So I have been meaning to update this but these last few weeks have been super busy! We are now coming down to the last few days of training and we have so much wrapping up to do with our villages, communities, the Peace Corps and everything else. Last week on Thursday, my technical group, which consists of me and three other volunteers, gave a 45 minute presentation to our government office that we have been working with for the last two months and we had to give the ENTIRE thing in Thai! Needless to say, most of the presentation was very elementary and because this language relies so heavily on tones, which none of us have mastered...clearly, we probably sounded like a bunch of idiots that no one could understand, but of course we did it anyways :) We tend to look like fools a lot in this culture, especially with me being 6 feet tall, white...and uon (fat) compared to the rest of this twigs. So after we finished this simple little task, we then had our final language placement interview the very next day. This interview lets us know how well we are doing at the Thai language as well as whether or not we met the requirement for our technical job. Since I am CBOD (community based organizational development) I had to get intermediate low, the teachers only had to get novice low because they aren't using Thai as much in their job. Luckily and definitely not expected, I placed intermediate mid. So that is one less thing that I have to worry about them using against me as a reason to send me home.
This week was a bit more fun and much less stressful. We had our overall competancy test yesterday, which luckily for me was a complete joke. I chose the room where the adorable little Thai man who does all of the administrative work for the Peace Corps and who is not strict at all was the one proctoring the exam. The test was actually somewhat difficult and very specific, but with a room full of CBODers working together...I think we did alright :) Today we have our final review interview and then tomorrow we have our exit interview. The exit interview is basically to tell you whether or not they want you to swear in as a volunteer or not. I really wish it was set up Bachelor style where we all had to pack our bags going into the interview and then everyone could watch as the interviews took place to see which bags were mysteriously taken....aka which people didn't make the cut.
This weekend we are finally moving out of our homestays and back into the hotel for 4 days before we ship off to site. My family has been super nice and treated me so well. My grandma is the cutest little thing ever!! I love how in this culture everyone is so conservative and generally well-behaved, and then you get old and can act however the hell you want. My grandma is 75, she drinks almost every day if not every other day (being a woman this is highly unusal in this culture), and she hangs out at home all day with her other old lady friends and constantly chews this tobacco stuff 24/7. She has fake teeth, probably because of the tobacco, but continues to chew every day all day, and her fake teeth are now stained red. Just to give you an example of her attitude and personality, a few weeks ago we were at this monk party and she had been drinking all day since the party was across the street from our house, so around 730 when she came home to get me and we went back to the party, she really had to pee, so my grandma gets up from the table and walks about 10 feet away so she is only slightly in the dark, bends down and straight up pops a squat. All of the women at the table were laughing hysterically at her and she came back and was like "what?! I had to pee and didn't want to go find the bathroom." So I am understandably going to miss my family, especially good ol' grannie.
Next week is going to be the biggest transition yet and I am really excited but yet very nervous at the same time. On April 9th we are leaving Chaibadan and heading to site with our Thai counterparts, which conviently for me, doesn't speak English. We will then live at these sites for the next two years....alone. The closest volunteer to me is about 3 hours away. For the first month I will stay with a homestay at my site in hopes of getting integrated into my community through this family. It should definitely be an interesting month, seeing how I already stayed with them for two nights when I visited site so I have a pretty good idea of what the house is like. Just to paint a quick picture of what it is like.....My room is probably 10 feet by 10 feet and luckily for me, they gave me a full size mattress that takes up about 90% of my room. The walls of my room do not attach to the ceiling, so there is about an 8 inch gap that leads to outside...which turns into a great entryway for animals and bugs into my room. For example, when I was at site I laid down to take a nap and was rudely awaken by a lizard crawling across me and my bed. I also heard many creepy crawlers scaling my walls during the night but refused to leave my mosquito net to inspect the situation. Also, my family apparently likes to have roosters as pets and don't mind the 4:30 wake-up call of crowing that takes place for approximately and hour every morning. Luckily for me the wall of my room faces the yard where the roosters live, so I get a front row seat to this crowing alarm. It's okay though because then the family gets up at 5:30 and begins there day, which involves getting ready at the desk/vanity on the opposite side of the wall of my bedroom. One thing you need to understand is that the traditional Thai houses are actually built on stilts, and many times the walls only consist of one thing piece of wood, definitely no insulation. So if someone is moving in the house, everyone else can hear absolutely everything.
Living in Thailand I have definitely completely changed my sleeping schedule. My day now resembles that of a 80 year old grandma. I get up around 5:30 am and go to bed no later than 9 pm. Thankfully I will only live at this homestay for one month and then I am moving out into the house that I found. I will live there by myself and will clearly not be adopting any pet roosters. I actually told my family that even though I am vegetarian, I will eat meat if we could cook up the roosters for dinner. They laughed but obviously did not take me serious since the roosters are sadly still alive and crowing!
I should probably stop this before it becomes a novel but I will try to routinely update this so that I don't have to write so much each time. I miss and love you all!
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Sunday 15 March 2009
Picturing my new life in U Thong, Suphonburi
Right now I am sitting in what will be my office for the next two years, and I couldn't be more excited. I just arrived at my site today to visit it for two days and look at possible living situations for my next two years here. I spent most of the morning with my counterpart, the man who I will work very closely with on all of my projects, his wife and daughter, and then another women at the office who "speaks" English. There is a strong possibilty that I speak better Thai than she does English, but with our combined knowledge it hasn't been too bad. We went and visited two possible home stays this morning who I could live with for the first month in order to integrate into the community. Then after one month, I would move out on my own. The family I chose to live with lives on this compound....or really just a huge piece of land with about 5 houses where the entire family lives. I will be staying with them for the next two nights while I am here. The houses are slightly run-down but the family is huge and seem pretty friendly so whatever, we'll see.
After meeting the families we went to look at possible houses that I could move into after the first month. All of the options that we looked before lunch left me feeling very uneasy about the next two years. Most were lacking many of the amenities that the Peace Corps requires, which isn't to extensive, as well as having slightly shady landlords. After lunch however, we went to this house (which was like a little townhouse) and talked to the guy who is currently living there. He is apparently willing to move out of his house into his other house, and yes, apparently he has two, so that I can move in. The Thai Government has arranged to pay for our housing while we are here and capped it off at 3,700 baht, which is about $105 a month. Fortunately, this guy was only going to charge 1,000 Baht for rent, but that includes no furniture. Thankfully, with my great bargaining skills, I told him I was willing to pay more...ie the thai gov but that was not necessarily explained, if he was willing to furnish my house. So hopefully what was translated, which most of time you never know, was that I will move into this cute little townhouse, which has a western toilet and a hot shower...no bucket shower or squat toilet, in May and live there for the next two years. I'm so excited and can't wait to move out to site. The town I will live in is about and hour and a half away from Bangkok, so if anyone would like to come and visit just let me know. Traveling to my site as well as around Thailand will be amazingly convenient with the location of my site.
Speaking of Bangkok, I spent the night there two nights ago. All of the volunteers stayed there before they shipped us off to our sites for the weekend. It was so much fun to finally let loose and relax with a night out on the town. It was so interesting to see Bangkok because it is NOTHING like traditional rural Thailand. It almost made me miss Chaibadan and my Thai family because everything in Bangkok is so urban, it's like an asian New York City. I have definitely grown to really appreciate the traditional Thai life.
After the night out in Bangkok we went and stayed with an active Peace Corps volunteer to see what their life is like. I stayed with a girl that is just finishing up, so it was very interesting to see her perspective on things. She was very upbeat about her experience, which made me very excited to see what is in store for me. She also had really helpful insight on Thai festivals and culture as well as places to visit during my two years. Thailand sounds pretty amazing and I am soooo happy that I was chosen to serve here.
This has continued to be such a positive experience for me and I am very content with the way things are going. Every day I encounter new cultural differences that are usually pretty interesting. Speaking of which, I had a very funny experience the other day. During our training, we are supposed to choose 3 language lessons that we can teach ourselves. My first lesson was to learn the articles of clothing and how to bargain in the markets in order to get what I need for a reasonable price. I began by using my 8 year old Thai brother to give me the vocab for the different articles of clothing. I realized afterwards, when I went to double check the vocab with my Thai teacher, that using an 8 year old definitely has its pros and cons. He was correct on most of it except when it came to underwear. I asked him how you say bra in Thai and when I confirmed it with my teacher, she busted out laughing. Apparently, it is normal for little kids to call bras "milk sacks" in Thailand, which is not the appropriate word for adults to use. My teacher found it hilarious as well as the other volunteers. I quickly learned that relying on my little brother to learn Thai was probably not the best idea. Well, that is all for now, Sawaatdii Ka!
After meeting the families we went to look at possible houses that I could move into after the first month. All of the options that we looked before lunch left me feeling very uneasy about the next two years. Most were lacking many of the amenities that the Peace Corps requires, which isn't to extensive, as well as having slightly shady landlords. After lunch however, we went to this house (which was like a little townhouse) and talked to the guy who is currently living there. He is apparently willing to move out of his house into his other house, and yes, apparently he has two, so that I can move in. The Thai Government has arranged to pay for our housing while we are here and capped it off at 3,700 baht, which is about $105 a month. Fortunately, this guy was only going to charge 1,000 Baht for rent, but that includes no furniture. Thankfully, with my great bargaining skills, I told him I was willing to pay more...ie the thai gov but that was not necessarily explained, if he was willing to furnish my house. So hopefully what was translated, which most of time you never know, was that I will move into this cute little townhouse, which has a western toilet and a hot shower...no bucket shower or squat toilet, in May and live there for the next two years. I'm so excited and can't wait to move out to site. The town I will live in is about and hour and a half away from Bangkok, so if anyone would like to come and visit just let me know. Traveling to my site as well as around Thailand will be amazingly convenient with the location of my site.
Speaking of Bangkok, I spent the night there two nights ago. All of the volunteers stayed there before they shipped us off to our sites for the weekend. It was so much fun to finally let loose and relax with a night out on the town. It was so interesting to see Bangkok because it is NOTHING like traditional rural Thailand. It almost made me miss Chaibadan and my Thai family because everything in Bangkok is so urban, it's like an asian New York City. I have definitely grown to really appreciate the traditional Thai life.
After the night out in Bangkok we went and stayed with an active Peace Corps volunteer to see what their life is like. I stayed with a girl that is just finishing up, so it was very interesting to see her perspective on things. She was very upbeat about her experience, which made me very excited to see what is in store for me. She also had really helpful insight on Thai festivals and culture as well as places to visit during my two years. Thailand sounds pretty amazing and I am soooo happy that I was chosen to serve here.
This has continued to be such a positive experience for me and I am very content with the way things are going. Every day I encounter new cultural differences that are usually pretty interesting. Speaking of which, I had a very funny experience the other day. During our training, we are supposed to choose 3 language lessons that we can teach ourselves. My first lesson was to learn the articles of clothing and how to bargain in the markets in order to get what I need for a reasonable price. I began by using my 8 year old Thai brother to give me the vocab for the different articles of clothing. I realized afterwards, when I went to double check the vocab with my Thai teacher, that using an 8 year old definitely has its pros and cons. He was correct on most of it except when it came to underwear. I asked him how you say bra in Thai and when I confirmed it with my teacher, she busted out laughing. Apparently, it is normal for little kids to call bras "milk sacks" in Thailand, which is not the appropriate word for adults to use. My teacher found it hilarious as well as the other volunteers. I quickly learned that relying on my little brother to learn Thai was probably not the best idea. Well, that is all for now, Sawaatdii Ka!
Saturday 7 March 2009
Half-way through training...
So I am finally trying to sit down and start my blog and I am realizing what it’s like to have younger siblings. I have three kids between the ages of 5 and 8 crawling all over me as if I was a jungle gym. Don’t get me wrong, the Thai children are adorable and so much fun to play with, but not ALL of the time.
Okay, so as for my experience thus far in Thailand, where do I even begin to start? I have been here for about 6 weeks and the amount stuff that I have done makes it feel like so much longer. Every day is so packed with different Peace Corps activities as well as family activities at home that it seems like I have been here for so much longer. I feel like I have found my grove in this routine that it seems impossible that I was back in the states only 6 weeks ago. Just to give you an idea of my average day here during the week, I usually wake up around 6 am to shower, do homework that I didn’t get done the night before and to eat breakfast with the fam. Keep in mind that when I say breakfast, I mean rice with a few other dishes, usually consisting of random veggies, some kind of meat and a weird looking soup probably with entire fish floating in it, eyes and all. I then bike about 7 k to the hub site in the town of Chaibadan where the Peace Corps sessions take place. I usually have Thai language class for four hours with three other volunteers and my Thai ajaan (teacher). I have definitely picked up a lot of Thai so far but have sooooo much more to learn. Then in the afternoon, I have 4 hours of technical sessions dealing with my community development work. After class, I bike the 7 k back home to shower, since it is about 90-100 degrees and insanely humid, and then I hang out with the fam for a few hours while trying to get them to help me do my homework. I then try to fit in an episode or two of Friends or Sex and the City before I go to bed around 10ish. During the week I am constantly on the go and always have a million things that I could be doing that by the weekend, I just want to relax, which never usually happens. It’s so hard to take a day off and relax when there are so many interesting and fun things I could be doing. I am in Thailand, such an amazingly beautiful country that has so much to offer, I feel like I should be taking advantage of it as much as possible. Once I get to site I will definitely slow down a bit and have more time to relax, thankfully.
In regards to site placement, we find out where they are tomorrow…AHHHH!! This is the place that I will move to April 9th for two years. This will be the place where I will be working for the next two years in an attempt to create a better quality of life that is sustainable and appropriate for the people. We don’t get much say in where we are placed. I had an interview for about 10 minutes on my preferences, which are only sometimes met, and then they choose based on our skills and what the tambon (group of villages) has asked for. Next weekend we will be visiting our site for 3 nights and meeting our counterpart, the Thai person in our village that we will be directly working with everyday for the next 2 years. Usually during these 3 days we spend most of the time looking at possible houses (shacks) that we will live in once at site. During my interview I said that I didn’t care if my site was economically developed or undeveloped so it should be interesting to see what they give me. We are also going to Bangkok next weekend for one night, which from what I can tell will be a drunken night of complete debauchery.
Okay, so enough of the logistics, I’m sure ya’ll want to hear the interesting stories and crazy things that I have encountered being here. First of all, let me explain one of the major differences that affects me every day. Women are definitely not treated as equal. We have to wear dresses and skirts everyday to our sessions because women don’t wear pants in professional settings. Women can also not show any tattoos so all of the volunteers have to wear band-aids over their tattoos. Women are also not supposed to drink alcohol…which clearly works out well for me. I still do though sometimes because they all know that I am a foreigner. My family also lives out in the sticks and definitely drinks every night, so I tend to partake in those festivities a lot We are also not supposed to smoke in public because it insinuates prostitution. We can’t wear tank-tops in public either. We have to cover our shoulders as well as wear pants and skirts that cover our knees. So my tan is clearly going to be amazing when I get back! It is also okay for husbands to have women on the side; the wives just accept and don’t say anything. The other night my friend came over with his “dad” and he was talking about going to this party this weekend and looking at all of the beautiful women. Mind you, he definitely has a wife and kids back home. It was so hard not to say anything and just laugh with everyone else. Okay, so if any of you know me I clearly did not just sit there. I did joke with him saying it wasn’t okay but my friend Beau kept hitting me under the table telling me to shut up and let it slide. Anyways, long story short, the women are definitely getting the short of the stick here and it is going to be a huge challenge to assimilate to the culture and accept these norms that they have been abiding by their entire lives.
Another difference here that I see everyday is their mode of transportation. Every family has a motorcycle and they treat it like it was a minivan back in the states. Everyday on my long-ass bike ride into town I am passed by multiple vespas carrying up to as many as 4 people, without helmets and sometimes even infants. I have also gone to a few monk ordination parties, which consist of lots of food, Hong Thong (Thai whiskey), and lady-boy performers singing on stage, which oddly really do look like girls, and then drive home after consuming at least one entire bottle of Hong Thong. People drive drunk here all the time as well as completely ignore any safety precautions, which are also laws here that are obviously not enforced. Along with driving drunk they also feel that it is appropriate to just pull off on the side of the road to pee, which makes biking passed them slightly awkward.
So I could write pages and pages about my experiences here but I just don’t have the time. i will definitely try to keep this thing updated so that it will be easier to stay on top of blogging as well being able to let you guys hear about what is going on in my life over here. One last detail that ya’ll are probably wondering about is the plumbing situation. Yes, they do use squat toilets and yes, they do have bucket showers. Surprisingly though, neither are that bad. If you don’t really have to go to the bathroom (if you know what I mean), the squat toilets are actually comfortable. The whole toilet paper thing is definitely not utilized like it should be though. They definitely use the water basin next to the squat with a little bucket to clean themselves as well as the whole, which ultimately means that they are probably using their hand….I just try not to think about that when the children are climbing all over me. The bucket shower isn’t that bad either. It is easy to use, the only issue is probably that the water you are using has been sitting there for days and you can’t see to the bottom of the basin, which is about 4 feet deep. You also have to keep in mind that there are little black blobs of lizard poop surrounding the water basin for the shower and even sometimes spiders floating in the water….so clearly it is not the most sanitary situation, but it works. I also have to hand-wash my clothes in two buckets outside in the back of the house. You always have to do two loads too because they don’t mix clothes with underwear and socks. They have a very important cultural concept dealing with the head and feet, which effects the way that they do their laundry. You are also not supposed to cross your legs and point your feet at anyone, as well as step over kids on the floor (over their head that is) or show the bottom of your feet to anyone.
Alright well I must end this entry now. It is Sunday and I still have a bunch of homework to do, laundry, which takes at least and hour because I have to do it myself, and then I am heading into town to get a delightful Thai massage that costs 3 US dollars for an hour….haha, yea there are definitely some great perks in this country as well. I miss and love you all!
Okay, so as for my experience thus far in Thailand, where do I even begin to start? I have been here for about 6 weeks and the amount stuff that I have done makes it feel like so much longer. Every day is so packed with different Peace Corps activities as well as family activities at home that it seems like I have been here for so much longer. I feel like I have found my grove in this routine that it seems impossible that I was back in the states only 6 weeks ago. Just to give you an idea of my average day here during the week, I usually wake up around 6 am to shower, do homework that I didn’t get done the night before and to eat breakfast with the fam. Keep in mind that when I say breakfast, I mean rice with a few other dishes, usually consisting of random veggies, some kind of meat and a weird looking soup probably with entire fish floating in it, eyes and all. I then bike about 7 k to the hub site in the town of Chaibadan where the Peace Corps sessions take place. I usually have Thai language class for four hours with three other volunteers and my Thai ajaan (teacher). I have definitely picked up a lot of Thai so far but have sooooo much more to learn. Then in the afternoon, I have 4 hours of technical sessions dealing with my community development work. After class, I bike the 7 k back home to shower, since it is about 90-100 degrees and insanely humid, and then I hang out with the fam for a few hours while trying to get them to help me do my homework. I then try to fit in an episode or two of Friends or Sex and the City before I go to bed around 10ish. During the week I am constantly on the go and always have a million things that I could be doing that by the weekend, I just want to relax, which never usually happens. It’s so hard to take a day off and relax when there are so many interesting and fun things I could be doing. I am in Thailand, such an amazingly beautiful country that has so much to offer, I feel like I should be taking advantage of it as much as possible. Once I get to site I will definitely slow down a bit and have more time to relax, thankfully.
In regards to site placement, we find out where they are tomorrow…AHHHH!! This is the place that I will move to April 9th for two years. This will be the place where I will be working for the next two years in an attempt to create a better quality of life that is sustainable and appropriate for the people. We don’t get much say in where we are placed. I had an interview for about 10 minutes on my preferences, which are only sometimes met, and then they choose based on our skills and what the tambon (group of villages) has asked for. Next weekend we will be visiting our site for 3 nights and meeting our counterpart, the Thai person in our village that we will be directly working with everyday for the next 2 years. Usually during these 3 days we spend most of the time looking at possible houses (shacks) that we will live in once at site. During my interview I said that I didn’t care if my site was economically developed or undeveloped so it should be interesting to see what they give me. We are also going to Bangkok next weekend for one night, which from what I can tell will be a drunken night of complete debauchery.
Okay, so enough of the logistics, I’m sure ya’ll want to hear the interesting stories and crazy things that I have encountered being here. First of all, let me explain one of the major differences that affects me every day. Women are definitely not treated as equal. We have to wear dresses and skirts everyday to our sessions because women don’t wear pants in professional settings. Women can also not show any tattoos so all of the volunteers have to wear band-aids over their tattoos. Women are also not supposed to drink alcohol…which clearly works out well for me. I still do though sometimes because they all know that I am a foreigner. My family also lives out in the sticks and definitely drinks every night, so I tend to partake in those festivities a lot We are also not supposed to smoke in public because it insinuates prostitution. We can’t wear tank-tops in public either. We have to cover our shoulders as well as wear pants and skirts that cover our knees. So my tan is clearly going to be amazing when I get back! It is also okay for husbands to have women on the side; the wives just accept and don’t say anything. The other night my friend came over with his “dad” and he was talking about going to this party this weekend and looking at all of the beautiful women. Mind you, he definitely has a wife and kids back home. It was so hard not to say anything and just laugh with everyone else. Okay, so if any of you know me I clearly did not just sit there. I did joke with him saying it wasn’t okay but my friend Beau kept hitting me under the table telling me to shut up and let it slide. Anyways, long story short, the women are definitely getting the short of the stick here and it is going to be a huge challenge to assimilate to the culture and accept these norms that they have been abiding by their entire lives.
Another difference here that I see everyday is their mode of transportation. Every family has a motorcycle and they treat it like it was a minivan back in the states. Everyday on my long-ass bike ride into town I am passed by multiple vespas carrying up to as many as 4 people, without helmets and sometimes even infants. I have also gone to a few monk ordination parties, which consist of lots of food, Hong Thong (Thai whiskey), and lady-boy performers singing on stage, which oddly really do look like girls, and then drive home after consuming at least one entire bottle of Hong Thong. People drive drunk here all the time as well as completely ignore any safety precautions, which are also laws here that are obviously not enforced. Along with driving drunk they also feel that it is appropriate to just pull off on the side of the road to pee, which makes biking passed them slightly awkward.
So I could write pages and pages about my experiences here but I just don’t have the time. i will definitely try to keep this thing updated so that it will be easier to stay on top of blogging as well being able to let you guys hear about what is going on in my life over here. One last detail that ya’ll are probably wondering about is the plumbing situation. Yes, they do use squat toilets and yes, they do have bucket showers. Surprisingly though, neither are that bad. If you don’t really have to go to the bathroom (if you know what I mean), the squat toilets are actually comfortable. The whole toilet paper thing is definitely not utilized like it should be though. They definitely use the water basin next to the squat with a little bucket to clean themselves as well as the whole, which ultimately means that they are probably using their hand….I just try not to think about that when the children are climbing all over me. The bucket shower isn’t that bad either. It is easy to use, the only issue is probably that the water you are using has been sitting there for days and you can’t see to the bottom of the basin, which is about 4 feet deep. You also have to keep in mind that there are little black blobs of lizard poop surrounding the water basin for the shower and even sometimes spiders floating in the water….so clearly it is not the most sanitary situation, but it works. I also have to hand-wash my clothes in two buckets outside in the back of the house. You always have to do two loads too because they don’t mix clothes with underwear and socks. They have a very important cultural concept dealing with the head and feet, which effects the way that they do their laundry. You are also not supposed to cross your legs and point your feet at anyone, as well as step over kids on the floor (over their head that is) or show the bottom of your feet to anyone.
Alright well I must end this entry now. It is Sunday and I still have a bunch of homework to do, laundry, which takes at least and hour because I have to do it myself, and then I am heading into town to get a delightful Thai massage that costs 3 US dollars for an hour….haha, yea there are definitely some great perks in this country as well. I miss and love you all!
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