I told both of the schools that I teach at that I wouldn’t be coming this week. Christmas was Tuesday (I teach at one of the schools on Tuesdays) and even though we don’t have the day off, I really didn’t feel like teaching a bunch of kids on Christmas Day. Plus my family is coming to visit next week and I need to get things settled at the office (I have a report due to Peace Corps on the Jan 15th that I want to turn in early). With so much to do, I really didn’t want to do lesson planning & everything that comes with teaching.

I was sitting at the office on Wednesday when, much to my surprise, I saw a few students from one of my schools. Then I saw the principal and one of the teachers. And then I saw more students. There were about 20 students total (my class is about 55 but you can only fit a certain number of people in the back of a pickup truck).

The students had made me Christmas cards & bought me a Christmas gift!

The present was a BEAUTIFUL shawl…

It was so sweet and totally made my day!

Merry Christmas!

I hope that you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas holiday! This is my first Christmas away from home & it’s strange…but it’s even stranger spending Christmas in a country that doesn’t celebrate the holiday.

I went to Chaing Mai for the weekend. A Peace Corps staff member got married and invited the volunteers to her wedding (she is Thai). I’ve been to a Thai wedding before, but I didn’t get to see the entire ceremony (they were late picking me up). So it was really neat to see.

The ceremony that we went to started at 9:00 in the morning. Normally, this ceremony is only for close family & a few friends (so it was very nice of her to let us come). The groom & his family were in another room & they had to gain entry into the room we were in. The bride’s family barred his way with chains & they asked him questions before they would let him pass.

The bride was hiding & once the groom gained entry into the room he had to find her. The groom’s family then presented the dowry to the bride’s family.

The groom also presented gifts to the bride.

Then the guests sat before the couple & sprinkled seeds & flowers over the dowry while wishing them luck.

The couple then moved to chairs & all of the guests tied strings around their wrists & gave them blessings & good wishes. (I didn’t get a pic of this, but you can see the strings tied to their wrists in the group picture).

Later that night, they had a reception at the same hotel. The bride & groom had changed into more “Western” clothes.

It took place poolside & it was gorgeous! They had a little stage that went out into the pool where they had the cake & they had candles floating in the pool. (The sign “Nid & Noi” are the nicknames of the bride & groom).

Here they are with the volunteers.

The groom is a professor at a University in Kentucky & the couple will be moving there in a few weeks (the bride is working on her Masters). I wish them the best of luck & I hope that the people they meet in America are as nice as the people in Thailand!

On Sunday, Gabe, Tara, Scott, and I went to Tomi & Derrick’s home. They live about half-way between Chaing Mai & my site. They had invited volunteers to their home for dinner on Christmas Eve. (Christmas Eve was a holiday in Thailand – Election Day, but Christmas Day was not & we had to be back at site).

It was wonderful! They have a very nice home & we were able to make some delicious food for dinner. (Gabe left early and missed out on an amazing dinner!) We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, salad, biscuits, and chicken (turkey is difficult to get in Thailand).

Some photos…
Tara with her deviled eggs.

Tomi making the biscuits.

Scott getting into the holiday spirit.

And the spread.

Christmas Day was like any other day…in the 80’s!

Again, I hope that you all had a very merry Christmas! Hopefully you were able to spend it with friends & family & if you were lucky you had a bit of snow!

To the Defense

I’ve had a lot of fun writing this blog. It’s been a great way to keep those of you back home updated as to what’s going on with my life and what I have experienced here in Thailand. I’ve even met some new people because of it. Now granted, it hasn’t all been easy…there was a period where I couldn’t get the language setting changed from Thai & the Thai government had blocked Blogspot blogs for a while & it hasn’t always been easy loading pictures with the slow internet connection (that’s why it sometimes takes me a while to get things posted).

I’ve also really enjoyed the comments I receive from all of you. I do read them even if I don’t respond to them (if you log on, I will get a name but I don’t get email address so I can’t reply). (By the way, congratulations Cory…you’re going to have your hands full with 3)! Very recently, I received some comments that lead me to believe that I have offended some people…which I am very sorry about. It has NEVER been my intention to offend anyone. But apparently some people are upset with me, so let me take this time to explain my comments.

The blog at issue was one I posted back in June where I talked about what I did for my birthday. I had asked my mom to send some cake mix & frosting so that I could make cupcakes. I had problems finding vegetable oil at the store & had issues with my power because I had to bake the cupcakes in my toaster oven.

Now let me explain my situation. I live in a very small village in Northern Thailand. I am a 45 minute songtao ride from the nearest city. Peace Corps will not let us drive so I have very limited access to transportation. The city that is 45 minutes away from my village is 11 hours from Bangkok. When I wrote the blog, I had been to the grocery store maybe 3 times. I have since found the “farang” section in the grocery store and yes, they do have cake mix. But they DO NOT have frosting. They also DO NOT have vegetable oil. These things can be found in Bangkok (apparently) but Bangkok is not an easy trip for me.

Yes, they have ovens in Thailand. But the average Thai household in the average Thai village DOES NOT HAVE AN OVEN!!!! A month ago, I was invited to a woman’s house in my village & she was proud to show-off her oven. It was the first & is the only oven that I have seen in a Thai house. Now I’m not speaking for houses in Bangkok or Chaing Mai (that are quite a bit more expensive than the houses in my village), and I’m not speaking for bakeries or other businesses…I have not been to a kitchen in Bangkok so I cannot tell you if your average home in Bangkok has an oven. But I can tell you that the average home in my village does not have an oven.

I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. I live on a budget of 10,000 baht a month (about $300). This includes 2,500 baht for rent…which leaves 7,500 baht (which is about $225) for living expenses (which includes food). This is the same budget that the average household in my village lives on. This is not enough money to travel to Bangkok and buy expensive cake mix and frosting! This is not enough money to buy an outrageously expensive oven! This is why the woman in my village felt the need to show-off her oven. It is a luxury item that the average household cannot afford!

It has never been my intention to lie or offend anyone through this blog & it makes me sad when people post comments that imply otherwise. I don’t know how they even found my blog (do people actually go around Googling cupcakes?).

Tired?

I was riding my bike up this hill yesterday & I heard a motorcycle drive up next to me. I looked over & the driver had slowed down enough so that she was riding next to me. She looked at me, asked me if I was tired, and then drove off.

Sometimes I really hate not being able to drive a car!

The King's Birthday

This past Wednesday was the King’s 80th birthday. Now if I haven’t mentioned it before, the King is kinda a big deal in Thailand. Thais wear yellow shirts every Monday (and any other day of the week) to pay respect to the King. His photo hangs in every home and business and you can actually face up to 7 years in prison for disparaging the King. So his 80th birthday celebration was going to be pretty big.

The people from my work called me on Wed morning and told me that they would pick me up at 6:00 to go into Santisuk (I’m about 8k away) for the festivities. When we got to the field, it was just starting to get dark. They had a big huge stage with a gigantic picture of the King.

People were just starting to arrive…the event actually started at 7:00 (why we had to get there at 6:00 I have no idea).

At 7:00, everyone gathered around the stage & different villages & schools presented these egg-shaped statues as gifts to the King.

You can see the statues lined up on either side of the photo under the writing.

That lasted about an hour or so. I had fun because we were standing next to a group of uniformed “cadets.” (I believe they are in a program like the ROTC in America). I could hear them talking among themselves & mixed in with the Thai were a few English words…which usually happens when people want to talk to me but can’t remember enough English to really ask anything. Usually the first question a Thai will ask is if I speak Thai. So instead of waiting for them to ask, I turned to the group and told them that I speak a little Thai (and then the lady I was with at the time told them that I could understand Thai really well if they spoke slowly…which was very nice to hear). They were very impressed & shouted out a few questions: “What is your name?” “How old are you?” “What did you eat with your rice?” the normal questions Thais ask. Apparently one of the “cadets” was the daughter of the woman I was with.

(The woman is one of the village council members & the head of the tea-making group).

When all of the villages had presented their gifts, the mayor of Santisuk made a speech & then they had a candlelight ceremony & sang songs (I recognized the King’s song & the National Anthem among the several that were sung).

That lasted about 30-40 min and then the show started. Different groups & schools prepared dances & shows for the event. They were all amazing & the costumes were stunning!

I haven’t yet mentioned the fireworks. They started lighting off big huge fountains during the dancing. Normally, I would be impressed, but they had these fountains “stationed” in the trees & about 10 ft from the crowd. You can’t tell from the picture, but the sparks were POURING into the trees & hitting people in the crowd. I am very surprised that they didn’t start a fire!

We left at 9:00 & as we were walking to the car they were lighting lanterns that then floated into the sky.

P.S. I'm sorry about the bad pictures. My camera takes crappy night pictures.

Thanksgiving

(Sorry Mom, I have to do it).

I was talking to my Mom a month or so ago (this was before the Cambodia trip). Now every phone conversation I had with her between July and October involved the question “Now when are you going to Cambodia?” It didn’t matter if I had spoken with her the day before…she still asked “Now when are you going to Cambodia?”

This time, after she asked the “Cambodia question” she asked what we were doing for Thanksgiving. I told her that the Peace Corps staff puts on a Thanksgiving dinner for us in Bangkok, but they were having it on the Saturday before because Thanksgiving is on Thursday & we don’t get it off. Then she asked THE question…the conversation went a little something like this:

“When do they celebrate Thanksgiving over there?”

“Mom!”

“Well, do they celebrate it the same time we do?”

“Mom! Thanksgiving is an AMERICAN holiday!”

“Oh, well what about Christmas?”

“Mom!”

“Well, do they celebrate Christmas?”

“Mom! Christmas is a Christian holiday. Thais are Buddhist. They do not celebrate Christmas!”

“Oh. I think I’ve asked you that before haven’t I?” (No, she has not asked me that before & I hope she did not ask anyone else that question).

So for those of you unfamiliar with international holidays, they do NOT celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day (aka 4th of July), Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Martin Luther King Jr Day, Valentines Day, President’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, or Halloween. They do have their own holidays and I can give you that list if you want it.

So I will be going to Bangkok the weekend before Thanksgiving to have Thanksgiving dinner at one of the Peace Corps’ staff member’s house. There will be other volunteers there, but not all of us. It will only be for the weekend, and most of us will be back at site on Monday & spend this November 22nd (Thanksgiving Day) working as usual.

Randoms

A few random things that I haven’t had a chance to write about (but I had pictures & I wanted to post them)…

I was sitting at my desk a few weeks ago when one of the village council members approached my desk & asked me if I would like to go with her to visit the tea making group. I of course said yes & she told me that she had to go to the doctor first then she would stop by after to pick me up.

When she came back, we headed out…her on her motorcycle and me on my bike. We stopped at her house & walked from there. On our way we picked up a few stragglers…

We got to where the group was meeting & they were in the process of cutting up ginger. They make ginger tea & dried ginger. They had a big huge bowl that they were filling…

We stayed for about 5 minutes & then they told me that they were finished! They promised me that they would ask me to come again next time they met…and hopefully we won’t show up 5 minutes before they are done!



A week or so later, I showed up at the office & was locking my bike when about 4 guys walk out from behind the building carrying a pig carcass! It was so gross! They had built a barbeque pit behind the office and were having a pig roast.

It looked disgusting but smelled wonderful! When I asked why they were doing it they told me it was to welcome the new interns they had working at the office. So we all ate pig for lunch.

Halloween & Weather

I hope that you all had a wonderful Halloween! It is strange being someplace that knows about the holiday (or at least recognizes the word) but does not celebrate it.

I knew that I wanted to teach my students a little about Halloween, but I was stuck for ideas. I mean I didn’t have the supplies that one would normally find in a classroom in the States (I mean it was a big task to find glue and scissors one day). I didn’t even have access to Halloween candy or decorations. Luckily, Tara came up with the wonderful idea of having mummy races.

I taught some vocabulary first (I wanted to make sure that they KNEW what a mummy was before they actually had to make one). They were pretty familiar with some of the words…spider (from Spiderman), Dracula, bat, and a few even knew mummy. I then made them get into groups of 4-5 and the fun began…


My classes were actually on Tuesday & Thursday so I didn’t have anything scheduled for the holiday itself…which meant that when I woke up freezing & saw that it was raining outside, I called and told them that I wouldn’t be coming in today. I sooo did not want to ride my bike in that rain. Instead, I spent the day in a sweatshirt & pants, huddled under all of the blankets I could find, watching movies on my computer. Not a bad way to spend the day (except for the freezing part).

Speaking of weather, the cold season has officially reached Thailand. Which means that instead of 90 degree weather, we now have weather in the 70’s. Now in Montana, 70 degrees means shorts, but here in Thailand it means sweaters & coats (someone even mentioned seeing a sale on scarves & hats). The days are actually really nice (when it’s not raining or they don’t have the a/c on in the office)…it’s the nights that get me.

It’s actually a bit like camping…you know those mornings where you don’t want to get out of your sleeping bag because it is so cold out there (in fact you kept your clothes in your sleeping bag so that they wouldn’t be cold in the morning when you had to get dressed). Well, that’s what it’s like here. I just have to say that I am SO glad that I bought that hot water heater!

Cambodia Part 3

It was right after lunch that we figured out about the rope. You see there was a really long rope lying on the ground at some point between the vendors and the ruins. This rope seemed to be a stopping point for the children & women that were trying to sell us things. It was amazing…as soon as we hit that rope they would stop, turn around, and find another tourist to sell their stuff to.

I think that the next set of ruins were my favorite. When we first got there, there was this enormous tree…I don’t think I have ever seen a tree this large!

The ruins were in total disrepair, but it felt like you were exploring it for the first time & that you were able to discover new things.

Not to mention the fact that there were trees growing out of most of the ruins!

As we were walking back, we came across a small band that was playing music. Most of the members were missing limbs and they had a sign in front of them that said they were victims of mines. It took me a little while to realize that they were not the victims of coal mines (or silver mines or any other type of mine that we have back home) but were victims of LAND mines. They were really good & were selling their cd for $10, but that was way too expensive for a Peace Corps budget. (We saw quite a few similar bands during our time in Cambodia).

We went to one more temple and then the tuk-tuk brought us back to the guesthouse. It had been a long day, so we relaxed for a while then set out for the old market area for dinner.

Old market was amazing! They had all of these wonderful restaurants & bars. They were all so neat & fun…I really wish that someone would do something like that in Chaing Mai!

We liked Old Market so much that we decided to go back the next day. It wasn’t that far from our guesthouse, so we decided to walk. On our way, we came across a “7/Twenty.” Now they have 7/11’s in Thailand, but let me tell you why the 7/Twenty was so much better than what you find in Thailand…they had Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, and Skittles! I miss Skittles!

We spent the day shopping as there were a whole bunch of souvenir stands, and then headed back to the guesthouse to relax & shower before dinner. Again, we headed out to Old Market for dinner & it was excellent! We walked around and stopped at a few bars for drinks. At about 11:30, Kerry and I got tired so we decided to head back to the guesthouse & Melanie and Maria decided to stay and watch the football (soccer) game that was playing at the bar we had stopped out. Kerry and I took a tuk-tuk back and I was just about asleep when Maria walks in the room and tells us that Melanie just got robbed. Apparently they were walking back from the bar and a guy on a motorcycle drove by and ripped her purse out of her hands. They called Peace Corps Thailand and were told that they would have to go to the Embassy the next day to get a passport…well, the Embassy is in the capital…5 hours away.

We ended up splitting up & Kerry and I headed back to Thailand & Maria and Melanie went the other way to work on getting a passport. By the time that Mel & Maria got to the capital, the police in Siam Reap had recovered her purse…so they had another 5 hour ride back. Melanie got her passport, id’s, credit cards (although she had already cancelled them), house keys, and purse back…she did not get back her money, camera (with ALL of her Peace Corps photos), phone, or glasses.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip…it was just tainted at the end. I know I learned a lesson on safe travel that I will remember for a long time to come!

Cambodia Part 2

Have you seen “Tomb Raider?” You know the movie with Angelina Jolie where she goes to the hidden temple and the statue with 4 different faces (one on each side) attacks her? Well, that’s where we went next.

The tuk-tuk dropped us off at a bridge and the driver told us that he would wait for us on the other side. There were two rows of statues on either side of the bridge…

There was a gate at the end of the bridge that we crossed under & then we got into the tuk-tuk and continued on to the temple. The driver told us that we would actually visit a few temples at this stop as they were within walking distance. But the first one was the “Tomb Raider” temple.

There were giant stone faces everywhere…


We then walked to the next ruin. Some of them were palaces and some were temples, but they were all amazing!

(They are in the process of restoring the temples so the scaffolding that you see is work in progress.)

We then got back on the tuk-tuk and made him stop for a restroom break. Normally, a restroom wouldn’t be exciting, but this is Cambodia after all. The restroom had a Western toilet, and there was a sign behind the toilet that I found very amusing. (Sorry it’s so blurry).

Then we were off to the next set of ruins. Now, we had quickly come to realize that from the place the tuk-tuk dropped us off to the entrance to the temple we were “fair game” to the vendors and kids selling souvenirs. During this brief walk we were harassed by little 7-year-old kids “You buy postcard? Only $1. 10 for $1.” The sad thing was was that they were all selling the same thing so if you did buy a postcard (or a flute or book) at the first stop, you would still get harassed by others trying to sell you the same exact thing!

This temple was not my favorite. It was one of those temples with REALLY steep steps & the top was really high up. Some of you may know of my fear of heights…I got about half-way up the stairs before I had to go back down (and going down was MUCH harder than going up).

It was noon by the time we had finished at that temple (yes, we had been doing this for 7 hours already). So we had our driver take us on to the next set of ruins & we had lunch there.

End Part 2