My house is located on the high school campus of Pla Pak Wit where all the teachers from the school live. It's the back entrance of the highschool consisting of one street of houses.
As mentioned before I live with another volunteer and a thai women named Pi Yok. Pi Yok teaches drawing at the high school and also is in charge of making sure we have food for breakfast and dinner. She is a very nice lady however very quite and reserved making it a little harder to get to know her. However she cooks the most amazing dinners for us every night from only a gas camping-like burner. Since there is no counter top we see her squatting chopping up the vegetables using a cutting board and knife on the ground. Our house is no where near the American standard of clean so we have located a hanging dead mouse from the kitchen ceiling...mai pen rai. The walls are made of metal sheets so we usually hear our neighbor who shares a wall with us next door cooking too!
Here is our breakfast quarters consisting of a toaster, hot water heater, and microwave. We have decided to stick to the American breakfast and have one meal without rice. In our "living area" next to the breakfast table we have a little wooden table where Amanda and I sit and have dinner at everynight while cha dam(pictured below), one of the many neighborhood dogs joins us usually with one of his paws on our laps begging for food.
In a previous post I have talked about the bathroom situation which is probably the biggest adjustment house wise that we've had to make. After being in Thailand for about 6 weeks now I feel it is pretty natural and when we do come across an American toilet in the city it is weird. We are lucky to have a shower head hose but since we are in "cold" season in Thailand I have been opting to take a warm bucket shower. This consists of boiling a pot of water on the stove dumping it into our shower tub bucket, adding cold water ( = more warm water!), and using our scoop to douse yourself. It is definitely a process but I'll take it rather than a cold. shower. The one thing really missing is a sink. We have no bathroom or kitchen sink which makes things a challenge. When brushing your teeth you usually just spit on the ground and then wash it through the hole in the wall with the bathroom scooper. Also washing your hands is difficult.
This is a picture of our outside laundry room-dish washing area. We wash dishes by filling up a bucket of soapy water and another of clear, washing, then drying on that "sink shaped" drying rack. Clothes are usually done by hand or we do have a manual washer, which you fill with the hose, it shakes it around, turn to drain through a house coming out the front. We hang dry everything so the laundry process takes about a day if the weather is nice.
Finally...my room! Other than being spider, gecko, and overall just dusty, I love my room. I spent about 2 hours after school today with a bucket of water and rag wiping down the walls (which seemed to change from brown to a dull blue) tackling spiders, and cleaning the screens. Amanda and I have fairly large separate rooms consisting of a desk, bed, vanity, closet, fan, and drying rack. My bed is covered in a mosquito net which has become my safe haven from the pests that wont leave me alone! The mattress however is a styrofoam block that is very hard. Surprisingly it hasn't bothered me much, partly due to the fact I'm completely exhausted by night time and will sleep on anything. I also have a poster up of the Thai Alphabet that I'm still trying to master.
It's very refreshing living simply and I have everything I need. A TV or huge kitchen isn't necessary here and I've enjoyed the lack of technology driven life, internet is nice though :)
Almost forgot my 4th roommate:
He sits on my window every night catching months and other insects. It's actually pretty entertaining to watch haha
Looks like they've made the breakfast area pretty for you with linen cloth, basket and all kinds of goodies. Love the pics and descriptions. I think you have a book in the making, Heather!
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