conversational phrases. After our lesson, we went to bed early after getting dinner at a restaurant near our hotel.