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.

Was there ever a time without rice 3 meals a day?

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I left Florida.  I suppose it feels like just yesterday that I was leaving, but at the same time I feel like I can't remember the time before rice was being given to me at every meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Time is such a strange commodity.  It may feel like time just flies by while at the same time feeling like it's never passed.

 I don't know if I ever fully imagined what it would be like in Thailand but everything I see and experience rings true.  I haven't seen anything and been surprised at the thought that this is how things are done.  I haven't really felt a lot of culture shock, I suppose because I just didn't have any expectations of what things would be like.  It's really wonderful here.  These people are so inviting and so welcoming and very kind.  The food is terrific like everyone says.  The only thing I regret is that sweets aren't as important here and I really like sweet stuff.  I've realized that America does sweets better than any place I've been.  I just haven't had it quite right in any other country.  Not that it's something to fuss about, just a comment.

Second Week In Thai!

I'm really tired all the time.  I wonder if there's something wrong with me. Maybe I'm low in iron.  I mean, all I eat is rice here.  Literally, every meal since I've been here has had rice.  Today I couldn't handle it so I bought some yogurt and banana bread from a grocery mart near school.  I have lived in a couple of other places and never had a problem with getting tired of the food and craving American food.  I'm generally not picky about food and will eat anything.  But I'm getting really really tired of rice.  It makes me not want to eat when I think about eating rice.  I thought the food was really good when I first got here, but now all I want is a sandwich.  Or maybe some cheese.  Milk products aren't popular here.  But my host family bought some milk and bread for me, which I thought was really nice of them.  But I think I'll likely end up losing weight unless I learn to love rice because I'm eating about a third as much as I would normally just because I don't want rice.  That and sweet things are not popular here.  And I love sweet stuff.  And I eat it all the time at home.  But here--nothing.

I feel a bit lost here.  I know that's to be expected when you come to a new country, but even in the objectives of this program are really vague.  I know I'm supposed to help in community development.  But that term is so vague and what duties that entails is still very unclear to me.  We have language class for four hours in the morning and then a break for lunch then we meet for four more hours to talk about community development.  We've met a few current volunteers and talked about projects they've done and are doing and asked about things we would be working on.  But still, it seems so unclear.  It sounds like there's a lot of time where they just didn't know what to do.  And all of them keep saying that you need to build relationships and talk with people in the community, that the biggest role a volunteer has is cross cultural exchange.  So I'm supposed to just learn about Thai and become a better person from it and then Thai are supposed to learn about Americans and become better people because of it.  That's what I've gathered so far.  I have tried to put this in perspective of what I have gained from being around people from other cultures and I've realized that it actually has helped me gain a greater appreciation of people and life.  I think I am a better person for experiencing diversity from other cultures.  I've had friends from all over the world and i suppose that the biggest thing they did for me was open my mind.  So, I can be satisfied knowing that's what I'll be providing in some degree to the Thai community here.  Today one of teh current volunteers talked about what success is and that many of us believe it's these big goals and projects, when mostly the success we are really expected to make is in the relationships we build with the community.  It's nice to think we've made a significant change in forms of projects, but it's actually more subtle than that.  People are the most important thing in life, not projects.  I appreciate this perspective even if my goal-oriented mind rebels against it, I'm going to be working on re-focusing my perspective.

Week One in Thailand!

Well this certainly has been a long week that flew by without even realizing what was happening.  Mostly that's because I'm jet lagged out of my mind and am tired constantly.  I have gone to bed at 8pm the past four nights and woken up 10 to 11 hours later.  Maybe I'll be able to catch up for the two to three hour nights I had five days in a row while traveling and getting adjusted.

Right now I am in PST-Pre Service Training and will be for the next 10 weeks.  I suppose it can be related to being in the MTC.  The staff is composed of Thai natives who speak English and a few Americans who speak Thai.  Everyone is really really great.  The Thai culture is known for its friendliness and everyone here certainly fits that norm.

There are 66 volunteers here in my training group.  A typical day is broken into two parts, the morning and the afternoon, broken up by an hour lunch break.  We stayed in a hotel in Ayuthya province  for the first few days and then Saturday moved to our homestay families in Uthai.  I live with a family that has three kids and a granddaughter and a ton of neighbors, aunts, uncles, and friends that walk in and out, I can't really tell who belongs to the family yet or how everyone is related.