Type your search keyword, and press enter

I Believe I Can Fly, and I Did!

Yoshi in free fall

This is not a metaphor. I really flew, though it was just for 5 minutes. Let me tell you my seemingly once-in-a-lifetime experience of sky diving! I want to share how you feel when you jump from 3000 meters above without sight.

When I told my friends that I was doing sky diving for fund raising for my friend organization CYDA, supporting teenagers from hill tribe communities in Chiang Mai, most of them were horrified. But no worries, I didn’t jump alone. I did tandem, which means that I was strapped to an experienced professional sky diver throughout. We were group of four, and all of us except for Alex, a volunteer from London, had never done it before.

So last Saturday, after four hours of waiting at Thai Sky Adventures in Pattaya, we were assigned a partner each. My partner was Johan, a friendly guy probably from northern Europe. He was so great–explaining me every step and even letting me practice postures during the dive while we were still on the ground.

Climbing onto the planeBut this did not prevent me from getting scared to death as we climbed onto the small airplane. It was running at 80 km per hour only, but I felt as if I was in a unstoppable jet.

 

 

Praying for protectionI was asking my late grandpa and dad to protect me from wherever they are.
As we reached the height of 3000 meters (9000 feet), things happened quite quickly. First, another fund raising challenger Alex jumped out with his partner. My stomach felt strange when I felt the rush of air from the exit as they jumped.

About to jumpFinally, it was my turn. First I was almost sitting on the lap of Johan with my legs outstretched as if I were a child going on a slider with the parent. Then Johan moved in the same posture to the exit. For a few seconds, my feet was dangling from the exit, like I was sitting on a comfy bench. Then as I was leaning against his chest, Johan gave me the count of three, rocking his body slightly to give me the rhythm. Then, we were out!!

Free fall from the back

Free fall in the cloudsWe fell and fell and fell. No chance to scream. The free fall lasted 30 seconds, which felt so so long! We were on our stomach, and I was told to hold onto the harness on my chest, and my feet tacked behind me. Johan told me to imagine as if I become a big banana, but the air pressure was so much that I didn’t know banana or mango. It was like fighting against a enormous wall of wind.

Frog position from the sideThen he gave me taps on the shoulder, then I had to push my elbows out and palms down, as if I were a frog. This is to keep balance, I guess. It was not easy, but somehow I managed.

 

 

Close-up frog positionSuddenly I felt a big tag upwards as Johan pulled our parachute open. I cannot even remember if I felt going up or down, but it was so dramatic that I had to scream. Then suddenly, everything became quiet, as we slowed down significantly.

 

Parachute about to openMy friends told me that at that point, we were still on our stomach, but I felt as if I were standing. I didn’t even feel that we were going down, so I had to ask Johan.

 

 

Slowly descendingThen he showed me how to make a turn by pulling the string of the parachute, and this was so cool! As I pulled the left string, I would feel the left turn, and suddenly a strong sensation as if I was flying upwards towards the right. Later he told me that this is due to the gravity. I really felt like we were flying even though I felt a bit dizzy afterwards. As we were descending slowly, Johan told me that we were flying through the clouds, and that he could see the reservoir and trees below.

This was the best partThe touch down was very soft. I just had to pull my legs up for 10 seconds or so, and Johan let us land from our butt. There was no pain, shock, nothing.

 

 

Touch down!After all, the scariest part was the plane rising up to the jumping point. I’m proud of my team–Alex the volunteer, Frank and Pet (high school boys from hill tribe at CYDA), and myself–for not chickening out. I am very thankful to all of you who made contributions for our challenge 🙂 If you’d like, the fund raising website is still open and we would appreciate any contribution for CYDA.

Would I do this again? Yeah, maybe, a bit later. But I must say that at the moment, I am ever so grateful for my solid ground.

 

Jump to Science 2015

Jump to Science 2015 group photo

From Aug. 12th to 15th, I participated in Jump to Science 2015 in Aichi, Japan.
18 students with visual impairment aged 12 to 18 participated to do various workshops in the math and science field, and just have tons of fun together day and night!
I was honored to be invited as a resource person to share my experience in Thailand, but I enjoyed my time so much, playing games, cooking, and chatting with new friends.
All grownups put so much effort to make this camp a fun event for the children.
And I was constantly amazed how proactive, expressive, and curious these students were! To be honest, much more than so-called non-disabled students of the same age from Japan.
So grateful for this unique opportunity to meet wonderful people of all ages from different background.
My Thai friends, let’s do something like this in Thailand!

Lost in Translation in Yangon

Recently I often go to Yangon for the work of ICEVI Higher Education Initiative. This time, I stayed at Hotel Glory near the blind school under Ministry of Social Welfare.

For lunch today, I ordered pork salad for lunch. They brought a big plate of salad, and I found some shrimps in it. I ate more, and I found more shrimps. Pork was never to be found. I was wondering if my tongue also went blind as well.

So after I finished the meal, I asked the waiter that I didn’t find pork. We had some communication trial, and after involving a few more spectators around, we finally found out that he thought I said “prawn salad” instead of “pork salad”. This is a little and typical challenge I face in a country where I cannot speak their language. I cannot just point at the dish that my neighboring customer is eating and say “I want THIS one,” you know :p

Oh, well, it was quite tasty, so no problem, and I’m glad that I found the answer for the mystery of pork salad without pork. And I’m even more happy that my tongue was not totally blind after all.