Trials and Tribulations

Well I tried really hard with my last entry to be very descriptive and have some descent writing, but now I realize I just need to write everything down because there is so much to write. We spent about five days at a resort near a national park called Kao Yai. Apparently it is a world class national park that has tigers, Asian elephants and a host of other exotic animals, but of course we weren’t allowed to go outside of the resort. The resort had a pool, work-out room, and in general pretty much all the amenities of a resort in the US. Talk about Posh Corps! During our time there we had a bunch of sessions on various subjects pertaining to the Peace Corps....i.e. cross-cultural training, bike training, language training. We actually just had two short classes of language training before we took off for our host families and our new host community. We did a lot of activities to get to know each other, which depending on the time of the day were some-what amusing or very nerve racking. Everyone in our group seems very interesting and I haven’t really seen any conflict or too many cliques forming. Pretty amazing I suppose with a group of 56 from all over the US. While we were in Kao Yai I really couldn’t say that I knew anything about Thailand. We drove there in the middle of the night from the airport and apart from drinking some beers across the street at the little beer shack/general store I could have really been somewhere in the US.





Two days ago we arrived at our Pre-Service Training sight which I can only say on my blog is in South-Eastern Thailand for security reasons apparently. We went directly to the provincial government offices where we were greeted by the governor and group of dancing children and all while receiving lays made out of yellow marigolds. Yellow of course because it is the official color of the Thai royalty. The king is believed to be a semi-deity and is held in the utmost respect. A good majority of the government workers, and everyday people for that matter, wear yellow shirts with the king’s insignia on the chest. After being greeted by the governor, and greeting him in our broken Thai, we had a few activities pertaining to living with our host family. We learned how to use a squat toilet, how to “wai” people, which is a way of bowing that has a millions different ways of being done depending on the authority or amount of respect you show a person, how to wash laundry by hand, and how to set up our mattress and mosquito net. The Thai culture has some very interesting unique features. In Thai culture the feet are considered very bad and the head very good. You never touch a person on the head and you never point at someone with your feet. In fact, when it comes to feet you pretty much don’t do anything except walk. You never step over someone, you never cross your legs so the bottom of your foot is facing someone, and when you sleep you feet need to be pointed away from any Buddha figure. I’m sure there are a million more “no no’s” about feet but I suppose that is for me, the stupid “farang”, to figure out through my own pure ignorance.
Want to talk about squat toilets? I’m sure you did. So basically the main premise is that to use the bathroom you squat. Not too complicated. Well I can tell you I haven’t tried it because my host family has a Western style toilet, but the squatting isn’t the bad part. Thai’s apparently don’t believe in toilet paper....except for drying their hands off. In order to wipe, all the while squatting, you must dip water out of a basin, splash it on you know where with your hand, and then wipe it all off with that same hand. Pretty yummy! A Thai shower consists of dipping a bucket in a larger basin located next to the small basin for the bum and dumping it on your body. It is surprisingly not that bad given that Thailand doesn’t have the coolest climate.
My host family is great, like all others I have had. They cook great Thai food and have been great Thai language teachers. I live with just a host mom and dad, but in an area at an end of a road with about five or six houses all in a circle. There are always people running around, but I’m not sure of their exact relation to my host family....couldn’t be due to my extensive Thai skills! They live in a different “tambon” or community from where the hub site is. It is 13 km away from the hub site which is roughly 6 miles for those of you who failed to understand the metric system. It is quite a ride, but it has been made easy with the provision of our excellent transportation: Trek bicycles. I was kind of worried we would get a one gear granny bike, but was pleasantly surprised with our Treks with all the fixings. It is fun riding it down the highway with all the Thais giving me the third degree but inevitably putting on the big smile that Thais are known for.
Now let’s talk about the Thai language. It was pretty intimidating at first, but today I had one of those language epiphanies. When I first got here I could say (transliterated) “Phom chuu Garrett, nam sa kun Schiche khrap. Phom ma ja muang Buffalo, jaan wat Wyoming, pra tet America khrap” and not much more (My name is Garrett, last name Schiche. I’m from the city of Buffalo, state of Wyoming, country of America). Well that made for an interesting first night. A lot of talking, with little more than dumb stares on my behalf. I knew a little more than I just said, but I would be lying if I said much more. Well anyway, one day later, one language lesson later, and a whole lot of trying to pronounce words and learn from my family I am actually able to hold somewhat of a conversation. “Somewhat of a conversation” after roughly four days of Thai lessons and a week in Thailand I would say is pretty alright. It is coming along. I have a lot to learn, but also a lot of desire to do the same!
I’m sure I’m probably leaving out lots of stuff, but I’m sick of typing. Let me know if anyone has some specifics they would like know. I hope everyone is doing well back in the “Aa-mare-ee-ka”!