Books. Check 'em Out.

Yesterday I was feeling sorry for myself.  I'm lonely beyond any lonliness I've ever felt before.  I'm tired.  I'm hot.  I'm feeling useless.  My brain is fried from attempting to live in another language and culture.  I feel like my life is on hold and everyone else is moving forward.  And there is a good chance I'm coming down with some weird illness.  Again.

So if you talked to me yesterday, I apologize.  Because no one should be subject to such bitter depression, anger, and pleas of "WHY ME???." 

I let myself mope ALL DAY to anyone that would listen, then left work early to buy a salad at the market about 3k away (surprise, the Salad Lady wasn't there, only upsetting me even more).  On the way home, I decided to stop at a school and give away some books that Peace Corps mailed to all volunteers from an organization called Books for Thailand. 

To make a long story short, this visit resulted in a photo of me "giving" the books to the pricipal and scheduling a reading session the following morning for the kids.  I promised to read aloud in English if they, in turn, would read aloud to me in Thai.  Suddenly, my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day made me remember why I decided to leave my home to help others: to improve literacy rates, encourage reading, and impact the quality of education in developing nations.

And today, that's what I did.  I started to achieve the goal I set out to do, and hopefully, planted the seeds of reading in 63 Thai children's minds.  I read to the kids, the kids read to me, then to each other, and then we played some games.  All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good morning. 

One of my more eager students reading to the class. This guy
in the front loved the book so much he kept standing up to see
the pages. The other students were yelling at him to sit down.

The boys actually chose this book themselves.  It had English,
and Thai so they begged me to read it to them in English.
Proving once and for all that pink and princesses are a
result of nurture not nature.   :)
 

One of the students reading to the class.  It's a huge deal to get
students to participate like this.  So proud of her! 


 

If I had a million dollars

Today started and ended with dead or almost dead rats.  We've been having a bit of a rat problem at work, and I'm guessing poison was put out because the office smelled to high heaven when I walked in this morning and there were dead rats here and there.  So naturally, as one of my co-workers was flipping dead rat bodies in the dustpan like they were pancakes, I was more than relieved to be invited to accompany a co-worker to her new job and office.

In Thailand, from what I can gather from my and other PCV's experiences, it's common practice to accompany a government worker to their new job in their new village, even if it happens to be on the other side of the country.  Luckily, my co-worker, Nina, was only moving to the neighboring province. 

We all piled into pickup trucks and drove about an hour and a half to Nina's new village.  Her new office is much smaller and only had about 10 people to our 20.  We were served coffee and snacks while the mayor of her village gave his remarks.  Then everyone introduced themselves.  We all went to lunch - old office and new - and sat at different tables.  Then my co-worker paid for everyone's lunch, which was expensive.  I thought we would go back to the office after lunch, but instead, all of the women went back to my co-workers new apartment, sat on the bed and gossiped for a few hours. 

This might seem like an uneventful day to the naked eye, but in reality, I feel like I was allowed into a secret club.  When we left her apartment I felt very sad.  Nina was visibly upset, which is a very rare sight in Thailand, and my other co-workers were sad, too.  It made me wonder why she switched jobs.  I thought it had something to do with her recent marriage, but when I asked where her husband was living, they said he was still in our village. 

I've long since given up on completely understanding what's going on around me.  Even when and if I become fluent in the language, I have no doubt there will continue to be many cultural situations that will leave me scratching my head in wonder.  Like, for instance, why Thai people can sing karaoke for 24 hours straight and not get tired of it.  I will never understand it so I've stopped questioning it and started bringing ear plugs with me wherever I go.

But today was different.  Today, I truly felt part of the group dynamic. Today I felt like I got to be a part of something that few foreigners get to experience.  I'm thankful for that.  Even if it made me a little sad, it's good to know I'm starting to attach... a feeling which I know will come and go. 

When we arrived back at the office, it was business as normal. My balat was reading the newspaper and greeted me with a giant grin and a "Salah, Salah, Salah!  GOOD AFTER NOON" in English. There was a dying rat under his desk, which I pointed out, and as I anticipated, it caused a ruckus. 

But all of it started me thinking about what will happen when I leave.  I know it will be sad.  And I wonder if they will take me to the airport, or at least to Bangkok.  Or if they will just put me on a bus and wave as I drive away.  If I had a million dollars, I would fly everyone from my office here to America so they could accompany me to my new job, whatever it will be.  We'd have a gathering, drink Starbucks, and the leaders of each group would say their peace.  I'd buy everyone lunch of cheeseburgers and pizza and then put them on a plane back to Thailand.