9/16/2002 - Flooding, Candle Festival

Hi Everybody!

It occurs to us that some of you might be wondering what's happening in good ol' Sangkha. Water, that's what. And lots of it. For those of you keeping up with global news, China seems to have been hit the worst this year by the monsoon rains (though Europe has had it's own share of water too). Fortunately for those of us in Sangkha, the flooding has not been bad. Some Peace Corps Volunteers, especially in northern Thailand, have been forced out of their houses.

We are presently in the middle of the rain season (June-ish to November-ish), which the farmers rely upon for their rice crop. Last year they had enough rain to flood the fields and get everything planted by about Mid-July. This year, they waited and waited for enough rain, and are still planting fields in the beginning of September. And then we got so much rain that many places in Thailand flooded. Unfortunately this is not a tremendous boon for the farmers, as their fields need to be a little bit flooded, but not so flooded that their crop is underwater, as is the case many places right now. They need to have a chat with mother nature about distributing her water resources.

Many people, though, are not unhappy about the extra water. In fact Sangkhans are so delighted by a little bit of extra water (there are no rivers or lakes in Sangkha) that the whole town turned out to play on the main street through town when it flooded. This picture is Denny's bike on the road to Sangkha. You can just barely see all the people playing in the water in the background . (And the two kids swimming in the middle of the picture are really only in about a foot and a half of water). And in case you're wondering about our house - Sangka is as FLAT as a pancake, and we happen to live on one of the dough lumps. Therefore it would take about another 4 feet of water over an area the size of a modest midwestern state before anything more than a puddle threatened our house.

But, as we said, this is a playful time for the folks of our town. Take, for example, the kids in this picture who are looking to start a water fight or pose for a good photo op, whichever comes first. The yellow bowl the child on the left is carrying is for splashing people with minimum effort and maximum effect. Most of the kids in town go to Sangkhawittayakom School, where Lisa taught last year, and being a teacher in Thailand gives one enough status that none of the kids dared splash us. That, and half the kids are still scared of us. (We might kidnap them and force them to speak English).

And speaking of speaking English, that really has turned out to be pretty much the entirety of our job here as Peace Corps Volunteers. For this term Lisa has groups of teachers who come to our house several evenings per week, and on weekends, to practice speaking English. There is enough demand on Lisa's time that Denny has started a couple of groups as well, though most of his groups are with students. We are not only helping the English teachers speak English, but Lisa is teaching a 1st grade teacher, a Jr. High math teacher, and a local shopkeeper as well. This is topped off with a smattering of teaching in schools and a few English camps for both students and teachers. When we travel to Bangkok, Denny goes to visit the Cambodian refugees that used to be our neighbors in Sangka. He goes in part to chat with friends, and in part because they are waiting for the UN to send them to the US, and they need as much practice with English as they can get before they go. When last Denny was in Bangkok, there was a dinner gathering of Cambodian Refugees which he ended up attending. It was interesting (and slightly disturbing) to hear stories from people who had to flee their country because a Prime Minister was elected who does not like their political point of view. At the same time, it was interesting to hear stories of every day life, and their plans for their future in western Thai restaurants or other seemingly menial jobs - jobs that we often do not think highly of because they are neither intellectually challenging, nor high paying, but from a more global perspective these jobs pay quite well.

Continuing our traveling ways, in July we again packed up and headed to Ubon Ratchathani for the Candle Festival at the beginning of the Buddhist Lent. There were more than 10 other PCVs there, and naturally we managed to lose sight of each other within 5 minutes of hitting the festival. But wait! We all have cell phones! Hurray for cheap cell technology! (Um, I think a wise philosopher once said, "Cell phones are the opiate of the masses.") No offense to those of you who work, or have worked, for the stodgy old land-line telephone companies, but cell phones is one area where Thailand can knock the socks off the USA any day. They are so common here that they can be found even in the smallest villages, and they are much easier to set up and service than land lines, making them much cheaper. The phone companies here have even wised up to offering pre-paid cell phone cards so that you don't have to worry about monthly bills, and incoming calls are free. Anyway, here is a photo of one of the elaborate candles carved for this year's candle festival. Somebody told us that it takes about 2 months to finish carving one of the candles for a parade float. We're not sure if that's true, but it sounds about right. In case you missed it last year, or have forgotten, the candle festival is at the beginning of a time in the Buddhist calendar when the monks are not supposed to leave the temple for several months (for fear of stepping on the rice and bringing bad luck, among other reasons). Therefore, there is a large festival primarily revolving around giving lots of food and candles to the monks who will be cooped up in the temple for several months (in reality, we see monks on the street all year, but in theory they are not out during this time). In Ubon they go so far as to have a parade of the candle creations that the local villages make. Throughout the parade, one attendant walks around the candle, squirting it with water to keep it from melting in the hot sun. At the beginning of the parade the floats were all lined up behind an intersection with an archway and low-strung electric lines. Naturally, one guy's job was to climb up the arch and lift the electric lines (the archway is constructed of metal, of course) so that the tall candles didn't get snagged. And throughout the parade there are attendants who walk with long bamboo sticks in their hands to lift the miscellaneous electrical and phone wires over the floats. Where's OSHA when you need them?

That's the latest from Sangkha, Thailand - look out for news of Cambodia soon.
We hope that everything is going well for all of you.

Our best,
Lisa and Denny