Weekend

I actually had to get out my jeans and sweatshirt this weekend as we had some thunderstorms come in and it got pretty cool (down to 70…it was really cold I swear!). We actually had a tropical storm warning and Peace Corps sent a text out to us all telling us that the thunderstorms can come in quickly and are really powerful so to be careful. Where I am at the thunderstorms were mostly at night and in the morning…which made taking that shower in the morning not too much fun. But I am not complaining as it was really nice to have some cool weather.

On Sunday, one of the ladies at the office that has been “taking care of me” got married. They kept telling me all week that I was going to be one of her bridesmaids (and they kept saying other stuff but the only thing that I understood was that it had to do with a microphone…was this going to be the start of my karaoke career?). One of the other ladies in the office told me that she would take me to the ceremony in the morning and would call to let me know what time to expect her…well, I didn’t get a call, but she showed up at around 10:00. We headed over to the house and the ceremony was almost over. I was just in time to watch the parents lead the couple (by a rope that was tied around their wrists) up to the bedroom that they would be sharing. They made them lie down together on the bed and cuddle while people stood around taking pictures (which for some reason made me a little uncomfortable…I guess you can blame those puritanical ancestors of ours).

We then headed down to Nan where they had the reception. Now after all the talk, I was expecting to have to get up on stage and put on a show, but it was typical most wedding receptions…a lot of tables and people eating and drinking (here it’s whisky). The food was really good and they did have some people get up on stage and sing some karaoke, but fortunately I was not one of the performers (which means we left before they could call me up to the stage and make me sing). After the reception, they took me to Tesko (a bit like mix between Target and Albertsons) so I could stock up on my “American food.”

It rained most of the weekend and looks like it is about to start again soon. I think that I am definitely going to have to purchase that hot water heater sometime this week…I just have to figure out how to install it…wish me luck!

I thought Songkran was over!

Songkran was supposed to end on the 17th of April, but I still somehow managed to get soaked Monday! In the morning the city office had a meeting/celebration to honor the elders in the village (which is typically done during Songkran). I got to the office at 8:30 and they were already showing up. There was music and everyone sat under these big tents (to keep out of the sun). We (the “younger” office staff) then went around and poured water (that was mixed with flowers) onto the elders’ hands then they poured the water that was in their hands over their heads.

As we were making the rounds, one of the guys that is always giving me a hard time (whenever he sees me he tells me to “sing song”) decided that it would be fun to pour water down the back of my shirt. I guess I didn’t mind too much seeing as it reached 104 Monday!

After the water ceremony, they did some singing and dancing and then a monk came and they prayed (it is so weird to get used to having religious stuff at a “government” function). Then they brought out these (for lack of a better word) altars (see pic below) and told me that they were going to have a Northern ceremony. They brought out two: pig’s heads and other misc parts, chickens, bottles of whisky, glasses of water, and other misc stuff that they offered to the spirits. There was then a lot of chanting and a couple of guys tore off pieces of the pig & chicken and placed it in a silver bowl that was on the highest rung of the altar. They also sprinkled water and whisky over everything. After they finished, they brought the bowls of food up to the spirit house and then the elders took pieces of string that were draped over the altars and tied them around our wrists as they offered blessings for us. It was a really neat ceremony although I could have done without the pigs’ heads.

And guess what we ate for lunch?!? Yep…the pig & chicken that we had used during the ceremony (although not what was left for the spirits). Although I didn’t eat the pig because I think that they gave me the ears and there was no way I could eat pig ear especially when I saw hairs sticking out of the pieces.

I now have these cuffs of string (although it is almost more like yarn) around my wrists and it is so hot out that it is a little uncomfortable. A couple of guys told me that we were supposed to leave the string on for “hah wan” or 5 days and then we could cut them off, but when I showed up for work today everyone had already cut their’s off so I think that I am going to get the scissors out tonight.

My Saturday

How sadistic do you have to be to plan a meeting at 6:30 am on a SATURDAY?!?!? That thought ran through my head multiple times as my alarm went off at 5:00 so I could be ready to go. They told me on Friday that there was a meeting on Saturday morning to honor the King and that they would pick me up at 6:30. So I got up at 5:00 (ok really 5:15…same thing) showered, dressed, and had just taken the first bite of my cereal ("Frosties" here in Thailand) when they showed up (it was 6:10…I thought Thais were always late?!?) I was quite surprised when they showed up with the silver bowls they use at the wat (temple) and filled with flowers and food (which told me that there was going to be some worshiping and donating) because I thought that we were honoring the King not praying (I am starting to learn that they go hand in hand here).

When we got to the ampur (larger city), there were two rows of tables and everyone gathered around them and waited. And waited. Remind me again why I had to wake up at 5:00? Finally, truck-loads of monks started showing up. We all lined up behind the tables and the monks walked down the row and we "made merit" by giving them food. They had so much that they had helpers walking next to them taking food out of their bowls and putting it in bags so that they would have room for it all.

We then all assembled in an auditorium and prayed for a couple of hours…yes I said hours. I now know why we had to start so early. Monks have certain rules that they have to live by. Among them is the rule that they can only eat one meal a day and it has to be before 12:00 noon. So we started early so that the monks would have time to eat their daily meal.

I spent the rest of the day laying in bed with the fan 2 feet away as it was 102 degrees inside my house. I did make a quick trip to the store that is a few buildings down but it was too hot to do anything else (and it got up to 103 the next day)!!! So I hope you are all enjoying the cool weather where you are at!

Death in the Peace Corps family

I don't know if any of you have heard, but Julia Campbell, a PCV in the Philippines disappeared on April 8th and her remains were discovered on April 18th. It sounds as though she went for a hike and fell off a cliff. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends and the other PCV's in the Philippines who also lost a family member.

The Peace Corps is a weird place where people from all walks of life come together and become family. I now have so many brothers and sisters that I never would have met had I not joined the Peace Corps, but right now I couldn't imagine my life without them. We become each other's support and encouragement. We call each other when we are sad, when we are frustrated, when we just did something incredibly stupid, or when we just want to speak to someone in English. We become family.

So if you have a few minutes, please say a prayer for Julia, her family, her friends, and her PC family.

Pictures

I fixed it!!! No longer am I trying to decipher Thai while posting to you guys. Here are the pictures that I was going to include in the previous blog (and a few others)...

This is a pic of the dancing stage and the ladies that you were had to dance with (notice the barrel of water in the middle of the stage)

Here is a pic of some kids at a "soaker station" getting a passing truck.

Me at a Wat (temple) before we are to start praying.

Swearing In Day with the Princess (she is in the middle...I am in the back row)

Swearing In.

Songkran

(Note: I am currently getting the Thai version of this Blog so if things are a little messed up, I'm sorry...I still can't read Thai so it makes this a little difficult. I also had some photos to post but as everything is in Thai I can't figure out how...check back on this one as I may get them up eventually!)

Friday started the official Songkran holiday (I say official because as you all know, most people started celebrating early). Well, everyone had a blast. One of the staff from my office invited me to her house to go to a dance (similar to the one I went to on Thursday). Again, more water was pored on the farang and more dancing was done, this time though, I was given tickets to dance with some men...and thus got to tear the tickets when the whistle blew. (I had a photo of the stage & the ladies dancing that I was going to post here).

We then went into Nan (the "big" city) and it was absolute chaos there. There were the "soaker stations" set up on the side of the road, but my favorite was the "drive by dousers." They loaded a big barrel into the back of a truck and about 10 people hop back there and they pour water on anyone lucky/unlucky enough to cross their path. And when the "drive by's" met the "soakers" water flew everywhere...and worse yet when two "drive by's" met. (I had another photo that I was going to post here...does anyone have any suggestions as to how to change the language settings?)

All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend (and a long one at that…I don’t think that I have ever had a 5 day holiday). Some other notes, I finally killed a scorpion although it was not THE scorpion…this one was a baby which means that they are breeding and now I am scared to go into my kitchen/bathroom at night because they are nocturnal creatures. Also, my fingers are officially rubbed raw from doing laundry…I am seriously contemplating buying a washing machine, I just have to decide what is more important…hot showers or clean clothes…what do you think?

"This would never fly in the States"

“This would never fly in the States” those words kept running through my head as I watched my coworkers open the second bottle of whisky at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday (the first was opened at 12:00). Luckily, I told them that I don’t like whiskey so they were gracious enough to pour me a Spy (Thailand’s version of the wine cooler) otherwise I don’t think that I would have made it home (I do have to ride my bike and I have heard from other volunteers that it can be quite treacherous if you are drunk).

I didn’t know what the office staff was celebrating, but assumed that it had something to do with Songkran…after all, it was starting in a couple of days. So I just sat back and watched the laughter and fun (it is a little hard to join in when you don’t understand what people are saying) and ate some really good food for they had brought Som Tom which is a spicy (and I mean spicy) papaya salad that is delicious (even if has fermented fish in it). Later on, they told me that Sin (the office janitor) was getting married that evening (at least I think that’s what they said but they made the poor guy clean up all of the food after everyone left and he was here bright and early the next day).

As soon as 4:30 rolled around (that’s the time we get off of work) they all hopped on their motorcycles & I hopped on my bike and we went to a dance that was held to raise money for the Wat (temple). We had to leave a donation at the table and then if you wanted to dance, you had to purchase tickets…there were about 6 ladies with me and we managed to convince (or con?) some drunk guy into buying us all tickets so that we could dance. Now in order to dance, you had to “buy” dances with these ladies who were wearing neon green or neon orange cheerleading skirts. So we all stood in a big long line dancing with these women (there weren’t any guys wearing the skirts) and they would blow a whistle throughout the song and that was the signal for the ladies to tear up a ticket. Now also on the dance floor were three big barrels of water (it is Songkran after all) and every once in a while, someone would walk by with a bucket and pour water down your back…so everyone was soaking wet.

I just have to say if “this would never fly in the States” then I am glad I am here in Thailand because I had a lot of fun! And I was even cold when I got home & had to bundle up in a blanket to get warm (I checked the thermometer and it was 88).

What a Day (and it's only 10:30)!!!

I can definitely say that I have had better days and it is only 10:30 in the morning. Let me tell you about my day so far:

3:30: Roosters start crowing. I wake up, listen for a few minutes, and then fall back to sleep.
6:00: Public announcements start over the loudspeaker. I wake up, listen for a few minutes, and then fall back to sleep.
7:00: My alarm goes off. I wake up and head for a cold shower (my house has an actual shower, but still no hot water).
7:15: Get dressed, dry my hair, etc.
8:00: I sit on the stairs in my kitchen and drink some apple juice and eat a banana for breakfast.
8:20: I am just getting ready to head to work when I notice the rear tire of my bike looks flat (I keep my bike in my kitchen at night so that it isn't stolen).
8:21: Yep, I have a flat tire!
8:25: Call the office and tell them that I won't make it in at 8:30 as I have to fix my tire.
8:26: I flip my bike over, take off the tire, get to the tube to fix the hole and I don't see anything so I put the tire back together and wash my hands...man I am good at this!
8:50: I start thinking that maybe the whole was one of those small hole that I wouldn't be able to see so I take the tire apart again, wash my hands, get a bucket of water and check for air-bubbles. Of course, no hole. So I put the tire back together and start to pump.
9:00: And pump.
9:10: And pump.
9:25: Finally I give up, wash my hands, and try calling the office to see if there is a place nearby that I can take my tire to get it filled with air...but no answer.
9:30: I put the (still flat) tire back onto my bike and wash my hands.
9:45: Sit and stare at my bike and contemplate walking to the office (it is only 1K after all).
9:55: Sit and stare some more.
10:05: I hear a faint "Kellie, Kellie." I go to the front door (which I don't really use) and there are my two of my coworkers. They stopped by to see how I was doing. I tried to tell them that my pump was not working, but they insisted on trying for themselves.
10:15: They give up trying to pump air into my tire and instead bring it to the front of my house and flag down a passing truck to take it to a bike shop.

And I have not seen my bike since. They tell me that the shop is fixing my tire and that it should be ready sometime this afternoon. In the meantime, my hands are all greasy because this stuff is not easy to get off (and I have washed my hands a lot) and I am over 2 hours late to work...but some good news, apparently a lady from the office is going into town (that means the big town that is an hour away) and said that she will take me to get some groceries (they have "normal" American food there).

It's Started Already!!!

So I am soaking wet. Why you may ask is water dripping from Kellie's clothes and hair at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Monday? And no, it is not because it is raining…

The kids in my village decided to start Songkran early this year. For those of you unfamiliar with the Thai holidays/festivals like I was before I came here, Songkran is the traditional Thai new year. It officially starts April 13th and goes until April 17th (the Thai government just extended it by a day) and is celebrated by "blessing" friends by sprinkling water on them, but everything gets out of hand and water ends up flying everywhere.

So today, I got on my bike to ride to the nearest restaurant (about 2 K away) and what do I see? But children with "water booths" set up by the side of the road. They had anything from big barrels (you know those big oil barrels) filled with water to water guns to hoses and were throwing water on anything that happened to pass by (myself included). I did not get as wet as I could have because a coworker was riding with me on her motorcycle and told the kids to leave me alone.

Luckily, some of the other PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers) gave us "newbies" some advice:

• Make sure that your phones/cameras/electronic equipment is either left at home or sealed in a plastic baggie.
• Ladies should not wear white shirts during this time.
• Expect to get soaked as the children take great pleasure in soaking the farang (foreigner).

Well, it looks like I am in for a couple of interesting (if wet) weeks. If you would like to come and visit during this time next year let me know because I hear there are some pretty crazy celebrations in some of the larger cities…if you're interested!?!

There is a First Time for Everything (Although I hope in this case it is an only time)

So this weekend has been a weekend of firsts…here’s the list:

• First time having April 6th off of work because of a holiday (I had originally planned on doing laundry & cleaning my kitchen/bathroom).
• First time getting stung by a scorpion.
• First time having to call Dr. Rit (the Peace Corps doctor here in Thailand).
• First time having to spend the entire day on my stomach with a bottle of cold water pressed to the back of my thigh because I don’t have any ice (I finally smartened up and put a water bottle in the freezer so I had bottles of ice).
• First time I spent the rest of the weekend tearing apart my kitchen trying to find the scorpion so that I could kill it (no luck on that end but as soon as I find the bastard he is dead!)
• First time I can honestly say that I would rather have spent the day doing laundry and/or cleaning the kitchen/bathroom.

Here’s what happened:

I was going to spend the day doing laundry and then try to get to cleaning my kitchen & bathroom, but I wasn’t sure if I would have time as I had a few weeks worth of laundry and it takes about two hours to hand wash one load. Anyway, I went to the bathroom and I figure that is when the scorpion crawled up my pant leg (I was wearing a pair of gauchos which have very baggy legs). I was walking through the kitchen when I felt a very sharp stinging (think 100 times worse than a bee sting). I looked down but didn’t see anything so I shook out my pant leg and out falls a scorpion.

I started to freak out (I think that you would too). I watched the scorpion run away, but I wasn’t even thinking about killing it because my leg hurt so badly and the panic had started to set in…I mean aren’t they poisonous?!? Am I going to have to get rushed to the hospital for antivenin shots during my second week at site?!? I grabbed the book “Where There Is No Doctor” that the Peace Corps had given us and looked up scorpion stings and it said that they are “rarely dangerous to adults.” Well, that didn’t really make me feel any better because what if this was one of the ones that was dangerous to adults?!? So I called Dr. Rit (which I felt bad about because it was a holiday) and he said to ice it & keep it cool and we would keep an eye on things to make sure I didn’t have an allergic reaction (Dr. Rit was wonderful and called a couple of hours later to see how I was doing).

Well, I don’t have any ice…I have one of those mini-fridges and it does not have any of those small little ice trays. So I got to spend the entire day in my bed, on my stomach, with a bottle of water resting on the back of my thigh (and if I took the bottle off for more than a couple of minutes, my leg would start hurting).

All in all, getting stung by a scorpion is a bit like getting stung by 20 bees in the same exact spot…not fun at all!!! You know that tingling you get when you leg falls asleep? Well it feels a bit like that but multiply by 20 and add in some sharp pain. But at least I can cross-off “get stung by a scorpion” to my list of “Things I never knew existed or wanted to do but ended up doing anyway” which seems to be getting longer and longer…