A Day In the Life...

Great Beatles song!
Going with the theme of daily schedules, here’s an overview of a ‘typical’ PST weekday for me :

5:45 AM: Rise and shine!

5:45-6:10 AM: Stretch, do some yoga, review the PST agenda for the day.

6:10-6:35 AM: Wash my face, brush teeth, and get dressed.

6:40- 7:00 AM: Wai to my host Maa and Paa, talk about my plans for the day, and eat breakfast. Breakfast is usually a cup of coffee (freeze dried), rice, leftovers from the night before, and/or a vegetable-egg stir-fry. Sometimes there is a sweet, egg-based custard accompanied by sticky rice.

7:00-7:45 AM: Bike with my neighbor volunteer to our Tambon office (S.A.O) which equates to about 6 KM or 4 miles of biking.

7:45-8:00 AM: Change into ‘riap roy’ clothes—usually a long skirt, modest/semi-dressy top, and closed-toe casual shoes.

8:00-11:45 AM: Language class with 3 fellow volunteers. 10-minute breaks are included. Usually language class consists of reviewing past lessons and conversing about simple topics such as time of day and food. A new topic is introduced each day. We also play games and try some role-playing in different scenarios. Lately, we have been working on reading and writing Thai letters towards the end of the lesson using the Fidel Alphabet System.

11:45 A.M. -12:00 PM: Change back into biking clothes.

12:00-1:30 PM: Eat lunch—usually with my Thai teacher (ajan) and 3 fellow volunteers. Lunch is usually rice with an egg and mixed vegetable stir fry , pad thai, or a sort of noodle with shrimp or chicken. It depends though. I am finding out about new combinations and dishes every day it seems.

1:30-4:30 PM: Work on community assessment activities. This includes such activities as biking around and interviewing community members about their daily activities and drawing community maps with participants. We also inquire about yearly schedules such as crop planting and harvest season, school calendar, and temple activities—how monks live and significant Buddhist events.

Afternoon biking amounts to about 7-10 KM or 5-6 miles. Though sometimes there is not afternoon biking and we spend the time in our S.A.O. office sifting through data we have already collected.

One day a week, we reconvene with all the TCCO and CBOD volunteers to talk about general issues like culture, home stay, and health.

Other afternoon activities include learning technical skills with all 24 CBOD volunteers. Such technical topics include how to be a facilitator, inquire about different topics, brainstorm with community members, and present/design project ideas.

4:30- 5:00 PM: Reconvene and reflect on findings at the S.A.O. office.

5:00-6:00 PM: Change into bike clothes if need be and bike home—about 5 KM or 3.1 miles.

6:00-6:45 PM: Have a cool beverage with the host family and talk about what I did during the day, play games for a while (Botche ball is very popular here).

6:45- 7:00 PM: Go to my room and organize my homework for the night, gather dirty clothes, call or text friends.

7:00- 7:20 PM: Bathe. The bathroom consists of a large basin full of water with a small pale in it. By dipping the pale and pouring water, it is possible to get sufficiently clean all over. The water in the basin should remain relatively clean though since everyone uses it. It comes from rain water collected in large vats of water that surround the house.

7:30-7:45: Get dressed, start to wash clothes if need be—some clothes I hand wash and others I put in the semi-automatic washing machine.

7:45-8:00 PM: Eat dinner with the family. Dinner may consist of rice, a fried egg dish with vegetables, various vegetable and meat stir-fried, dried fish, spicy noodles with vegetables, soups with shrimp, fish, or chicken, vegetables, and spices.
Mmm…Thai food is delicious!

Sometimes there is dessert and sometimes not. It usually consists of fruit: lychee, oranges, papaya, apples, and/or dragonfruit. Otherwise, a sort of gelatinous dessert with coconut, sugar-coated fried dough wonderful-ness, or egg-based custards.

After meals we usually sit a while and converse while intermittently watching television.

9:00-10:30/11 P.M.: Do language, technical, and some grad school homework (depends on how tired I am). Then, get ready for bed, set out clothes for the next day, finish laundry, set up my mosquito net, douse myself with bug repellant, and good night!