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.
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