April 19 Update

Interesting things that have happened to me this week so far:
1. I found a house where I can live for the next two years.   Right now I'm living with a host family but can move out in about a week to go live on my own.   I feel relieved about it because I haven't been able to settle down or feel like I have my own space to get organized.
2. I slipped and fell while washing dishes because the ground was slippery and my constantly falling has been the topic of the majority of my conversations lately.   All I did was scrape my knee but I laugh about how dangerous washing dishes is.
3. I left my windows open when I left the house and there was a huge rainstorm that soaked my entire room.   So I came home as fast as possible and thank goodness my computer wasn't damaged.
4. I probably eat more mangoes in one day than I ever have in my entire life cumulatively before coming here.   There are so many mangoes and I'm in love with it.
5. I taught the neighbor kids how to play monkey in the middle as well as 'red light/green light'.   It's been a huge success.   Every day these little girls come over to my house asking to play red light/green light.
6. This past week was the Thai New Year.   The tradition is to throw water on everyone and just play in the water all the time.   So I got soaked riding to the market and back just from people on the side of the road throwing water at me.   Everyone does it and then people also come up and put white powder on your cheeks.   It's pretty fun, but you have to make sure you put your phone or camera in plastic bags if you want to leave your house.
7. I met a pig farmer while I was out in the community trying to get to know people.   He's this big Thai man who is in love with farming pigs; he just had such a passion for it.   I'll probably go back another day and talk about his work, see what goes on there.
8. I teach English twice a week at the government office that I work at.   Today one of the students asked if I knew Justin Bieber.   Then the whole class asked if on Thursday i could teach the class how to sing "Baby" by Justin Bieber.   So that will be my lesson plan for Thursday--transliteration of "Baby".

making brownies

Today I'm going to make brownies for my host family.   We're going to leave in a few minutes to go to the grocery store.  There are many open food markets in Thailand where I usually shop.  But to get 'farang' food (farang means westerner, or if you're white that counts, too) I go to the grocery store 'Tesco Lotus'.  I'm pretty sure it's from England because I don't recognize it as American.  I'm gonig to get a brownie mix because I forgot all the ingredients at home and it's a lot to buy all at once.  Plus, while I was gonig to make it from scratch, lets be honest, they're never as good as the box mixes.   I don't know why, either.   Home made cake is way better, home made everything except brownies is way better.   No home meade brownies can beat some from a mix brownies.   What does pilsbury and betty crocker know that we don't?   It's a mystery of life.   And I'm making them in the microwave because THailand doesn't believe in owning ovens...I've only seen one or two ovens while being here.  Thailand cooks, not bakes.  It's interesting the small things that make such a big difference and how you don't even recognize something as your own culture until you visit another's culture.  Before coming here I never thought ovens were a western culture, I just figured everyone had an oven.  But it's not true, it's a culture thing.  It makes you think again about what is normal in life and what you take for granted as commonplace.  Everything is different here, not in big ways, but the little things seem significant, too.  Like how we shower, for instance.  My host sister, Stem, came to the hotel with me where I was going to a meeting for Peace Corps.  She had never seen a shower or a bathtub and thought it was the strangest thing.  ANd as funny as that seems, I did the same thing when I came here; I thought the bathrooms were so weird.

Just another day of life.

Today I'm in Ayutthya visiting my host family from Pre-Service Training--when I was here the first two and a half months.   I forgot just how much I love my host family and how good it feels to be home here.   It's amazing to me how quickly you can come to love people and how much you feel for them when they're away from you.   The last two weeks were kinda lonely and I felt so disconnected from everyone everywhere in every way.   And then I came back here and I feel so happy again.   I was starting to forget why I love Thailand as discouragement was starting to catch up with me.   I think before that life was just going to fast for me to realize I really am struggling with Thai more than I care to admit.   I'm doing fine for being here only 5 months, but that's just it, it's only been 5 months and with everything else I do I'm just not going to be that great with that much time.   But coming back here reminds me how far I've come and that speaking Isaan really is a lot lot lot lot lot lot harder than speaking THai and that I'm not so dumb afterall.   Central Thai is so much easier to understand and everyone tells me how much better I speak, and I feel like I speak better, too.   PLus, I've really come a long way in reading Thai and writing as well.   I used to read every day with the grandpa of the family when I lived here and he used to tell me that I read well, I just need to read more quickly.   ANd I thought to myself, I'm trying as fast as I can.   But today he said I've gotten so good and he was so proud of me.   And I was so happy.   I remember again that I love Thailand and I'm so grateful to be here.

May 12, 2011

Thailand sure does seem to have a lot of holidays.   This weekend we have off Friday, monday, and Tuesday.   I'm not really sure what the holiday is, but there's a rocket festival I'll be going to and I'm not sure what else was said since everyone speaks too fast.   )I guess they don't clue in to the fact I can't understand them despite the dumb looks and constant asking to speak slower and repeat.   Man, learning another language is really hard.   Especially when you'relearning two languages at once and you can't tell if they're speaking Thai or Isaan.) The main staple food here is of course rice.   But the region I'm living in (Isaan) eats 'sticky rice'.   It's so good.   I think I've found my new favorite food.   And good thing we eat it at every single meal!   I don't actually like white rice, but sticky rice is pretty great.   Especially when you soak it in coconut milk and eat it with mangoes--all of which is plenty to be had.   Mango season has arrived and i eat at least one or two a day.   Thai people are so generous and constantly give me things.   Today I visited a village that is known for its weaving.   A lot of people weave, but this village i guess is locally famous for it.   The leader of the woman's group, who I had only spoken to for a few minutes, had me come over to her house and gave me something she had woven.   It's absolutely amazing how intricate they have made this cloth.   But it's even more incredible that she so generously gave it to me.   I asked to pay for it and she said no!--seeing me made her think of her 5 daughters who live inother places, and she was like being a mother to me.   It's really sweet.   I had told her I'd like to learn to weave so as I left I said I would come back and have her teach me how to weave.   Of course, that's a lot of patience whih is going to be really hard.   But it's exciting.   sometimes i feel so overwhelmed with people's generosity.

April 19 Update

Interesting things that have happened to me this week so far:
1. I found a house where I can live for the next two years.   Right now I'm living with a host family but can move out in about a week to go live on my own.   I feel relieved about it because I haven't been able to settle down or feel like I have my own space to get organized.
2. I slipped and fell while washing dishes because the ground was slippery and my constantly falling has been the topic of the majority of my conversations lately.   All I did was scrape my knee but I laugh about how dangerous washing dishes is.
3. I left my windows open when I left the house and there was a huge rainstorm that soaked my entire room.   So I came home as fast as possible and thank goodness my computer wasn't damaged.
4. I probably eat more mangoes in one day than I ever have in my entire life cumulatively before coming here.   There are so many mangoes and I'm in love with it.
5. I taught the neighbor kids how to play monkey in the middle as well as 'red light/green light'.   It's been a huge success.   Every day these little girls come over to my house asking to play red light/green light.
6. This past week was the Thai New Year.   The tradition is to throw water on everyone and just play in the water all the time.   So I got soaked riding to the market and back just from people on the side of the road throwing water at me.   Everyone does it and then people also come up and put white powder on your cheeks.   It's pretty fun, but you have to make sure you put your phone or camera in plastic bags if you want to leave your house.
7. I met a pig farmer while I was out in the community trying to get to know people.   He's this big Thai man who is in love with farming pigs; he just had such a passion for it.   I'll probably go back another day and talk about his work, see what goes on there.
8. I teach English twice a week at the government office that I work at.   Today one of the students asked if I knew Justin Bieber.   Then the whole class asked if on Thursday i could teach the class how to sing "Baby" by Justin Bieber.   So that will be my lesson plan for Thursday--transliteration of "Baby".

I totally screamed like a girl!

i should explain a few things about Thailand. 

I don't know what happened to make it this way, but there are stray dogs everywhere.  Someone suggested that people don't spay or neuter their animals because so many people here are Buddhist and they don't believe in hurting or killing life.  That was also the explanation for why there are so many mosquitoes.  It is true that monks won't kill mosquitoes and just shoo them away.  But the majority of people kill the mosquitoes and there are a million trillion gagillion to kill because all the standing water in the rice fields here.  So the dog problem doesn't make sense, either.  These stray dogs are everywhere.  some are nice enough and just watch you pass by while others are not so nice and chase after you.  We definately got rabies shots when we got here.  it's actually a bit funny when we all come in with our dog stories at school and laugh at who got chased by the dogs today and who sprayed the dogs with their water bottles.  How big of a stick do you have to carry when you pass by his house?

Another thing to explain about Thai culture is that people comment on your looks ALL the time!  It isn't considered bad to openly call someone fat or impolite to tell someone they have gained weight or lost weight or have a zit on their face or their hair looks bad or their clothes are pretty or they need to go bathe.  It's just a way of life here to be hearing about weight and looks all the time. In my host family I live with a  5 year old girl who is a bit chubby and they must tell her she is fat at least 10 times a day.  She just laughs and everyone just laughs.  It's not really bad or negative or offensive, it just is the way things are. As a foreigner swimming in this fish bowl you are definately going to hear what people think about you.  And as a foreigner you have to learn not to take things personally and just be alright with whatever people say.

So there I was hanging out with my host family and the conversation came around to what I eat in America.  i said I eat a lot of salad in America and hardly ever eat rice.  I said how I used to run 10 kilometers a day and now i don't run at all and I feel like I'm getting fat.  I wonder if that was the spark for the fire that everyone agreed whole heartedly with me.  They said when I came to Thailand I was "suay suay" (beautiful) and now I'm "uan uan" (fat).  I laughed really hard as they were telling me this.  i haven't gained any weight at all, but now they're all telling me that I'm fat but when I came I was really skinny.  Everyone agreed.  i mean, maybe I have gained weight, but honestly, I dont' think so.  but i had been wanting to start running again, but those damn dogs are everywhere.  But I decided to take the plunge and start running in the morning.

I woke up at a killer 6am and went out in the country to run.  i live out in the country anyway so I was really just running by my house.  i was running when suddenly out of the bush came running three dogs with slobber running down their fangs and a gleam of sinister determination in their eye.  You know you have those moments when you feel like those primordial instincts kick in and you're just amazed at what you have done to ward off danger and preserve your life.  This was one of those moments when I totally screamed like a girl instead.  I had my hands to my face, my leg behind me and my voice was that high pitched piercing cry of a girl.  Well the dogs were probably as surprised by my reaction as I was because they stopped dead in their tracks and just stared at me as I stared at them wondering what just happened to any amount of fearlessness or courage that ever existed inside me.  I suppose I would be embarrassed if anyone else was around.  Luckily no one was around and it probably woulnd't matter anyway because they'd just think, oh, it's the  'farang' (foreigner) and laugh no matter what I did.  So I kept on running and laughed out loud as I passed by wide open acres of rice fields, banana trees, and papaya trees.  The country here really is beautiful and despite the dogs i'm really happy to be here. 

A description of life

As community development volunteers our job is to build relationships in a community and then find out the sort of things that people want to see be better and develop and then help them accomplish it.  The types of projects we can do can be anything, literally.  But one common thing people ask for is English teachers.  We're told to not teach English exclusively because that's not what we're there for, but we can teach English in schools or as a club as a secondary project if that's what the community really wants.  So two weeks we focused on English class and how to develop lesson plans.  We are asked to come up with lessons and teach a "non-formal education" group an English class three times this week. 
  I've realized that I like the college-education approach to learning.  I like hour long lectures where as much information is crammed into it as possible and you're expected to put in a ton of your own effort to understand and memorize.  But I find language classes generally take an elementary school-education approach to learning.  Very small amounts of information is presented and then you use a lot of time in class to practice and repeat and do activities and "make learning fun!"  It's not better or worse one way or the other, but it's interesting to evaluate how I learn and what I prefer and see how and why I would teach a class.

  Have I explained the showers here?  It's actually dumping buckets of water over your head.  And the water is cold.  And there are generally mosquitoes floating on top of the water that you have to scoop off before you start pouring buckets of water over yourself.  It makes me laugh pretty much every morning.  When I first got here I was actulaly pretty cold, now it's getting warmer so it's not so bad to bathe in freezing cold water.  Okay, so it's not that cold, I'm just a wimp.  But I play this game to see how little amount of water I can use when I bathe.  Surprisingly little water is actually required to bathe yourself.  Who knew!  At home we all take these showers that are like 10 minutes long so the water is running the whole time.  Well, here I bathe for a very limited amoubnt of time and the water is only running when I manually pick up a bowl full of water and pour it over my head.  It's actually kinda fun and now that I'm getting used to it I kinda like it.  I mean, who knew you could use one little bowl full of water to wash your entire body!

This week was really productive in terms of making a very vague job seem more understandable and doable.  We have technical trainings on Monday where we're taught about our responsiblities as a volunteer and then throughout the rest of the week we're asked to apply them.  This week was about surveying people in the community to assess their needs and create projects to help the community develop.  So we got some surveys and then divided into groups in order to go survey different people.  There was a game/contest to see who could do the most surveys and collect the most pictures/fliers/bulletins/signs.  Every survey or thing you collect you get a certain number of points.  This was to help us look around and find information that is available all around us.  So this past week I went with a group to survey people about the environment, their schools, and their religious services.  The surveys were actually really interesting.  Many Thai people burn their trash instead of having trash collection.  So there is burning everywhere all the time.  This leads to health problems like asthma or other respiratory diseases.  But also it's just really bad for the greenhouse effect.  So we asked people about it and it was just really interesting what people had to say about it.  Recycling is also something that is just starting to come about here and it's always interesting just to see what people have to say about it.  And I took a million pictures while doing all of this.  And my group won.  Of course.  Every bulletin or sign I saw I took a picture of and we did like 10 surveys while other groups did maybe 4.  Haha!  I'm so competitive.  IT doesn't even matter what it's about and it doesn't matter that all I won was a mini snickers the fact is all the extra effort was well worth it because my team won and I really like winning. 

It's getting really hot here now and the humidity may actually be higher than Florida.