Monday, May 25, 2009

Post 13- Chumbawumba (Note: This is not a Thai phrase)

My site is entirely surrounded by flat land. Bike ten minutes in any direction, and you will find yourself amidst rice fields and spreading plains with lanky palm trees awkwardly dotting the horizon. On our daily bike sojourns, I have seen some incredible vistas, mostly of the “rice field and flat plain” persuasion. But everyday as we biked through the dusk, I stared at low blue shadows of mountains in the distance and mister John said one weekend we would take a day bike trip through them. This past Saturday was that day.
I ate dinner with mister John and Feem on Friday night, and they instructed me to return at 5 am the next morning. As I generally have no cause to be up that early, I never experienced Wat Bot before dawn. Thai people wake up between 4 and 5 am, and the market was filled with more people than I usually see during the day. After a quick cup of coffee with mister John, Krue Dtuu, and A (the other bikers), we departed into the sunrise. We biked through the awakening villages in the gray morning, and then turned left on a road that runs through acres and acres of flat, agricultural land. After about 15 kilometers, we turned left onto a red dirt road and the mountains were directly in front of us. As the mountains loomed closer, our path became less like a path and more like an ambiguous, narrow strip of run-down earth. Krue Dtuu was allegedly our navigator, but somehow we kept dead-ending in other people’s farm land, faced with barb wire and cassava rather than the head of a mountain trail. As it rained the day before, puddles abounded and we were all covered in mud splatters, although clearly I was the muddiest. Riding around with so much color and life growing wildly around me, I felt thrilled to be on this journey, in this country, and actually enjoyed being lost because it meant more exploration. A few wrong turns and requests for help later, we found the trail head.
The mountain is covered in forest, and our path became a rocky obstacle course. Still we charged on ahead, with Krue Dtuu chatting and singing mostly to himself, and mister John being the silent and intensely focused leader, as usual. Finally the trail became too steep to bike, and we had dismount and walk our bikes up the hill. This was strenuous work, as it was a steep incline, the path was uneven, and the bikes were heavy. My arms got tired quickly, and my legs were irritated from the constant scratching of branches, plants, and bike pedals. We stopped often for breathers, mainly at the instance of Krue Dtuu, who is a retired teacher and when he feels tired, or “nuai”, simply sits down on the ground. We climbed and climbed, and my earlier exhilaration about being on this bike trip began to fade. I was exhausted, sweaty, muddy, itchy, and it was not even 8 am. Krue Dtuu kept yelling “hiu kao, hiu kao” (which means ‘I’m hungry’) and mister John, who was racing up ahead like an iron man, ignored him. Finally, poor Krue Dtuu, corralled me and A into having our breakfast, with or without mister John. We sat down on rocks by the side of the trail and Krue Dtuu pulled little ‘kao niow’ (sticky rice) packages out of his backpack. Kao Niow is great picnic food because you eat it with your hands, so no cutlery necessary. We happily ate while mister John waited 100 feet or so up ahead. The mosquitoes were only attacking me, and by the time we reached the “summit”, I was ready to be at our destination, a house on a lake.
Once reaching the flat top and relatively un-dramatic “summit”, we clambered back onto our bikes and set off down the other side. Again, the path was rocky and uneven, with potholes and large branches encroaching onto the road from every direction. My bike was so clotted with dirt that the breaks were not working as sharply as I would have liked and my butt hurt from bouncing around so much over the mountainous terrain. I almost fell off my bike once or twice, but managed to regain fairly good control. Until we got to the sandpit that is. Sand is difficult to bike in because the tires don’t have the same traction, and at one point, I did not notice a little sand cliff in my way, and my bike softly lost its balance and we fell over. It did not hurt in the slightest, as I fell into sand, and thankfully no-one saw, but I did break a pedal. I showed mister John and he said that I would have to finish the trip with only one pedal (there was still a metal stub to rest my foot on). We ventured onwards. Not too much later, we came to a creek that had a few old wooden planks spanning it. Mister John cruised easily across, but (of course) I swerved off the “bridge”, and thus fell once again, this time hard. I essentially crashed down on the wooden planks with my bike falling on top of me. I knew if mister John thought I was hurt, he would freak out, so I tried really hard to be as stoic as possible, smiling and saying I wasn’t hurt, it was ok, let’s keep going. But it did hurt. My knee was throbbing and the wind was knocked out of me. After that, it was difficult to bike quickly because I was in a fair amount of pain, but I hid it the best I could and soldiered on. At that point, we were off the mountain, and the rest of the ride was even, paved (or red dirt roads) and breathtakingly gorgeous. It also allowed me to say that I was biking slowly because I wanted to take in the view, rather than because my knee was killing me. There were so many vibrant colors bursting out of nature and into my sightline that I was glad to go a leisurely pace.
At 10:45 am, 5 hours after we left Wat Bot, we finally arrived at the house, owned by mister John’s friend. We took a picture in front of the house and then sat down to lunch. It was delicious, as the food is when mister John cooks, and then they sent me inside to take a shower and a nap. I fell asleep immediately on a chaise-lounge type thing in the house, with the windows wide open and the wind coming in off the lake. It was a beautiful house, although contained some of the largest bugs I have seen in Thailand to date. Around 3 pm, we all awoke from our naps, drank coffee, and ate some mangos. The trek home began at 5.
I was dreading the trip back, because not only was I exhausted, but my knee had swelled and still hurt, despite my attempts at icing it and putting on the Thai natural equivalent of icy hot. Luckily, all the stretching I had done helped and I was able to bike fine, unless it was up a hill. Hills I had to walk up. The morning ride totaled at 50 kilometers, most of which was mountain, and the ride back was expected to be roughly the same. We took it slowly, and made it back around 7:30 pm, bringing the grand total to 93 kilometers. I was too exhausted to eat, and immediately fell into bed. The next day, I was definitely sore and black and blue bruises began to appear. My legs were covered in scratches and bug bites and my muscles ached. Still, despite the exhaustion and the low points, it was a fantastic trip, and I cannot wait until July when we will repeat it with a group of 15 people and camp overnight. I promised to teach everyone how to make s’mores, if I can find marshmallows and graham crackers that is…care package anyone?

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Post 12: Krungthep

Volunteers are prohibited to leave site during the first month. We arrived at our sites of April 9th and thus could not leave before May 9th. A group of 20 or so volunteers arranged to meet up in Bangkok that first weekend of freedom and celebrate surviving the first thirty days as official Peace Corps volunteers. As the month of restricted movement neared its close, I felt restless. I kept busy at site and genuinely enjoyed each day. I explored, wrote, read, spent time with community members, prepared for school, drew a map of the area, cleaned (which takes a long time and must be done frequently or else the ants will invade en masse), and exercised for at least an hour each day. But no matter how productive or active I was, I could still feel kinetic energy accumulating inside me, bursting to be spent. This energy, this restlessness, did not manifest itself right away. However after my first 20 days or so at site, I had trouble sleeping.
One of the ways that life at site tests you, that Peace Corps tests you, is throwing you into an entirely different world. This is a valuable experience, but it is difficult. Not only am I the center of attention whenever I step outside my house, but everything I do is observed. Certain elements of my personality, of my American-ness, must be sublimated in order to be an effective volunteer. For example, Thai people are very patient and rarely express emotion. I, on the other hand, generally have what I feel written all over my face. I am expressive, impatient, at times a wee bit dramatic, and I appreciate directness. None of these qualities will help me here. When I am upset or frustrated, or grumpy, I have to push it down, take a deep breath, and not let it show. And these little repressions accrue over the course of a month. Coping with these facets of life in Thailand will become easier over time, as I grow accustomed to them, but they are still new.
Another challenge is constantly speaking Thai. I rarely speak English at site. If I do, it is with someone who speaks very basic English. Despite how good my relationships are with Thai people, with our limited language abilities, there is only so much that can be expressed. While I talk to other Americans on the phone, it is not the same as speaking face to face. To be able to tell a relatively complicated story and see the reaction on someone’s face, to have an intellectual conversation and feed off each other’s ideas, to simply whine about small things and frown without hiding inside my house-all these things I could not wait for. I also could not wait to feel anonymous. At site, everything from what I ate for breakfast to the mud spot on my biking shorts is public knowledge. There are so many foreigners in Bangkok that no-one shoots us a second glance, we can blend in. I was also looking forward to being out past 10 o c’lock, eating foreign food, wearing clothes that didn’t cover my shoulders, knees, and collar bone, taking a hot shower, leaving a 30 kilometer radius, and dancing.
So the morning finally came and I excitedly left my site for the bus station in Phitsanulok where I met up with Nancy Marie, a volunteer in the province north of mine. Both of us were slightly giddy from seeing another farang, and when our bus left at 9 am, chatted happily for an hour or so until the bus stopped. We did not understand what was going on, so continued our conversation assuming the bus would start back up soon…three hours waiting in the sweltering sun later, a replacement bus arrived. I will be honest here, any patience or calmness of soul I felt I acquired during my time here was shot to shit. We were on the side of a road in the complete and middle of nowhere, stranded, clueless as to why, desperately eager to get to Bangkok and see our friends, and no-one seemed to be bothered or impatient but us. I tried to ask what was going on, and people just smiled and said be patient. After 2 hours in the heat, I was done with patience. I was so frustrated and could feel all the pent up energy and promise of release denied building up. I took deep breaths and paced around, as I am sure all the Thai people were marveling at the hot-hearted (jai-ron) farang. There was definitely one or two times when other volunteers called me to check on our journey’s progress and I did some mild yelling into the phone. I also cried once or twice, knowing full well how irrational I was being, but feeling unable to control it, and finally finally finally the replacement bus came. We were back on the road. Granted, twenty minutes later the bus stopped for a lunch break, but Nancy Marie and I took this as an opportunity to buy beers to make the rest of the trip a little more fun.
Upon arrival at Bangkok’s main bus station, we met up with another volunteer and took a city bus to our hostel. Being as it was the middle of rush hour (ie anytime in Bangkok) this took an hour or so. Then we could not find the hostel, and by the time I arrived, I was disheveled, on the verge of tears, frustrated, and exhausted. However, Julia waiting for me on the hostel steps, and finding a big group of people hanging out in my room with hugs, drinks, and plans for the evening, quickly made me feel better. I put on a tank top and sampled the rice wine that many Thai people make on their own (yummy by the way, kind of like moonshine meets saki). The night involved a gyro, an Irish pub, a Nascar 500-esque cab ride, a torrential downpour, and a club called Hollywood where 20 of us danced together on the stage. It was a whirlwind of an evening and everything resounded with our liberation, both from site and from the need to be perfectly chipper, appropriate, and polite all the time.
The next day, a bunch of us met at a café that served foreign food, did a little shopping, hid for a few hours in a bar from the massive storm that hit Bangkok, and then went out again that night. By Monday, my lack of sleep both in Bangkok and at site caught up with me and I felt ready to drop. We hit the English language book store in Bangkok’s huge mall and a Starbucks, and then I watched four male volunteers try to make the most of an all-you-can-eat sushi and ice cream buffet. That afternoon, most people congregated at the Peace Corps lounge, which has couches and a TV, and is a haven amidst the pounding city to hang out and decompress. A game of scrabble and a few episodes of Arrested Development later, it was time to leave. The return journey was long and involved some difficult maneuvering back to my site, as well as a nap on a bench at a bus station. It was wonderful to see my friends and be myself, my real self, in public for a few days, and I feel ready not only for school to start, but for sleep.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Wattle Bottle

Post 10: Bpid Term Life
I have been at site for about three weeks now. After Songkran, I settled into my routine and explored my community more thoroughly. Most days, I wake up without anything structured to do. It is currently “bpid term” or summer break for schools, which means that I technically have nothing to do all day. But I have still managed to keep quite busy. Peace Corps has two projects here- TCCO and CBOD. TCCO stands for Teacher Collaboration and Community Outreach. This is my project, and it has three primary goals. Our main mission is to introduce a more progressive educational model into Thai schools. Thailand has a collectivist culture, like many Asian countries, which basically means that the “individual” is not valued as much as groups or families. In public schools (and I assume private), teachers stand in front of a classroom and have the students do rote memorization. There is very little fostering of creativity or independence, and curriculums are strictly based around the national tests.
As TCCO volunteers, we are English teachers, but teaching English as a Foreign Language is secondary to bringing student-centered learning techniques to the Thai classroom and training teachers to use them. Our technical training actually focused very little on TEFL, and far more on teacher development and student-centered learning. Student-centered learning means teaching in a manner that develops the student’s self-confidence, creativity, and individuality. Furthermore, it is a more sustainable way to teach, as the knowledge will stick better. As TCCO volunteers, we are never in the classroom alone. We are assigned co-teachers who we always teach with. Together, we make lesson plans involving participatory activities and task-based projects in an effort to empower the students. Furthermore, we incorporate cultural awareness and life skill lessons in with the English. Thai students have little to know knowledge of the wider world, many cannot even draw an accurate map of Thailand. We are here not only to educate them about American culture, but about other cultures in general. Also, many volunteers incorporate health or environmental education into their lessons, which I plan to do.
Working with our co-teachers is a big part of the project as well. The basic idea is that if we teach alone in the classroom, maybe 100 students total will benefit from our presence here. However if we work with and train teachers, they will go on to use more effective and progressive education techniques long after we are gone. It is more sustainable that way. Of course, another goal is to improve the English of our co-teachers and the students. All Thai students must study English but a majority of Thai English teachers cannot speak English. Finally, the third goal of the project is community outreach. TCCO volunteers are only required to spend 12 hours in the classroom a week (not including lesson planning time). The rest of the time, we are supposed to develop a secondary project on our own based on the needs and wants of the community and our own interests. The other project in Thailand, CBOD, do this full time. Rather than working with schools, their counterparts are in the SAO, or local government administration. They have no structured activities or assignments (like we go to school 4 days a week), and basically create their own jobs. Like I said, I got to site on April 9th and schools open May 13th. The first month (April 9th to May 9th), volunteers are prohibited from leaving site (a trip to the local Big C is acceptable), but schools are closed. CBOD volunteers are going to the SAOs, but TCCO volunteers have the month to do… whatever. We are supposed to use the time to plan curriculums and lessons with our co-teachers, settle into our houses, and get to know the community. Still, this leaves a fair amount of time to oneself.
I get bored very easily when I have nothing to do, so after Songkran ended, I made a list of goals that I wanted to accomplish in my first month: some had to do with teaching, some had to do with community integration, and some were personal. As a result, I usually have plenty to do. My site is very small, and during the day everybody is at work (most people go off to the fields), so it is very quiet. Usually I wake up and eat fruit and drink coffee on my porch. Every day is different, but involves a combination of TEFL review, attempting to teach myself to read Thai, exploring Wat Bot on my bicycle, doing things around my house, reading and writing. I go to the market in town everyday to buy things to eat and hang out with my neighbors. Laundry, as it is done by hand, takes forever, and my house always needs to be cleaned because if I don’t sweep, lizard poop accumulates, and if I don’t mop, ants attack everything. It feels a little strange for me to be so domestic (puttering around my house in a bandana with a mop and duster in hand), but I really like it. I like having space that only I am responsible for, that is mine. We all know I am not the neatest of people, but my house here is [almost] always clean and neat. And while exhausting, I enjoy doing laundry by hand. I like how simple everything is. I like that there are not machines to do things for me. Granted, laundry and dishes by hand is still a bit of a novelty, and after a year, I may be completely sick of it, but right now, I enjoy the work. Often, for lunch, I go to one of the many noodle stands. My favorite noodle stand is across the street from the wat and right on the river, so the view is beautiful. I went there one day with my neighbor, who ordered for me, and now every time I go, the noodle lady gives me the same thing, even when I specifically ask for something different. I also plant vegetables in my garden (we will see if they actually grow), work on art projects, write poems, and read.
A few days, I have been taken around the community to meet local leaders, policemen, health center staff etc…, and between that and exploring on my own, many people know my real name or my Thai name (Kam La), and I usually here it called out as I bike around. My neighbors always get mad at me for biking during the day, because Thai people think light skin is beautiful, and they say that I will get dark skin (piu dtam), and thus not be beautiful, if I am in the sun during the day. I have also been instructed to grow my hair out, because only children and old women have short hair. When I said that it is hot, they said that’s what ponytails are for. I guess I am growing my hair long again. Despite their admonitions of ptiu dtam, I love to explore on my bike and go to the market, because I always run into people I have met at one place or another, and if I never left my house, I would go stir crazy. I generally try to use the daytime to do “work”, which can be as simple as taking a walk and taking pictures, because I inevitably meet new people, explain who I am, and work on “community integration”. Then during the evenings, after exercising (more about that next time), I relax. I make dinner, lay in my hammock and read, write, or chat with other volunteers. Sometimes I blog, sometimes I organize pictures I took that day, sometimes I listen to music, and on weekends, I treat myself to watching one of the movies Ashley mailed me (thanks Ash!). It is a quiet life, and I fluctuate from feeling busy and like I have too much to do, with feeling restless and unsure of how to pass the time. But one way or another, I cannot just sit around or I will go nuts, and I think I have made good use of this month.
Post 11: Gam Lang Gai
Everyday little things happens I want to write down or share, but there are simply too many. However, some experiences or thoughts have been more meaningful or significant in my life here, and those are what I am going to write about here.
Two Sundays ago, the kids who have adopted me came over around 5 to go for a little bike ride. They took me to a park I did not know existed, near the Educational Supervisor office in town. The park is small, but beautiful. There is a small soccer field, a pond, beautiful flowers, a basketball court, playground, and a sidewalk around the edge of the park for jogging. One or two people were jogging, as it was 5 pm and not too hot, and women were showing up wearing exercise clothes. Apparently, everyday at 5:30, there is an aerobics class. Now, I enjoy exercise but aerobics is not really my thing. However, the women that arrived at the park were teachers from the school, shop owners, for staff at the SAO-good women in the community to know. I realized this could be a great way for me to meet more people in Wat Bot, and people who could help me with projects. It was difficult to keep a straight face during the class, as “aerobics” is a generous term and “energetic stepping” might be more appropriate, but it was fun. The instructors is overweight, which you know is a good sign, and the class has a few old men in it, who are adorable as they try to do the sassy steps.
At one of the Songkran events, I chatted for a while with a man who works at the SAO. I was very interested in going to the SAO, because they are the body that does local projects and community development, but my co-teachers had shown no signs of taking me. At aerobics, I saw him at the park. I told him I really wanted to come to the SAO and do introductions, so he said he would take me on Thursday. Thursday morning he picked me up, and I spent the morning chatting with local officials, learning about the community (as much as I could understand in Thai) and expressing my interest in working with them. They told me about projects they had already done, including dengue fever prevention, HIV/AIDS awareness, and an effort to improve waste management (Thai people just burn their trash…bad juju). I am going to follow up with this, and hopefully get involved in the work they do. The next day, there were multiple events because the SAO opened a new primary school, and they invited me to those. We prayed and ate in the morning, and then at night, this guy named WiChien who works at the SAO (who incidentally teaches the aerobics class on Thursdays and Fridays) picked me up to take me to the party at the school, which the entire community came to. I got to sit at the VIP table with the SAO staff, and they made me go on stage with them during the dedication ceremony, which felt a little strange as I had nothing to do with it.
Saturday, my co-teacher took me to the hospital and police station because Peace Corps needs their phone numbers. My co-teacher knows how much I enjoy bike riding, and how much I had been exploring the community on my own. We stopped at the house of her friend, “Mister John” who leads an informal local biking group. Every day at 5, a group of 3 to 8 people go for a 30 to 40k bike ride and I said I was interested in going. Later that afternoon, I went to the internet café, which is next to his house, and he said he was going to put a little air in my tires. I was in the internet café for about 2 hours, as I had some Peace Corps work to do online, and when I came out, he was still fixing my bike! He did a complete tune-up, fixing, wheels, change, tires, gears…everything. I was so grateful and brought him oranges and canome when I returned for the bike ride at 5 to say thank you. I was slightly concerned about not being able to keep up, as these people bike everyday and while I bike every day, it is not 40 km. But I was fine and it was thrilling to get out of the town and see more of my district. There are national parks near by and low rolling mountains in the distance. The countryside is also covered in farmland and orchards, which are beautiful to see. We returned about 2 hours later and I said I would go again the next day.
When I showed up the next day, there was a bigger group and Mr. John gave me biking gloves, and biking backpack, and a water bottle. Mister John’s biking friends are policemen, retired, or work at the SAO, and a lot of fun. Mister John’s daughter, “Feem” is 19, and goes on the rides occasionally too. She also came over the other day and helped me start my garden and translate my community map into Thai. The rides are tiring, but one of my favorite parts of the day. It feels liberating to get out of town and the province is so beautiful, it is exhilarating to see more of it. I love the exercise, and it has enabled me to make friends with more people here. Mr. John used to have a restaurant, so two nights ago my co-teacher went to their house for dinner and it was delicious. We played cards and I showed them how to shuffle. They said I should work in Las Vegas.
One day after the bike ride, I returned home to find a gigantic spider in my bathroom. Like really huge. I was terrified and hid in my bedroom for the rest of the night. The next day, I woke up early and went to Big C by myself ( I had a long shopping list and wanted to check out how to get there on the local buses) and then that night, was too scared to brush my teeth or take a shower. I hated the feeling of being unsafe in my own home. I knew I was being silly, but this thing was a monster and really stressing me out. Every time I left my bedroom, I would look everywhere for a huge spider and had trouble sleeping because I kept thinking it would attack me. I called another volunteer, Mike, who is very outdoorsy and used to go camping all the time, and he assured me these were normal spiders in Thailand and not dangerous. Still, it was massive, thick, and hairy. I took a deep breath and ventured into the bathroom, during a thorough check high and low before beginning my shower, and rotating constantly whilst bathing to make sure it wasn’t lurking somewhere.
The next day, I told my landlady and she laughed at me for being afraid of spiders, but not ghosts, but came over and did a thorough scan. The aforementioned spider has not yet resurfaced, and I am no longer as tense, but still check the bathroom every time before I go in. This upcoming weekend is the first weekend we are allowed to leave site, so most of the volunteers are meeting up in Bangkok. We are all staying at the same guest house, and I cannot wait for foreign food and wine and seeing my friends and speaking English. I have not spoken to a foreigner face to face in three weeks, and to be able to relax with friends again, and be myself, rather than the “farang”, will feel amazing. I love it at site, and I am having a wonderful time, but I am definitely restless and ready to blow off some steam and see my friends. I will bus down with another volunteer on Saturday morning and return on Monday, hopefully with some good stories!