I'm scarred from the war. It's simply a losing battle with the mosquitoes here...they breed everywhere. In the toilet. In the kitchen. In the water tank. In the drains. And they are everywhere. In my bed room(even with a net). In the teacher's room. In the cafeteria. In the internet cafe. In the living room. Then there are the sandflies and flies of all religions(remember?) constantly launching a fierce and relentless attack on my delicately scarred legs. I GIVE UP!!!!
Enough about insects... Pen from Volunthai visited me yesterday and we had a huge dinner in her honour! P'Wad, my favourite funny English teacher and her two daughters joined the dinner party, together with P'Pui and Nong Gai English teachers as well. We headed to the night market to grab some charcoal grilled fish, desserts(4-storeyed condominium cakes, pumpkin cakes), my all-time fave - braised pig trotters, fruits and lots of fresh garden vegetables. Back at Thom's home, we started setting the dishes and it covered the entire bamboo mat! What a feast! The silkworms that were weaving the silk cocoons outside the house were boiled in the morning for the silk and so in order not to waste food, we ate the worms as well (once the silk disentangles itself from the silk threads, it frees the silkworms). Everyone eats it. I tried one and it was cold and juicy(too juicy for my liking) and I stopped. I prefer them fried. =)
My host mother weaves silk(in her spare time) and it is like a 1000-steps process to get a piece of silk completed!!! First, she grows the worms in bamboo baskets, feeding them lots of green leaves. Then, the start to turn yellow in their tummies and it's the ripe time to pick them out to another basket to weave themselves into a silk cocoon. Then the cocoons are boiled in a pot to disentangle the silk and the worms sink to the bottom of the pot, ready to be eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The silk are all originally yellow, which then needs to be dyed to the colour of their choice. After dyeing, it is then used to weave into a piece of fine thai silk...which probably takes about a month or so for 10metres...my host mother says she can weave 1m in 1 hr but i think she's doing it really...really....slowly.....so 1 month should be right. In short, Thai silk is expensive and now I know why!!! Such a tedious process! Gee....
After the big feast, P'Wad invited us to take a look at her house and we went off with Sunny and Pen in the motorbike. As teachers, they get about 10,000baht a month for their salary and I guess in the countryside, it allows them a rather comfortable life... P'Wad has a very nice and comfortable house(the granny's bedroom has AIR-CON!!!!) and the porch is tiled(it may not seem much but it is a big deal!), unlike Thom's dirt-floor front porch. And she has a MICROWAVE!!!! Short of sounding like I come from the countryside, these are comforts that I've lost contact with for a while so they seem like luxury to me. The first farang volunteer stayed with her and he got the air-con room! So unfair!!! :( Her two daughters are as different as day and night...the younger one is so smart and adorable...I want a daughter like her too...!
Pen spent the night with me at Thom's house and she was bitten by the mosquitoes that nite(I was spared, thank god!). In the morning, she couldn't sleep when the roosters started their crowing symphony and the birds (or some aerial creatures) kept tap-dancing on our zinc rooftop. It was a racket indeed. I think she's secretly happy to be heading back to Korat for the night.
Energised by the big feast last night, i had a very fun day being Aajarn today! The classes I taught are very enthusiastic and fun, and one of the class put in so much effort to draw a beautiful teacher(that's me), I gave them almost 30minutes just to draw and re-draw me to the point of "chalk perfection"! Hahaha... Apart from that, the day was HOT and UNBEARABLE. There was no electricity from 9am-5pm and I literally baked in my own clothes with the damn skirt that comes with a damn hot lining. After class, I had to wait for one of the teachers to drive me out to the province and for 3hours, I got increasingly frustrated with the heat(no fan even!), the waiting, the stickiness of my clothes, the mosquitoes(yes, again) and the act of doing nothing. My life is slipping away in the heat....
Tomorrow, half the students go to Bangkok for a Science Exhibition and the other half gets a holiday! I get a holiday too!!! Accepting a fellow Volunthai teacher's invitation, I will be visiting Vientiane(Laos) for the next 4days. Secretly, I am quite relieved to escape from the unbearable heat for a while! Up North, it is currently flooding in ChiangMai and perhaps in Vientiane too... Not sure what to expect in the capital of Laos at all, I'm just happy to be on a mini-holiday from my "holiday"! I read there's a prominent historical hotel with a very nice pool where I can go swimming (for US$6) and I intend just to do that!!! Every teacher in school envys my fair skin(eeks) so maybe I'll just shock them when I come back with a brand new laotian tan. *snigger*
And here's some good news amidst the "war": I finally managed to start the motorbike engine on my own!!! Yippee!!! Pop the champagne, somebody! *victorious grin*
Thais have a very funny sense of humour...take P'Pink for example. We had larb pla(fish) for dinner one day and I stupidly asked, "Is this fish from the river?". She replied "No, it's from the sky. It's a starfish!" P'Wad is another joker. Her daughter was in the bathroom for a long time and I asked what is she doing inside. P'Wad replied, "I dunno? Maybe she sleeping inside?". And she crinkled up into laughter.... Thank god for people like these surrounding me...my life here in the countryside is sane at least.
Pai ab-nam!!! Time to shower!!!
Starting to miss home, friends n family... please send word and love to me! I'll update you guys after my Laos trip. Have a lovely weekend!
|  | 
|
