OH!
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to great places!
You're off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any
direction you choose.
You're on your own and you know what to do…
So I am on my own. Have been at my site, for two weeks now. This is the place I will live for the next two years. There is one other volunteer in my Province, she is a 125 volunteer from the group before me. Let me tell you about my new home.
I live in the Surin province. It is in the northeastern part of Thailand know as Isan. When I found out about my placement a lll people could tell me about it was that it is the elephant capitol. Ohhh lots of elephants….no there aren't any elephants in my village.
My province is on the boarder of Cambodia, because of this there is a huge Khmer influence here. Khmer is Cambodian. This means that the people in my community don't just speak Thai. Actually when they are talking to one another they very rarely speak Thai so……the 10 weeks of intense Thai language training was great and people still understand Thai here but it has not gotten me too far. I still don't know what is going on about 95% of the time. Just smile and nod. Smile and nod.
So at any given time there are 3 different languages going on at once: Thai, Isan, and Khmer. Smile and nod Kaya…smile and nod.
Surin is not just known for elephants but also the silk that is made here. It is absolutely gorgeous.
The motto of Surin is….."Surin the land of elephants, splendid silk, beautiful silver beads, stone castles, sweet cabbage, aromatic rice, beautiful culture"
My community is quite Urban. Lots more people then the village I trained in for 10 weeks. I live in a lovely house with an older couple who are fabulous. I have some amazing accommodations that I did not have in Suphanburi such as: AC (glorious beautiful AC), a washing machine, a heated shower, an inside stove complete with an oven and a microwave. The upstairs is all to myself and…I have a real king sized bed. I also have a balcony. There are 3 dogs at my house named Chai Yen (Iced tea), Coffee, and Ovaltine. They are vicious. We had a little disagreement my first few days here.
The disagreement happened when I came home and my host family was gone. They did not want to let me in the house. Then they threw a complete and total BF (bitch fit) when I kept trying to get into my house. This resulted in me blocking myself with my bike. Holding a chair in one had to protect myself, a broom in the other hand to poke them back and me yelling "NO OVALTINE, BACK COFFEE, STOP CHAI YEN". I felt like a lion tamer, pushing them back with my chair, poking with my broom, and having them on the other end growling (roaring) and showing their teeth like they were going to eat me. My life was flashing before my eyes. I called for help, help came and then they acted like sweet little harmless creatures again. Since then we have worked our relationship troubles out a bit. Coffee still likes to pee on my bike every time I come home, and I let him. Id pee on it too if I could. Chai Yen barks at me every time but stays back, I get it sometimes I like to just hear myself speak too.
They like to eat some fried bugs here. I have tried quite a few kinds. Not my favorite thing but, gotta try it. They love laughing at me when they offer me bugs and my eyes get big.
I have shown my tattoos and had my piercings since day one. Everyone loves my tattoos, especially my best friends at the day care. I have a P'Yaya fan club, about 15 kids between the ages of 2-4. I visit them every day and when I do, the crowd roars..and by that I mean they leach only my legs, climb on me and point at all my tattoos and ask what they are. Everyday. Its the best.
I tried to add some pictures but it is being challenging today, maybe another day when I have another spurt of writing motivation!
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
I have been getting a lot of questions on what my job is in Thailand. I have been reluctant to answer because well its hard to explain. Here is the by the book explanation that my friend and fellow 126 volunteer Julia wrote. I am a youth and development volunteer. In my village, I will be creating sustainable youth programs that focus on teaching essential life skills. I have four main sectors that I must cover, which I will list and briefly explain below;
1. Healthy life skills: This focuses on promoting healthy life choices, teaching safe sexual and reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS
2. World of work: Addresses personal finances, encouraging entrepreneurship and teaching them basic English3. Active Citizen: Teaches the importance of volunteerism, service learning, and peer education
4. Caregiver Engagement: Offers caregiver support and communication
With the help of my Thai counterparts, I will create youth programs and camps to cover these topics (not all at once). I am excited to start working with the kids, but my first three months will be focused on assimilating in my community and working on my Thai.
I work with 3 different organizations in my village:
1) The Tessaban which is basically the local government office
2)The Anami which is the public health center in my village
3)The Rong Rian (School)
My counterparts are government workers, health workers, and teachers!
I don't have a daily schedule right now. Most of my days are spent practicing Thai, riding around on my bike and trying to get to know my community and the people, and not really knowing what is going on. I smile and nod a lot and just try to go with the flow. Letting go of my american urge to have a schedule know what I need to do for the day and when I need to do it. Letting go of deadlines and the rush. Focusing on building genuine relationships and getting to know and become a part of my community. One way I have done this is by playing with kids in the evenings and painting everyones nails. Im Yaya's nail salon. They think it is the best thing in the world and that I should do nails for a living. I like putting a smile on their face and adding more color to this world. Sometimes I feel like I am not doing anything and need to do more, and then I remind myself that I am doing just what I need to be doing. I can't start any project or work with the community until they know me and can share their needs with me.
Thai culture is very Sabai Sabai. Jai yen yen. Im learning to embrace it! I love this process I am going through. Growth. Here is some links and info on those meanings.
The Thai word "Sabai" is usually translated as "happy", but its use is often closer to "comfortable", "relaxed", or "well". Thai offers many ways to itensify an adjective - one way is simply to repeat it. Thus "sabai sabai" can be translated into "everything's chill"... it is almost beyond words, the Thai's heaven on earth. (http://projectsabaisabai.blogspot.com)
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