Lost on Earth

I thought for a few days that if I left Mae Hong Son for a few days all of the problems at OPC would magically disappear and I could return and have a fresh start. When I walked into the office on Monday morning Kham Chuen informed me that a belligerent drunk woman had come into the office the day before threatening Sonny and demanding money to buy more alcohol. When I taught class that evening one of my 14 year old boys lost his temper, picked up a chair and threw it across the room in frustration. Shortly afterwards our neighbor, a toothless, suntanned old woman, walked in. She had just picked all of our beautiful flowers that bloom outside the office. "Hey, those are our flowers!" we told her. She grinned and then offered to sell them to us for 25 baht per bouquet.

It is absolutely impossible to maintain a decent case of denial here.