Two months in Thailand

I’ll be spending the next 2 years living and working in Northeast Thailand! I’ll be living in a small village in the province of Nong Bua Lamphu, fairly close to Laos (and about an 8 hour bus trip from Bangkok).  My site visit proved to be just another one of the awkward, confusing, scary and exciting moments that seem to be a part of everyday life now.  I met a lot of people, ate a lot of food, and didn’t understand a good portion of what people were trying to say to me in Thai (the fact that I understand anything still makes me incredibly happy on a daily basis…usually a very short lived victory until I’m lost again).  The weather was much cooler, which was awesome (70 degrees instead of 100 degrees) and definitely something I think I’ll appreciate during the ‘winter’ months.  Northeastern Thailand has its own dialect, so in addition to continuing to learn central Thai I get to start learning the northeastern dialect (which is apparently also spoken in Laos, so if/when I make trips across the border I’ll have no trouble communicating…hopefully).  The trip to and from site was an adventure in itself in some respects, especially considering it was the first time I’ve really traveled by myself in a foreign country.  I had a lot of new experiences along with a lot of unanswered questions (why is the music on Thai busses so obnoxiously loud? Why, on an 8 hour bus trip, did my bus stop about 20 times? Why do they feed me dinner as soon as I get on the bus? Why is the bus always so cold? What am I supposed to do when I get to the bus station in Bangkok at 4am?).  I have no doubt that the next couple years will be two of the most challenging (and hopefully most amazing) of my life.  I also hope to take full advantage of my vacation days and have some pretty amazing trips all over Thailand. 

I’ve started to feel at home here in our training villages and was surprised at how great it felt to come ‘home’ after our site visit.  I missed the place we’ve called home for the past 8 weeks and it was great to come back to something familiar (including host families that were anxious to hear about our visits and happy to have us ‘home’).  I distinctly remember my first night with my host family….it’s amazing how helpless you can feel when you can’t communicate verbally, despite the fact that there’s a million things to say…it’s also amazing how much you can communicate with someone without either one of you having a language in common.  I’m getting sad to leave after spending only 8 weeks here in this village with these people.  I’ve gotten into such a routine during training and I think the site visit served as another realization of just what I’m doing here – getting ready to live on my own in rural Thailand and try to figure out something amazing to do to benefit a community and people that I know next to nothing about. 

Before I left for the Peace Corps I remember reading so much about how the people that will be going through this with me are the people that will become like family.  In the first few weeks of training I wondered how I was ever going to find my place in this ‘family’, and also thinking that I can just do it on my own if all else fails.  Now we’re getting ready to go our separate ways in just a few weeks, and I’m amazed that the people who traveled here to Thailand with me about 2 months ago, that were all strangers, are now the people I rely on to discuss the fear and excitement of leaving for our sites and dealing with the dependable ups and downs of this whole experience.  I couldn’t imagine making so many new friends in such a short amount of time, and now I can’t imagine what I’ll do without these people that I’ve seen almost everyday since we arrived in Thailand.  I’ve also realized that without them I’m not sure I could get through this whole experience on my own.  It’s nice having family and friends back home that I can talk to who know me better than anyone, but it’s also incredibly comforting to have a new group of people that I can rely on that are going through many of the same crazy experiences and emotional traumas that seem inevitable.  In the next two weeks I’ll turn 29 years old and officially be sworn-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  I don’t really care much about getting older or the fact that I’ll soon be in the final countdown to being 30 (what!?), but I can’t imagine a better way to spend the last year of my 20’s.   

English is fun

I have no idea how to summarize what I’m doing or what’s happened the past few weeks…..we’ve been so busy and scheduled that it’s easy to sometimes wonder what I’ve gotten myself into, but I’m starting to get more days of realizing why I signed up for this in the first place.  This week we had our first experience teaching English.  I was able to go to the Nonformal Education Center in the village where we have classes all week to teach English with another volunteer for 2 days.  Our students ranged in age from 16 – 40 and we spent an hour a day with them, teaching them basic English greetings and a few other things.  I’m not a teacher and have never taught English to anyone, but I truly enjoyed it.  It’s interesting to be on both ends of the learning/teaching spectrum in the last couple weeks, and it makes me appreciate how far I’ve come in such a short amount of time and how eager these kids are to learn English.  Two other volunteers that are in my language class have been teaching a group of 10-11 year olds at a nearby school, and I also got to practice English with them.  They’re so eager to learn and so patient with me when I speak Thai to them.  I love speaking Thai to kids here and I love it when they get so excited about what I say.  I’ve never seen kids get so excited when I tell them what Thai food I like to eat (although I think I’m more excited than they are).  Every once in a while some of them will just bust out a sentence in English and it’s awesome. 

 I’m slowly becoming more confident in my Thai speaking abilities and am able to converse more with my host family.  One of the best nights I’ve had with them so far was when I gave them a picture calendar of my family and friends (a gift I made for them) and we talked about my life in America and the people and things in my pictures.  They asked about my family in America and I told them as much as I could in Thai (by the way Ashley, they have a really, really hard time saying your name – but they said you’re beautiful every time they saw you in a picture).  My host family also likes to see how many mosquito bites I get every day (my host mom has given me several home remedies to stop the itching).  I explained to them one night that the mosquitoes here like to eat me for dinner, and they could not stop laughing at me (they never really do, but most of the time they just laugh at me for no reason).  Language has been one of the toughest things to adjust to, and sometimes I still find myself in conversations where I have absolutely no idea what’s going on….but when I do know what’s going on and am able to respond, it’s awesome.

It’s still hot, and I’m a little apprehensive about the upcoming ‘hot season’, but I think I’m acclimating to the change.  I thought it was cool the other day…when I looked at the temperature it was 86 degrees.  It gets cool enough at night that I can still sleep comfortably with a fan and a blanket, which is awesome. 

We find out our permanent sites next week – so exciting!  I’m anxious to find out where I’ll be living for the next two years.  Also, I ate chicken blood a couple weeks ago.  It looked like dark red tofu, and kind of tasted the same.  I haven’t eaten any bugs yet (at least not intentionally – I’ve caught several unintentional ones in my mouth on late bike rides).

Fun facts from Thailand

• I’m currently living with only half of the things I brought with me.  They told us to only bring one bag to our host family’s house, so half of my stuff is still sitting in a bag that I won’t see again until the end of March.
• Sometimes the sun, moon, sunrises and sunsets look so awesome that they look fake…or like they belong in a movie
• My host mom gave me an info booklet and audio CD about meditation.  My whole family asks me every day now if I’ve meditated (I’m so exhausted at the end of every day that I haven’t tried it yet….maybe eventually)
• The tv in my house is always on, and it’s always on the same channel, which I’ve discovered is basically a meditation (or Buddhist) channel
• The letter R is pronounced as an L a lot here, which has made language acquisition all the more difficult, and I often think I’m hearing new words when I’m actually hearing words I already know
• Sometimes I think in Spanish when learning Thai.  I haven’t used much Spanish since high school, but maybe it’s because that’s the only other language I’ve really been introduced to before…..but it’s funny….and confusing
• I’ve eaten a lot of ‘kanomes’ (treats/desserts) since I’ve been here, but they’re not always what they look like….when we were staying at a hotel the first week we’d have coffee and treats every afternoon, and one day we were having what I thought was a small cake (similar to a few we’d had already)….I bit into it to find tuna and corn inside…
• I don’t talk to my host grandma much (she’s often not around), but one day we were eating fruit together and she took out both her top and bottom dentures, showed them to me, and laughed.  I wish I understood more of what she says to me, because I guarantee it’s funny
• Having a conversation about what I did, what I ate or where I went in a day has never been so satisfying as it is when I can speak and understand Thai with my host mom
• Stray dogs are everywhere and sometimes chase us on our bikes. I wish I could adopt them all and take them to site with me.
• I haven’t worn makeup or used a hair dryer in over 2 weeks (I used both just about every day in America)
• I used to think the tan lines I got playing softball all summer were bad…they’re nothing compared to the ones I’m starting to get now
• I eat rice usually 3 times a day…I thought I might get sick of it quickly, but I love it
• 7/11 here has all sorts of strange ‘treats’….the aisle that has a bunch of stuff that resembles Little Debbie snack cakes includes cakes with fillings like beans, tuna, corn, and other things I’m not sure of yet
• A snickers bar at 7/11 costs more than a lot of the fruit in the market (Yes mom, I bought a snickers bar….I still love chocolate in Thailand, and it was delicious….but I eat much, much more fruit)
• A can of beer costs as much as an entire meal
• Sugar is used on a lot of things here….often in the form of sweetened condensed milk, and it’s awesome
• I wash all my clothes by hand, in buckets.  My host family has a washing machine, but Peace Corps told them not to let me use it because I need to get used to living conditions similar to what my permanent site will be (the fact that I change clothes at least twice a day doesn’t help the laundry situation)
• Everyone rides motorbikes here and almost no one wears a helmet.  It’s also common to see 3-5 people (usually a few kids included) riding one at the same time
• We’ve eaten fish a lot at my house, and most of the time it’s served whole….tail, head, bones and all on the plate.  I was a little apprehensive at first, but I love it
• I’m getting used to greeting everyone I see, being stared at, being laughed at, and not understanding what people are saying to me
• I rode my bike at night for the first time last week....I’ve never ingested so many bugs at one time (imagine riding a bike in the rain, except instead of rain, it’s bugs)
• Everything I heard about Thai people before I came is proving to be true….they’re so welcoming, gracious, generous, and happy (and I can’t even understand what they’re saying most of the time)

 

Here's a link to some pictures...also posted on Facebook!


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10102228419765740.3301962.1904684&type=1&l=c870527f46

2 weeks in Thailand

It’s been a while and a lot has been happening, so this might get long (but there’s pictures!)…

Last Saturday I moved in with my host family, my home for the next 8 weeks.  My host family is great – it’s my host mom, two aunts, grandma, older sister, and father, who I’ve seen maybe twice since I’ve been here.  The house is right along a river and the scenery is fantastic.  My host sister is the only one who speaks English – and she also lives in Bangkok and only visits the house on weekends.  She understands most of what I say and it’s nice to have her around to help with some new translation on the weekends. My host mom cooks breakfast and dinner for me everyday and I feel a little spoiled (the food is delicious). I communicated to my host mom how much I enjoy spicy food and she usually includes something spicy at most meals. I try something new at least once a day and I’m discovering new favorites all the time.  I’ve also eaten more rice in the last 2 weeks than I have in probably the last 2 years (it’s included with breakfast and dinner everyday, and sometimes lunch as well).  I could devote an entire blog post to food/meal time happenings (maybe next time).

My home for the next several weeks!

Part of the backyard

 

Mangkut...'the queen of fruits' and my new favorite.

Thai kids teaching us card games...

Rice fields on one of our bike rides

The river right behind my house.

Training is exhausting but informative.  Our days are generally split into two parts: language learning and technical (job-related) training.  Our training hub is right next to a market, which is absolutely fantastic – we’re able to get all sorts of amazing treats for lunches and snacks during the day. The language part can definitely get a little frustrating, but it seems like they way they’re teaching us is the best way for us to get out there and start speaking.  Our teachers are also amazing, which helps a lot. We’re not allowed to use English during our language sessions, which is frustrating but effective. It’s a lot of call and response and repetition, and our teachers aren’t supposed to directly translate for us, so basically I make up my own meanings and dialogue based on pictures, questions and context clues (super frustrating for me, but I’m learning to deal with it).  I’ve had a few successful interactions with my host mom using my very limited Thai vocabulary (at least I consider them successful; I could very well be making things up to make myself feel better).  My host family likes to talk at me in Thai and laugh at me a lot.  Thai people smile and laugh a lot, and I’m learning to laugh at myself along with them.  I still get frustrated not knowing what they’re saying or how to respond, but we’ve been told so many times not to take anything here too seriously, and to just smile and laugh.  I’ve thought a lot about how many times in America I’ve heard people say the same thing over and over to someone who doesn’t speak English, expecting that saying the same thing 5 times the same way (increasingly louder and slower) will eventually lead to comprehension – that happens to me on a daily basis, and all I can do is laugh.

The weather is hot and getting hotter.  I heard a lot about how cool it was the first week we were here (it was averaging probably mid 70’s to 80).  The ‘hot season’ starts around March, and given that it was in the low to mid 90’s this week I can’t imagine what the hot season will be like.  We bike everywhere and have to change clothes at least twice a day (skirts and collared shirts are required for training and not appropriate for biking), so by the time I get home a cold shower is one of the best parts of my day.  

Thai people are so nice and welcoming and seem happy for us to be here.  We get a lot of stares, waves, greetings, smiles and laughs.  The kids are curious and friendly as well. We were able to talk to some kids doing homework and I was able to have a few very basic conversations…I loved it and can’t wait to start doing a lot more with kids.

I’m starting to develop a new routine as I settle in a little bit more here.  I’m up at 6am everyday (very strange and new for me) – I have coffee, sweep the kitchen and eat breakfast by myself (my host mom is always around the kitchen cooking things).  I bike to our trainings with several other people that live near me and we have training/classes from 8am – 5pm with a few breaks in between.  Evenings usually consist of dinner with my host mom, limited Thai conversations using what I’ve learned so far, and any homework I have (she’s always eager to help me with it and asks every day if I have any), then some time to decompress/journal/watch Friends before I go to sleep. 

The weather this weekend was almost perfect (seems a lot less hot when I’m not biking everywhere).  We went to a big festival on Saturday (see pictures below) called Don Chedi, and saw a show that was like a reenactment of the final battle between Thailand and Burma like 400 years ago (pretty interesting story - you should google it).  I didn’t understand what they were saying, but my host sister helped point out some of the highlights for me.  The festival was fun (and super crowded) and it was a nice break from everything else. 

I don’t have internet at my house, which was quite frustrating the first few days, especially after finding out how many volunteers have wifi available at their homes.  As much as I’ve felt the withdrawals of being so disconnected, I’ve realized that I’ll survive without it for a few days at a time (although I’m definitely planning to get internet for myself once I move to my permanent site in a couple months, if possible).  It’s hard to believe I’ve been living here for 2 weeks…it’s also hard to believe I’ll be living here for another 2 years.  There’s so much more to talk about but not enough time - or internet access - to do so, but I’ll update again soon!

 

 

Bicycles.

Yesterday was bike day!  We've spent the last two days becoming intimately acquainted with our new rides.  This morning we rode about 25 miles around some of our host family sites, and it was absolutely awesome.  The weather has been perfect and it was so great to get out and explore things a little more.  I also got some pretty ridiculous tan lines today from our bike tour (can't really complain I guess, considering that meant spending the day in the sunshine).  Training has been pretty exhausting so far - long days filled with copious amounts of information and an introduction to learning to speak Thai ( the other day we got to go introduce ourselves to the Vice Governor of the province we're staying in right now, and we had to do it in Thai - slightly anxiety provoking, but awesome).  Tomorrow is the day we meet our host families and move in with them.  It's been a little surreal so far, living in a hotel with 49 fellow volunteers, and it's still not really sinking in that I live here.  I'm excited to meet my host family and be off on my own for the first time, but it's also a little scary.  They probably won't speak any English, and so far the only things I really know how to say in Thai are hello, my name, where I'm from, thank you, numbers, and a few other random words/phrases that likely won't be much help, so this will be an interesting experience in cultural immersion.  Sunday is our first real day off from training where we don't have anything scheduled besides spending the day with our host family, so I'm excited to see what the weekend will bring. 

I had my first experience with a squat toilet yesterday.  When someone first explained to me what it was I was concerned that it was literally just a hole in the ground - which it is sort of, but it's more like a toilet seat that has been lowered so it's about 6 inches off the ground (and there's no running water and you can't sit on it....hence the name).  There's an art to using one, which they taught us the other day in training (along with how to take a bucket bath - I'll save any details of that for my first bucket bath/shower experience). 

There's a chance I might not have internet access again for several weeks, so I'm soaking up the last night of internet, air conditioning, electricity, running water and all the other basic amenities I might be going without very soon (there's also a chance my host family will have all these things, but I'm setting my expectations low so as not to be disappointed - and who knows, it might be a great experience to do without all that for a while).  Judging by our training schedule and the potential for no internet access in the next few weeks, it might be hard to provide many updates, but so far it's amazing (albeit slightly overwhelming sometimes) and I can't wait to go native.

Here's a few photos to get started...our volunteer group prior to going to meet the vice governor and a few from the bike tour today...I promise I'll add more later!

Thailand.

We made it to Thailand! Hard to believe we've only been here a little over 12 hours with as much as we've done already.  Our flight from San Francisco was delayed a couple hours due to mechanical problems so our flights spanned over three days - left on the 11th and arrived on the 13th. I haven't slept much in the last few nights and am looking forward to my first full night of sleep in a bed tonight.  This first week we're staying in a pretty nice hotel, which includes wifi and air conditioning, and I think we're getting spoiled a little bit compared to what's to come, but it's nice while we're adapting to everything. The weather is warm and amazing....although considering it's the 'cool season' I can't imagine how hot it's going to get in a few months. The food we've had so far is pretty fantastic as well.

Our first day of PST (pre-service training) was a lot to take in.  Introductions, pictures, language intro, medical stuff, shots....the staff we have here is amazing and really excited about our arrival.  We got a few language basics today, and the language teachers are awesome - hilarious, engaging, and supportive. This is a whole new way of language learning that seems like it'll be pretty effective.   The Peace Corps staff (here and in San Francisco) has mentioned to our group multiple times that we 'won the lottery' in terms of country assignments.  So far the people seem great and I can't wait until we're able to see more of the country. 

We get introduced to our host families at the end of this week and move out of the hotel and in with them on Saturday - a little scary considering they might not speak any English.  We also get our bicycles in a couple days and have two whole days of 'bike training'....curious to see why we need two days for that, but excited to get a bicycle again. 

Hopefully I'll get a few pictures on here eventually....still trying to figure out this whole blog business.

9 months.

The wait is finally over...5 years of dreaming, 9 months of the application process, 3 months of knowing where I'm going and waiting to leave, and 36 hours of staging. Today I met the 50 other trainees going through this whole crazy experience with me, and it makes me more excited about leaving.  Such a diverse group of people, yet so similar in ambition, ideals, and dreams.  It's still somewhat terrifying that I have a one way ticket half way around the world, but knowing that I'll be surrounded by 50 other people going through the exact same thing for the next 10 weeks is comforting.  I still can't believe I'm doing this, and I probably won't believe it until I'm actually in Thailand - and even then I still probably won't. Words can't express the crazy emotional roller coaster this has been so far, but I'm happy to be surrounded by 50 other volunteers who feel the same way and who will experience all of this with me. 

America, it's been real.  See you in a few years.