Monday, September 29, 2014

Stories to tell the grandkids...

I have always had a love for people who were about 50-70 years older than me. Growing up  I was regularly around my great-grand parents and grandparents on both sides of my family. My mom also has a love for people who are older. She taught me to always take the time to listen to an older person story. My mom is a talker, she will make a friend in any place she goes. During my last years of high school my mom started regularly volunteering weekly, sometime daily at a retirement home down the corner.  I swear my mother knew each and every person in that complex, not only did she know their name but she knew where each person lived and she knew a lot of life stories. One thing I learned about growing old from being around old people is....you stay the same its the body that changes not the mind.  My mom also had the luck of knowing all the gossip about the retirement home, and i'll let you in on a secret...from elementary school to a retirement home the themes of gossip never change. High school is something I would never wish to go back and re-do, I hated it, but having the opportunity to process some teenage "drama" with an older wiser people helped me tremendously. I realized there will be people throughout my whole life who I don't like and I will have to work with in some capacity or another...so I better start learning to deal with them. I survived high school. People often comment on  me being "wise beyond my years" I think that is because when I was growing up my mom taught me to listen to wisdom, different from advice.

One thing about my friend Katie that constantly draws me to her is her love of growing, in many aspects. Katie is up for the journey of growing up, enjoying every moment as it comes but also believing that everything gets better with age, even life. Katie and I have spent hours talking about how fierce we will be old ladies and what kind of Grandma's we will be. Embracing every gray hair, wrinkle, body change that comes with old age. We also talked about the kinds of stories we will tell our grandchildren. It was during a talk with Katie, I came to another small realization of life, for me, I want to live a life that will be amazing stories to tell my grandchildren. Not perfect stories, amazing stories, raw stories, WTF I can't believe grandma did that stories. 

So here I am, 24. I think I have a grand collections of stories to share already. Some stories I tell don't even seem real. I want my life to be like the movie Big Fish. I think I am on a good path so far, but I am so happy that the stories will only get better. 

Everyday in Thailand is a story. The other day the weather was beautiful and my windows were open in the early afternoon. From my room I could hear chickens, dogs, loud music, and a sound I can only explain as a water buffalo giving birth...I will be honest it very well could have been a cow but water buffalo sounds better. A noise that at first horrified me, then made complete sense in my little neighborhood here in rural Thailand. Biking around chickens, dogs, cats, children, motorcycles, and any random thing that pops up in the middle of the street is my normal right now. I take it in. It won't be my normal forever but it will be a great story to tell the grandkids. 

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Let me tell ya bout my Mae.

I have been really lucky in the Mom department. Like really lucky. I have my Mom whose loins I come from, you all should know by now what a fan I am of her. Many adopted Mammas like crazy Kelly, Cynthia, and Renee...they add love to my mom bucket. I also have an amazing Mae in Suphanburi, who I first lived with when I got to Thailand during training. But....let me tell you about my Mae, my host mom who I have been living with for 6 months and plan on staying with for the rest of my time here in Surin. 

Her name is Dik. I never call her that, to me she is Mae. I live with her and my host dad Paw, his name is Booluea....to this day I can not correctly pronounce his name correctly. I have to say it about 5 times differently for people to understand what I am saying. Both my Mae and Paw are retired teachers. Neither one of them speak English, but sometimes they know a few words that surprise me. They have 3 kids all grown and working in Bangkok. So I think when I moved here my Mae really liked it because now there was a kid at home. It took a while for us to bond, only because there was this huge language barrier. As I started to understand more Thai I began to realize that my Mae........... is absolutely positively hilarious.  This woman cracks me up all day everyday. The few volunteers who have been to my house have all said it after meeting her, she is a hoot. We also adapted our communication styles, Mae and I communicate 40% speaking Thai, 40% acting things out, and 20% using translation apps. We have had some good conversations...but todays was so special I had to stop what I was doing and share with the world. 

She comes into my room most nights around 8 or 9.  There is ac in the whole house, but I am the only one that uses it so she likes to come in my room for an evening cool down and chat. Today I had something to show her, my Mom in America sent me some pictures of little Kaya about 6 years old. I knew my Mae would love to look at them.
I show her the first picture of me from 1996, in a beautiful forest green mystery fabric outfit standing by the Christmas tree. He first comment is...

"Yaya, Uaan"...translation..."Kaya you are fat in this picture" but she didn't mean it bad. Then she burst out with the english word 'Innocent' ( I was like woah Mae where did you get that word from!)..... She was telling me I was that innocent kind of fat. And white. She was just amazed by how white I was. I showed her other pictures but she kept coming back to that one and saying the word "Innocent".  She just thought I was the cutest kid. Kept saying "you are so cute" in Thai.  She told me she loves "Farang" kids (Farang means foreigner). She said boys girls it doesn't matter Farang kids are so cute. 

Then she asked if anyone in my family had kids, so I showed her pictures of my cousins Alan and Lindsays' kids. She just wanted to keep looking at pictures because the kids were SO cute.  With a mischievous grin she leans over to me and says in Thai "You have to get them to come visit you so I can hold those kids!" After that we went back to the "Innocent" picture of me...

I love my Mae because she doesn't let anything get in the way of getting to know me.  We both worked through the awkwardness and found our own way to communicate. Sometimes she even likes to ask me really tough questions. Todays tough question translates to "So Yaya, when babies are born is there a daycare the parents can use so they can go back to work?? And does the government pay for the daycare like here in Thailand?" My Thai is ok, but not great so when she was asking me that question in Thai...I had no clue what she was asking. So my Mae took to acting it out...she should be a world champion in charades. We were both cracking up as she acted like she was pregnant, gave birth, and then put the "kid" somewhere while she went off to "work". This moment goes right up there with the time she wanted to know how student loans work in America...

Im thankful for moments like this, this is what the Peace Corps is about. Me this tall, tatted, white girl from America and her this little older lady from a small village in Thailand building a relationship. Making memories. Becoming family.  I am her daughter. She is my Mae.