the motorcycle diaries

If you were awoken last night by a faint, high-pitched shrieking sound, please don't be alarmed. It was just an echo from northern Thailand, probably some dumb American girl flying down a craggy dirt road on a greasy motorcycle, pursued at a safe distance by a slightly crazed Australian shouting, "Don't be a pussy! Speed up! Speed up!"

Last night my roommate (code name: "Pippi") and I went with the shelter's assistant director ("Robin") to Makro, the local bulk superstore. Pippi and I ran around like idiots and got lost a million times, like toddlers off the leash. Frankly, I think Robin would have been glad to abandon us in the plastics aisle if she hadn't needed our help carrying everything to the truck.

By the time we got back to the shelter, we'd missed dinner, so Robin offered to take us into town. (This after Sally had shoved half a dozen eggs into our hands, insisting that we take them for dinner. We don't have a stove or anything in our house, so I don't know how she expected us to cook them. Over a light bulb, perhaps?)

Pippi took one of the motorcycles and I climbed onto the back of Robin's, and we zoomed off toward town. I clung to Robin the whole way, my hands like catcher's mitts on her insanely tiny waist. I felt like a fucking Ent.

We went to a casual place with lots of different counters that sell all sorts of dishes. Robin ordered for us, bless her. Pippi and I got pad thai with shrimp, huge gruesome shrimp with crunchy legs and baleful little faces, and ice-cold banana smoothies and sticky rice with mango. What did you have for dinner? Easy Mac?

I hadn't really interacted much with Robin, so it was nice to spend some time with her. She's a former resident of the shelter, and she manages a lot of the women's issues. She also speaks some English, so she's occasionally pressed into translating duty. She doesn't talk much, at least not to me, and I assumed incorrectly that she was rather serious. She's actually wonderful. Not that serious people can't be wonderful, but they probably wouldn't have laughed off the thousand times I got the motorcycle stuck in the mud this morning. If nothing else, she's got patience in spades. Patience and courage.