Village Wrapup

Where to start, where to start? There is so much that happened in the past 3 weeks that I’m not even sure where to begin this post. I guess I’ll start at the very beginning.

We left for our first village 3 weeks ago. We journeyed up north to the Chiang Rai province to a small Lahu Village. This village had about 40 families in. We spent 5 days there. On the way to the village, we stopped at Chiang Rai hot springs. I have never been to a hot springs before. It was actually really cool…well not cool, really hot actually, but really fun. I decided to see how hot it really was and stuck my toe in the side of the water…and oh my gosh was it hot! Try sticking your baby toe into boiling hot water and then you’ll know what I felt. This water is so hot that they boil eggs in it. After that we continued the journey to the village. We got there and they talked to us and we played with the kids…or rather the village children found new “play objects” and proceeded to jump all over us. It was fun, for the first few days, then it got extremely wearing.

This first night they pulled out the cicadas…yes those large bugs that only come out every 7 years. Well I ate one. It took a bit of convincing but I finally did it and I was so proud of myself. It was crazy! It was just a hollow shell. One of the guys took the legs off and the head so it was just the body and then he tried to help me put it in my mouth because I didn’t want to touch it but I just couldn’t do it. I had to put it in my mouth myself. After much screaming I took the first crunch and then drank a whole bunch of water. And I swallowed it!

In the Lahu village we stayed in a host family. I stayed with one other girl and a family that didn’t really speak Thai, let alone speak English. The spoke Lahu. But the little sister spoke a bit of Thai. She was cute. Her name was Nakrila and she gave me a Lahu nickname…Makrila. She talked to us non-stop and it was kinda cool.

The house we stayed in had a cement basement and a second floor. We slept on a mat on the floor and the bathroom was a squattie outside and a bucket shower. They did have electricity. Check dropshots for pictures of that house.

The first full day that we were there we had a feast of Pork. Fresh pork. Fresh as in just killed that morning in front of us pork. I couldn’t watch the actual killing but I found it kinda interesting to watch them filet it. I saw the stomach…which I later ate at lunch, the intestines and I helped remove the hair from it. Did you know that when you pour boiling water on it the hair just scrapes off? Pretty interesting. They have a very clean way of doing it all too. And then the dinner we had was very good. Nice tender pork!

We visited a few other close villages while we were there and helped paint an orphanage/boarding house. That was pretty fun. The walls were all plywood before and now they are bright white and it makes it so much happier in there. It was cool because even our rot-dang drivers pitched in and helped paint. Then the next day we went back and met the kids because they were coming back from visiting relatives for summer break.

We watched some native dancing and had some cultural interviews. We also got to go to church on Sunday. First we went to the women’s bible study, then to the main service, then later to the youth service and I think that was it. We spent most of the day in church. Which is pretty cool because we hadn’t been able to go to church very often here. It kinda made up for it in a way. The translator that translated from Lahu into English kinda reminded me of an Asian version of Uncle Paul. I’m not sure why, but he did.

After our five days were up in the Lahu village we headed to Karen village. It like all day to get there and a few people got sick on the drive up but we made it all in one piece. We stayed in what reminded me of a summer camp. It wasn’t but it was a boarding compound for students who attend a local school. Aj Mike built like the whole place and knows everyone in the village and the surrounding villages. Most of the girls stayed in the same cabin and there were 3 in my room. We had mosquito nets and I called it my “princess tent”. I wasn’t so concerned about the mosquitoes but more about the large spiders and lizards. We saw a huge spider on our first night there…not the greatest welcoming present but it was ok.

Our meals were eaten behind out houses in a outdoor sitting area. Some nights we would have French fries, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes and rice…all on the same night. They liked to cook “American” food. We also had cake and brownies occasionally because several students brought them from America to use in the village. That was super delicious!!

Each day we would have guest speaker come and talk to us and we would go on a field trip. We went to see “resorts”, other villages, government offices, hospitals…everything. One of the guys did get sick and had to go to the hospital. They thought he had denge fever and said he would be better off in Chiang Mai. As it turns out the whole hospital went on vacation to the beach a day later. We’re thinking “he was better off in Chiang Mai” because there was going to be not doctors at that hospital. Gotta love Thailand. He recovered well and was able to come back a week later.

I wrote my village paper on Karen wedding ceremonies. It was pretty interesting. I interviewed a few people. I made an A on the paper and got to learn a lot. They’re changing with development but these people want to hold onto their culture a lot so they’re not changing that much.

We got to go to a wedding while we were there. It was the rehearsal dinner in a sense. It was the brides party at her house. That was pretty fun. We basically just ate there. Also in one of the villages I stayed over night in my host family took me to a wedding night prayer. This couple had just gotten married that day and the tradition is for the community to come and pray for them that night at their house. The couple couldn’t have been more than 20 years old, in fact I think the bride was 19. They didn’t look like the just got married, in fact it didn’t even look like they liked each other. But the Thai people don’t show affection so this was normal.

During my time in the village I did a few home stays. I stayed in one village for Easter and another a few days later. The first one was the brother of a pastor and we spent Easter with his family. It was pretty cool. We had sunrise service in the graveyard … which was interesting, and then went to another service where the message was your typical Easter message and the songs were Easter songs, only they were in Karen. After the service we ate dinner at my host house. It was rice and nothing really special. In fact I can’t remember what it was.

That same day one of my worst nightmares came true. Two of the girls thought they had lice. The idea that I could possibly have it too almost put me into tears. They didn’t end up having it, but rather they had dandruff. I was so relieved but kinda shaken up by the whole thought. All the girls had their heads checked and it was crazy. But I’m so thankful no one actually had it.

The other home stay we did was in a village where my host grandfather had not seen a white person since he moved from Burma as a little boy. We got to talk to them and that home stay was a lot of fun.

The village was a lot of different adventures, but probably one of the hardest parts of this program and my time in Thailand. I was so exhausted physically and mentally and I was in the mindset that the work part of the program was over so to go to an entirely new and different place and actually have class and work to do was very difficult. The lack of internet and no phone service was also hard. I couldn’t even call my family to talk to them. The first week was the hardest and it got easier as the time went on. The second week I did more exciting stuff and got more used to life in the village. I made a basket out of bamboo. I weaved a basket!! How insane is that!! It was the coolest thing ever!

We just got back from the village on Wednesday. It was Thai New Year which is a week long water fight all over the county. It’s insane! So the whole ride back to Chiang Mai we had water thrown at us. It’s such a bizzar awesome holiday. Just imagine having a country wide water fight. The people get all into it. On Thursday we got all into it to. We rented a truck and drove all over the city with buckets of water and dumped it on people. And the cool thing is, everyone else is doing the same thing. And the killer is when people add ice to their water. It gets so cold! The city like shuts down for this holiday. It’s fun though.

Now people are leaving to go home or for futher travel. Several people went back to the Lahu village for a week to do VBS and English class. 1 went home already, another few leave tomorrow and then on Tuesday Mom and Tyler get here! I can’t wait to see them!! And then I’ll be home 1 week from Tuesday. I can’t believe the program is over.

Well, if you made it through that long update, good for you! Thanks for reading!

End of Spring Break and Night Train

The rest of spring break was amazing! My happy spot under the palm tree on my beach mat was so relaxing and wonderful. I do love the beach! :) The last night in Kho Chang we went out to eat at a cute Italian Restaurant. It was so yummy. I had penne vodka! YUMMY! And it had real cheese in! Oh man, it was great!
We left Kho Chang around 10am on Wednesday morning to head back to Bangkok to catch the night train to Chiang Mai. We made it, but 5 people missed it because they left the island too late. Thankfully we made it with about 25 minutes to spare. The train left at 7:35pm. I navigated the way all the way from the island to the platform. I was very proud of my map reading skills.
The night train was super cool. Not really what I pictured. I think I pictured a train a little too much European style and it was a bit more Asian style than I thought, but I am in Asia. It was fun though. I had my own little bunk.
I met a nice Thai family on the train too and talked to them in Thai for a while. It was cool to see how much Thai I actually do know.
Sorry this post is so short and detailless, but I'm exhausted. I'm going to bed.
Tomorrow morning we head to the villages! I will be offline for a while so expect a good update when I get back. And maybe a few more details about the rest of spring break.
Check for pictures are dropshots.com/mkinthailand2

Pictures

I've uploaded pictures from the field trips and spring break to both dropshots.com/mkinthailand and dropshots.com/mkinthailand2
mkinthailand is now full...so from now on, be checking mkinthailand2 for picture updates!! :)

The Amazing Race

Right after we were done at the royal palace we hailed a cab and had it take us to the sky train. We had all divided up into smaller groups so we could all fit into cabs. We left at different times. My group had 3 other people in. I felt like I was in the Amazing Race. We all were headed for the same place and it was a question of who would get their first. We all had the same directions but had to figure it all out on our own. It was exciting!
The cab we got was super small. We sat with most of our stuff on our laps....But it was ok. It wasn't too far. Just 4 kilometers. We got to the sky train and got tickets and got on the skytrain. Where we met one of the other groups. It was like ending up on the same train in the Amazing Race and meeting the competition. Only not really, but I kinda felt like it was.
We took the skytrain past the "Outback SteakHouse" and to the bus station. We just missed the 11am bus so we had to wait til 12:3o. But it gave us time for lunch. The bus ride was about 5ish hours. It took us to Trat where we took another taxi to the pier to get a ferry to Kho Chang. We all squished into this little taxi bus like a rot dang to get to the pier. The ferry had just come in so we got on it and took our final major transportation of the day to get to Kho Chang.
We got on Kho Chang and had to take another taxi to the hotel. It was a pickup truck with seats in the back and this island is all hills...so it had a bit of hard time getting up the hills, but we made it. :) We got to our hotel....and checked in. Which basically included having someone give us our keys. There was no lobby or front desk....it was an interesting place and definitely not worth $40 a night! We booked two nights there before we came so we would have a place to go to. Oh well....we moved to another place after two nights. This new place...has free wi-fi and is wonderful! And 1/2 the price of the other one. :)
I've been just relaxing and hanging out at the beach. I found my "happy place"! It is under a palm tree in the late afternoon laying on my $3 beach mat watching the sun go down. It is wonderful. And they have swings on the beach. Huge rope swings with wooden seats that swing high! So so fun!! :)
It's a nice vacation and so relaxing. I'm not sure how anyone can jump into a rural village after this! Should be interesting.
I'll be on Kho Chang (Elephant Island) til Wednesday and then Wednesday night we are all taking the night sleeper train back to Chiang Mai. Then on Friday we head to the hill tribe villages!
Good bye for now!

Chiang Mai to Bangkok....

It has been a crazy past week!! And as I write this I can't even believe it's only been 8 days! It's Monday here and we've been gone from Chiang Mai since last Sunday...wow. So there is lots to share with you all....
We left Chiang Mai on Sunday morning....in typical Stone family fashion, when my host family and I went out to the car to leave for CMU to drop me off, the car battery was dead....no surprise really. This happens quite often in my real family. I just kinda laughed about it. But we had to push the car out of the drive way and then my host father had to jump start it and then we were good to go. We went to CMU and they helped me with my luggage. Eventually the time came to say goodbye and we exchanged hugs....can you say AWKWARD. Oh well though. I was outa there!! :) :) :)
We all boarded the tour bus where we were instantly transformed from "students who are not foreigners" to "tourists". Our bus was lovey with Finding Nemo painted all over the sides of it. It was a sight to see and very difficult to miss.
We visited a few more temples and some of our first of many many ruins on our way to our first stop for the night in Sukhothai. There we stayed at a lovely hotel called the Pailyn Hotel. We went swimming there and had a wonderful dinner!! That whole day is a bit of a blur in my mind now....I guess nothing to exciting happened.
The next day we got up bright and early and were on the bus by 8am! We headed straight for the Sukhothai Historical Park where we rented bikes and rode around all the ancient ruins! This was one of the funnest things EVER! I had a hot pink bike that I named "Charming" because it had a sticker that said that on it. We rode around all morning and saw some of the big Thailand attractions! The huge talking buddha. After returning the bikes we went to the buddha casting factory where we met the guy who makes most of the buddhas that we see around Thailand. It was kinda crazy! We learned all about the process of making one...first you make it all out of wax...then you cover it in cement then burn the wax out and then fill it with bronze or some type of medal...then you shine it all up and sometimes they cover it in gold. It seems like quite the lengthy process. And how sad it is that these are all idols.
After that we headed for another hotel in Pitsanulok...still not sure where that is. But I was there. haha. We saw some more temples and took a nice swim! The next morning , we headed for a folk museum with random stuff from old Thailand. You know how I love museums! NOT! We went to way too many for me on this field trip. haha. The museum didn't open as early as we had thought on this day because they were having some buddha statues blessed by monks, so we had to go across the street to the "Bird Garden". As much as I hate museums, I would have taken the museum any day over this bird place. This place had tons of exotic birds. They were kinda cool, but with my huge fear of birds and only being blocked from them by this tiny little fence, it was SCARY! The birds I saw were birds that only could be thought up in a nightmare...scary huge birds! Check dropshots.com/mkinthailand for pictures of these beasts!
After the museum and the bird garden we got on the bus and went to Lopburi. We saw our first "khmer" style temple...which we called a "khmer kobb" because the chedi looks like a corn kobb. The only reason one would go to Lopburi is to see this temple because it is covered in monkeys.... 4,000 of them. Yes, that is 4 with three 0's. It was insane. They climb all over you and take glasses and anything they can get their little hands on. I am now officially creaped out by monkeys. I didn't buy any food because I did not want them to touch me. haha. I walked through the ruins of the temple and on the ceiling were tons of bats....so on the outside were tons of monkeys and on the inside were tons of bats...my favorite combination....
I survived and it was quite the experience. One that I will probably not need to do again. haha.
We went to the hotel in Lopburi where there were huge monkey statues everywhere. Even the room was monkey! The lamp was in the shape of a monkey and the bed frame had monkeys on...I couldn't get away from monkeys! We went swimming and had some fun. Then for dinner we ordered PIZZA!! It was so worth the 120 baht....$4!!
The next day we headed for Ayuthaya! This was the capital of Thailand after Sukothai and before Bangkok. We saw some more ruins. These were my favorite ruins of the trip. They were so huge and so grand! We hit up some more museums and historical study centers....my favorite. haha. Dinner was so fun. We had it on a boat. We saw all the ruins on the river at night and had an amazing Thai meal. Then there was dancing and karoke on the boat. Super funny.
The next day we headed for Bangkok. We stopped at some more ruins and then at the summer palace. The summer palace was super fun. We took a golf cart around it to see everything. To go into the ordination hall you have to put on a skirt...so we borrowed some free ones and walked in. It was pretty cool.
From there we went to Bangkok. Took a little swim in the pool and then in the evening we took a canal tour. We bought bananas on the "real floating market"...but since it was all closed up for the day it was just a man in his boat. But it was still fun. We fed some fish...I think it's the thing for tourist to do...they sell bread on these boats and then you feed the fish...and these fish are HUGE!! and UGLY!
Our hotel in Bangkok was the nicest of the trip. We even got a welcome drink. haha. It was some interesting fruit juice. Not the greatest thing ever, but free.
Finally on Friday we left in the morning by river bus....we boarded it with all our stuff and went to the royal palace. We dragged all our luggage around so we could go to spring break right after we were done.
The royal palace was pretty cool. We saw the emerald buddha which I must say was kinda anti-climatic. It was a lot smaller than I had thought it would be. But it was all decked out in gold. Definitely something to see if you go to Thailand. We walked around the palace grounds for a little while and then it was off to spring break!

Field Trips

Top of the mornin' to ya.....
and the rest of the day to yourself...
Right now I am in Ayuthaya, Thailand. And while it may not be morning here (it's actually almost tomorrow here already), it is morning somewhere where someone is reading this. So Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all!
We have been to some major cities the past few days and see so many things! Tomorrow we head to Bangkok (and incase there is any concern, we will not be in any of the parts where the political stuff is going on...and if things are not good, we will skip straight to the beach and not see Bangkok. but not to worry, we'll be fine! :) ) Anyway, after Bangkok we are headed on spring break. I'll be spending a little less than 1 week on the beach of the island of Ko Chang...also known as Elephant Island! It's gonna be WONDERFUL!! :)
I posted some pictures from the field trips so far on dropshots.com/mkinthailand
so check them out. And I'll post some more stories when I have time. It's GO GO GO here right now. But there are definitely some crazy stories to share...and some crazy stuff to share about before I left for the field trip...moving out of the family, etc. So anyway, check back soon for some great laughs! Haha. So until then...whenever that may be...Good night world! :)

AH! Where has the time gone?

Wow, this week has been insane! Thursday was my last day of classes and I had my final exams, so now I am offically done with classes in Thailand. That is insane! I remember the first day we had class. We all put on our uniforms for the first time and climbed in the rot-dang and went to the school...and now, it's over! And tomorrow I will be moving out of my host families house and turning back into a college student instead of the middle schooler I have felt like since living here. In another post I'll share with you things I've learned while living with my host family. I've learned to appreciate so many little things about my real family! :)
Also this past week we were able to go to a few other internships. On Monday we had a party at Bon Patsowan...it's a school for slum kids and a bunch of SST students were teaching there. It was so awesome to see the school they've been at and have a visual to back up all the stories. Then on Tuesday we were able to go to the Juvenile Center. I can't remember if I wrote about that the last time I went there or not. But we did another talent show. That place is awesome. I wonder if I had gone to visit it also if I would have chosen to do my internship there. But Agape was awesome too! We did a talent show there and some of the people who live there did some acts too...like fire blowing! It was insane! I'll post the videos if I can figure out how to make it load faster.
Also there was a clown show while we were there. (A little background on that. THere is this lady who lives in Minnesota and runs an arts center for mentally and physically disabled adults. She also helps them put on plays. Apparently they are really cool. There is a similar place here in Thailand. The people go there and weave things. So Aj Mike invited this lady, Jeanie, from Minnesota to come and work among the disabled people in Thailand and put on a play. So she's been here for about a month and has been going around to all the disabled places and working with them and the one place that has two students interning at put on a clown show. It was so cool. It was neat to hear the stories about how these people started to open up. So they put a show on at the Juvenile center. Jeanie is trying to work with some of the BIG (i'm talking huge people...head of disabilities programs for all northern Thailand, friends of the King, etc) people to create a center like the one in Minnesota for the people here. In Thailand if you have a disability like down syndrome or something else, it is very looked down upon. It is thought that you had bad karma in your past life and that is why you are how you are in your current life. So with this mindset it is difficult to get people to help them and see that they can really do things. Its a sad mindset, but very Buddhist. So anyway, that's the background on the clown shows.)
Wednesday I went shopping at the Mall in the afternoon and got a few awesome nail polishes! Then I met some people at a coffee shop to study for our exam on Thursday. While we were there we met some other foreigners who had been living in Thailand for 10 years are were teachers. They had some interesting perspectives on Thailand. The one did not even speak Thai...this amazed me.
Thursday after our exam I went shopping at the school store...and got myself a wonderful CMU t-shirt. Then we went to lunch at the Boat Bakery....Aj Mike's treat. It was birthday lunch for two people. I love birthday lunches! I had a cheese burger and fries! Wonderful!! :) Then Ty, Dascia and I went to the mall and I got a pedicure while they got foot massages. My feet are so amazingly smooth! It's wonderful! And the good news is that it was less than $3. I also asked about getting my eye brows waxed and they all looked at me and laughed. Then looked really close at my eyebrows and pretty much said...you don't have any! They are blonde! But I asked them to fix them up anyway. The lady came out with a little razor and cleaned them up...interesting. They looked much better... but really who shaves your eyebrows! I guess we'll see what happens when they start to grow back...
Then we hung around the mall for a while and met up with two other guys. We found the donut shop and got some snacks and then decided to see a movie. So we went to the other mall where the English theater is. There were about 45 min of previews and they had all these previews of movies about monks...but these were monks gone wild. haha. Then there were a few previews about how great the king is and then finally the movie. The ticket was less than $3 and you chose your seat number. But no one reads the seat number in the theater anyway. The theater looked just like a the Lowes in East Hanover. And was bigger than Caldwell...so funny.
Friday I had the day off. So the Agape ladies took us out for lunch! That was a lot of fun! I had cashew chicken...which has become one of my favorite foods in Thailand and sticky rice...another great food that I will miss back in America. Then for dinner Dascia's host mom invited me over to have dinner with them (she has been so generous to me this trip...she has driven me to school and back everyday this week b/c my host mom wouldn't for some reason, and has bought me coffee at markets and is just so sweet. i think i will miss her). So she invited Ty (Dascia's boyfriend) and I over for some traditional stew thing. It was called "muupa"...which is pork something. Basically you have this huge bowl and you put hot coals in it and then over top you put another bowl and it has a ledge in it where you put "naam soup". Which is water soup. It's basically just broth...then you put veggies and "fishballs" and "porkballs" which are just meat balls. And then on the top there is like a grill part where you put pork and you wait for it to cook and then you eat it. It was really fun. We all sat outside with some of Dascia's host family extended family and just ate it. It was like camping in the front yard. But it was so fun. Then her mom made us shaved ice for dessert!! :) A snow cone in Thailand when it is 95 degrees outside is amazing! It was lots of fun.
So today, is Saturday. I did some laundry this morning and am hoping that it will be dry enough to pack in a few hours. It should be because it is so hot outside.
And then tomorrow morning we leave for our week long field trip followed by spring break! I'm so excited. I remember looking on the schedule when we first got here and thinking about how far away this field trip was going to be...but now it's here! Only 6 weeks left in Thailand. I've been here for 9 1/2 weeks! Insane!
Over and out for now...time to go pack!!

Weather Report

Just thought you all should know...but right now....10:22pm...it is 91 degrees F outside....and it feels like it too!! And tomorrow the high is going to be 98 F. Insane.... And apparently it only gets hotter from here.....All I did this afternoon was lay on the couch and watch movies because it was too hot to do anything else. You sweat just sitting and doing nothing.....Just to let you know!

Thailand Week 8 (63 photos), by Mary Kate Stone

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