Oh My Buddha!

OH MY BUDDHA, I cannot believe how much time has passed without blogging, and now its time to play catch-up in a major way.

Here are the highlights:

1) Trekking trip #1.
From Mae Hong Son I went on a three day, two night trek into the jungle with three other volunteers, our guide Nok, and guide-in-training, Tom. Nok and Tom could work magic with a machete and bamboo. They fashioned a teapot, walking sticks, cups, and spoons out of this plentiful plant. Our first day we walked about 4 hours - on a slippery, muddy path infested with leeches -to a Karen Village that was about as authentic "rural Thai" as you can get. Pigs, chickens , and goats (with very loud bells) wandered around the land. It was a village of about 40 people and at night we wandered around hut-hopping. In one hut, there were 15 kids huddled around a single TV watching music videos. In the other two, groups of adults sat drinking rice wine and eating this drug called beetle nut. They wrap the nut (which turns red when chewed) into a large leaf and then eat it whole. Don't worry, I did not participate. But I could not decline a sip of rice wine. They were so offended when I said, "Mai ow ka" (no thank you), that I had to take a little. But when they saw I drank the rice wine they then filled my glass again. Marleen and I then had to discreetly pour it out between the floorboards to avoid drinking the rest of the strong, foul alcohol.
On the second day we ran out of water by noon and were still hours away from our destination, a village Nok had yet to visit.
"Nok, how far are we?"
"Yes, yes"
"Nok, how faaarrrr?"
"Ah 30 minutes."
One hour later, we were still not there. When we finally arrived we hit the local store and cleaned out their water supply.
The last day was nice and tame.
It was not the smoothest of trips, but the entire weekend we were deep in the fantastically beautiful jungle. Sometimes we were foraging our own path through dense bamboo, shuffeling along a foot wide path on the mountain's edge, and other times there were 360 degree views of the magnificent area.


2) Pai.
Pai is Thailand's Bohemia. It is a hippie-ville full of wanna-be (and some real) boho's that I visited over a weekend. So that makes for some great people watching. There are two main streets in Pai that I basically walked about 20 times in the two and a half days. Apart from the street walking, I took a yoga class, attended a meditation session led by an old friend of my Grandma's, and ate lots of delicious meals. My first non-Thai food was consumed in Pai - a falafel! We found such an amazing Thai restaurant for dinner that we went back and ate there again the second night as well. They made a Pad Thai dish with green papaya instead of noodles. Soooo good.
Instead of taking the bus back to Mae Hong Son, I rafted back. Lotte and I went on a rafting trip that just so happened to finish about ten minutes from MHS - quite convenient. It was an extremely fun water adventure. We were on a boat with two Israeli sisters that we sung song after song to pass the time with. Along the river we went by a nice waterfall and a hot spring where we coated our bodies in this sulfur-smelling mud.

3. Chiang Mai.
I arrived in Chiang Mai about three weeks ago and have become completely immersed into life here. Our dorm is in the South East corner of the old city, which is about 1 x 1 mile. That means most of the city is in walking distance. It has been so refreshing to be back in a city again. As much as I liked the all-Thai-ness of Nong Khai and Mae Hong Son, its great to be back in a more international place. I'm living here with six other volunteers: four Germans and two Dutch -four girls (18-19) and two guys (23 and 28),who just arrived this weekend. We're having a great time together.

4. More Mopeds.
I've gone on three motorbike excursions in the CM area. The first was a big loop through the mountains. The highlights of that trip were a national park with great waterfalls and Doi Suthep, the most famous temple near CM. The second excursion brought us to the south of CM. We saw Bo Sang, the umbrella making village. I completely fell in love with the umbrellas and almost bought a really big one on a whim, but was talked out of it on account of its inability to fit in my pack. Instead, I opted for a tiny blue one - not as all as impressive. From there we wanted to tour all the different craft villages: silk making, cotton weaving, wood carving....but we had lots and lots of trouble finding the workshops in the towns. We actually drove to three different places without finding what we came to see. The BIG adventure of the day was a flat tire that I got on this long stretch of road in the middle of nowhere. Lucky for us this middle of nowhere just so happened to have a mechanic! But low and behold in the last 20 minutes of the drive, the tire blew out again. I had to ride home on a flat in the middle of rush hour because there was no way I was going to get it fixed again. That little mishap resulted in us missing out on the wood carving in Ban Tawai because everything was already closed. Thus, trip #3 was back to Ban Tawai, where I purchased an Elephant Mirror! I know, I know...but its so cool that I couldn't pass it up. And its not too big, so I'll find a way to get it home.

5. Thai Boxing.
In my first weekend in CM I went to a Thai Boxing match. Not too much to say about that except for that I saw a knock out! This guy went down hard. He took a foot kick to the neck and just collapsed. Out cold for a minute or two. There were also kids as young as maybe 12 fighting. That was a bit weird to see. And a band next to the ring played along to the ebb-and-flow of the fighting for more suspense. But I can't say I was on the edge of my seat.

6. Loy Krathong.
Loy Krathong was a three day festival I was lucky enough to experience in Chiang Mai, where the celebration is the biggest in the country. There were lanterns filling the sky, fireworks exploding every second, and candles floating down the river and moat. The fireworks had me completely on edge, as I felt like I was walking in a dangerous war zone. It was all quite a scene.


7. Trekking trip #2.
Similar to trip #1, but add 10 more people on the tour and forty others doing the same tour in the area. This trek should have been named the "Waterfall Tour." We saw 6 in the three days! There was a lot of swimming. Being a commercialized tourist trip, this trek included bamboo rafting and an elephant ride.

8. Teaching.
Ahaha teaching is always the last thing I write about.
As they say here in Thailand, "Same, same"....but different. Its similar to what I was doing in Nong Khai. We teach three hours every morning and work with grades k-6 depending on the day. I enjoy the 3-6th graders the most. I'm just not quite cut out to work with the younger kids. Their level of English is so low - nearly nonexistent that there is very little you can do with them besides the ABC's and numbers 1-10. And even with that, they seem to have absolutely no long-term memory and have trouble producing a "R" or a "9" if we were to call it out loud for them to write down.
The older grades are so much more rewarding because I feel that I am actually teaching them something. What a novelty....
I've also had to adjust to the "Thai" way of education. It is perfectly acceptable for a class to sit watching TV for a few hours without a teacher present, for kids to be playing outside while others in their class are working, and for complete mayhem to go on the moment the Thai teacher steps out of the room and the farangs come in. Very, very little is expected of these kids in terms of their education. There is no curriculum for English. We are told to "just do whatever we want." While some teachers would like this freedom, I just find its a reflection of their low standards. However frustrating, it is "the Thai way" and I have had to stop comparing it to our western educational standards because it only annoyed me.
With that aside, it is a great feeling to walk out of a class after teaching a bunch of 11 year olds, knowing that your lesson went well, the kids were engaged, and you just might have taught them something.