Token Farang

My first week at site has been quite a trip, literally. I arrived at the town of my SAO on Monday morning and spent the rest of the day just getting my things situated and talking with the staff. Tuesday morning we left early for my village for the official start of “sports week,” a very popular activity in Thailand.

The day before we left I had mentioned to the Balat (No) that some friends of mine had told me that there was a town called Pai close to my village that was very pretty. No said that we could go on a “bai-tiow” (a very popular Thai term that basically means to go visit a place), but never said when for sure. I found out quickly enough. On our way to my village we made a little detour and went to Pai. It is a town in the mountains of Chiang Mai Province that is a backpacker haven and has lots of small cafes, hostels, and restaurants. From all the praise that I got it really left something to be desired. The gist of this story is that No has went out of his way to accommodate me.

To keep things simple I’m going to skip irrelevant and boring description of events that aren’t all that interesting and focus on funny happenings. Sports week was exactly that; a week of sports. I spent the majority of my time watching the sports going on and meeting people in the community. From day one I played the role of “token white guy.” I was called out during the opening ceremonies to say a few things in my broken Thai and was given the celebrity treatment as I was placed in the couches on the school porch and served cold soda. I was introduced to all the important people in the community including principals, SAO council members, soldiers, village chiefs, and federal government workers. At the closing ceremonies I was called to hand out one of the trophies and get my picture taken in front of the sign commemorating “Sports Week 2550” (Buddhist calendar year). The other trophies were all handed out by the aforementioned important community members, which placed me in some pretty prestigious company. Most volunteers get this treatment and most of the current and former volunteers have assured me that after a while it wears off. They say at first it is welcomed because being constantly the center of attention can get tiresome, but after it is gone it is actually missed. I really will at some point in time have to get my own glass of water!

Since the SAO is in the other city and all the staff lives there, there is no permanent place for everyone to stay when they are in the villages. This was remedied through a home stay. We stayed with a local family who I imagine hosts the SAO staff quite frequently. Each night the staff and the family cooked an elaborate meal, usually including chicken soup with every part of the chicken included, bones, head, innards and all, which we promptly ate while sitting Indian style on the floor. No I am not a flexible individual to begin with and sitting Indian style does a number on my joints. I am constantly shifting around and when it is time to get up to leave it takes about five minutes before feeling returns to my legs. I better make stretching a daily activity because I don’t think meals on the floor are going to be all that uncommon in the next two years!

I had two fun experiences with the family we stayed with. First was catching frogs to eat. When it was getting dark I was asked if I wanted to go frog hunting. Of course I agreed, it would be like reliving my childhood in Wyoming hunting frogs in the marshes and swamps around Buffalo. Well as you can guess it wasn’t the same. We went out into the rice patties around the house with two lights. One was my headlamp strategically placed on my forehead and a lamp that was carried by the father of the family. I figured with my experience I would be fairly good at catching frogs, but as you could guess, I was wrong! The father started spotlighting the fields and soon afterwards he was rapidly heading in the direction of his prey. I didn’t see the first frog he caught until he was putting it into the bag I was holding, but I was sure it was just because I wasn’t paying attention. This time as he spotlighted I searched for myself with my little headlamp. Well, before long he was off again and I was left scrambling to keep up. I never did see one of the frogs before he pulled out of a crack and tossed in my bag. It is beyond me how he did it, but it was entertaining.

Secondly, we went on a fishing expedition with the whole SAO staff and the mother of the family. We drove for quite some time and then got out for a little hike. We hiked down to a gorgeous stream that provided a cool refuge from the heat of the day. Right now it is the middle of the hot season and although it is much cooler than it was in Sa Kaeo, it is still hot. The forest in this area is monsoonal and most of the leaves had fallen off the trees in order to conserve moisture. Near the stream there were green shrubs and plenty of bamboo. It seemed to me like Thai scenery right off a postcard.

Once we got to the stream it was down to business. We were equipped with a big fishing net and several small nets that were loops with netting covering it. Once again, I thought my mountain upbringing had prepared me for catching fish in these nets. The hours I spent in Clear Creek running through downtown Buffalo catching minnows and every other moving organism are innumerable, but in the end were insufficient to help me with my Thai fishing. I wet my net several times before it was confiscated by one of my co-workers in order to show me the right way to do it. In the end very few fish were caught, but several thousand tadpoles couldn’t evade the capture from my Thai friends. Everyone got into the act. Some people were in the water gathering loads of leaves from the bottom of the stream and depositing them on the bank. The others were sifting through the leaves looking for the fat little tadpoles. After a sufficient amount of the wiggling creatures found their way into the bottom of our plastic bag they were once again deposited on the shore for the next procedure. Apparently it is fine to eat tadpoles, but it is not alright to eat them whole, which is unusual in Thailand where they eat most every animal and insect whole. For those of you who love animals or who have a week stomach it is best if you skip the following section. I would say that tadpoles are made up of 50% guts and eating that was not acceptable and there was a very easy way around it. Grasping firmly, the tadpole can be squeezed until what looked to be intestines would just pop out of their mouth or another orifice. The whole group sat next to the bank for quite some time very content popping tadpoles and discussing life.

I had another interesting experience with a “soldier Thailand.” His name is Hin and he is the local army officer. In this area there are quite a few soldiers. I think it is because it was traditionally a poppy growing region and drugs get funneled through some of the areas from Burma to Chiang Mai city. Anyway, he is a typical army man. He bought me a coke and sat me down to talk. He was decked out in his camouflaged get up that included a pistol, knife, and aviator glasses. He was a pretty nice guy, but had the soldier mentality. He explained in detail about his rank and the stripes he had on his soldier and how much higher up he was than another army guy who passed before us in a jeep. He very nonchalantly told me how he had to kill a few Lisu people the other week because they were involved in drugs and then asked me if I had ever shot a gun. I said I had and then he wanted to know if I had shot an AK47. Well I hadn’t and I found out the reason why he had asked me. Old Soldier Hin arrived at the closing ceremonies with his AK47 in hand. He proudly showed it off to me and after the speeches were given it was Soldier Hin who went out in the soccer and blasted a few rounds off into the sky to mark the end of the festivities.

After all this was over we had the long drive back to the town of the SAO. It is 100 km of roads only wide enough for one car and winding through the mountainous backcountry of the Chiang Mai Province. I was exhausted from hanging out in the sun all day, but my co-workers sure weren’t. At dinner before we left they decided to finish off the whiskey leftover from Chiang Mai and then continue to drink beer the rest of the way home while No and I sat sober in the front of the pickup. It was a barrage of drunken English questions for three hours when all I wanted to do was sit back and let my mind wander off into oblivion. It gets taxing spending every waking hour with people who are for all purposes are strangers with whom you can’t understand. Welcome, Garrett, to the Peace Corps!