In the interest of adding general updates and a few photos, this
blog post is pretty random. But first I
must admit that this week I ate a sweetened condensed milk
sandwich. It was just what you might be
imagining: two pieces of bread with sweetened condensed milk in the
middle. Only in Thailand , where
bread is a treat that farangs eat for every meal and sweetened condensed milk
is something that is poured in most beverages and over many foods, would I consider
this to be a delicious treat. Also, this
was an option for a mid-morning snack at school. Other options included meat on a stick (hot
dog), meat on a stick (pork), and meat on a stick (fish balls). I’m just glad they’ve already mastered so
many healthy snack options for kids so I won’t have to worry about trying to
helpfully suggest some possible alternatives.
A while back I went with a few of my co-workers and a group
of students from one of the local schools to a local national park. It was an all day event held on a Saturday,
and when I was told about it I understood that it was a training for the kids
about local tourism and a brief training about being junior tour guides (with
which they have, or will have, some experience since they live in the village
in my community that has a large cave in a mountain – a tourist attraction for
Thais traveling on the local main highway).
Knowing this, I dressed in appropriate ‘work attire’ – a below the knee
length skirt and a collared button down shirt.
This was in fact a training, and I even helped by teaching/practicing a
few brief English phrases with them (because that is why I am here!). What I was not told, or was told but did not
understand, is that after lunch we’d all be going on an excursion through the forest/mountain
(sometimes I think they like to intentionally leave things out, or not try to
explain them to me in order to laugh at me later). They all had a laugh and asked if I could participate
in my attire. I assured them I could and
off we went. It started out easy, with a
wide paved trail, but eventually I found myself crawling on my knees and
basically climbing through trees – in my skirt.
I worried most about the appropriateness of it, but my skirt was long
enough that I didn’t have any real risks of indecent exposure. We stopped to take some pictures along the
way and they were impressed with my skills and strength (seriously, they told
me). Then we played in a waterfall before heading home. Here's a few pictures from that day...
I’d like to think my Thai is improving every day. If not what I say, then at least what I’m
able to understand when other people are talking. This is not the case with Issan, the local
dialect where I live. I’ve learned a few
things and am starting to pick up a little more, but when someone speaks to me
strictly in Issan dialect there’s a good chance I won’t understand most of what
they’re saying. (Also, just like in America
everyone here speaks a little bit differently – faster, slower, quieter, etc. –
and sometimes a person will speak Issan so quickly and with such little
enunciation that it literally sounds like jibberish and I find myself just
trying to pick out a real word or two that I know). A lot of people are really helpful and make
an effort to speak central Thai with me.
If I’m in a group of people, they’re most often speaking Issan dialect
unless they’re speaking directly to me.
A few people, depending on where I am in my community, that speak to me
strictly in Issan. I recently went to a
wat (temple) with a couple kids from school during a tour they gave me of their
village. One of the monks came out to
chat with us, and within about 10 minutes the kids abandoned me and I was left
struggling through an hour of the most difficult conversation of my life. I was told this monk spoke English well. This was not only not true, but he also only
spoke to me in Issan, even after I politely explained that I can speak and
understand central Thai, but I haven’t learned as much of the local dialect and
have a harder time understanding a lot of things. He was amused by the conversation; I had to try
extremely hard to not let my ever-increasing frustration show on my face. We had something that resembled a
conversation and he told me to come back next week to talk to him again.
I played a game with a group of students a couple weeks ago
that was basically ‘Monkey in the Middle’, and the idea was to make connections
between the game and the idea of being excluded from activities or excluding
other people from participating. They
enjoyed the game and had a lot of laughs.
In our brief discussion after the activity I asked what it felt like to
be the person in the middle of the circle.
Their response was that it was fun.
They liked being the person in the middle as much (if not more) than
being part of the outer circle. That
pretty much ruined any further discussion I hoped of having about being
excluded, but brought to light another interesting perspective from youth in Thailand .
I made brownies recently for my host family. I used a box of American brownie mix I got
from the large supermarket about 45km away from my house, and cooked them in a
rice cooker – which my family thought was hilarious. It didn’t work as well as I thought – the
brownies cooked unevenly and I had to stir them a couple times so all of the
batter would get at least a little bit cooked.
They weren’t pretty, but they were so delicious (it’s a rare thing to
get really excited about food, especially any food that’s not Thai, and have it
be as delicious as you want it to be).
My host family loved them and my host mom wanted to take them to the
market and sell them. I took a few to
some teachers the next day, and they promptly asked me if they eat them with
rice. I said no – if you eat them with
rice they will not be delicious. They
saved them for lunch, and sure enough one of the teachers broke her brownie
into little pieces and mixed it in with her rice and vegetables. She enjoyed it anyway.
Speaking of food (because we always are in Thailand ), I
get called both fat and slim at least once a week – usually more. I was coming back from a run the other day and
stopped to chat with a couple neighbors who were sitting outside. One of the women said I was really slim now –
when I first came here I was big, but now not so much. The next day a woman at
one of the local health stations tried to convince me to do a 4 day detox with
her because I need to slim down (incidentally she just calls me fat all the
time, so I’m getting used to it/starting to ignore her). One of these times I’m going to explain to
them that in America if you comment on someone’s physical size, especially if
it’s the first thing you say to them when you see them, it’s inconsiderate and
just rude. After all, most of what I’m
supposed to be accomplishing here is cultural exchange and working on mutual
understanding, so why not? Then maybe
she won’t call me fat every time she sees me.
