Tina Noga
Tina was born in Denmark in September 1975 and grew up in Denmark. At the age of 11 her family nearly moved to Australia because they believed they would have a better life there (her father had visited there for 6 weeks prior to this decision). They never moved, however, because her father decided that he could not leave his commitments in Denmark. From that age Tina daydreamed about foreign countries and the changes she wanted to make in the world – for nature, humans and animals. Her one great love in life is animals and this led her to become a vegetarian at the age of 15.
At the age of 20 Tina moved to Israel to join a kibbutz (socialistic community). After nearly five months in the kibbutz Tina moved to Tel-Aviv where she spent five years living (on and off) from 1996 until 2002. While in Israel Tina studied at Tel-Aviv University, went to Ulpan (Hebrew school) several times, worked as a personal assistant in an international office and coverted to Judaism. She didn’t convert to Judaism due to religious reasons but because of love. Still today she doesn’t conform to any religion in particular but considers herself spiritual. While living in Israel she was given the name Noga, which is Hebrew and means “star”, “light”, Venus” and “glory”.
Of Danish background, she speaks several languages and has lived, studied and worked in a number of countries including Israel, Thailand, Japan and Denmark.
Tina Noga has a Bachelor Degree in Education (teacher for teachers) from the University of Copenhagen and a Bachelor Degree in Middle East studies from the University of Tel Aviv. She holds a Master Degree in International Education and Development Studies, specializing in the sociological impact of HIV/AIDS. As part of her studies she lived in Thailand in 2004-2005 working for UNESCO.
She has been engaged in the field of HIV and AIDS for nearly five years and has previously worked as an HIV/AIDS counselor on a counseling phone line in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has also worked as the Campaign Coordinator for the AIDS-Care-Watch Campaign in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Her commitment to HIV and AIDS stems from her friends still living with HIV and an overall concern for her fellow human beings.
Tina also lived on the wild side and worked for half a year in Japan as a hostess in a bar called One Eyed Jacks. Probably this period gave her a strong urge to detox later in life!
Having lived in Bangkok before, Tina was not really sure that she wanted to live in Chiang Mai (due to its relatively small size) when the option presented itself in 2006. But destiny had a different plan for her. After living for two months in Chiang Mai she met Thomas who is the love and lesson of her life. Together with him new doors have opened. Tina has taken him down the path of vegetarianism, animal rights and fair trade and Thomas has taught and is still teaching her new things all the time: photography, learning to drive a motorcycle, podcasting, website building, sailing etc. This website is a result of two people combining their love, strength and resources.
Tina’s personal interests include animals, reading, skiing, scuba diving, and traveling. Traveling has been her life-long passion due to her interest in foreign cultures, customs and people. She has traveled in more than 40 countries and has lived the past 10 years abroad. Her dream is to change the world and make it a better place.
Thomas
[Note: Thomas has recently started to be called Thomas again as ‘Tom’ means ‘empty’ in Danish and ‘lesbian’ in Thai. ]
Thomas grew up in a small village close to Oxford in England. From a young age he was very interested in nature, spending many hours playing in local streams and ponds, searching for frogs, newts and fish to study. He also spent too much time worrying about life, death & the universe.
At the age of 9 his parents sent him to a small choir school in Oxford. He was initially traumatized, but then began to enjoy it. Following this, he flirted harmlessly with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Throughout his teenage years, he spent most of his free time at local lakes, sailing, windsurfing, swimming & fishing, in fact anything that would allow him to be in or around water. He also began developing an interest in music, playing Trumpet, Trombone and Guitar at various stages.
In his mid teens he decided that he was fat (because all his friends called him ‘Spud’), so he briefly bordered on Anorexic, losing 13 Kilos in 2 or 3 months.
In 1991, at the age of 18 during a gap year between school and university, Thomas came backpacking to Thailand for three months – a trip that was to open his eyes and perhaps change his outlook forever. Following his return to England, he went to university in London (Goldsmiths College) to study French, but quickly realised he’d rather do other things. He re-applied to study Anthropology the following academic year, and left London in debt. After working and saving for a few months, he went to Morocco, and juggled balls with some Berbers at the top of the High Atlas mountains.
In 1992, he returned to Goldsmiths College to study Anthropology. Simultaneously, he also began visiting more of the ‘underground’ house & techno clubs in London, where his passion for repetitive beats was born. Together with a friend, Josh, they decided that they wanted to take things further and bring the music back to their friends in South East London. Thomas bought record decks, and they both began to spend all their spare time in record shops and following their favourite DJs around London. They began to DJ at house parties, and then to organise parties of their own in venues around New Cross, South London.
They spent the next 6 or 7 years buried in the dance music scene in London, playing at various clubs, in particular Strutt, and organising their own parties called ‘Exposure’. Every spare minute was spent practicing at home, organizing the next party, record shopping, and of course trying to fit in work for University.
Just as they seemed to be on the brink of a successful career as DJs, they both decided a break was needed. During this time, Josh went to India, and Thomas began to have visions of himself as a 45 year old DJ, high on various intoxicants, playing to teenagers in clubs, and the glamour of the scene suddenly began to evaporate. Time for a change.
He worked in various jobs in London for a few years, including managing bars, and as a press officer in a (dance) music promotion company, before realising in 1998 that in actual fact, the music scene in London really made him cringe. He also began to visualize just how the internet was going to affect us culturally over the next 10 years or so, seeing himself with a backpack, a laptop, and freedom.
He quickly decided to learn about website development, and enrolled on a highly intensive four month Web Technologies course in London. Following this, in early 1999, a friend helped him get an internship with an internet Company in the City in London. He worked there as a web developer until autumn 2003 when he took off to Australia with his laptop.
After two years working in Sydney as a web developer and project manager, he began to get restless again, and decided another stop-off in SE Asia would be fun. This time, he decided he would try some voluntary work, and started contacting Burma-related Human Rights groups with the intention of spending a couple of months volunteering. A small human rights organization (representing the Karen ethnic group from Burma), soon replied and offered him an internship for three months. He nervously accepted as it would mean living in an office in a small Thailand/Burma border town called Mae Sot. Reports of Mae Sot he’d found on the web made it sound like the Wild West.
Following three to four months spent living in Mae Sot in Thailand, Thomas had a bit of a ‘Eureka!’ moment and decided that going back to work in a corporate office would be catastrophic for his sanity. He briefly returned to England in Winter, booked a flight straight back to Thailand, cycled through Cambodia for charity, then arrived back in Mae Sot, re-joining the same human rights group for a few more months.
Luckily for him, he had set up a small internet-based company in the UK before he left. This provided just enough money to allow him to support himself whilst volunteering.
In June/July 2006, Thomas and a like-minded friend from Mae Sot formed an organisation, to give an identity to work that they were already doing for various Burmese groups along the Thai/Burma border.
Whilst on a short trip to study Thai language in Chiang Mai, Thomas met Tina and within a couple of (turbulent) months decided he would move to Chiang Mai to be with her.
Together they are planning to save the world, have children and make a modest living from the internet so that they don’t need to work 9-5 and die of stress by the age of 45. Everything has to start somewhere…
