I knew two things before I came To the Mirror Art group: First, I wanted to do something that felt better than just working at my local supermarket. I wanted to do something that made a difference. Many people worry about the situation in the world; I wanted to be one not only talking but also contributing for the sake of a better. Secondly, I wanted to do it Thailand. I had been there before, on a youth exchange programme for six months, so I was ready to broaden my insight. I thought it would be an oppurtunity for me to enrichen my thai language and also my understanding for a different way of living and thinking. At a first encounter with the Mirorr Center I understood that this stay in Thailand would be a new experience for me, I could not rely on too much on my old skills. The last time I was in a small village and my hostfamily were southern thai farmers. The Mirror Art group had someting else to teach me - they were radical students from Bangkok with a lot of new ideas and thinking that were new for me, but in many senses I quickly felt closer to them than to many other people I had got to know in Thailand. So what did I do? Two days a week teached in english in the local school. At first I was a bit worried to go, nobody spoke any english and I was a colmplete stranger (and farang) to these hilltribe children between 12-18. And how was I suppose to teach my second langague in my third langage to around 65 noisy kids? The first lessons were disasters. I wished myself away to to some distant place, I felt very inacaplable of doing this job. But, as time went by, the lessons improved of some mysterios reason.

I guess it was a combination of my thailanguage improval and that I and the student had time to figure eachother out (and not to forget some good tips from collegues). I don't know if they learned so much but we had a lot of fun with games, songs, paintning and just babbling around. Time in and around the school with the kids, is one highlights of my stay in Mae Yao. Other actitvity during the almost three months of stay was editing video for Bannok TV, join the volunteer teacher programe and play a lot of music. The latter thing developed to an idea, wich actually popped up one night lying in my bamboohut. Why not make mucic forum for the kids in the village? I knew that many were talented in music, both in the MA-group ands in the village but they did not have something to play on! I knew a way to get money fast, and everybody encoureged me to do it. Thus, the concept of Jamclub was borned.A few weeks after I first got the idea of buying musicequipment and creating a place for the kids to jam, it developed into a concept in the Mirror cente. Witha lot of help from Ao and Nong I wrote down the idea on paper to clear for everyone what it was all about. I had to clear for people that the main idea ws not that i wanted to teach music to kids but rather give them the oppurtunity to sit down and try themselvses. That was the way I had learn to sing, play guitar, drums in my youthclub back home in Sweden. Not only the instrumental technique but even more the feeling of creating-something-togheter; namely what I think is the essence of music.

Many of my friends and relatives in Sweden is curious to know how a "normal day" was at the the Mirror Art Group. How did I manage to live in a bamboohut for 3 moths? What did you eat? Did you see any snakes? I think its difficult to explain how humans are capable of adapt. Things that I recall now seems almost like a dream because they differ som much from the common situation in cold old Sweden. A bamboo hut is a perfectly temperated dorm and a couple of blankets is all I needed to get a better sleep than I ever had in Sweden. A minus is the ants wich als liked my place. Eating rice three times a day is good, and I could never imagine all things you could do with bamboo, eggs and noodles. The fruit is always outstanding and numerous. Mosquitos, snakes and dogs is mostly a worry back home. In Mae Yao they're too close to make you frightened. I tried to consentrate my worries on cars and mototcycles instead.

So, this is a short sum of my stay at the Mirror Art Group. It was short but intensive where every day had its share of ups and downs. A lot of insight. Back home, time just flies away in day after day in a kind of grey mass. Staying in Chiang Rai was, for me, colorful in every aspects: I had my black times when I was homesick, hopeless in communication and felt alienated. I had my blue times with reflections and rumantion; and of course the red moments with love, jokes and humanly warmth.