It’s been less than two weeks from the time that I posted my first blog post, and yet so much has changed since then. Instead of sitting on my bed in Arlington, Va, I am currently sitting at my desk in Khon Kaen, Thailand! I arrived in Bangkok on August 21st, and was ecstatic to have made it after almost 21 hrs. in the air. It is a bustling cityfilled with tourists, vendors, crazy tuk tuk drivers, a reclining Buddha that is larger than life, a royal palace in the middle of downtown, and a temple that’s only accessible by water. It is a wonderful city, but it reminded me all too much of American cities: dirty, overcrowded, and teeming with foreigners being sucked into money traps. However, I thoroughly enjoyed wading through nearly 1 ft. of water that flooded the streets in order to find a restaurant to eat at for dinner one night (it’s the end of monsoon season here).
After Bangkok, we took a bus trip to a resort in the Loei Province, which is Northwest of Bangkok. The resort was situated in the mountains, and was surrounded by the most breathtaking views. While at the resort, we had 4 hrs. of Thai class per day (for 3 days). Watching us struggle through Thai class is hilarious because we all have the inflections and the pronunciations of the words wrong, but our Ajaans (teachers) are very patient with all of us. We then participated in “orientation activities,” which were tasks that normally took between 3-7 hours in which the group had to complete a team-building activity…Exhausting, to say the least!
On August 26th, we met P Dache (Da- chai). He has been an NGO in Thailand for the past 25 yrs., and he spoke of his struggle to speak for those who have lost their voices in the fight to regain their rights as human beings throughout the nation. His speech was extremely inspirational, and it was good to hear his thoughts on western education (before meeting CIEE students, he didn’t believe that U.S. students were capable of working with each other). Afterwards, we all went outside and saw a huge rainbow painted across the sky, which we all took to be a good omen for the future!
On August 28th, we left for the Nong Jahn Village, which was taken from those who lived there and made into a national park. The government has already evicted the people of Nong Jahn, on two separate occasions but they continue to return to their land because they refuse to allow their homes to be taken from them. They are in the process of acquiring a land title, but they have a long way to go.
The village is very impoverished, but the people are the most generous and hospitable that I have ever met. My friend, Anne, and I stayed with our meh (mom) Mai Poon. She was 57 years old, and overwhelmingly kind to us. She held our hands wherever we went, and she
made sure that we slept in the best bed. Her house consisted of a large room on stilts that was covered by a tin roof. Inside the room were pads that were used for beds and then surrounded by mosquito nets. She also had her own bathroom, which was a concrete building adjacent to her main home with a hole in the ground and then a big basin of water with a smaller cup in it to splash water on oneself for a shower, or to flush a toilet. Although simple, I thought that her house was beautiful, welcoming, and very well maintained. It’s amazing how east it is to adapt to such changes in standards of living, but I have come to realize that everything is relative. Thailand is a poor country, but the people are happy.
It was hard to communicate with my meh, but P Dache said something that I found to be very true: “language is not a barrier. The heart is more important.” We played some Pictionary, used many hand motions, smiled at each other, and I used what little knowledge I had of Thai language to communicate, but it worked out well, and it was obvious that we all cared about each other! That night, we had dinner at the village, and we ate by candlelight in the villages’ meeting house. Following dinner, we had an exchange with the villagers, and it was interesting to hear that they were not afraid of once again being evicted from their land because it all came down to the realization that they had nowhere else to go. It was all very surreal and humbling.
The next morning, Anne and I woke up at 6 AM, and we watched as our meh prepared sticky rice, eggs, and vegetables. We then carried all of the food that she had made onto a tractor that took us up through a mountain to a temple. Once at the temple, we gave alms to the monks (we offered them food, watched them accept it, and then bowed three times to them while hearing them chant a blessing of thanks upon the food). It was an amazing, and visually stimulating experience!
Later in the day, we left for Khon Kaen University (KKU), and it was hard to say goodbye to my meh because she was so good to us, and I wish that we had more time with her, but I am thinking of maybe visiting her when I have a personal day. When we arrived at KKU, we met up with our Thai roommates (all very nice!). I have not met mine yet, but her name is Boe, and she looks/seems nice from the letter that I received from her! We went exploring a little bit tonight, and KKU seems very safe and fun, and not nearly as hectic/chaotic as Bangkok.
I am having a wonderful time, and I can already feel my perspective on the world shifting to fit the new insights that I have gathered from being here for just a week! I miss my friends and family in America, and I find it excruciatingly hard to be away from mon petite chou. However, I know that I am doing the right thing for me, and I’m so excited to be in Thailand and part of this program! It is hard work, and we only have 14 personal days for all 4 months that we are here, but that’s o.k.! A lot of my time will be spent at home stays (almost every other week), and I’m ecstatic at the prospect of having more chances to better immerse myself in the lives of the unheard. The people (both Thai and my fellow American students) are beautiful, and I’m already having an amazing time in the “Land of Smiles.”
