#4 WorldTeach Family

Coming from all corners of the US, with different backgrounds and majors, this group of volunteers is what kept me sane for the year. Almost each one of us comes from a different state in the US: Florida, New York, Illinois, Colorado, New Jersey, Maine, Texas, and so on. With majors such as: English, Art History, Economics, Education, Psychology, Anthropology we brought the whole spectrum with some people never teaching a day in their lives and with others spending the past 20 years in the art of teaching. The one thing that surprised me the most about this group is how dedicated each one was to their students and schools. Everybody came here to teach and make a difference in any small or big way possible. After long days at school with each day bringing on a new set of challenges, weekend get-togethers to celebrate holidays, birthdays, try to cook american food, or just because were essential. We would empathize with each other about how we miss cheese, had to sit through a 3 hour long thai meeting, how to fend off ants, spiders and snakes, or just had a tiring day being a farang.

This past weekend it came time for our End of Service meeting where we said our goodbyes to those we wont see in Thailand again, reflect on the past year of teaching, and officially receive our TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language) certificates. As most things are here on out, you can't believe the day has arrived until it's practically over. The days are going by faster and faster and soon it'll be time to say bye to PlaPak Village and students. Today I brought out my suitcase that has been tucked away underneath my bed for the last year and begun to calculate how I will pack up!

#5 Roommates

ROOMMATES

Okay if you have been reading my blog you'll know that I've just skipped a few numbers in my tributes but I was a little ambitious trying to do 30 of these things. So, I will try to at least do the last 5 of these while wrapping up my last 2 weeks in PlaPak village.

This past friday marked my roommate's last day in Thailand before heading home 2 weeks early to start a graduate program in Washington D.C. The week has been full of good-bye dinners and a late night singing our hearts out to Karokee...what is a better way of leaving Thailand than stuffing your face with Thai food and singing? Nother the less it was sad to see the person who I've come home to after long days of teaching go. I was very lucky to have another American to live with the year and be able to talk fluently in english over our dinners after struggling through communicating in Thai all day. Over the course of the year we have been there for each other through the good and bad days, always listening pactiently to whatever crazy thing went down in the classroom. We became co-parents to our neighbors dog- Cha Dam (see post) and to a new litter of kittens, both sharing the love for animals. We both have a care-free attitude and trudged through living in a gecko-filled, ant swarmed, moldy, cob-webbed filled house just saying Mai Bpen Rai. I couldn't have asked for a better person to live with and help me through the year.

Along with Amanda I still have my Thai Roommate Pi Yok with me for these next 2 weeks. She also, couldn't have been a better roommate. She gives us our space when we need it but is always there for us cooking delicious dinners or buying us a cold drink on a hot day after school. Even though she speaks very little english she now says she can understand a lot of our conversations at dinner. We have become a nice family that I will greatly miss.

The principle of PlaPak Wit, me, and Amanda at a good-bye dinner in the city.

Saying goodbye at the bus station with the english teachers

#19 Fresh Market

You'll know when you've entered a fresh market by the nauseating smell of raw pork and chicken neatly organized on tables with buckets of live fish sitting on the ground.Women will have their machetes in hand hacking away at a pig head or sorting through the intestines of the latest slaughter. When I first moved to Thailand I was shocked by the openness of the fresh market compared with the US where you aren't even allowed to see how the animals are killed. I was also shocked by how the meat lays out on tables for hours in the hot sun with the women having a contraption of a plastic bag attached to a stick swishing away flies. Along with the meats they have an incredible spread of fresh vegetables, herbs, spices, and fruits that are brought over from the local fields. Although I don't do any cooking in Thailand, since my Thai roommate so generously buys my food and cooks, I rarely actually get to purchase anything from the fresh market other than a piece of fruit for a snack. I do love walking through it looking at the latest fruits and vegetables that have come into season or the whatever strange fish or animal they have laying about. For example there was ant egg season and spread across tables where leaves with live ants and their eggs that you could scoop up and buy, quite a delicacy here.

There is nothing to hide in Thailand when it comes to food. Everything you buy and eat is killed and cooked right in front of you.

#20 Thai Competitions

One thing about Thai schools is that they love competitions. This can range anything from the week long sport competition we had in December to an academic spelling bee or writing competition. Today though, I experienced my first school cooking competition between local elementary schools. Of course it starts off as any normal event would for me having no idea what it is for, where we are going, and what we will be doing. I've learned that sooner or later in the event I'll figure it out or at least get the gist of it. My scheduled pick up time was 8:30am so naturally they arrive somewhere around 9 am with a truck load of students piled in the back of someones pick-up truck. I jump in and see what the day has in store for me.

My 6th grade students are some days in charge of preparing all the student and teacher lunches, so I was pretty confident in their cooking skills and would fare well in the competition. They got started right away chopping up vegetables and preparing the fire that the meal would be cooked by.

Of course there has to be some entertainment while the students are cooking so all the pre-school students were invited to have some sort of dance competition. Many of these little ones are my student's younger brothers and sisters. They basically stood up on stage swaying back and forth or even one group hula-hooped their way through a song while the adults stood and laughed at their cuteness.

The end product was a lemon-grass streamed fish topped with garlic and a side of laab (minced meat salad). I am amazed at their skills knowing that when I was in 6th grade the only thing I would make was boxed brownies or chocolate cookies. That brings me to my next point. Although I have many issues with how the thai school system works I think they do a wonderful job in teaching the students life skills and things that they will be using in everyday. For example PlaPak Noi school has a student run garden and rice field, fishing pond, and cooking lessons. 2 hours later the food was ready to be sampled by the judged and the verdict read. PlaPak Noi came in second place getting to take home a trophy and 1,500 baht! yahh. The students piled back in the truck and we are on our way back to school.

#21 Night Market

Night markets are definitely in the top ten things I love most about Thailand. Watching a mile long market unfold within a few hours slowly covering the street is quite amazing to witness. Then after a few hours open the vendors again slowly pack up their merchandise and the market vanishes again. The people do this EVERYDAY. If it is a food stand you can see them wheeling their cart over to the designated street or a clothes outlet where they first construct a wire rack then perfectly assemble the clothes. All to be taken down that same evening.

Night market food can be some of the cheapest and best options for a quick dinner. The variety of food is endless and you can pick up a dinner for about $1. In my village we have a small night market every wednesday night that brings everybody together as that nights dinner is picked up, peruse the clothes, or just to grab a bobo tea and socialize.

One of my favorite night markets is the Chaing Mai Sunday walking street market (pictures left). The hippi- style city produces a market filled with it's famous handi-crafts, art, and endless souvenirs for backpackers. I went there when my parents where visiting me in Thailand and if anyone knows my mom you can imagine the endless hours we spent at the markets driving my dad to retreat to the hotel room with a beer.

Pla Pak Wednesday Night market (below)

**Pictures by Jackie :)

#22 Fruit

Hands down Thailand has some amazing fruit! Fresh fruit carts line almost any street you walk down making a cold, sliced mango or watermelon a perfect snack on a hot day. Throughout the year I was introduced to many fruits I had never seen before as they came into season. Here are some of my favorites:

Dragon Fruit, the most unique looking of all the fruits, has a rather bland but refreshing flavor. Maybe a cousin to a Kiwi.

On the far right we have rose apples, which in my mind taste exactly like their name. Crunchy like an apple but with a subtle sweet rose flavor. In the middle, one of my favorites from the states and Thailand, Mangos. Top left: Dragon fruit again and Far Left: classic oranges.

Yummy classics Bananas and Watermelon!

Pictures taken from Kerry because I'm too lazy to take my own pictures..

I ate these for weeks, Rambutans! They are a spiky soft round fruit with an egg-like center. The fruit is very sweet and I can devour a bag within minutes. The only nuisance is an almond shaped seed in the middle that Kerry describes perfectly as a "wood chip" since the shell of it peels off when you try to take it out tasting similar to a wood piece.

These might be my favorite fruit in Thailand, Mangosteen. They came into season a few months ago and have now past..sad! They have a doily type top and thick outer shell. The middle contains a soft sweet fruit with a few big seeds. Unlike the states fruit is only available when it is season and most of it grown in a field next to where they sell it.

Fresh and delicious Arroy Mak Mak!!

**other fruits not pictures but are worthy of mention: Guava in thai called Farang (the name they use for foreigners), Tarmarind- similar to a dried apricot and the fruit that just came into season full force Longan a small ball shaped fruit. .

# 23 Neighbors

I got really lucky having such a great placement, living on the high school campus, Pla Pak Witiya. Most government jobs such as teachers, postmen,doctors, police,etc.. provide on-site housing. How awesome, right?! On the high school campus is a row of houses reserved for teachers only. Here is my street!

My house is like a duplex with another house sharing a wall providing close quarters with my neighbors (see My House). Again, I have been lucky to have wonderful neighbors. For the first semester of teaching there was a family living next door with a 2 year old daughter, Katjang. You can imagine my excitement knowing that I'd have a playmate around. She would always be waiting in the front when Amanda and I came home from teaching, jumping up and down screaming " PI TUEY, PI DAA" (for Pi Bai Tuey and Pi Amanda) doing a happy dance. It was interesting for me to see how they parent children and the similarities and differences between the cultures. Potty training for the most part was a free for all. They let it be a natural process unlike most American parents who pressure their children before they are ready. If Katchang had to go, where ever she was standing she'd do her business or as she got older would use Pi Yok's garden haha. This led to a lot of laundry though! Her 'crib' was a plastic basket lined with blankets hanging from rope with no guard rails or safety devices. We also got the pleasure to hear her screaming during bath and bed time or at 6 am on weekend mornings yahhh. However, as a new family, they wanted a place of their own near their family which led them to build a house in a village nearby and move during semester break. saddd

When we came home from break, SURPRISE, the Student Teachers and a chinese volunteer had moved in! They are the same age as Amanda and I (23) which has been nice to be around thai people in the same age range since many of my teachers are above 40. They definitely have changed our house dynamic and have taken an interest in learning english. Often we hear yelled through our walls, "WHERE YOU GO??" "WHAT YOU DOING?". It's been fun having them around hearing about their many many so-called boyfriends and helping each other with our thai and english. I have been able to get a taste of living next to a new family and the younger generation of thai people!

Washing mushrooms after school one day. Left to right: Chompoo, Teep, Owie, Gen

#24 Weather

This might fall more into the hate-love category of my Thailand experience, but never-the-less I'm sure I will miss it. Coming from the mild climate of California, I had little experience dealing with the extreme weather conditions that thailand goes through. This seems like an appropriate tribute to do today since last night I survived an intense thunder & lightening storm that cut off our power and shook our house. The lights were out but a shot of lightening came down every second lighting up our house so we could still see a little. It was pretty incredible to watch. The storm came after a day with a heat index of 106! With a little warning of wind a storm can onset within minutes. Thai's have weird ideas about the lightening with one of my teachers taking off her watch and rings when a storm is coming, and unplugging all appliances, afraid lightening would be attracted to it.

The humidity is something I dislike very much and will be happy to return to dry California. I have acquired a serious hate-love relationship with my classroom fan. I would not be able to teach without it but continuously am picking up papers off the ground or forgetting and setting a stack of papers down in line with the fan that sprays them across the classroom. Ahh I hate it so much, but love it.

read more about rainy season see: Rainy Season

Other weather memories are of our great escape from southern thailand during the flood.

Two of my favorite products for dealing with the heat:

Cooling Powder. A sprinkle of this down the front and back of your shirt provides an instant cooling sensation!

Pond's Sweetie Pink is a light, face powder for hot days!

# 24 By Air, Bus, or Motorcycle

If its by plane, bus, motorcycle, or cart, Thailand has a pretty good line of transportation set up, thats cheap too! One surprisingly cheap way is by air with the wonderful AirAsia! They do flights all over Asia with prices as low as $20 to fly to vietnam. I recently booked all my flights to Malaysia and Indonesia for my month of traveling before coming to the states and I'm happy I'll be able to come back home with a little money still left in my account. Thank you Airasia!

For my two months of traveling for summer break the most common way of travel was bus. Some of the schedules might be a little iffy but for the most part the bus system was an extremely easy and cheap way of travel. For my 11 hour bus ride to Bangkok we take the VIP bus (pictured above) which is equipped with big reclinable chairs, a bus stewerdess who serves you a dinner and breakfast, face wipes when you wake up in the morning, and an overall comfy ride, for about $20. Of course not all buses are as pimped out at the VIP and make numerous stops to let people on and off which makes a 3 hour ride turn into a 6 hour one. I was impressed by them though and immediately as I passed over the border into Lao the quality went down drastically. The buses allowed me a nice scenic view of the country as I toured almost all regions in thailand.

In the villages and cities the most common way of travel is motorcycle. I have never seen so many people fit on one motorcycle before usually with a baby in arm. It makes US safety laws look ridiculous over the exact way a baby needs to be strapped into a car seat and such. In Thailand 2-3 year olds cling on to whatever they can and babies clutch in an arm as they swerve through traffic. With that said, There is a high toll of deaths due to motorcycle accidents. During my months of from teaching one of my favorite activities was renting a motorcycle and riding around for the day. One of my favorite memories in Thailand was the day Pi Yok taught Amanda and I how to ride her motorcycle. Ending with one of us almost going straight into a ditch and have to have the motorcycle lifted off.

**

***Photos taken from Peter Pfister

Here are some pictures taken of unique transportation in NKP. The one in the middle, of the rice farmer, is the most common that you'll hear rumbling out to the fields in the early morning and returning in the evening. The first is a cart full of Thai brooms which I love! They sweep amazingly well and I want to get one back to the states somehow.

The sleeper train to Chaing Mai from Bangkok is another great way to travel in thailand!

# 25 Thai Language

Thai Alphabet ^^^
The one thing I was most nervous about before coming to Thailand was the language. Having zero experience with a tonal language I knew it would be a challenge to learn sounds unknown to the english language. Take the following sentence for example " mai mai mai mai mai (with varying tones), can mean the ‘new wood doesn’t burn does it?’ Or the length of sound in kii, which could mean ‘ride’ or ‘shit’ depending on which way you say it as volunteer Ben found out as he tried to explain "ride" the bus but instead said "shit" the bus to his students. Even worse is the similarity between glai, where only a falling tone differentiates the meaning from ‘near’ and ‘far’. I have definitely had my moments of mixing up the tones sending my students into fits of laughter but at the end of the day you just have to roll with it and laugh at yourself. In all honesty I'm extremely impressed by how much language the other volunteers and I have been able to pick up over the course of the year. I can't have in-depth conversations with my co-teachers but I've gotten to the point where I can understand the topic of whatever their conversation. My best language teachers have definitely been my students. My thai vocabulary mainly has come from them if its the words that we are learning in english or simple classroom commands. They are pacient with me as I butcher thai words at them slowly repeating them back at me in correct sounds.

Living in northeastern Thailand, has its own set of challenges learning thai since predominenately the village people in this region speak in a dialect of thai called Issan. This has caused quite a bit of confusion mixing up the languages often. However, I have really come to like the Thai language due to its practicality. There is no tenses, no plurals, no ending puncuation, no capitals, no spaces between words, rare use of pronouns, and no articles . However, you can probably now see how difficult it is to teach a language with as much grammar as english does, to students who have no experience with it in their native language. I spend lessons solely on teaching my youngest students that you need a space in between words and how you can't switch back in between capital and lowercase letters. Here are some direct translations of Thai words that I find really great.

Meow Nam: Cat Water: Seal

Ma Lie: Horse stripes: Zebra

Nam: can be used for water, soup, juice

See Fah: Color sky: Blue

See Khao: Color rice: White

Dtam Ahan: Do food: cook

Hong Nam: Room water: Bathroom

Nam Kaeng: Water strong: Ice

#26-Cha Dam

This is to my lovely adopted thai dog Cha Dam- Black Tea. He is actually our neighbors dog but in reality he spends more time at my house, basically becoming our dog. You can usually find him lounging in our dining area on the cool cement floor reeking the benifits of our ceiling fan or pestering his girlfriend, Shampa, a beautiful golden mix that lives down the street. Before he had to be tied up during school hours he'd be Amanda's shadow throughout the day, following her to all her classes. During dinner time he lounges under our chairs waiting for the scraps from dinner with us more than often having to give him a bonk on the nose, to keep him from pawing us. Recently, he has been accompanied by a new litter of kittens who wander in and out of the house. Amanda and I joke that our house has become some sort of animal refuge. At one time containing a dog, litter of kittens, colony of frogs (in the bathroom), and dozens of geckos. Cha Dam is a very unintentional present figure in my life, being the first one to greet me on my way home to school and seems to always 'be there'. He is the source of Amanda and my entertainment for the weeks that we don't have internet, always putting up with our antics. I first met Cha Dam during our orientation month where he harassed all the volunteers endlessly. He, like thai people, is very excited by the foreigners. To now, being my Thai dog. He even starts whining if he can't get to Amanda and I.He definitely fills the void of my american dog, Holly, who I miss very much!

Cha Dam likes: Watermelon, meats, sticky rice, kittens, girlfriend- shampa, foreigners, harassing students

dislikes: spicy food, water, hot weather, other dogs who try to be my friend

Holly and I enjoying a day at the river.

#27 Mosquito Net

# 27 Mosquito Net

Over the past year I've grown quite fond of my mosquito net. Especially now, during raining season when mosquito are at an all time high and I swear by the number of mosquito bites I have I'm bound to get malaria (joke, joke). Its become part of my routine to tuck in and out my net in the morning and night protecting myself from the swarms of mosquitos and gecko droppings that shower my floor every night. The mosquito net is something unique to my life in Thailand and although it might not be as significant as other aspects of this culture it has become an everyday routine that wont be a part of my life returning to the states. I remember my first few nights sleeping under it in my new house with feelings to excitement and fear of my first days teaching. Now, I have come to my last month with my beloved pink net and not wanting to let it go. Like so many little aspects of my thai house and routines I've adapted to over the course of the year such as sweeping the house every night of fallen bugs, boiling pots of water for a shower, hanging my laundry out to dry on the line, and doing dishes in buckets, the mosquito net is one of them.

#28 Somdtam Pok Pok

A tribute definitely has to be made for my favorite thai dish that I have yet to get tired of, Somdtam- aka Papaya Salad. I'm sure my choice was influenced over the fact that this dish is vegetarian, which is hard to come by in Issan making my options not too broad. Somdtam is a staple of the Issan diet and is served at every meal as a side dish next to Khao Neiow- sticky rice. The combination of sweet, spicy, sour, and salty added with the crunch of unripe papaya and peanuts makes it a winner. One crucial mistake can be made when ordering somdtam, not specifying Somdtam Thai. In Issan they mainly eat somdtam Lao which adds fermented fish sauce. Fermented fish sauce, Bla La, meaning lazy fish, is exactly how it sounds. Whole fish that have been allowed to sit in a tub and ferment over a number of days. The people of Issan LOVE this flavor and is something my taste buds have not become and may never acclimated to.

In the picture above is my favorite somdtam shop with the lady that makes the best somdtam in the village. We have become buds in my weekend lunch trips to get my dose of somdtam. She knows my order down to the number of chili peppers I like in my dish. She slowly talks to me in thai so I can understand her and I always look forward to my weekend visits!

Tributes to Thailand- #30

As much as I hate looking too far into the future and not living in the here and now, my time in the village of Pla Pak and the honor of being Khru Bai Tuey, is coming closer and closer to an end. With a little over a month left of teaching I can tell emotions between myself and the other volunteers are getting a mix of pure anxiety, sadness, and excitement to where ever our next steps in life are taking us. Some volunteers already have jobs or graduate school to go back to while the majority of us are going into mom and dad's house and even one volunteer is continuing his time as an english teacher in nakhon phanom provience. Anyways over the next 30 days I want to bring light to some of the big and little aspects of Thailand that have made this experience so unique and why I will forever hold a special spot for Thailand. I figure my last 2 weeks in the village are going to be a fury of emotions with goodbye parties ( my roommate Amanda leaves me a week early) and packing up my life from the past year and there won't be much time for fiddling around on my blog. This time will be much better spent with the people who have made my year so fulfilling. So here we go...

# 30 (these are not in order!)

SAWNG-TAO

For the past year I have not driven a car but have relied on the Sawng-tao, a pick-up truck that serves as the local transportation in between villages and cities. The picture to the left is taken almost a year ago of our group's first sawng-tao trip to the city. I have grown to enjoy my hour sawng-tao ride to city as it is a great way to interact with the local village people who are always surprised to see a farang. It also can be very peaceful, passing the dozen and dozen of rice fields, roaming water buffalos, and watching families on motorcycles whizzing by. The sawng-tao has also played an important role to my independence in Thailand. Relying heavily on my co-teachers, thai friends, and pi yok for most of my daily living, the sawng tao is something that I can do by myself and allows me quick and easy transportation out of the village. And for that I am thankful for this truck and inexpensive ride! Only $1.25 into the city