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!