Freedom

Yay check out this website! http://www.pcthailandgigs.org/45/index.html. This was made recently to accommodate some of the pictures taken at the event. Good stuff. Besides that, I have very little to share: It's been hot as hell (110 at 7:00pm) and I have several infected mosquito bites, I had another English camp today and feel extremely excited for school to start - the kids are beyond fantastic, and I think I am moving into my new house in a couple of days.....maybe.....probably not.

I am a Peace Corps tool. We are told not to get in the back of a truck that is not covered, to not ride a motorcycle, and to always wear a helmet when biking - breaking any of these rules is grounds for early separation and you WILL go home. I have followed all of these rules despite my desperate wanting to break them. But one day I was exploring the area on my bike and, with the added frustrations of what the past week had brought to me, I was feeling ready to break my self granted title of "Peace Corps Tool" - no one would see me after all, how would the Peace Corps know? "I just want to be free. Damn Peace Corps!", I yelled to absolutely no one. But with the silence that came after my whining cry, I realized, Jesus, it's just a god damn helmet. How could I, in all honesty, be any more free? This thought brought the image of the 2 year old who was allowed to walk around free in the back seat and who was subsequently tossed to the front of the car when we came to a sudden halt (nothing bad happened luckily). It brought to mind the story some friends told when they saw a child being dragged along the asphalt because she fell off of the motorcycle. When her parents finally stopped the vehicle her leg was scraped raw - there were probably not anywhere near enough tears for that girl to show the world how scared she was. We might call these two stories consequences of bad parenting, lack of concern for safety, lack of thought even...but despite what we might call these incidents, I can't help but wonder, are they more free? There are no laws telling them what to do. If they want to risk any feasible outcome, then they are free to choose that option, no? Two summers before I left to the Peace Corps, some friends and I were swimming in the reservoir. We bought some large tractor tire intertubes, blew them up, and planned for a fun day of tubing. Shortly after we started the day, the reservoir police came to us and told us that intertubes were not allowed on the water and we were to either throw the tubes ashore or promptly leave the area. I felt frustrated at this complete lack of freedom....if I want to swim in an intertube, I simply should! Right? Which would you rather have? I'm still working on my answer - it is obviously more complicated then these two sides...let me know what you think :)