Week One in Thailand

Picture #1 is me in front of my house with my Pawaaw. And picture #2 is in the rice field.

Sa wat dii Kha!!! (Hello) I am sure you are all awaiting this message anxiously hoping to hear if I made it to Thailand. Well, I did safe and soundly. I am in Pla Pak, Nakhon Phanom, Thailand. It took about 46.5 hours of travel. I am living in a classroom for the next month with my 14 other volunteers and Field Director.

On our 12 hour van ride we almost hit a cow in the road. It was pretty scary but we were all so tired that we all ended up laughing hysterically at it. The first bathroom experience was another big laugh. Squatting here I come. No TP either!!! You flush by adding a scoop of water to the hole and it pushes it on though. We also stopped at a place for dinner and it was our first ordering experience. I got a green eggplant kind of soup with pork. It was the spiciest thing I have ever eaten in my life. Fortunately it was served over rice. But wowzers!!! Was my mouth on fire. My first food in Thailand was. . . . Yep gelato!!! and blueberry none the less. Shocker that I went for the ice cream!!! It was so refreshing and much needed for my belly.

I went into town my first day with a few people. There was a big market. I bought a towel. 60 baht. So about 2 dollars. So cheap!!! It has giraffes on it and I of course got it because it made me think of Nan. We also got fried bananas. DELICIOUS!!! Kind of tasted like French toast sticks only healthy for you.

During our first Thai class we went to the school’s rice field where we got to help “harvest” some rice. We really each got to cut down one handful with the Thai students. Lots of laughing occurred as all of us were trying to “save face”.

I have the most rural placement. YEIKS!!! I had a minor panic attack when I heard but quickly got over it by saying I am strong and I will love it!!! My new friends are also so supportive and are already saying they will buy scooters and come to visit me!!! My school PA pronounced Paw-aaw (principal) and one of the teachers are both very welcoming as well and will look out for me. I have a house across from the school which is brand new and really nice. I will be living like a queen for Thai standards. 

Also this past week I have had more spicy food, I ate and entire green chili by mistake and my ears were shooting steam for a good 30 minutes. Mai phan rai= No problem or no big deal. Pla Pak school put on a huge welcoming dinner for us where we attended a string tying Buddhist ritual of good luck and blessings on us. We took the Took Took (not sure on exact spelling) to the city of Nakhon Phanom and saw many interesting things including the mountains of Laos (pronounces without the s), many markets, the Mekong River. The river is eewy brown and we saw people swimming in it and “herding” fish to go down stream into their nets. Quite a shocking experience. We got lots of looks and people pointing and laughing at us saying Falong (meaning white foreigner). 

I have now been in Pla Pak Thailand for exactly a week which seems like a year in itself with all that we have crammed in to each day. I wake up at about 7 every day and go to bed around 10 or 11 and have class from 9am-6pm and some nights we went even until 8pm. Quite exhausted but loving the new experience and it is so refreshing to be living an entire new life.

 Love you all lots.

xoxoxo