Hello, สวัสดี (Sa wa dii), Hola

“Kerry chim”, meaning “Kerry taste” is a phrase I often hear, but today took things to a whole other level! Instead of teaching English today I was shown off at the health fair that took place on school grounds. The fair was put on by the health center in NongHee and it focused on iodine, its importance, deficiencies, and ways to get it. Apparently iodine helps with your I.Q. and there is a lack of it in Isaan … or so I understood. But back to being “shown off” … I use this phrase to describe me walking around the fair because that’s literally how I felt … yesterday I was warned by Earm to not wear sport (despite the fact that today was Tuesday and I was told countless times that ‘NongHee teachers wear sport on Tuesday’), since many people would want to take their picture with me. I was told specifically to dress ‘suay’ (beautiful). So I did. And when I say that people want to take their picture with me … sometimes it doesn’t even matter whose camera it is … for instance I have taken pictures with people, who are asked me, with my camera, and they never see the picture … curious. My VIP status grew 10 fold when I was handed a baby to take a picture with (on my camera only).


But no complaints here on that one because I honestly miss human contact so much that holding that baby for 30 seconds was amazing!!! …I’m a creep. Now to the tasting … for about an hour and a half straight we walk around the fair stopping at each booth, which more times than not contained something for Kerry to ‘chim’. Most of the food was ‘arroy’ (delicious), some was not … and most was ‘phet’ (spicy) … which I now enjoy … to a certain degree. There are dishes of som tam that Earm tries and goes “Kerry no eat.” Hahahaha The people of Isaan like their food on fire! Then we had about a two-hour lunch where I was given sugar cane to eat … which was my favorite discovery of the day … surpassing the baby. It’s cut into slices and you bite pieces off, chew the sugary liquid out of it and spit out the hard part … ‘saaaaaap’ (Isaan word for delicious).