It’s pretty easy to feel frumpy and less than attractive when you’re surrounded by tiny, gorgeous Asian women all day. I was contemplating this frumpy feeling the other day as I was walking home from Baan Unrak, and before I could start feeling depressed about it, one of my students, Chandra , came skipping down the street to greet me. She took both of my hands in hers and told me that I looked beautiful. It made me feel smiley inside. About two minutes later a Thai gentleman I’d only met once before also stopped me to tell me I was beautiful. I’ve never considered myself an exotic beauty before…but the feeling is kind of growing on me =)
I rode my first motorbike yesterday. I wish I could have taken a picture. It really wasn’t as scary as I expected it to be. I felt pretty balanced behind the “taxi-driver”, and the feeling of the wind against my face was wonderful. I got a ride into town for breakfast and then back up to the home again for a total of just 30 baht (about a dollar). Not a bad deal. Breakfast was nicely priced as well. Harj, Sima and I met up at a local street restaurant serving Mon food. I ate two Burmese donuts, five samosas (like a Burmese version of a spring roll), 1 Roti (a chickpea concoction wrapped in a homemade tortilla), and a hot glass of ovaltine mixed with sweetened-condensed milk—all for 41 Baht! That beats McDonalds any day. Yum.
Thank heavens for sweet people who lift your spirits. :) I'm glad to see that this experience is more than an external service, and that they lift you so well / high.
ReplyDeleteReading about you motorbike ride makes me think of the last time I saw you ride a bike. If you get to DRIVE one will you send me pictures?
Speaking of restaurants, do they have any Western chains, or is it too remote there. Joseph says that McDonalds is in China, but that it's gourmet pricing.
Do you eat with the children, or just as volunteers? Is your diet common to what most families eat, or is it swayed by the 'terrorist' origins?
And what are families like there? Big? Young? Do they have a high infant mortality rate?
I'd better stop with the questions before the list gets too long.
Eli, I sincerely doubt that I will ever DRIVE a bike....I don't have enough confidence in my biking skills as it is--and here I'd have to drive on the "wrong" side of the road. But if I drive, I promise, there will be pictures.
ReplyDeleteThey keep our food on a separate table from the kids, but we eat pretty much the same thing...and once we dish up our food and sit down, kids crowd around us while we eat. Usually they take turns terrorizing us by stealing our water bottles, and trying to eat our food.
"most families" here consist of so many ethnic varieties that I'm really not sure what they eat. But I would guess that yes, what I eat is pretty similar. I eat less meat than most though, I would suspect.
And I'm not sure what most families in Sangkhla are like. The ones here at the home are all pretty broken--usually just one parent or none at all. In town I only know one family--and they're a decent size. Both parents and three kids (ranging in age from about 3-12). I think that's probably pretty average. I think that often the grandparents live in with the rest of the family as well.
I don't know the infant mortality rate here, but I'm sure it's higher than it is in the states. The medical care here simply isn't great.
Did I answer all your questions? =)
You are so funny....you're a very beautiful person...don't ever think different. This is such a great thing you are doing for them and for yourself. Keep smiling. we love and miss your awesomeness here.
ReplyDeleteyou do pretty well ;)
ReplyDeletethey have ovaltine there to??? (Is it in america aswell? I cant remember...) We also have MotoTaxis here, but Rotary won't let us get rides on them, apparently to dangerous.... I don't know about Thailand but in Brazil the most dangerous thing about the city is the motorcycles... flippin fast and unruley
ReplyDelete