Jamison’s Misadventures In Asia

2/22:  I will be spending the next two years in the town of Thoeng, in Chiang Rai province.  I arrived in Thoeng by bus this morning and met my supervisor at the educational office, Satian.  She is a wonderful lady, and it looks like I will be calling her ‘maa’ during my time in Thoeng.  One of my co-teachers, Dr. Something-or-other, is a wacko.  He’s very enthused to be working with me, but I think things might get weird.  Not too much to say about my other co-teacher.  Thoeng is beautiful. 

I spent the last couple days visiting Beth, an outgoing volunteer from Kent, WA.  She has spent the last two years on the outskirts of the provincial center of Chiang Rai.  It was a mellow visit and a much-needed vacation from training.  I ate mac & cheese and learned the ins and outs of life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand.  Tomorrow, I leave the North and head to Bangkok for a few days.

2/28:  Recovering from 3 nights in Bangkok.  Not much else to say.  Bangkok is both a terrific and horrible place—somewhere to find the comforts of life in the States, but filled with pollution, people, and prices outside of my budget. 

3/1 (Excerpt from a letter):  Almost everything about my Thai experience thus far has exceeded my expectations—the amount of learning, the amount of fun, and the wonderful people I’ve met, both American and Thai.  Every day brings new adventures, large and small, from gulping down congealed chicken blood to devising a plan to allow us to stay out past dark.  The past weeks have been filled with learning Thai, trying to put my limited Thai to use, riding my bike from school to school, attending Thai gatherings, visiting temples for Chinese New Year’s celebrations, playing badminton, trying to figure out how to teach English to Thai kids, badgering my Thai language teacher with an incessant barrage of obscure cultural questions, trying and failing to communicate with my host-family mother, escaping to the local pool whenever possible, teaching English to and playing games with the neighborhood kids, avoiding dogs that chase us on our bikes, and finding time to unwind between all of these activities.  It’s hard to explain how tiring life can be when the only time to relax is while alone in my room or if we get out of a training session early and have some time to kill.  Otherwise, my evenings at home can be the most demanding part of my day, constantly concentrating in an effort to communicate and an effort not to offend.  Taking all of this into account, in many ways my life here is very easy.  I don’t have to cook, clean, or make plans—everything is taken care of for me.  All in all, I am very happy and am sure that I’ll miss this chapter of my Peace Corps experience.

3/11 (Excerpt from a letter):  Only two weeks until Swearing In.  It’s hard to believe that two months have gone by so quickly.  Even though the time has flown, I’m eager to leave training and get to my site in Chiang Rai.  It seems like we’ve learned as much as we are going to learn from our training program, which is far less than I would have hoped.  I will certainly miss seeing other volunteers every day and will miss my host family, but I think I’m ready to move on.

3/25:  Our last day in Kampangsaen.  We’ve spent the past couple days having a conference with co-workers from our permanent sites.  I’m excited for Thoeng and the possibility which my situation holds. 

3/30 (Excerpt from a letter):  Last week we concluded our 10-week training, which means that this week I am settling into my permanent site in Chiang Rai, the country’s northernmost province.  For the past couple days, I’ve been getting to know my co-workers and becoming familiar with my new town, Thoeng.  Adjusting to life here has not been very difficult.  With some exceptions, my basic amenities are available and similar to those at home.  The food is delicious, the country is beautiful, and the people are welcoming and friendly.

4/1:  It’s Friday, the end of my first work week at site.  It’s been tough dragging myself out of bed at 7 o’clock in the morning b/c there really isn’t anything to do at the office.  School is out of session until mid-May.  I’m looking forward to a Big C (Thai version of K-Mart) visit, so I can start getting settled into my new home. Right now, it’s a big mess.

4/6:  I’m in the middle of my second week at site, and I finally am feeling more settled.  Having my own place has been great, but after the first couple of days, the novelty wore off due to a lack of clean clothes and no place to put my stuff.  I also have little space to hang my drying clothes after I wash them, so I can only clean a day’s worth of clothes at a time.  This circumstance makes each morning a little hectic when I scramble to iron my socks dry and press my shirt and pants on my make-shift ironing board, also know as a towel laid on the floor.  This week, my supervisor returned from a week-long meeting in the South, so I was able to work out some of the details of living here.  I now have a lady who picks up my laundry every day and brings it back the next, clean and pressed.  I’ve also figured out the best way to go about furnishing my home—a decision in limbo for various reasons.  So after ten days of waiting, I went and bought some furniture today and have since been able to organize my house more.  It feels better to have a home now, rather than a couple rooms, a bed, and boxes and bags spilling my stuff all over the floors. 

It’s strange how different it is being at site versus training.  There are certainly some aspects which I enjoy more, such as the increased free time and autonomy.  However, these benefits bring more opportunity for boredom and loneliness.

4/19:  It’s the week after Songkran (Thai New Year’s—a week long water fight and party), and I’m finally recovering.  Songkran officially started on Wednesday, the 13^th, though many people started celebrating much earlier.  On Wednesday, I went to a celebration with Pee Noy, one of my co-teachers, in her village.  Everyone started drinking at 9:00 a.m., but I held out until 10:00.  From there, I got a little drunk, danced with 70 year-old ladies who told me they loved me, and played with water, all while avoiding the drunk 23 year-old guy who became creepily attached to me in our nascent friendship.  On Thursday, I went to Phayao, the neighboring province, with my supervisor and her family.  We went to a grand water fight by a lake.  In the evening, I went to another community party near my home, and had to do my best to avoid the absurd amount of attention given to foreigners at these types of gatherings.  Seeing foreigners in Thailand is fairly commonplace, depending on where you are, but out in the countryside, it still seems to be a big deal to interact with one.  On Friday, I went to Chiang Mai, the epicenter of Songkran festivities.  I got an early start and arrived in Chiang Mai at 11:00 a.m and commenced to ‘len nam’ (play with water).  I bought a bucket and took to the streets, eventually joining up with an internationally diverse group of strangers, made up of folks from Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Japan.  I was the undercover Asian of the group. After having my fun with this group, I headed of to meet up with some Peace Corps friends.  After a little down-time, we headed to the Songkran parade.  The parade was great—many different Hill Tribes, dressed in their beautiful clothing, bands in the back of trucks, people dancing and playing drums.  The beauty of this parade is that disturbing the parade seems to take on as much importance as the parade itself.  The on-lookers participate as much as those in the parade, constantly squirting, splashing, and dousing the marchers.  In my case, I would halt the parade, greet them with a wai (a formal Thai bow with hands held together in a prayer position), say ‘khor thod, krap’ (excuse me), then cover them in water.  I also got in the habit of borrowing instruments from marchers, dancing alongside Thai dancers, and hitting up the marchers for lao kao.  After the first time, I told myself I would never drink lao kao again.  I lied.  But this time I mean it.  I will never drink lao kao again.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 24th, 2005 at 12:56 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.