3/1/2003 - Travel, Hospitals, Science Fair

Hello to all our family and friends!

To pick up with the animal count - the cows, buffalos and chickens are (fortunately) still AWOL, we disposed of the rats (glue on a plate serves as a rat trap in this Buddhist country where religion prohibits killing "living things"), we now have 2 cats who keep the frogs and lizards at bay, and the ants are still out of control. New neighbors have shown up with dogs that like to bark in the middle of the night as enthusiastically as a sled dog team with a moose in their midst. Ahhh, reminders of home.

Speaking of home - we will be coming there soon. That's right, we are fast approaching the end of our time here in Thailand. We came in the end of January 2001, and our 27 months with Peace Corps is officially up the 30th of April. We are presently making plans for traveling home. If any of you want to catch us along the way, we are planning to travel Thailand in early May, China in late May, Europe through June and into July, Seattle and Montana in early July, and we'll be back in Alaska by the late part of July.

Most of you know by now that we cannot stay put for very long. We haven't ventured far since Christmas, but we have traveled a little. Before New Years we headed up to a place in the province of Loei called Pu Reua (ask us for pronunciation when we get home - English doesn't have those sounds). A fellow volunteer had invited us to come see a flower festival, so we went. Besides, Loei has mountains. It is one of the few places in Thailand where the mountaintops can see temperatures that hover near freezing - and we went right in the middle of the cold season, so we were shivering a lot. In addition to visiting the beautiful Pu Reua national park (us Surinebraskans were jealous of our friend's beautiful surroundings) we got to see a lot of flowers. Given that this is a relatively cool part of Thailand, many of the flowers were familiar, including this poinsettia. Imagine what your house would look like at Christmas with a tree sized poinsettia!

Most of our time in the last couple of months has been spent in weekend and evening meetings with teachers, occasional trips to schools, and several English camps for students and teachers. Then, about a month ago Denny's schedule was put on hold when he developed a mystery illness. It was finally determined, after consulting with 6 different doctors in 2 hospitals, that he was suffering from a burst appendix. The provincial hospital where Denny was treated had competent staff, although it was outfitted like a hospital in the US might have been 40 years ago - a far cry from the hospitals in Bangkok with the latest computers and equipment, and McDonalds and Starbucks in the lobby. Recovery has been slow and steady.

The appendix episode has resulted in several gems of cultural learning. First, Thai people complain with their feet. No one will come right out and say that our local hospital is bad. But, for all but the simplest of illnesses, even the poorest Thais will go to the provincial capital. Denny's stop at the local hospital led mostly to confusion due to inexperienced doctors and botched blood tests. Second, in Thailand your family is expected to look after you in the hospital. There is an extra cot and some dishes in your room to accommodate them. The doctor and nurse stop in one or two times per day, and high school educated technicians take your temperature and blood pressure a little more often, but otherwise you are on your own in the hospital. You are on your own to the point that you have to wash your own silverware and cups to eat the hospital's food. The up side is that there are no "visiting hours" limitations. Third, food is REALLY important in Thai culture. In the hospital Denny got only 1 bouquet of flowers, but 4 decorated baskets of random groceries, 2 fruit baskets, and countless loose bags of fresh fruit and snacks. The ironic part is that the patient (i.e. Denny) is usually on a restricted diet and can only look at the food while everyone else chows down. Sometimes that's a good thing. We're not quite sure what to do with the case (36 bottles) of chicken broth concentrate, and the 4 jars of prune broth concentrate.

Last week we traveled with one of Lisa's groups of teachers to Nakon Ratchasima (usually shortened to "Korat") to visit a Khmer temple called Pi Mai and to visit the Korat Zoo. Lisa's teachers generally come to our home and just chit-chat, and their conversations are peppered with questions about "how do I say. . . ?" (phrases we don't necessarily have in English), or "what does this mean?" ('the dark side of the force', or other idioms that they encounter). Sometimes the groups decide to teach Lisa to cook Thai food or decide to meet at a restaurant. This time they decided to drive about 150 miles to visit some historical sites. Pi Mai is similar in design to several other Khmer ruins we have visited in Thailand and Cambodia. The biggest difference (which you can see in this picture) is that it is made from 2 colors of stone - red for most of the structure and white for the windows and doors. The other significant difference is that the Thais co-opted this structure so that many of the statues and artifacts are Buddhist rather than Hindu - the religion of most of the ancient Khmer kingdoms.

The zoo we visited was pretty impressive - very large with your choice of a bicycle or trolley to ride between exhibits. With the exception of a lion exhibit, the predators got the short end of the stick when it came to living space (most predators don't play well with others) whereas the meeker species co-existed in large enclosed fields. Some of the herbivores - especially some varieties of deer - were allowed to roam freely throughout the zoo. Incidentally, this was the first time we have ever seen elephants in a man-made enclosure in Thailand. Thai elephants wander around relatively freely with their handler close by, but these were African elephants. (After all, what would be the point of having an Asian elephant in a zoo? It would be like putting a donkey in a zoo.)

Then last week we got to host a couple from the group of new volunteers in training. They are the same age we were when we came here, creating a bit of nostalgia for our Pre-Service Training days. We made spaghetti for them (one of the few western dishes we can make here), took them to a couple of schools, and took them to visit Khao Panom Rung. If that name looks familiar, it is - we've been there twice before. We met up with another volunteer from the neighboring province, and her visiting trainee, at a dinky little intersection on the road to Bangkok, then negotiated with a local pickup driver to take us up the mountain, and drive us around for the day. It's amazing how easy it is to get around in this country without a car, and without spending a lot of money.

Quick note about the school visits with our trainees: the school Denny went to was having a science fair with exhibits from the 12th graders. There were two groups of boys that made little electronics gadgets you might see at an American science fair - one group made a small intercom and the other group made a clapper (you know, the device that turns on your lights when you clap). There were a couple of groups of girls that made candles - exhibits significantly below a difficulty level to challenge them, although perhaps more marketable than the clapper. One group of budding scientists did an experiment with the temperatures induced by the various colors in the refracted light from a prism. And then there were the other 6 groups. They all made alcohol. Four of them made a local rice wine, one made a small banana leaf wrapped confection of fermented rice, and one made wine from pineapples and a local flower. This science fair was very interactive - everyone got to play with the intercom, clap for the clapper, smell the candles, and taste the alcohol. Yes, the high schoolers, in the middle of the afternoon, at school, were drinking. The school board might have trouble with that back home, eh?

"Our" trainees stayed three days, and then we sent them off to their site in Chantaburi (pronounced Jantaburi), which is on the Gulf of Thailand. We're jealous. Surin has neither mountains nor ocean. Chantaburi has both. Perhaps we'll go visit them before our service ends. You know, just to make sure that they're doing OK and offer wisdom about Thailand (OK, now the word for beach is "sai" and the word for sea is "ta-lay". . .).

Take care,
Lisa and Denny