Thailand, Chaing Rai Febuary 18, 2006

I found myself confronted with another small village that contained only 6 houses and 35 inhabitants. The fresh smell of hay permiated from the newly built roofs and the huts for the animals were still shiny from the recent construction.

It was a village visit like any others, me with a handful of tangerines in-hand, ready for any child to approach me or any woman looking to sell her goods. I walked slowly, saying hello to all and my visit was over in just a flash, so I thought.

As I started to exit the village, I noticed a boy. I thought I had seen him before, but he was older than the others and I had paid him little mind as he worked at cleaning fruit. I approach him this time but the his skin no longer appeared soft or round with a glow of childness.

For an instant his face was as unrecognizable as his eyes. Eyes that look to the sky in bewilderment, the tense muscles that stretch out to something unknown, a hard gasp that searches for air and the motions of a bolt of lighting hitting a small bird.

The hallow eyes, tensing muscles that seemed to be fighting between heaven and earth, the haggered breathing that could only resemble suffication did not scare me...for I knew in that instant, it was "The Spirit". I understood the difference between an epileptic attack and "The Spirit" from reading a book. For a tribe does not have the ideals of modern medicine but an understanding from centuries of inhabiting this earth.

As the older woman, by his side looked up to the sky, I knew that "The Spirit" was right beside me. After a few minutes the fighting between heaven and earth stopped, the breathing softened, the sweat of a grown man glistened with the turmoil felt within, but, the eyes..... the eyes were still hallow.

In the mist of "The Spirit" I was not scared. I had no fear...

As I cleaned the dirt covered face with cold water, touched his still trembling neck, and washed the saliva that had rolled down to his hair...I knew no fear, he had become a child again. A child that was blessed to live with " The Spirit".