Hello, สวัสดี (Sa wa dii), Hola

So about two weeks ago I was informed by my Thai mom, Earm, that on the next two Tuesdays we would be going somewhere to watch the students run in races ... I mean this is what I gathered from our part Thai, part English conversation. okay. So on the first of the Tuesdays, I get picked up at 6:30, we go to school to meet everyone, the children pile into the back of the numerous teacher driven pick-up trucks and we head out. I know enough about the area now to know that we are going in the direction of Nakhon Phanom, near the Mekong River. About 30 minutes later, and a few windy back roads, we pull into the parking lot of a legit track. Fenced in, bathrooms, an administrative building of sorts, tents are set up, there is long jump, and after testing it out, I realize it indeed feels like a track. We are the first people there since my school is apparently in charge of hosting the event - my job according to Earm for the day was 'take care students' ... uh yea, the students that we brought were all 10-12 years old and Thai children have a hell of a lot more independence than American children do ... plus I only speak passa-angrit ... so I'm a lot of help. hahaha Anyway, the track meet goes as any normal American track meet would, so needless to say, track meets get long and boring no matter what side of the world you live on. The second Tuesday of this nonsense, I was given a ChoomChonNongHee track jacket to wear, that matched the other student teachers and 3 of us presented the awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for each race. Wow there were a lot of races which meant a lot of processing holding the special decorative platter things with the medals and certificates on them. And to add to the excitement of this post, here are a few pictures to help explain some of the quirks of track meets in Thailand.

Tuinui - student teacher - flag girl - dressed for an apocalypse (Thai people do everything in their power to avoid the sun)


Ying (in the pink) - P. 5 - getting ready to run the 50meter (I believe) - notice that all the runners are barefoot - yea who needs sneakers?


The impromptu weeding of the long jump pit - who needs groundskeepers when you have students?! - seriously though, this worked out just fine.


It always amuses me when the mode of transportation for school sponsored events is literally throwing all the students in the back of the pick-up trucks that everyone drives - but this one really got me going when i realized that this truck was also being used to transport huge stacks of plastic chairs as well - safety. And to think I'm not advised to leave my house after dark.


or the students could just sit on the furniture thats being transported.

Since the holidays, life has calmed down considerably in NongHee. But then again, when is life ever mundane when teaching in Thailand? I have decided to dedicate this post to the things that happen on a daily basis that are picture worthy and make my life in Thailand so entertaining.

First, the cooking expeditions of Michelle and I in our Thai kitchen. Pictured are the homemade flour tortillas (rolled with an empty beer bottle, who says you need a rolling pin?!), and the fixin’s for build your own BLT … livin’ in style over here!


Then we have view of the office one night as Michelle and I attempted to enter and use internet. We’re still confused as to why there were empty water bottles stacked to the ceiling. Our best guess is that the school fills them at the water purifier they have on campus. Still hilarious though.


Next, my adorable P. 5/2 boys Tin and Oat. They apparently decided it was cool to wear scarves tied around their heads, it was cold that day, so I’ll give them that. Tin also has a scarf around his neck, as if one were not enough. And the most hilarious part to me is that with the hood up underneath the scarf Oat looks like a gradeschool production of the Nativity scene … I couldn’t stop laughing!


Punk’s Not Dead! Nuff said.


One of my darling P. 6 boys, Mote (whose name I knew on the first day of class, which should tell you everything about what kind if student he is not) has been wearing this sweatshirt lately, which I find absolutely hilarious.


And to round out this entry of good ol' fun, I have a video of two of my P. 5 boys, Daam and Nix, shooting a water bottle off the end of a hose. Without fail, they are unsure of when it will shoot off, get wet every single time and make me laugh all the same. This was going on during what was supposed to be cooking class on Monday, but Earm wasn't teaching so God knows it was chaos and insanity the whole time ... including a good round of measure your height next to Kerry and spring her curls.

I can’t believe its already been a week and I have yet to update my blog! Wow how time flies … I will admit I was very distracted by finally finishing The Girl Who Played With Fire. Yes, I fiiiinalyy finished! Hahha good thing I already have a copy of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, thanks to a previous WorldTeach volunteer! Ok so last week, on Friday, there was what is known as Children’s Day. This meant, no teaching, selected students from each class performed a song, dance, or skit, there was an obnoxious amount of snacks donated to the school that the children were given (see picture of the pile below, before it was finished), and a few games to play that involved getting said snacks as prizes.

The games were completely Thai and totally hilarious to me. One was having to kick a soccer ball into a small net from different point, another was a makeshift tree with little rolls of paper tied to it with string that each had a question on them to be answered by the student … and then my favorite … the most hilarious children’s carnival game I’ve ever seen and it baffles me as to why we don’t do this in America. First you have a giant bamboo pole stuck in the ground, then on a smaller stick, attach snacks and money (like a skewer), get a ladder, and stick the skewer of goodies on the top of the bamboo pole, once the prize is in place rub the bamboo pole down with soy bean oil (anything in the canola, vegetable family should be fine), now that the trap is set within minutes there will be a line of boys ages 8-12 ripping their shirts off, waiting in line to get a turn to try to climb said oil-slicked bamboo pole. It is the perfect recipe for a nonstop laughing experience. I must admit I was completely in shock while all of this was going on and did manage to take pictures (below) … THANK GOD.


The more I think about it the more it makes me laugh … the boy in the striped shirt who was the first to reach the top is one of my P. 5 buddies, Nix. We greet each other with a friendly, “Yo, what’s up?!” hahaha I was thoroughly amused to say the least. All the activities finished up by lunch, we ate, and then Earm, Sumet and I took a little journey to the Tesco in That Phanom. Yay!

So originally, the plan for Saturday was that Gen would come over, since she’s close and we both didn’t feel like going all the way into NKP to see other volunteers, and we would hang around Nong Hee (ride bikes, go online, watch movies, whatever). Well obviously that didn’t happen. On Friday, Earm informed me that Sumet was going to Nakae to see the temples that are there, that I had been invited to do previously but it never ended up happening. So I ask if Gen can come, obviously she’s welcome to join, I call her and inform her that she must be here earlier so we can leave to go do this. She laughs and says ok. The day began with gen arriving on time, Earm and Sumet showing up on time as well and we hopped in the truck. Classic Thai style we stopped to pick up a “gang” of girls in the high school age range that I have seen around NongHee before, the one girl’s nickname is French Fry (legit), and they jumped in the back of the pickup truck. We then head over to where the elementary school is and go to where the “NongHee” family lives to pick up another teacher from my school and one of my students, pin. Once we’re all piled in we head to Nakae, which is the next largest city the opposite direction down the main road from Nakhon Phanom. When I take sawng-taos into Nakhon Phanom its actually the one that goes from Nakae to Nakhon Phanom. It is about a 20-30 minute drive and then Sumet informed me the mountain where the 3 temples are is 6km from town. So we drive along some small dirt-like roads up the mountain … not quite off-roading but almost there. We stop at a small temple that to me doesn’t even look like your typical temple … get out, make merit by donating money to the building of the area … walk around a little and are told to get back in the car … ok!

Then we go back down the road we came from about halfway down the mountain and turn up a different road. When we get to the parking lot I am greeted by about 10 of my students with another teacher from my school …. What a great surprise!!!!


In the picture starting from the left goes, heem, bpaaw, chee-oo, bpaay-noi, Kerry, uum, ying, pin, gaawy, and Gen (all of these students are 11, except for chee-oo who i believe is 10, he's the only one of the bunch in P. 4, the rest are P. 5)

This temple actually looked like a temple … ie, same architectural characteristics and very ornate. We “wai’d” to the Buddha image, looked at the view, walked around to where the GINORMOUS Buddha image was that you can actually see from the highway (well, main road) and then we went on a little stroll through some nature to all these pagodas, specifically one for each day of the week, with the corresponding colors wrapped around them and I learned there is also a corresponding Buddha image for each day as well … Fran and Meggy: I shall get us Thursday! We prayed and took pictures, obviously. Then it was time for lunch … now, when you are told its time for lunch you think okay, go buy lunch and eat it, or go to a restaurant. WRONG! We went the 6 km back into town, dropped off people to buy the som tam, then drove over to a beverage store and “bought water for the monks” (as I was told), then went back to get the people who were buying som tam, then started driving back towards the mountain … ok, maybe were going to a picnic ground of some sort … wrong again. We turned off the road and started driving through a rubber plantation which I knew nothing about but to my surprise gen was a wealth of information and now I know all about how rubber is made haha … if you want the deets lemme know! So we continue driving and eventually end up completely “off-roading it” on the side of a cliff, no guard-rail (obviously) and it reminded me of driving up Mount Washington. Hahaha but a lot less safe. About a half hour after beginning the off-roading we finally make it to the top and there are a few makeshift buildings near where we parked the car where apparently a monk lives … completely secluded from the world … I would die. Then we laid out our mats and ate lunch in what was basically a garage, awkward but I was hungry so I didn’t care hahaha we then climbed up there brand new concrete stairs to more makeshift buildings literally coming out of the side of this mountain, awkward … where there were Buddha images and other such things for us to pray to and we took pictures and headed back down. So at this point everyone was tired and we headed back to NongHee where Gen and I literally walked into my house and just laid on the floor for about 15 minutes. Hahaha We then gathered enough strength to ride out bikes over to the market to get some grub and hung out at my casa the rest of the night.

Earm and Sumet, being the most adorable people ever insisted on driving Gen back to her house on Sunday, when they heard she was sleeping over, since Sumet was going to That Phanom anyway to his shooting club since they were hosting guests from a shooting club in Mukdahan. Now under normal circumstances Kerry would not be going … Gen would get in the car Sunday morning, Sumet would drive her home, and he would go on his way. No, this is Thailand. Clearly I forget this and am still in pajamas when Sumet to arrives only to realize he wants me to come with him to this shooting thing and he is just so cute and it was gonna be just him and me, and were an awesome Thai dad and daughter pair that I just couldn’t say no … so I told him I would quick change and go with him. We get to Gen’s house no problem and Sumet invites Gen to go with us, she kindly declines, saying she is busy with work and we think this is the end of it, no. we obviously go into the house, instead of just dropping her off and I guess Sumet told Gen’s Thai mom what we were doing that day and she insisted they go! So, we all went to the shooting range. The one major plus of the day was this delicious grilled beef they put out on the tables to snack on … I legit have not had beef here … pork is everywhere and I actually eat it , but the beef is harder to come by .. or at least beef in a form I am used to eating it in … Thai people really like jerky type meat, which I just can’t do. So that was a delicious surprise …

So yes, another typical weekend in Thailand.

Oh and one of my student’s was wearing a sweatshirt today that said, “SPORTS only a mediocre person is always at his best.” Riddle me that one! hahahahaha

Here are some random thoughts I've had about Thailand and Thai people that I thought I'd share:

Thai people HATE the sun ... for the sun being so strong in this part of the world it is amazing to me how the people who live here could hate it so much and manage to find so many ways to avoid it ... they do this partly because they don't want dark skin and partly because they refuse to sweat ... I am clearly the complete opposite ... they also are very confused that my cheeks are red but not burnt from the sun

I wish I could do the Asian squat ... if you don't know what this is its being able to squat down on flat feet ... they just hang out down there sometimes ... its awesome!

sport pants are the best purchase I've made here so far ... they fit amazingly and are surprisingly flattering ... I'm definitely buying more to bring home

Thais rarely wear sunglasses ... and I ALWAYS wear sunglass ... makes me feel awkward sometimes

The other day when I bought a "chah yen" (a Thai iced tea ... ie my most favorite new delicious drink treat of choice) my cup said, "Music is the greatest magic in the world our magic can't even come close to be compared with it" ... bold.

I've been to a restaurant and handed a menu in translated English that literally had on it as an option, "Stir fried appendix with stuff." I don't know about you but I am not daring enough to order that!

The fruit here is truly delicious ... every honey dew, watermelon, pineapple, mandarin orange, banana ... mmmm

Instant pre-mixed coffee is the beverage option of choice EVERYWHERE ... for those that love real coffee, finding it here is quite difficult ... At school the only hot beverage of choice is the pre-mixed coffee ... my morning tea gets consumed before school, I've taken to drinking hot water sometimes at school ... and the pre-mixed coffee is actually like a little shot of dessert (the cups they used are baby size)

I LOVE sticky rice! ... and laab (i have no idea how to spell it) which is a meat salad ... basically just any cooked meet chopped up real small mixed with mint other flavors ... its eaten with sticky rice and is ALLOY MAK MAK ... SAAAAAAAP

Oh and I think the teachers at Nong Hee have realized I like dressing like a hippy because I've been gifted 2 floor length hippy skirts in the past week ... this also might be a slight hint that they think the knee length skirts I brought are too short ... go figure

Thai people also complain that 50 degrees in freezing all the time ... like wear scarves and mittens and sweaters and jackets but as soon as they get in the car they put the air conditioning on ... THIS COMPLETELY BAFFLES ME! and yesterday Earm told me that if she was in America for winter she thinks she would die ... precious.

I think thats all for now

To begin, celebrating holidays in another country is weird, not in a bad way, just … different. Things have been so hectic and crazy that I barely noticed or even realized I was ‘missing’ the holidays at home. Which in many ways is a blessing, as we know I can be a stickler for traditions, and it was nice to be distracted and excited about new things, especially this time of year. The WorldTeach Volunteers were able to all get together on Christmas this year since it was a Saturday, otherwise we would have had to teach and get together on another day to celebrate. At a meeting earlier in the month a large group of us pulled names for a Secret Santa and we all agreed on doing a Yankee Swap as well, or for some, only. Everyone also offered other potluck dished and dessert, making this a ridiculous feast of American, Thai, and Vietnamese treats. We all found a way to Rita’s adorably decorated home at Chok Amnuay school, thanks in part to her students as well as her host family, and celebrated Christmas the way any family would. LOTS of eating, fireworks, scheming, laughing, and movie. It was almost like being back at orientation, with everyone sleeping in 2 rooms except that this time we has no mats or mattresses and some people opted to just sleep outside. The weirdest part of actually Christmas day for me was that I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts and eating corn on the cob, while listening to Christmas music. It may sound weird to some but I would much rather be freezing and wishing for snow on Christmas day. But I’ll continue … This week of teaching was also filled with dance practices, as I would be performing a Thai dance on New Year’s Eve with the 4 student teachers at ChoomChonNongHee, and New Year’s parties. New Year’s is celebrated in Thailand more than Christmas so everyone has a New Year’s dinner or party just like Americans would all have Christmas parties. Earm and Sumet had a party at their house on Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday I had dance practice until about 6 (I would leave for school in the morning and not be dropped off at home until it was dark), Wednesday I usually get home around 2 but instead I was driven straight to NongHee to practice, then I got home in time to be picked back up by people from PhonTan to go to the New Year’s dinner, then Thursday I also went straight to NongHee after teaching at PhonTan, then after we finished practicing and trying our outfits on, as they had been picked up that day, I was informed we were going to a wedding for the daughter of one of the teachers at NongHee… well a dinner for a wedding that we were invited to at 7am on Dec. 31st but we were going to be too busy setting up for the party at the school that we opted to go to a dinner the night before … so Earm, Sumet, and Kerry went to the dinner with all the other teachers from PhonTan and some other guests, confusing I know, and then Thursday was the night Michelle’s school was having their New Year’s party, so I got dropped off at home and then walked over to where the party was on campus, since Michelle was being asked a million times where I was ... Now on to Friday. I got picked up around 7am to go to NongHee to help set up for the party, including staple gunning fabric around the bottom of the stage, and basically using fabric to decorate everything, and I watched some Takaw games and a volleyball game and then after lunch began the process of hair and make-up for the dance. Thai dancing involves a very serious amount of make-up and hair spray – if my years of dance competitions were actually this serious, I don’t know that we would have survived. So neither the hair salon, nor the girl who was going to do our makeup was ready when we were … obviously. This meant that I hung out at one of the student teacher’s houses eating fruit until it was time to go back over to the salon. I got my hair done – which involved teasing three front pieces, hair spraying, blow drying, and pinning them into place, then teasing out and spraying my curls into a giant ‘bun’ on the top of my head.



Then I was carted back over to the house where our makeup was getting done. Villa, the dance teacher at PlaPak is from NongHee, her mother works at the school, and she taught us the dance – was in charge of doing out make-up. She’s adorable and I know her from orientation because she is the one who taught us dance then, and her mother has since tried to get me to set her up with John … she wants them to talk on the internet. Anyway, it took her about a half hour of dabbing my face with this shellac-like foundation, brushing powders and eye shadows, trimming my eyebrows with a razor blade then drawing on big dark eye brows, lining my eyes with liner, gluing on fake eyelashes, and painting my lips for me to look like a Barbie. And thus a Thai dancer.


But NO! the process wasn’t complete … my arms all the way down to my fingers, neck, and visible back were then covered in a pinkish white powder (that was applied with a wet sponge) to ensure that all parts of visible skin were flawless … because lets face it, performers a flawless. So now that my entire upper body is painted and air sprayed into place I have about 4 hours to sit around a do nothing while the other dancers and getting made up … WOW that boring! Not to mention I was tired and the fake eyelashes are so heavy! My eyes wanted to water so badly and I had to use all my might to keep them from smudging the pound of make-up that was on my face … wow that’s difficult! But time eventually went by and it was time to get dressed and then time to go over to school and I took a bunch of pictures and saw some students and was told I look like a doll and was beautiful ... yes!



And then we danced and it was so fun seeing the reactions of my students, as I was able to Thai dance and look Thai. And then I was used for some sort of award ceremony, where I held a silver plate that envelopes kept getting put on, whatever, then I was finally able to eat!!! It was about 9pm at this point and I was fed delicious food and managed to not get any of it on my outfit … whaaat?! Who am I?! Then I was allowed to get changed so we went back to Villa’s house, got all changed and went back to the party where I met up with Teeda (Earm and Sumet’s 25yr old daughter who speaks awesome English – and she’s awesome) and her husband boo-e, who is also awesome, and all their cousins (my adopted family hahaha) and we sat on our designated mat and had a few beers until midnight (which at the point I really only sat there for two hours). We also danced a little, super fun. And then the countdown happened – part in English, part on Thai, some fireworks went off from somewhere in the crowd – legit I felt like I myself had set them off, they were that close – and then everyone started cleaning up … what? No seriously, midnight came, went and the party was over. But since I was with people who basically run the school/the party I didn’t get driven home until about 2 … then I talked with Michelle for a while, so I really didn’t get to bed until about 3, only to wake up again at 5 to wash all of this make-up and hair spray off of me because I was getting picked up at 6am to make merit to the monks. All I knew going into this was that I was to wear a long skirt, and it was currently freezing because the sun wasn’t up yet and I was tired. I get picked up, only about a half hour late and driven to the school, where I was greeted by a ton of people all in the canteen sorting through all of the food, that just kept coming and arranging it on plates and trays. I’m talking this was like Thanksgiving at a soup kitchen. I was part of the NongHee teachers so that meant that I basically ‘worked in the kitchen’ while the ceremony was going on and ran out only to ‘make merit’ (ie put small bits of sticky rice in each special bowl for the monks, that you are not allowed to touch) and then we were back to the kitchen to continue sorting through all of the food. And now that the ceremony has started sorting through the food means picked out all of the packaged foods from the sticky rice that people ‘made merit’ with. Super fun. Then once that was all done, we took the trays over to the ceremony and they were placed on the stage in front of the sitting monks, then we were able to go and sit. We watched this next part of the ceremony, or rather sat with our hands ‘wai-ing’ while one of the monks spoke. Then the monks began eating while yet another string tying ceremony happened … my first with NongHee … then the monks left and the food trays were distributed to the groups of people about and we ate breakfast … apparently all the donating of food to the canteen was part ritual, part you actually get to eat it when all is said and done … then of course more cleaning up. We cleaned up from the ceremony and then finished taking down all the fabric from the stage and cleaning up where the party was and then at 12:15 I was finally driven home to sleep! Yesss!!!