From Thailand with Love

Well all my lovely family and friends and virtual strangers who follow my blog, it’s thai’m for an update. 

Bad puns over. Basically there isn’t much to say about my life here. Hot season is slowing down. It’s starting to rain more which means that I spend several hours a week reading with my head lamp because the power goes out. 

Actually, I spend several hours a week reading because there isn’t much else to do. I should be “integrating into my community”, but that only takes up so much time. Between 7pm and bedtime everyone is at home in their house, and I am left with my kindle and a file with 1500 books. I live with my host family. On evening when they are up and about I hang out with them until bedtime.

Basically I’ve been going a little stir crazy here. Two months to integrate into my community with little work was tough.  However, school started last week and I’m a 7:30 to 4:30 girl now. Actually yesterday I was a 8 to 4 girl. I find the times to be just suggestions. When it was 4:10 and the only people left in the teachers workroom were me and this male teacher, I decided to beat it and not put myself in one of those situations that become part of Safety and security training and later years.   

I’m happy. Work is picking up. The kids are adorable. I see where I can help. Next weekend I’m spending in Chaing Mai with some other volunteers, and we are just going to have some fun and be tourists. I’m thankful to be in a country where people don’t think twice about me in the large cities, but the people in my village will suffocate me with their worry and kindness. 

Some examples of kindness in the past few weeks

• An offer from 15 different people to take the volunteers who came to my English camp and myself around to site see. 
• Today the “maa-baan” (literal translation: house-mom meaning: janitor) brought me papaya salad because she knows I like it. 
• When it rained 5 different teachers from my school offered me a ride, so I didn’t have to ride my bike.
• A monk invited a friend and I to have lunch with his family and him at the Wat and then showed us around. 
• Yesterday a teacher bought mangosteens for everyone to eat after lunch, but mostly for me because she knows I like them.
• Oh and another act of kindness that didn’t come from Thailand was my amazing mother sending me a care package of goodies. 

 Yeah life is pretty good. 

Things I Didn’t Say During Songkron

Wow, that ice water feels sooooo good running down my back. 

I’m so glad Thai people don’t wear bathsuits, wearing soaking wet jeans is great.

Yes, I’d love for you to rub that white, yellow, or blue beng cream all over my face.

Oh drunk lady, you’re hilarious. Thank you for shoving your half consumed whiskey in my face and yelling “drink” at me. 

In all seriousness though, Songkron is an amazing festival. Even all of that stuff above wasn’t bad at all. When the drunk lady realized I could speak Thai she laid off. 

Brief cultural lesson: Songkron is the celebration of the Thai New Year. It’s a time where the young pay respect to the old, everyone pays respect to their religion, and families come together in celebration. Also, there is a lot of water thrown, alcohol and food consumed, and tons of car accidents. There always has to be some bad with the good. Thai people have to be the smartest people ever. It is so incredibly hot here, about 100 degrees F everyday, with little to no air conditioning to be found. They solve this is by closing work for almost a week and staying covered in water. Children, teens, and adults set up water stations in front of their houses and would then throw water at passing people. On the second day of water play I went for a bike ride with my host sister Ceeda. We both knew that this ride meant that water would be thrown at us. However, it turned into a challenge for these little kids to soak Kruu Warrie with as much water as possible. On day five and day six these same needs over came Thai people when they attacked me with water. Of course I am a willing participant in anything that gives a break from the heat. 

Along with all the water throwing the fun also involves parades, Miss Songkran pageant, music, bands, dancing, drinking, eating, more drinking, another parade, more music, and a giant water truck driving down the parade route with the water blasting out and people dancing in the middle of the street. It’s amazing and fun, and everyone tells me that this year isn’t as fun as normal because they have no mayor. I’m afraid to see next year. 

With all of the fun that Songkran is the main point is it’s a family holiday. On day three of Songkran after helping Yaa(grandma) make kanums(desserts) for almost three hours, I went to my coteachers house, and I met all sixteen of her family members. They came together to celebrate. The same with my host family. The mom, dad and one daughter went to another province to the mother’s families home. The aunt and other daughter stayed here with the father’s parents. On day four of Songkran, I stayed home and watched as person after person came to the house to visit my host grandparents. They all brought gifts and respect. Lot’s of water was blessed, and my host sister and I served all of the kanums we had helped prepare the day before. That morning Ceeda, Aunt Ya, and I went to the grandparents, then asked for forgiveness for all mistakes made the previous year. We poured scented water on their hands, and they put the water on their heads. We then wished the grandparents well, and in return they gave us a blessing. It’s a beautiful cultural moment full of family and love. It’s probably one of the best parts about the whole festival. 

Now no Thai festival would be complete without a little religion. Day four, first thing that morning I went with my family out the the streets and a procession of monks came down, and we put food on all of their baskets and paid respect to them. Giving the monks food in the morning is a daily act of the Thai people, but on Songkron days it is just a little more formal. On day five was the watering of the monks where the same idea of watering the hands happened. I went to the Wat with a teacher from my school and her sister. We stood in line, because the whole town comes out, and then we poured the scented water on the Buddha images and then in the hands of all the monks. After that we took the remaining water and sprinkled it throughout the entire Wat. This is where person after person came up to me, told me good luck, welcomed me to their town, and then poured more water on me. Honestly, I am missing the reason behind some of it, but I can appreciate any holiday that involves family and fun. Not to mention all the water fights. 

This morning while exploring on my bike, I choose to go on a side road where two angry looking dogs started barking at me. I turned on another small road to go away from then, but they continued their pursuit. The road then ended so I’m riding my bike through this burnt forest/field. Finally I got back on the road and drove away and the dogs stopped, but it was the scariest one minute ever. 

More importantly, why do crazy foreigners, like myself, think it sounds fun to climb to the top? Oh, because it is. Today has been such a great nature day. My host family and I went to a national park climbed to the top of two “mountains”. They aren’t the rockies, but they for sure aren’t a hill. Today at the second mountain, where the Wat is being constructed at the top, I am doubled over from the climb, see the view, and let out the strangest sound of amazement and exhaustion mixed into one. Then collapsed by the Buddha image for a break. This is my life: sitting at the top of a mountain, by a Buddha image, with at bells chiming with the wind.

Then I went to a cave and a bat pooped on my shoe. Erawan cave is amazing though! No lights or trails. Just you and a guide with a flashlight climbing around and over rocks.

Pics to follow this week!