I know I just updated this a few days ago, but this week has been action-packed and I already have so much more to update ya'll on...
So I'm pretty sure it took the first month at site for everyone to warm up to me and understand why the "forang" (foreigner) is actually here. Now that most everyone understands my purpose, they are no longer shy to ask me for help. This week was the first week that I finally started teaching. Monday was my first class at the SAO (where I work). I taught English from 4:30 to 5:30 to about 10 people. My counterpart has also been advertising this class to everyone we talk to so I think next week's class will have grown in size. On Tuesdays, I teach one of the local kids in my village from 6-7 pm at my house. Apparently his parents are friends with one of the people at my work so that is how this got set up. I teach for free since the Peace Corps won't allow us to profit from any of this, so in return for me teaching English his mom said she would help me with my Thai, which I feel is a great exchange. They also bring me food each class because I live alone and apparently have no idea how to fend for myself, but it is delicious so I don't argue with her :) Then on Wednesdays every week I will be teaching at one of the local schools for an hour from 2:30 to 3:30. The Paw Aw (head of the school) originally wanted me to teach a group of 80 students, but I obviously put my foot down and said that I would draw the line at 20. He was definitely trying to take advantage, which I have learned from the Peace Corps is not acceptable, haha. Then to finish off the week, I teach yoga to a group of health volunteers at the village health station on Friday from 10-11 am. This is obviously the most interesting of the classes that I teach, seeing how I have never been a yoga teacher and have only been to about 10 yoga classes in my life.
This was my first week for each of these classes and overall, it was amazing! The SAO class on Monday is a little boring and difficult becuase the level of English varies dramatically with each person. Teaching at the school was a BLAST!!! We played a game for most of the hour dealing with the names of the body parts. I drew two bodies on the whiteboard and then taped little pieces of paper with body part names written on each one next to the bodies. I then split the class into two groups so they could compete against each other. I gave each kid a number and then would call out a body part and a number and the two kids from each team would compete to see who could match the right name with the body part the fastest and then sit back down. The kids loved it!!! I gave candy to the winning team, which clearly upped the intensity.
Yoga was also a lot more fun than expected. I was a little nervous going into this, which is understandable from the lack of knowledge on my part. I looked up the positions online beforehand at the office and then practiced it once at home before the class. I understood each pose, but actually demostrating them was a little more challenging. The women were great though and just had fun with it. In fact, so many women showed up that I had to give two classes. They also want to continue the class and do it again next week, which is definitely promising. Usually Thais tend to flake out and classes don't last very long. It is still the first week though, so we'll see. I did meet some new friends from the class though. One lady even invited me to a monk party today. She showed up at my house this morning around 9, and hour before she said she would be there. I hurried to get ready so that I could go to this party and dance in the street to a Thai marching band for about 2.5 hours. These parties can be fun, but I have been to so many that I've lost count, and after awhile they start to get old. The songs are usually the same and everyone tries to pull the "forang" up infront of to dance, while the other 40-50 people watch. Being the live entertainment of the party is only fun if you have some liquid courage to help you out...aka liquor! Being sober at 9 in the morning and forced to dance for multiple hours in the hot hot sun starts to lose its appeal after awhile. It was fun though and I was able to meet quite a few more people from my village that I had yet to meet. It was good IRBing I suppose (intentional relationship building). They want me to come back tonight for the dinner and performance, aka ladyboys singing and dancing on stage to tacky Thai music. I'm not sure if I will go. I hope it rains and then I will just blame it on that, I do have to ride my bike there, haha :)
All in all, this week was fabulous and I have finally starting helping my community! They are definitely small steps, but in the right direction...
Friday, 22 May 2009
Sunday, 17 May 2009
The Big Transition!
So this past week has been a little more than hectic, to say the least. It marked the first month at site, which not only means that I can start travelling away from site on the weekends but it also mean that I am finally moving out of my homestay and into my very own house. You can probably imagine how exciting this is for me as well as the rest of the volunteers, being at site for a straight month without leaving your village is definitely a little overwhelming.
I was planning on moving out of my house on Friday, May 8th. For some reason I thought this was a great idea even though the following morning I would be leaving very early to spend a 3 day weekend in Bangkok, partying with about 30 volunteers. Before I moved in on Friday, I wanted to make sure that my house was ready so that I didn't get there and find everything was a mess. I asked the people at my work if we could stop by and make sure all of the furniture I had requested was there and the man who was previously living there had moved completely out. So it's Wednesday, two days before I move in, and I stop by the house at 4pm with the janitor at my work because everyone else was busy. We show up and are greeted by three little Thai children as well as the man who was living there....oh wait, I mean who are still living there. Yes, their shit is still everywhere and I am supposed to move in in two days! I am a little overwhelmed/upset but clearly try to hide it. He says it's not fully ready but the furniture is there and I can take a tour to see it. I find about three pieces of new furniture along with a food closet that is old, used, dusty and broken. Mind you, I am paying this man four times what he is requesting for rent and what I wanted in return was for the house to be fully furnished. After I left and went home, I immediately called a fellow volunteer to complain and then felt much better. I then called the only lady at my work who slightly speaks speaks English and tried to explain to her the situation.
The next day at work I am sitting at the computer and overhear P Aw (the lady who I spoke with the previous day) bitching out the man on the phone. She was doing this infront of the entire office and was not being shy about it, it was slightly awkward as I'm sure you could imagine. That day, Thursday, I went to the market and bought a bunch of appliances and some furniture for my house as I was assured that the house would definitely be ready.
The next day was Friday, the day I was going to move into my very own house. I get up around 6 am to pack all of my stuff and get ready to leave around 8 with one of the workers/janitor/handyman at my office. As I'm leaving my host mom and dad say they want to come help me move in during the morning and then go to work in the sugarcane fields in the afternoon. So we all head to my future rental house. My parents get there before me and as I step out of the truck the look on my host mom's face was priceless! It was a look of shock and slight disgust. She then proceeds to ask me how and why I am going to live here as well as why the heck I am paying this man four times the original asking price for this dump! We all take a quick walk through to see what works and what doesn't as well as to see just how much work and cleaning we have to do. The house was awful! It was filthy, the lights didn't work and the it was clear that he bought the cheapest possible furniture so that he could meet the requirements on my list of requests. I immediately began cleaning the bathroom, which I would not even think of using before scrubbing it top to bottom. At this point, I am on my hands and knees with a tiny scrub brush going to work on this bathroom and absolutely dripping sweat...to the point that I look like I just took a shower. Then, the Nayoke walks in. He is my boss and the head person at my office. Coincidentally, he also has a look of disgust on his face and asks me why I want to live here.
After much discussion with my family, the Nyoke and many of the neighbors, we realize that the houses on this side of the street are small and only worth 1,000 baht a month, whereas the houses across the street are 3,000 baht, but much bigger and with AC! At this point I am very disappointed and frustrated with my situation. If I knew any of this, especially the prices and that there were four vacant houses on the bigger side of the street, I clearly would not have settled for this house. The Nyoke continues to tell me about these big beautiful houses but that he can't do anything since I have already agreed to this house and that I didn't work with him in the beginning, I worked with the P Aw, the lady who slightly speaks English. After much conversation and a few calls to P Aw to try and have her explain how I'm feeling, we decide to go look at the vacant houses across the street. Unfortunately, two of them wouldn't work and one was out of my price range because of the amenities it came with. Then we came to last house, which is directly across the street from my orginal rental house, and it is PERFECT!!! Conveniently, the owner is also a good friend of the Nyoke. We looked around the house and see that one bedroom has AC and it is already furnished. The owner very easily and happily agrees to let me live there for two years and pay 3,700 baht a month, including water and electricity bills! I am more than excited at this point!!! I am so happy and relieved that I am not stuck with the shit hole and that I am going to live in a beautiful and CLEAN house! So we stand around for a bit chit chatting and I begin to woder if this is actually happening. You have to realize that all of this is happening in Thai, no one speaks English. It was not only confusing and frustrating, but extremely exhausting as well. They kept saying yeah, sure sure, but didn't do anything to start moving my stuff in. So I go across the street and slowly start to carry the little things that I could across the street to the new house, hoping they would get the hint and start helping me. By the end of the day I had all my stuff moved in, with the thanks of about 10 people who showed up to help me even though they weren't asked to. My host dad hooked up my sink and washing machine and the women helped me with my bedroom and kitchen. Everyone was SOOOO amazing and I couldn't ask for a group of nicer people. This definitely made me realize just how nice Thais are and happy that these are the people I will be working with for the next two years.
I had everything mostly moved in by the end of the day on Friday and was able to sleep in a nice and spacious bedroom that night, which was, dare I say, actually cold because of the air conditioning that I have. The following day I headed to Bangkok early in the morning. I am an hour and a half van ride to bangkok, which costs 120 Baht ($4). I met up with all of the volunteers and ended up having two days of complete fun and debauchery, which was exactly what we all needed. Being at site for an entire month with no other forangs (Americans/foreigners) while being on your best behavior 24/7 in order to make a good first impression can really pent up alot of energy and stress. Don't worry though, we were more than able to release it that weekend in Bangkok and now we are all feeling much better at site :)
I am back at site now and have been living in my house for about a week. I did a complete Spring cleaning yesterday and love how clean my house is. I took all of the furniture out on the patio and completely scrubbed and mopped the entire house. I am very happy with my new house, and even though it can be lonely at times, it is well worth it. I have also began eating food that I want and not the food which I am given and am forced to eat. I eat when I'm actually hungry and eat food that does not consist of rice, it's lovely!
Other than that, not much else is new. Actually, this week I am starting two classes here in my village. I am teaching an English class at my office every Monday for the people I work with, as well as a yoga class at the health station on Thursday. Yes, I said yoga. Most of you are probably wondering why I am doing this, and that is a great question. The health volunteers said they need to exercise more and somehow that translated to me teaching them yoga once a week. It was either that or aerobics, which clearly takes way too much coordination on my part. It should be really interesting and I will definitely update ya'll on how that goes.
That's all for now, I need to stop spending so much time on the internet and use this time to be productive....like teaching myself Thai! :)
Love!
I was planning on moving out of my house on Friday, May 8th. For some reason I thought this was a great idea even though the following morning I would be leaving very early to spend a 3 day weekend in Bangkok, partying with about 30 volunteers. Before I moved in on Friday, I wanted to make sure that my house was ready so that I didn't get there and find everything was a mess. I asked the people at my work if we could stop by and make sure all of the furniture I had requested was there and the man who was previously living there had moved completely out. So it's Wednesday, two days before I move in, and I stop by the house at 4pm with the janitor at my work because everyone else was busy. We show up and are greeted by three little Thai children as well as the man who was living there....oh wait, I mean who are still living there. Yes, their shit is still everywhere and I am supposed to move in in two days! I am a little overwhelmed/upset but clearly try to hide it. He says it's not fully ready but the furniture is there and I can take a tour to see it. I find about three pieces of new furniture along with a food closet that is old, used, dusty and broken. Mind you, I am paying this man four times what he is requesting for rent and what I wanted in return was for the house to be fully furnished. After I left and went home, I immediately called a fellow volunteer to complain and then felt much better. I then called the only lady at my work who slightly speaks speaks English and tried to explain to her the situation.
The next day at work I am sitting at the computer and overhear P Aw (the lady who I spoke with the previous day) bitching out the man on the phone. She was doing this infront of the entire office and was not being shy about it, it was slightly awkward as I'm sure you could imagine. That day, Thursday, I went to the market and bought a bunch of appliances and some furniture for my house as I was assured that the house would definitely be ready.
The next day was Friday, the day I was going to move into my very own house. I get up around 6 am to pack all of my stuff and get ready to leave around 8 with one of the workers/janitor/handyman at my office. As I'm leaving my host mom and dad say they want to come help me move in during the morning and then go to work in the sugarcane fields in the afternoon. So we all head to my future rental house. My parents get there before me and as I step out of the truck the look on my host mom's face was priceless! It was a look of shock and slight disgust. She then proceeds to ask me how and why I am going to live here as well as why the heck I am paying this man four times the original asking price for this dump! We all take a quick walk through to see what works and what doesn't as well as to see just how much work and cleaning we have to do. The house was awful! It was filthy, the lights didn't work and the it was clear that he bought the cheapest possible furniture so that he could meet the requirements on my list of requests. I immediately began cleaning the bathroom, which I would not even think of using before scrubbing it top to bottom. At this point, I am on my hands and knees with a tiny scrub brush going to work on this bathroom and absolutely dripping sweat...to the point that I look like I just took a shower. Then, the Nayoke walks in. He is my boss and the head person at my office. Coincidentally, he also has a look of disgust on his face and asks me why I want to live here.
After much discussion with my family, the Nyoke and many of the neighbors, we realize that the houses on this side of the street are small and only worth 1,000 baht a month, whereas the houses across the street are 3,000 baht, but much bigger and with AC! At this point I am very disappointed and frustrated with my situation. If I knew any of this, especially the prices and that there were four vacant houses on the bigger side of the street, I clearly would not have settled for this house. The Nyoke continues to tell me about these big beautiful houses but that he can't do anything since I have already agreed to this house and that I didn't work with him in the beginning, I worked with the P Aw, the lady who slightly speaks English. After much conversation and a few calls to P Aw to try and have her explain how I'm feeling, we decide to go look at the vacant houses across the street. Unfortunately, two of them wouldn't work and one was out of my price range because of the amenities it came with. Then we came to last house, which is directly across the street from my orginal rental house, and it is PERFECT!!! Conveniently, the owner is also a good friend of the Nyoke. We looked around the house and see that one bedroom has AC and it is already furnished. The owner very easily and happily agrees to let me live there for two years and pay 3,700 baht a month, including water and electricity bills! I am more than excited at this point!!! I am so happy and relieved that I am not stuck with the shit hole and that I am going to live in a beautiful and CLEAN house! So we stand around for a bit chit chatting and I begin to woder if this is actually happening. You have to realize that all of this is happening in Thai, no one speaks English. It was not only confusing and frustrating, but extremely exhausting as well. They kept saying yeah, sure sure, but didn't do anything to start moving my stuff in. So I go across the street and slowly start to carry the little things that I could across the street to the new house, hoping they would get the hint and start helping me. By the end of the day I had all my stuff moved in, with the thanks of about 10 people who showed up to help me even though they weren't asked to. My host dad hooked up my sink and washing machine and the women helped me with my bedroom and kitchen. Everyone was SOOOO amazing and I couldn't ask for a group of nicer people. This definitely made me realize just how nice Thais are and happy that these are the people I will be working with for the next two years.
I had everything mostly moved in by the end of the day on Friday and was able to sleep in a nice and spacious bedroom that night, which was, dare I say, actually cold because of the air conditioning that I have. The following day I headed to Bangkok early in the morning. I am an hour and a half van ride to bangkok, which costs 120 Baht ($4). I met up with all of the volunteers and ended up having two days of complete fun and debauchery, which was exactly what we all needed. Being at site for an entire month with no other forangs (Americans/foreigners) while being on your best behavior 24/7 in order to make a good first impression can really pent up alot of energy and stress. Don't worry though, we were more than able to release it that weekend in Bangkok and now we are all feeling much better at site :)
I am back at site now and have been living in my house for about a week. I did a complete Spring cleaning yesterday and love how clean my house is. I took all of the furniture out on the patio and completely scrubbed and mopped the entire house. I am very happy with my new house, and even though it can be lonely at times, it is well worth it. I have also began eating food that I want and not the food which I am given and am forced to eat. I eat when I'm actually hungry and eat food that does not consist of rice, it's lovely!
Other than that, not much else is new. Actually, this week I am starting two classes here in my village. I am teaching an English class at my office every Monday for the people I work with, as well as a yoga class at the health station on Thursday. Yes, I said yoga. Most of you are probably wondering why I am doing this, and that is a great question. The health volunteers said they need to exercise more and somehow that translated to me teaching them yoga once a week. It was either that or aerobics, which clearly takes way too much coordination on my part. It should be really interesting and I will definitely update ya'll on how that goes.
That's all for now, I need to stop spending so much time on the internet and use this time to be productive....like teaching myself Thai! :)
Love!
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Living the Thai Dream...
It has been a little over 2 weeks since I have moved to site and I am learning to appreciate it more and more each day. I must admit, it was very hard at first, I didn't have my bike and I got to site right in the middle of a holiday when no one was working. Now, I actually have transportation...aka my bike, and I have been going to work everyday at the local government office from 8 am to 4:30 pm. I have already learned so much about my community and the 14 villages that I will be working with. For the past week I have been going to each village and talking with each village headman. I feel like I have somewhat made myself known here in the community, but definitely have more IRBing to do (intentional relationship building, as the Peace Corps calls it). I haven't rode my bike much since my office has taken me around to each village and showed me where everything is. I think once I get out on my bike everything will look much different, since I will be living it and not just looking at it through a window.
I have 1.5 weeks left until I move into my own rental house...finally! I have been living with host-families for the last 4 months and can't wait to be able to just do my own thing. My office is going to help me move in and hopefully take me to the tesco lotus, which is like Target, Thai style. I will finally be able to go home and relax, without worrying about speaking Thai or having people watch my every move. Don't get me wrong, I have loved living with Thai families. I learned how to cook about 10 different Thai dishes as well as learn about the Thai culture, up close and personal. For example, last Saturday I got up around 6:30 am, since I never get up passed 7...ever, and as I got out of the shower my Nayoke (boss) was standing there waiting to take me to a monk party. I then went straight to the party, around 8 am. I sat there while others had already started drinking. The marching band showed up a little later, and when I say marching band, I mean marching band. It was complete with trumpets, saxophones, and drums that you hold while you walk. After listening to them for a bit we all loaded up in the trucks and went to the temple down the street. We all piled out of the trucks for a good 15 minutes and danced while the band was playing. We then walked back to the house, which was about .25 miles away but took a good hour to get back becuase we were dancing the whole time! The soon-to-be monk was being carried on this bull looking pinata/chair thing that about 5-10 men were carrying. Just to paint you a better picture, we were walking in the middle of the road with about 100 semi-drunk people at 9am dancing to a marching band while a monk was being hoisted up on people's shoulders. This party then continued for the rest of the day and late into the night. These parties are all day extravaganzas and the family usually blares music from the obnoxious speakers for about 3 days straight. This is definitely the Thai culture that I learned to love and probably wouldn't have experienced it this intensely if I was living alone. Needless to say, after 4 months, I think I can handle living alone and waking up after 7, not because of the monk party music or the roosters crowing, but because I actually want to :)
Next week is definitely going to be a full week seeing how I will be moving into my own place and going to Bangkok for the weekend to play with the other volunteers, since it will have been a month at site and we are finally able to leave our provinces. Look forward to a blog update complete with many new and interesting experiences.
I have 1.5 weeks left until I move into my own rental house...finally! I have been living with host-families for the last 4 months and can't wait to be able to just do my own thing. My office is going to help me move in and hopefully take me to the tesco lotus, which is like Target, Thai style. I will finally be able to go home and relax, without worrying about speaking Thai or having people watch my every move. Don't get me wrong, I have loved living with Thai families. I learned how to cook about 10 different Thai dishes as well as learn about the Thai culture, up close and personal. For example, last Saturday I got up around 6:30 am, since I never get up passed 7...ever, and as I got out of the shower my Nayoke (boss) was standing there waiting to take me to a monk party. I then went straight to the party, around 8 am. I sat there while others had already started drinking. The marching band showed up a little later, and when I say marching band, I mean marching band. It was complete with trumpets, saxophones, and drums that you hold while you walk. After listening to them for a bit we all loaded up in the trucks and went to the temple down the street. We all piled out of the trucks for a good 15 minutes and danced while the band was playing. We then walked back to the house, which was about .25 miles away but took a good hour to get back becuase we were dancing the whole time! The soon-to-be monk was being carried on this bull looking pinata/chair thing that about 5-10 men were carrying. Just to paint you a better picture, we were walking in the middle of the road with about 100 semi-drunk people at 9am dancing to a marching band while a monk was being hoisted up on people's shoulders. This party then continued for the rest of the day and late into the night. These parties are all day extravaganzas and the family usually blares music from the obnoxious speakers for about 3 days straight. This is definitely the Thai culture that I learned to love and probably wouldn't have experienced it this intensely if I was living alone. Needless to say, after 4 months, I think I can handle living alone and waking up after 7, not because of the monk party music or the roosters crowing, but because I actually want to :)
Next week is definitely going to be a full week seeing how I will be moving into my own place and going to Bangkok for the weekend to play with the other volunteers, since it will have been a month at site and we are finally able to leave our provinces. Look forward to a blog update complete with many new and interesting experiences.
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Now a real U - Thong resident...
Where do I even begin...these last few weeks have definitely been a whirlwind! Let see, on April 5th we moved out of our homestays and back into the hotel for a few days before we all shipped off to site. It was so nice to spend time with the volunteers one last time before we all left and at the same time slightly sad. I feel like we all got so close with one another because of such an intense experience that we were all going through together over the last 3 months. I have realized now how nice it was to be able to go to training every day and bitch with the volunteers about what I was going through with my fam and whatnot. Now, at site, I am the only volunteer with the closest being about 3 hours away and I have found only a few people who can speak very little English. On April 9th we had our swearing in ceremony where we all became official volunteers. Then immediately after the ceremony, we left with our counterparts and headed to our sites. In my case, I headed off to Bangkok to get all 4 wisdom teeth pulled! Yes, I did say that I got my teeth pulled in Thailand. I spent 5 days there recovering from what was a very intense and much different surgery than you would find in the states. I was not put under and only had local anesthetic so I knew what was going on the entire time. The doctor was also much more hardcore. When it hurt and I would yell a little she would just say "oh sowwy" and continue yanking the tooth out. Immediately after surgery, with very little instruction, they sent me back to the hotel by myself. It was a very interesting experience and looking back wasn't completely awful, or at least not as bad as I thought it was going to be going into it. The minor detail is that while I was in Bangkok, all of the political uprisings were also taking place. I was not allowed to go certain places because of the political protests, which eventually turned violent with the military in the streets shooting their guns. I didn't see much of this because I mostly stayed at the hotel, except when I went to find yogurt or mashed potatoes at KFC....my diet for the 5 days. Oh, and this was also the same time as Songkron, the Thai new years water festival. This is where everyone goes into the streets and gets wasted all day while having a huge water fight. This sounds amazing, but while having a completely swollen mouth and on painkillers enduring drunkards approaching me and wiping the white pouder all over my very painful mouth and face, while also having huge protests consisting of thousands of people and military men with guns only blocks away...wasn't the best situation you could imagine. I got through it though and I'm still alive and well.
I left Bangkok and arrived at site last Tuesday, the 14th. I got to my homestay around 4 pm, right in the middle of their Songkron celebration. Everyone at my house was drinking and singing kareoke. I sat and watched for a while and then saw one of the guys that hangs out at my house alot go into the yard and grab a chicken. He then proceeded to find a random stick and beat the chicken repeatedly over the head. He let it suffer a while on the ground before throwing it into a pot of boiling oil. He finished by taking the now dead chicken and plucking all of it's feathers off. I think by the ridiculous look I had on my face my family then realized that I was definitely a vegetarian. They all laughed at me and my unique reaction to this Thai method of making dinner.
For the next few days I did nothing but lie around in the hammocks all day and play dominos with the girls that live next door. It was a little frustrating since I thought I was going to be extremely busy meeting people and seeing my town, but it was the middle of a holiday and most people were either with their families or out of town. On Saturday in my town we had the big finale to the Songkron festival. In the morning I went to the temple with my family and we did religious ceremonies for about 3 hours. It was really interesting except the fact that they don't have chairs in the temple. Everyone sits on the ground, and trust me, after 3 hours of sitting on the ground your body definitely hates you. I am starting to form little calices on my ankles from sitting on the ground ALL THE TIME! In my homestay there is no furniture, well at least until they found I was going to live there. Then they bought a table and 4 chairs, which we never sit at because there are always like 10 people at my house. I am a fan of the hammocks however. My house has 4 hammocks and they are constantly occupied by someone. Taking naps in the afternoon in the hammocks has become part of my routine. Americans should definitely adopt the idea of hammocks as a main piece of furniture. I have also noticed that hammocks are the new basinet in Thailand. The two kids under the age of 2 at my house take their daily naps in the hammocks everyday and it works like a charm! Anyways, after the 3 hours of religious ceremonies they had a huge water festival/water fight at the temple. Everyone puts on hawaiian style shirts, which apparently are also directly associated with Songkron here, and throws water on everyone. Then in the evening we went back to the temple for dancing. This was a great end to the holiday.
Today is Monday and it is my first day at the SAO, the government office where I will work. I have actually gotten alot done today, which finally makes me feel productive. The Peace Corps has about a thousand forms for us to fill out regarding information about our site. I sat in the office and started to ask the questions, soon I had about 5 people surrounding me trying to help me with the the forms. I think that once the awkwardness of being new and foreign passes and the Thai people feel comfortable around me, things are going to be great. The Thai people are so nice and friendly and really want to help, they just seem to be a little timid and afraid they won't be able to communicate with me....which might be the case sometimes :)
I left Bangkok and arrived at site last Tuesday, the 14th. I got to my homestay around 4 pm, right in the middle of their Songkron celebration. Everyone at my house was drinking and singing kareoke. I sat and watched for a while and then saw one of the guys that hangs out at my house alot go into the yard and grab a chicken. He then proceeded to find a random stick and beat the chicken repeatedly over the head. He let it suffer a while on the ground before throwing it into a pot of boiling oil. He finished by taking the now dead chicken and plucking all of it's feathers off. I think by the ridiculous look I had on my face my family then realized that I was definitely a vegetarian. They all laughed at me and my unique reaction to this Thai method of making dinner.
For the next few days I did nothing but lie around in the hammocks all day and play dominos with the girls that live next door. It was a little frustrating since I thought I was going to be extremely busy meeting people and seeing my town, but it was the middle of a holiday and most people were either with their families or out of town. On Saturday in my town we had the big finale to the Songkron festival. In the morning I went to the temple with my family and we did religious ceremonies for about 3 hours. It was really interesting except the fact that they don't have chairs in the temple. Everyone sits on the ground, and trust me, after 3 hours of sitting on the ground your body definitely hates you. I am starting to form little calices on my ankles from sitting on the ground ALL THE TIME! In my homestay there is no furniture, well at least until they found I was going to live there. Then they bought a table and 4 chairs, which we never sit at because there are always like 10 people at my house. I am a fan of the hammocks however. My house has 4 hammocks and they are constantly occupied by someone. Taking naps in the afternoon in the hammocks has become part of my routine. Americans should definitely adopt the idea of hammocks as a main piece of furniture. I have also noticed that hammocks are the new basinet in Thailand. The two kids under the age of 2 at my house take their daily naps in the hammocks everyday and it works like a charm! Anyways, after the 3 hours of religious ceremonies they had a huge water festival/water fight at the temple. Everyone puts on hawaiian style shirts, which apparently are also directly associated with Songkron here, and throws water on everyone. Then in the evening we went back to the temple for dancing. This was a great end to the holiday.
Today is Monday and it is my first day at the SAO, the government office where I will work. I have actually gotten alot done today, which finally makes me feel productive. The Peace Corps has about a thousand forms for us to fill out regarding information about our site. I sat in the office and started to ask the questions, soon I had about 5 people surrounding me trying to help me with the the forms. I think that once the awkwardness of being new and foreign passes and the Thai people feel comfortable around me, things are going to be great. The Thai people are so nice and friendly and really want to help, they just seem to be a little timid and afraid they won't be able to communicate with me....which might be the case sometimes :)
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Almost a real volunteer!
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!
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!
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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