The little things
This week I started my intern work, which has been very self-driven and I have created proposals of new ideas for the organisation utilising volunteer networks, researched funding bodies and started writing an article on statelessness, as well as teaching an intensive 2 hour English class every day....
But, today I want to write about the little things.
Today is Saturday (wan saw) and this afternoon we have time off until Tuesday (wan ankaan). I will be going to Phu chi Faa which is a Thai tourist destination where you see the sunrise over the mountains looking over into Laos.
There are so many little things that need to be written about, so that you can understand why being here feels like such perfect freedom.
Last night, I was walking around, and then Pi O, who is one of the staff here, gestured to me to come sit down with her at a table outside out the back of her house, with the two cooks and two of the other volunteers. (Pi is a sign of respect, you call people older than you Pi). On the table were leftovers from dinner, a bowl of strawberries, a couple of mugs of water, a shot glass and a bottle of herbal whisky - a whisky bottle filled with herbs and plants. I was offered some of the whisky, poured a tiny shot (its strong stuff) and downed it. Aroy? (Delicious?) I said Aroy nit noy (A little bit delicious) while grimacing as it burnt my throat with herbs and skulled a mug of water. I then sat down and chatted with Pi O, Luke and Steve (the cooks left) and ate strawberries and peanuts... Pi O was so beautiful to us. She told us about coming to work here 12 years ago, and about how it all started. We just talked into the night for hours, drinking very small amounts of whisky, and eating the strawberries.
Her daughter went to the front garden and picked me flowers on long stalks....
Pi O said that we are friends and so therefore we are like family, and we can use her oven anytime.... Her kitchen anytime.... Because that’s what it is like with family.....
Last night after hanging out with Pi O, we all went up to the bonfire. Often the volunteers will have a bonfire behind the girls dorm. Eline who is from Canada, plays the guitar, and we sing together 'Rocking in the Free World', 'Iris' and 'Hallelujah'. Last night it was so beautiful, with the darkness all around, and us all quietly singing Geoff Buckley's 'Hallelujah' in the dark, with the flames from the fire lighting up our faces, with harmonies resonating with Lisa's violin...
I play percussion as well as sing. Someone passes over Lisa's violin case, and it becomes my drum.
This was my night last night: sitting around the bonfire, singing harmonies, bashing out rhythm on an old violin case.... hearing the guitar, the violin, the fire crackling.... sitting with beautiful beautiful people, under the stars. Afterwards, we put sticks in the fire, and danced around in the dark with the ends glowing - our own fire sticks.
Today we had cereal, Frosties and a kind of cereal that looked like tiny chocolate chip cookies.... You appreciate things so much more here. Cereal. Strawberries. Garlic bread. Toilet paper (costs 5 baht per roll).
Other little things....
The joy of a 3 in 1 (a coffee drink where you add boiling water)
The joy of knowing breakfast/lunch/dinner is good: the appreciation you feel when there is mango/your favourite meal....
The sound of the gecko who lives near the girl’s room (ah AH ah AH ah AH ah AH)
Eating banana bread from the shop down the road
Doing your washing by hand in the plastic tub
Buying an ice cream at lunch from the Red Streets Icecream vendor that comes on his motorbike
The joy of having clean hair after washing it
The joy of having clean feet after washing them
Going on a motorbike for 200 metres
Riding on the back of the song taaw
Riding on the roof of the song taaw in the dark, which is freezing cold!
The ”resort” - Pi O set up an umbrella and chairs next to the pond. It has become the most chilled out place here
Clearing plants out of said pond wearing bright orange rubber knee high boots, sinking with each step into thick sucking mud. Finding out later there were SNAKES in the water. As well as diseased fish and LEECHES.
Laughing at translations in Thai (see photo)
Meeting new beautiful people, who already have so much in common with you...
Meeting Thai Christians in Chiang Mai night bazaar, and singing songs and dancing with them in the street....
Meeting a new Thai friend in the Chiang Rai night market and talking in Thai....
Singing in the Chiang Rai night market with an Akha lady who sells handicrafts: and singing hymns with her in Akha...
RAIN. It rained the other night, for the first time in months here in Chiang Rai. There was lightning (‘Phar Lap’, like the horse that won the Melbourne Cup)... and a huge fire was lighting up the mountains on the other side of us, so the sky was bright orange at 9pm at night. And then we sat at the resort and waited for it to rain, yelling out when we felt a drop touch us, so cold and refreshing on our skin. Each drop so much joy.
Teaching English - I teach English every day now to Goi, who is 24, who is one of Suda's friends, and she lives in Aja village (an Akha village in Chiang Rai). We sit up at the kitchen, with a whiteboard and pens, and I teach for two hours. We also have had other people come, eg Manop, who is a fourteen year old guy from her village, and Tuisin, who is ten. Goi has come everyday and has promised me a ride on her motorbike (we went 200 metres last time because I had to go back to do work). Yesterday we just practiced speaking English, and talked in broken Thai and English. So I learn Thai at the same time! We play Hangman and even played Celebrity Heads the other day, with a choice selection of four people that we all knew in common to choose from!
Yesterday Pi O made garlic bread, beautiful crunchy buttery garlic bread, and brought it to me while I was teaching Goi.... and has offered to make it with me. And teach me how to make Pad Sieew (my favourite food).
Just now, I went to help the other volunteers teach English to the local guides. One particular man was unable to understand anything that my friend Anne Marie was teaching him. It turned out he had never been to high school and he was unable to write in Thai, or even his name in Thai, and didn’t understand the concept of writing. I could write more Thai than him. I found this absolutely unbelievable. He is from a village called Yaafu. He did not understand even the concept of writing letters. I explained to him in Thai by using Thai consonants and then taught him the letters A B and C by speaking Thai the whole time, and by writing dotted letters for him to trace. Today he learnt the letter C.
There are just so many little things that I love. Yesterday it was another girl, Emily's birthday. We got her a cake, and all put in some money to buy her goodies from the shop down the road: pineapples, Chang beer, toilet paper, peanut brittle, Capsicum crackers, 3 in 1, banana bread, and a bracelet from the Shop. The choicest things. They are like gold. We put it all in one of the teaching resources baskets (Hamish said a small one looked better because it all overflowed). Hamish attached three big balloons, and we presented it to her after singing Happy Birthday.
Later when Pi O came up to the campfire, she basically picked the whole flowerpot of flowers near her door, and gave them to Emily as a birthday present.
There is so much love here, its magical. Already I have three presents that Thai people have given me. Such generosity. Such love. I love the little things.
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