Every Day is: Library Day

Monday – no wait, it is Tuesday.  Wait – what day is it?

Every day becomes library day.  You lose track of the days, and they all blur together.  Coming home on the subway tonight I thought, “Why are there so many people – its 10:30pm?!” and then it hit me – Saturday night in Bangkok.  Oh wow I completely forgot that #1: It is the weekend and #2 what it was like to have a social life.

I have spent so much time here - I couldn't help showing off my sweet work space

“Ash, you really should stop counting how many of those you eat – it’s not good to keep track of that,” says Megumi as I wolf down another 7 Eleven sandwich.  I lost track somewhere after 168…but the variety between pizza, ham and cheese, and tuna sandwiches keeps us going for months.

I move seats in the library or on the subway if someone starts coughing or sniffling.  I give them a look like, “It’s not you it’s me - I just REALLY can’t afford to get sick right now” or “I’m sorry, but my body has been living off of Coke and tuna for the past month and I just don’t think that really boosted my immune system enough to handle something else right now…”  I am officially paranoid.  I wash my hands with every opportunity I get and shove vitamins down my throat.  I try to talk to my body and think – ‘Ok, just a few more weeks, and then you can sleep and be sick all you want.  I know Coke and cheap microwaveable food isn’t the best, but what else can I do right now?!’   

Sustenance: Coke and Ham and Cheese Sandwiches courtesy of 7 Eleven

But through it all – I am excited.  I am excited with the results of my research, I am excited about the opportunity I had just come back from in Myanmar, and I am excited to share the people of Ngwe Saung’s story.  I write and write and write and each day, come home to review it, because I’m certain it isn’t enough to give their stories justice.  I want my reader to sense what I felt wandering around the village.  I want them to be able to see the dedicated parents who were working two jobs in order to keep their children in school.  I want them to know the hardworking hotel high school graduate who sent all of her income and earnings back home to support her family, and feel the toothless grin of that fisherman on the beach.  I want each detail, each story, to be incorporated in some way and I feel the pressure of accurately including and recounting each of their stories.  But they are amazing stories to tell and I am honored to tell them.