2/6/2001 - First Impressions
Hello and welcome to the first REAL update
from Denny and Lisa. This is a REAL update because we are REALLY in Thailand!!!!
And we are amazed every day.
Our flight here was incredibly long (10
hours Seattle to Tokyo, 2 hours in Tokyo, 8 hours Tokyo to Bangkok) and tiring
– especially since Denny developed a cold on the flight. However it was
fun getting to know our fellow Volunteers – we even played 5 handed skip-bo
across a middle row of the plane for a couple of hours. Upon arrival in Bangkok
we had a 5 minute bus ride from the plane to the terminal (our plane was fine,
but there are only a small handful of gates and jetways at the BKK airport,
and they seem to be reserved for a small portion of the Thai Airways jets on
the runway), and were greeted with boisterous cheering by the current Peace
Corps Volunteers. The long flight was followed by a 2 hour bus ride to the province
of Supahnburi where we are staying in the city of U-Thong and it’s surrounding
villages (for those looking at a map, look between 60 & 120 miles NNW of
Bangkok and you’ll find us).
The first bit of Thai culture that we have
come to terms with is the toilet! 
This
is a picture of the toilet in our first hotel room. Note the wide flat foot
rests on the top – you squat rather than sit on this toilet. Also note
the yellow bucket – this contains the water which, when poured with the
green bowl, flushes the toilet. Also note the small drain in the floor under
the yellow bucket – this is the drain for the shower and sink, which simply
drain onto the bathroom floor. This bathroom has actually been the nicest to
date, but they have all been functionally the same.
Our first week thus far has been spent
on very basic issues – how to count in Thai in order to pay for food (gi
bath krap), how to ask someone’s name and to give our own, and basic orientation
to the Peace Corps (with a healthy dose of shots on the side for good measure).
We still don’t understand food (we know rice, pork, chicken & eggs,
but we have no idea what they are called in their various combinations), and
are relying heavily on the staff here for insight! After only 4 days, armed
with an 8 word vocabulary beyond numbers, we were given over to our “Homestay”
(HS) family. In our case, this is a household with a mother & father, an
11 year old mentally handicapped boy, a 5 (or 4 or 6 depending on who you ask)
year old girl, and a <2 year old girl. There is a grandfather who is often
around keeping tabs on the handicapped boy, and there is a cousin who is often
around and is the only English speaker we have regularly encountered at our
home (her vocabulary in English is only slightly larger than our Thai vocabulary,
so it’s a major struggle still!). Our education continues with official
Peace Corps class during the day and trying to communicate with our family at
night.
Our
HS house is mostly a concrete slab with a roof for shade. The wooden second
story is newer than the rest of the house, and our family lives there (we haven’t
yet had a tour). Our room is on the ground level in the back of the house (we
have our own room!). The picture was taken near sunset. If I had taken it mid-day,
I might have passed out from the heat (we’re still getting acclimatized),
and if I had taken it in the morning all you would have seen was fog. Our house,
and for that matter just about every house for miles in all directions, is surrounded
by rice fields. Ownership of the fields is not yet clear. Our neighbor seems
to own the ones behind our house. Other Peace Corps trainees have indicated
that the fields around their villages are communal property. Our family does
not farm rice – our best understanding is that our family has 200 head
of cattle in the nearby provincial capital of Supahnburi. Our HS family was
gone nearly 12 hours both Saturday and Sunday tending their cattle. We have
been invited next Sunday – we may go just to see what the family does
all day when they’re gone.
We have been to visit the Peace Corps trainee
just down the road from us – the household that sleeps in his house is
small, but the whole neighborhood (which seems to be made up of the children
and grandchildren of his HS parents) is always around asking questions and offering
to feed him – and asking us to come “wisit”.
Our next big hurdle will be on Wednesday
this week – a mere 8 days after we arrived in Thailand – we will
be going to a classroom in our village, and we will have to occupy the class
for at least a half hour (Denny will have about eighteen 6th graders and Lisa
will have sixteen 5th graders). Children have been the most fun and interactive
thus far, but Denny is still apprehensive.
2 more quick cultural differences before
we end this rambling message (our thoughts are random right now because our
brains are full trying to learn the language and survive) – Small motorbikes
and pickup-trucks are the everywhere here. And traffic officially travels on
the left side of the road, but in practice people drive wherever they like and
we are amazed that we have seen no accidents to date!
Hope all is well with you. Please feel
free to send replies! It’s nice to hear what’s happening at home
too (snow in Anchorage finally!).
Denny & Lisa