Thai Thanksgiving

On Wednesday afternoon I found out that I would not be teaching either Thursday or Friday because of a leadership camp my school was hosting – which turned out to be more of the presentations similar to the ones at the temple a few weeks ago.  It was unfortunate for my students, but I was excited to have a “thanksgiving break.”

Knowing that I didn’t want to spend Thanksgiving Thursday cooped up in my cabin alone all day, I made plans to go observe Rita and Peter teach.  They are the volunteers that live farthest from me, so having two days off was perfect to make the trip worthwhile.  I was supposed to head to Rita’s school, Chok Amnuay, Wednesday evening, but instead Nit and I took a death-defying bike ride that made it too late to head to Rita’s.  Makes me wonder why it’s not safer to go by myself?  Ok, enough of my independence issues (more on this at a later date), and back to the fun!

Thursday morning I arrived at Rita’s just in time to walk to school with her and meet some of her students.  I always find it helpful to observe other teachers and get ideas from them, so I was really excited for the day.  As Rita was showing off her school, we ran into two of her teachers that told her school was cancelled for today because of some academic competition.  Mai pen rai…off to Peter’s we go!  We got to Peter’s school and many of the students were in the courtyard practicing for the color games (a week of school sports competitions that most elementary schools hold).  Only 2 of his classes showed up, but it was great to sit and chat and compare teaching notes.

Rita and I got back to her village just in time for our Thanksgiving feast!  She eats at a restaurant every night, and they cook her wonderful meals.  I was so thankful for someone to share a meal with on Thanksgiving, and the owner of the restaurant even gave us ice cream as our dessert! We got back to her house and watched a movie and quickly fell asleep.  The next morning we headed into NKP (after skyping in to various family thanksgivings) to meet Nit and watch the province’s culture show (I think that’s what it was).  But it required us to sit and listen to people speak thai for about 4 hours.  After about 15 minutes, Nit says to me “I don’t think you understand this. Paaw Aaw says to pretend we go to bathroom and we walk around outside.” Alright!  There were a lot of cool exhibits in the school’s field from all over Asia, so it was awesome to ditch the boring stuff and look around a bit. 

Then we all headed back to Kut Chim and completed many errands and some mashed potato shopping.  We had a lazy Saturday morning, and then it was time for Rita and I to get cooking.  Washing, peeling, and cutting all the tiny Thai potatoes took about 45 minutes – and then it was time to get the water boiling. Note to self:  boiling water in a giant pot over a tiny fire takes a loooong time.  We watched the pot not boil for a while, but then we headed off to lunch at my favorite, and only, restaurant in the village.  The place only serves Goi Tiow, which most closely resembles chicken noodle soup – except when it has chicken feet and pig blood in it (thankfully not at the place I frequent).  Gen had been dropped off by this time and when we arrived back to the house the potatoes were boiling and finished.  The 3 of us quickly got to mashing, and the potatoes came out perfect!

We headed off to Peter’s and assembled our pot-luck Thanksgiving feast!  We had all the usual fixings, albeit Thai-style and a little….off.  We ate off the floor and made make-shift platters out of beer boxes and plastic bags.  We were also able to share our traditions with some beloved Thai guests: Rambo (the security guard from Pla Pak), Pi Nok (Jes’ roommate and the amazing sister of WorldTeach), Pornchai (the education office’s director), and some random guy that drove Zach and crashed the party hahaha. While it didn’t really feel like Thanksgiving, we had a wonderful time and I’m so happy to have the WorldTeach family to share it all with.

No Thankgiving post would be complete without a list of things I am thankful for:

1. Family and Friends back home – Thank you for all of your love and support for this journey of mine.  I love getting your emails and calls that, no matter how seemingly mundane, mean the world to me. They keep me sane while I navigate this new world of mine.
2. WorldTeach Kru – You are the greatest support system to have here in Thailand.  Weekly gatherings and frequent emails keep me going and motivated to help my students “beat the system.”  I love you all.
3. My Host Family

Nit (mother)– For understanding me, despite our language barriers. For understanding when I’ve had enough and am overwhelmed.

Loi (father) – For the silent support and anticipation of what I need. He brings me whatever I’m in need of, without me asking, and without saying a word.

Cinto (brother, age 22)– For finally conversing with me and slowly overcoming his shyness.

Bo (sister, age 24, lives in Bangkok) – For the weekly check-ins by phone.

Chang (brother, age 19, at college somewhere) – Although I haven’t met him yet, I am looking forward to his arrival next week.

Pi (dog) – For being the best protector and questionable food eater in all of Thailand.

4. My students – The brightest part of my days. Some of my m.1s asked if they could have English class every day – and I’ve recently seen them show up in some classes that they aren’t actually a part of.  When I tried to convey Thanksgiving to my m.3s, I told them I was sad I’d be missing it at home.  2 minutes later, in unison, they said, “We love you Teacher Malee” (Malee is my Thai nickname and has completely replaced Heather).
5. Kut Chim Teachers – For always asking “Are you happy?” and wondering what the heck I eat for breakfast (breakfast, or differing meals for that matter, don’t exist here), but I eat an American breakfast of cereal or PBJ everyday.
6. My independence – While struggling with this here, I’ve become accustomed to cherish whatever freedom I do have, and work towards getting more. It was something I took for granted in the states, which I will never do again.  I’ve learned the value of independence, and for that I am thankful.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope yours was as special as mine was.

For Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071401&id=1326450028&l=604b774afe

Surin Elephants and Loy Kratong!

Last Friday evening all of the volunteers converged in NKP for a weekend of, you guessed it, more festivals!  We spent most of the night catching up on stories from the last week and watching Takraw, which is an insane sport, and awesome to watch.  Its basically volleyball, but played with feet instead of hands.  The kicks and flips the players do are incredible.

At midnight we piled into vans and were off to Surin to see the Elephant Round-Up. We got to our hotel around 6 am, dropped off our bags and were off to the stadium.  We wandered around the makeshift market set up for the event and had a breakfast of sticky rice and fried eggs, as “breakfasty” as you can get in a market. 

The cast of characters around were quite unusual to see.  First, there were the elephants – just roaming the streets until it was time to put on the show.  What a sight to see!  But perhaps the strangest sight of all was all of the tourists.  Everywhere we looked we would see a Farang (white foreigner).  Almost two months into our Thai adventure, we’d become completely accustomed to being the only farangs in town, with the few ex-pat or creepy husband exceptions. Here in NKP we play a game that entails earning points for spotting a farang (very similar to Yellow Car, I win!) but playing in Surin was impossible because of all the tourists.  It was definitely weird, especially because it was a lot harder to point out and gather all of us together.  We did find another volunteer group, CIEE, and were able chat with them a bit at first in the night market, and then again when they showed up at the same bar we’d found later that night.  Having looked into CIEE before deciding on WorldTeach, I was interested to see how their program compared.  To make a long story short, while their stipends are 3 times as much as ours (totally unnecessary), I am so glad I went with WorldTeach. 

Anyway, back to the elephants!  It was an incredible show, and so cool to see all those elephants all together.  The elephants and Thai performers reenacted religious and historical events, including an outrageous battle that included legitimate artillery.  By far my favorite part of the show was when they had the elephants do tricks and then play a soccer match!  It was like polo, but with elephants, and the elephants actually kicked the ball.  The elephants all displayed so much personality that it was hilarious to watch!

We spent the rest of the day napping and exploring the city of Surin, which was pretty cool.  We headed back to NKP bright and early Sunday morning to make it back to our villages to celebrate Loy Kratong.  Loy Kratong is an important holiday in Thailand, where people float (loy) either lanterns or small boats in the river to release all of their bad thoughts.  I celebrated in That Phanom, where the sight of all the kratongs was amazing.  Both the river and the sky were lit by these gorgeous creations.  After releasing all of my bad thoughts, I asked to be returned home, where I could catch up on my sleep and plan for the week’s lessons.

For Pictures:  

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070603&id=1326450028&l=601641ef80

Next blog, coming soon (I promise)... Thanksgiving – Thai Style!

Weekend of Festivities!

This past weekend was full of festivities.  After just a half day of school on Friday (Paaw Aaaw moved my classes to the morning so I didn’t have to miss any!) I was able to go home and spend a much-needed afternoon resting.  Turns out though, that I couldn’t rest!  For the past 6 weeks it’s been a constant go, go, go, that being faced with a few hours without plans was quite a conundrum.  I had the internet, I had a kindle full of books, but it just didn’t seem real that I didn’t have a single ounce of work to do.  Laundry was done, lessons were planned, cabin was clean and finally settled. I wanted to go out and do something, but since no one was at my host family’s home, I was told to stay in.  I’m hoping to get a bike soon (thanks to Gen’s host mom, Pi Mok) so a leisurely ride through the village and rice paddies would be a perfect lazy afternoon activity!

After a few hours of pacing (literally – I had NO idea what to do with myself) Gen came over to go to a wedding with me and my family.  My host dad, Loi’s, friend’s daughter was getting married, so of course we could go to the party. It was actually pretty tacky and not at all what I was expecting of a Thai wedding.  Apparently though, the actual ceremony had been in the morning, so we were only attending the party.  As soon as we arrived we were ushered to an area where we were to take a picture WITH the bride and groom.  Never met them before, no idea who they were, but still, we took a picture with them, and they seemed to thinking nothing of having complete strangers, farangs no less, at their wedding.  The rest of the wedding was like a typical Thai party – karaoke, too much food on too many plates, a lot of whiskey, and a lot of people.  We didn’t stay very long, but we did go to another restaurant to eat a second dinner (remember what I said about too much food?!?) with some of my family’s friends.  It was fun, even though there was no real purpose of us being there.

The next day some volunteers met up at Gen’s house for an American dinner and a mini string tying ceremony.  It was great to see everyone in such a relaxed atmosphere.  Pi Mok’s house is incredibly comfortable, and as I’ve stayed there before, it felt like home to me, too.  The dinner, however, was weird.  We made spaghetti, breaded chicken, and garlic broccoli.  It was weird to eat such bland food after all the spices we’re used to.  It was still good, don’t get me wrong, but the spaghetti could have used a little chili sauce.  During dinner Pi Mok wanted to do a string-tying ceremony with us, which was really nice.  It was quiet and intimate, and really special.  I’d heard her asking the other volunteers to be her friends, but when she got to me, she asked if I would be her daughter!  It was really special to be so close with another host mom, and its great to know that if I’m ever stuck in a rut (or at the saawng tao stop without a ride) I have another caring woman to call.  After dinner, we sat out on Gen’s balcony (yeah, she basically lives in a palace by thai standards) and had a really great conversation about all sorts of things.  It was a beautiful night, and it was so nice to spend it outside with close friends.

The next morning we awoke pretty late (late is 7am) to prepare pancakes and French toast.  As we were cooking though, Nit called and told us to pack up the food and bring it back to my house.  Nit had planned a string-tying ceremony for me that morning, and wanted all the other volunteers to be a part of it.  When we pulled up to my house there was a tent set up in the driveway covering tables and tables of food.  There were a bazillion cars there and just about every person I’ve met since being in Kut Chim. We sat on my porch and the village elder presided over the ceremony.  Then, all the guests came around and tied strings around our wrists.  While they tie the string, they say things such as “have a happy year, good health, to be wise, etc.”  It’s a really special ceremony and meaningful in the Thai culture to wish someone well who is undergoing some sort of life transition.  I can’t even imagine all the tears that will fall from my face when they have a ceremony for when I leave Thailand.

Perhaps the best part of the day was that I was able to share it with some other volunteers.  While I wish all of them were able to come, I was so happy to have the seven that did.  For one, the whole ceremony and party would have been pretty overwhelming had I been alone.  But I loved sharing my home and family with all the other volunteers. We’re all in such different situations that I wondered what they would think of mine and what they would think of my family.  While I didn’t get a chance to get their opinions, Nit sure had some of friends.  Nit immediately wanted Zach to come back every weekend and be friends with my host brother, Cinto.  Cinto is 22 and incredibly shy (he won’t even say a word to me, and was sweating in the 5 minutes he made an appearance at the party).  Zach made one comment to him, and Nit was delighted and insisted he come visit often!  Zach is a superstar in Thailand.  He picks up languages in a jiffy, so his thai is half decent, not to mention the fact that all the girls swoon over him all the time.  Peter made quite an impression on her as well, and as soon as she heard he doesn’t have a thai “family” she wanted him to be her son.  When I informed her that she and Peter are the same age, she was disappointed but settled on being friends instead.  My host father, Loi, has not spoken one word of English the entire time I’ve been here, but wanted to impress my friends so much that he tried his best to tell them to “come back soon!”

The party went on all day long. 9 am – 9pm.  It was a long day, but very special.  Its been 3 days now, so I can finally cut the strings from my wrist and place them over my bed, and remove the banana leaf sculpture from my bedroom.  All of this tradition is to ensure that I have a happy and healthy stay in Thailand. 

To see pictures (and more of my house and students): 
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068466&id=1326450028&l=068b9d4011

Back at school, things are going well.  My biggest frustration is attendance.  There’s a huge festival this weekend (Loy Kratong) that the students are preparing for.  That means only half the students in my classes actually show up.  I’m hoping it’s just because of this special occasion, but I don’t want to teach new material to only half the kids.  I’ve just been teaching lessons again with different activities, which has proven to be a really helpful refresher for the students that do come to class.

I’ve been relatively bored at school, with more free time than I know what to do with.  So I asked my Paaw Aaw if I could teach more.  Starting the next full week of school (who knows when that’ll be – hopefully soon), I’ll be seeing each of my classes 3 times a week instead of two.  This adds 6 hours to my schedule and he and other teachers were all concerned that I would be too busy.  I ensured him that I wanted more classes and that it would be good for the students.  Its still only 18 teaching hours a week and only 3 lessons to plan, but I’m grateful for more to do.  I was feeling that my time and energy wasn’t being used to its greatest potential, so I feel a lot better about that now.

My m.3 (9^th grade) class is my favorite.  I’ve never been one to pick favorites, but if I could end every day with my m.3’s it would just make my day.  I don’t know what it is about them, but they just seem to understand everything so much better than the other grades.  Activities go more smoothly, and in general, they just have so much more fun than the other classes.  They’re the only class that I saw twice the first week of school, and they asked me to be their advisor (still no idea what that entails) so maybe they’re just more invested in learning English.  I’ve also taken mini field trips with them to a fabric store, so I guess I’ve spent more time with these students outside of class too, which probably helps my rapport with them anyway.

Now its time for… Heather’s (Mis)Adventures in Thailand:

1. My family got a new washing machine.  Actual machines are few and far between in Thailand, so they had no idea how to use it. Guess who they asked?  Even though all the instructions were in Thai and the water hose is still manual they assumed I’d know exactly what to do.  Hilarity ensued.

2. I went to clip my fingernails out my window.  The clippers slipped and fell right into the pond. I was worried I’d have to turn into a nail-biter, but luckily Tesco pulled through and I found others.

3. Cinto had to use the family truck to deliver oil, so Nit and I had to take his motorbike home last night.  I was wearing a skirt. I was holding my purse. And my laptop. On the way, our dog, Pi, found us and started chasing us home and nipping at my heels. Interesting ride.

4. My computer cord broke this morning.  I was almost in tears with frustration and knowing it would be weeks before I could get a new one from the states.  I rely on my computer for everything, lesson planning, communicating with friends and family at home, multiple daily worldteach emails, entertainment, posting this blog, etc.  I was not happy.  When I showed Nit, we took a detour to a computer store in That Phanom on our way to school. About $5 and an hour later the cord was fixed, and I made it to school with plenty of time to spare before my first class. Mai Pen Rai prevailed today...of course now Nit basically buckles in my laptop whenever we get into the car hahahaha.

Next time: My trip to Surin for the Elephant Round-Up and Loy Kratong this weekend!

Na Khae Temple Trip and Daily Fun

Last Thursday and Friday I took a special trip to a mountain temple in the neighboring district of Na Khae.  I was really nervous about missing 2 days of school the very first week, but my host mom kept reassuring me it was OK.  On the drive their my host mom spent a lot of time on the phone with my Paaw Aaw, so of course I was thinking the worst, and she was explaining to him why I wasn’t at school, and he was mad, etc.  As we drive up the mountain though, who do I see?  ALL of my students!  Turns out it was a school trip, and I had no reason to be worried after all.  The scenery was absolutely gorgeous.  It sort of reminded me of my trip to Meteora in Greece in the way that they are both breathtaking worship sites teetering on the side of a mountain with beautiful views of the world below.

I was expecting a peaceful weekend of reflection and prayer…but that is exactly what did not happen.  After touring the temple a bit and unpacking, the students were ushered into a lecture hall where they were given a 6 hour presentation about the unrest in the south of Thailand.  The southern 3 provinces are Muslim and there is religious conflict because of it.  The hardest thing for me was trying to understand.  Obviously the presentation was in Thai, so I had to look at the pictures and ask very simple questions of the other teachers, without getting into any opinion things.  The pictures and video were extremely violent, and they showed images of Jihad and of September 11.  All of this led me to believe that this was an anti-Muslim presentation.  I asked one of the teachers if they were telling the students whether Muslims were good or bad, and she said, “They are bad. They are very violent and they want to take over our country for oil.”  To top it all of, in the middle of the presentation, the facilitators made the students do these army type squats that made most of them faint after only a few.  

I was incredibly uncomfortable through most of it, especially because I couldn’t understand the message the students were supposed to get or the purpose of it.  Not only that, but because of language restraints, I couldn’t tell them my views.  I’m certain they think that I think all Muslims are bad, especially because of the September 11 photos.  There is no way for me to communicate that that is most definitely not the case, and they wouldn’t be able to understand the reasons why I don’t bear that intolerance.  Hopefully once my students and I get more comfortable with each other I will be able to at the very least send them some sort of message that I did not agree with most of that presentation.  I thought strongly of getting up and walking out, but I didn’t know how that action would later reflect on me.  

There were some saving graces to the trip though, the scenery just being one of them.  After the presentation I wanted to walk to the top of the mountain to watch the sunset, but of course Nit wouldn’t let me go alone.  Rather than scrounge up another teacher, I told her I would take some students with me.  It was during their shower time and resting time before dinner, but I asked some of the students anyway, and a few came with me.  As other students figured out what was going on they followed, and even some students who had just gotten out of the shower threw their towels over their shoulders and climbed the mountain barefoot to see the sunset with me.  At this point I’d only had one class with them, but it was so special that they wanted to share that with me.  

Before heading to bed, I had a chance to chat for a while with Nit and one of the other young teachers at my school.  It was a great conversation and I found out a little more about the education system of Thailand, specifically how they do their special education.  Knowing that a lot of countries just kind of ignore students with learning disabilities, I was very pleased to find out that in Thailand, they include these students with the rest, and that I even have some special ed (LD as they are referred to here) students in some of my classes.  They also told me that in some of the bigger schools they make classes by students GPA, and only the top students have access to the better teachers, which they view as unfair too.  

I’ve really enjoyed all of my chats with Nit, and we are able to get into some pretty deep topics even with the limited vocabulary we share.  When we returned from the temple, we went to her rice farm and spent an hour or so sitting on the napping deck in the middle of the paddy and chatting about her kids and sharing about our lives at home.  

In all, I view Kut Chim as one of the better schools that I’ve heard about.  Most teachers actually teach during their classes, and the students only roam free a few periods a day as opposed to most at other schools.  My Paaw Aaw is incredibly involved, and even had a meeting with all the parents on the 2^nd day of school (during which I had to introduce myself of course).  I’ve even seen a few parents come in for meetings about their kids, which I’m pretty sure is unheard of at most Thai schools.

Now that I’ve done all the deep stuff, here’s a treat:  Heather’s Misadventures in Thailand:

1. I saw a scorpion in the middle of the night in the bathroom at the temple.  I watched it for a while, wondering what the heck I should do about it.  When it wandered into the shower, I locked it in there.  And then I shut the door of the bathroom too, but I was sleeping on the floor, so I worried about it all night.  I woke up alive though, so that’s good.
2. Nit had some students help move the dirt piles left over from construction of my house.  She paid them for it, but I insisted that I help make them dinner.  I made dinner outside and thought it was the long grass that was itchy around my ankles. Turns out mosquitoes were the culprit and now have bug bites for feet.  This of course comes after Peter gave me a mosquito net, so they were extra concerned about me and the bugs. Nit now comes to my house every morning and night and rubs some weird smelling Chinese cream on all my bug bites. It’s actually working.
3. The plastic covering was still on my mattress, but the sheets had been put on the bed when I moved in, so I thought there was some reason the plastic was still there.  I woke up every morning with the sheets sliding off and my skin stuck to the bed.  When I showed Nit, she started laughing hysterically and ripped the plastic off.  I guess she only kept it on so that I would know that it was new. 
4.  As part of one of my lessons, I took pictures of my students.  I didn’t remember though, that appearances are everything here in Thailand.  At the sight of my camera, out came mirrors, baby powder, and combs, and the students took about 20 minutes to do the whole thing, when I had planned for 2.

For pictures of Na Khae Temple:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2069087&id=1326450028&l=28f088f212

And so it begins...

I started school in Thailand on Monday, and it was a great day!  I introduced myself correctly (I think) to the students, and didn’t commit too many thai faux pas – with the exception of not taking off my shoes when I went into my Paaw Aaw’s office…oops!  No one said anything, so I hope they didn’t notice.

Not knowing the ability of my students or my actual schedule, I didn’t prepare too much for the lessons I would teach. I knew I would introduce the rules and try to gauge their letter sense and sentence building with a game of Hangman.  I teach m.1 – m.6…the equivalent of grades 7-12.  The first class I taught was m.3 and it went really well.  The students also asked if I would be their advisor.  After not being able to figure out what that means in terms of responsibilities, I agreed anyway and received loud cheers of approval from the students.  I hope I didn’t get myself into something I cannot do because of time/language restraints. 

My other classes went just as well, and I enjoyed meeting all the teachers at my school.  The school is very small, so there are only about 10 teachers, only 6 of whom I have frequent contact with.  There are about 140 students, so class sizes aren’t too big considering Thai standards.  M.1- m.3 classes are larger, with probably 30 students. But after m.3, school is not mandatory so my m.5 class has only 9 students, and my m.6 has only 6 students, which will make these classes more intimate and probably allow me to do different things. 

I see each class twice a week, so I only teach 12 classes (for now, they’ve already added a 13^th which may or may not be permanent) a week.  Due to the relatively low English level of my students, I can teach the same lesson to all of the classes with only a few minor changes based on grade level.  This gives me A LOT of planning time.  For instance, this morning when I came to school I had 4 hours before teaching my first lesson.  Most of the other teachers have similar schedules, so many like to come to my desk and practice their English.  I showed them pictures from home, and they all tried to plan when they would come to the states for a visit!  Eventually, I’ll try to set up a time or two each week during school for English practice with the other teachers.  Also, I can bring my own computer to school and plan here, while chatting online to friends back home, or downloading a TV show I can then watch before going to bed.  There seems to be limited materials for me to use, as my students don’t have English workbooks and the teachers seem to bring their own paper to use in the printer and copier. 

So far, I have always had a Thai teacher in the room with me while I teach, as requested in our contracts.  This technically isn’t necessary, and I’m hoping they’ll eventually ease up.  Many of the teachers translate a lot of what I say to the students, which is helpful right now, but will probably hinder student learning in the long run.  That being said, the teachers are so eager to learn English I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to attend as many of my classes as they can. 

My Paaw Aaw is great.  He looks a little like the guy from the Dharma videos on LOST, so naturally I was a little scared of him at first.  But he’s a great guy.  He has his own office, but spends most of his time in the teacher’s room hanging out.  He brought me presents on the first day: a lighted Thailand paperweight, a beaded belt, and my personal favorite – 3 bright pink frilly curtains to cover up the beautiful wooden windows of my home. Such is life in Thailand.

For lunch each day, all the teachers contribute something, and we eat family style in the teacher’s room, Paaw Aaw included.  It is really nice, because it helps me get to know the other teachers better.  Yesterday we ate Som Tam, a spicy papaya salad which is a staple in the Isan diet.  The som tam I have had thus far has all been milder, but of course this one wasn’t.  My mouth was on fire! Luckily, there was plenty of fresh fish to wash it all down with.  The food here isn’t bad, and I’ve been successful at trying everything without getting sick, but I can sense myself getting sick of rice and soup.  Thankfully I can make my own breakfast, so the pb+j sandwiches help to even out all the other food I’ve been eating. 

Nit, my host mom, is great!  She is very friendly and so concerned with how I am doing.  She always asks me if I have good dreams and if there is anything that she can do for me.  My host father, Loi, is busy with his brothers finishing my bathroom, complete with a western toilet! I’m excited about that, even though I’ve gotten used to the whole squatting thing.  The men at home are also busy caulking all the gaps in the wood of my house to keep the bugs and geckos out.  So far neither has been a problem at all, but I appreciate their concern. 

Tomorrow through Saturday I will be going on some sort of Buddhist retreat (I think – translation about these plans were rough to say the least).  Nit brought me to Tesco to buy a lot of white clothes and she said we were going to be with nature, so this is my best guess about what is going on.  I’d communicated that I’d rather not be missing school, but I don’t have much choice in the matter.  That’s going to be the hardest thing to get used to – not having as much control over myself as I’m accustomed.  Someone says “go,” I go. Someone says “eat,” I eat.  It will be hard to get used to, but its also allowing me to have some truly unique experiences – the retreat this weekend is sure to be the same!