 |
||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||
| Thailand Newsletter # 1 - February 3, 2001
We finally made it! We left for Seattle on Friday, January 27th to meet with the other 30 trainees for orientation. At noon on Sunday the 9 hour flight to Tokyo began. After a 2 hour layover, we continued the 7 hour flight on to Bangkok. We napped a little on the first leg of the flight and tried to really sleep on the last. Perhaps because of this, or because of the 13 hour time difference, our jetlag was not as bad as traveling to Germany. What has been difficult was adjusting to the heat and intense training schedule. Who we are There were 32 of us to start, young and old, fat and thin, ranging in age from 20 something to 72. One “over 65” year old woman served in South Africa a few years ago. About 1/3 of us are over 50. We are from WA, CA, FL, PA, D.C., TX, OH, AK, and more. One left after the 2nd day of training (homesick). Another left us a letter saying she realized she would not be able to finish her dissertation in time if she stayed. One trainer and one trainee (both guys) got trichilosis (sp?…the spell checker here is Thai only!) from not sticking to bottled water. They were hospitalized one day, out and OK the next. Landing on Thai Soil At our arrival in Bangkok (midnight local time), we were greeted by banners and cheers from some current Peace Corps volunteers, U.S. and Thai staff. We were whisked quickly through diplomatic customs and loaded on a big (Greyhound type) air-conditioned bus bound for the town of U-Thong. With half our group, we were dropped off (3am) at the Siam Hotel, only 2 blocks from the PC training center. The other half of our group stayed 15 minutes away at the U-Thong Hotel. The “digs” were far from 4 star, but not as bad as a place we stayed in Iowa. There’s no air conditioning but a ceiling fan, no mosquitoes but lots of lizards, clean sheets daily but full of holes. We had a private room (2 single beds) with our own bathroom complete with cold water shower, squat toilet and a sink that drained to the floor. . Squat toilets are risky! Training is boot camp! The country director Roger Harmon denies it, but we trainees know it’s true.
Classroom hours are long and hot! (Remember hot elementary classes in May and August!) Our schedule is intense and “homework” demanding. Our feet and ankles
ached and looked like water balloons the entire first week. Utter exhaustion did serve one purpose, we no longer cared what it was we were eating as long as it provided
some calories and was cooked as we stood there (thus allowing no time for flies to land). As a result, we quickly found many dishes we really like (and one or two we will never touch again). Our first week of training focused on health and safety issues, customs and cultural understanding, language, and getting shots. Both of us felt bad after our Friday shots (typhoid, diphtheria and tetanus)…maybe the shots, maybe something else. In the picture here we are receiving training on how to set up our mattress and mosquitoe net.
Home Stay After a week at the hotel, individuals and couples were moved into nearby villages, given:
Our host family We are scheduled to stay with our host family for the next 3 months. Officially we are The whole village consists of mostly raised houses clustered tightly with lots of ownerless dogs, cats, and chickens running around underneath. Many people in the village are related. We are clearly the news of the day, with hoards of children constantly peeking in the windows at us and calling out “farang” (foreigner) whenever they catch sight of us. We have a wash machine at our disposal and can hang laundry our side our windows or on the 2nd floor outside terrace. Sending you news Our first attempt to e-mail you a few days ago was a failed one. The server was down in all three internet café’s we tried here in U-Thong. Now we have to make a special 20 minute bike rideon the weekend from the village to reach the city and this site. This is a bit unnerving since they drive on the left here, as in England, and very fast without paying much attention to lanes. We will try to get here as often as possible, but are usually quite tired after a long, hot day of training (6 days / week). How we are doing This is difficult. We both have had thoughts of giving it up already. Both of us have been absolutely sickened from the heat and humidity, immensely frustrated (at times) by communication difficulties and the strenuous schedule. More days than not we have told ourselves that if tomorrow isn’t better, that would be it! We’d be out of here! But every new day, after a night’s sleep, even with achy bones from the hard bed, we seem to feel a little better and willing enough to push on for one more day. We mentioned before that two trainees have already left. We suspect we will learn that more have left at the Monday meeting. Still, it seems that each day we can understand a little better. Our ankles are a little less swollen, our bodies a little more able to cope with the physical stress and strains. We commit to each other only to promise nothing, but to take each day…one at a time. We are still very glad we came here. The children are a delight. The people are so friendly and helpful. Most of the food is terrific, but I could go for a Big Mac right now. We are well and safe. We miss you all. Please e-mail us.! Any news would be wonderful and reassuring. Love to you all. Norbert and Carol. |
|||
Some western style toilets are available here. Most are squat pots. These are raised porcelain bowls with “tread ridges” along the sides that
are intended to prevent the user from slipping during use. We know from personal experience that this doesn’t always work. Also, toilet paper is a luxury. Some Thais
scoop water in a plastic bowl from a basin and pour it over their bottoms. For unskilled westerners, this technique usually results in wet pants and squishy shoes
. Other Thais put the bowl of water under their bottoms and splash it up with their hands. I won’t go into the problems this can create. The third substitute for toilet
paper (and the most preferable) is the hose and spray nozzle. This is what we have with our home-stay family…(more about home-stay later.) Whether the toilet is western
style or squat type, none are self-flushing. Water is scooped into the basin from another basin, causing it to flush. 
staying with Boon Jing, a single mother of 45 with 2
children at home (a boy and the youngest girl). Another son (or two) seems to be away at school. Jing gets up at 3 a.m. six days a week to shop for groceries at the market in
U-Thong, then cooks and sells food at a stand back in the village. Her husband died of a bleeding ulcer 15 years ago, leaving her in the difficult situation of raising and
supporting the children alone. Her children are wonderful. Aon (pronounced Awn), the17 year old daughter, is the best of our translator-teachers. Because Jing’s home is 
smaller as her sister’s who
lives next door and probably because of her work hours, we stay with Jing’s sister. We have our own bedroom, raised bed for our hard mattresses, 1 floor fan, a clothes line along the
wall to hang our clothes, and electricity. The floor throughout the 1st floor is beautiful white and blue ceramic tile. The fully tiled bathroom is
nearby with western toilet, shower, tall bathtub sized storage tub of water and 10 inch catfish, and our very own black hairy tarantula to eat bugs. Jing’s sister, her husband and two
children sleep on the floor upstairs, watch TV, and hang out in the larger two rooms upstairs with wooden floors. We can see their light
through cracks in our ceiling where lizards run around. There are no screens on the windows and the back and two large front house doors are open during the day.
Throughout the day, cousins, neighbors, grandma and grandpa, and an occasional stray cat walk in and out…all very friendly. At night, we have to shut all the doors and
windows on the lower floor for safety (from theft), and are a little worried about how that will be for us when the hot season comes.