Thais eat bananas backwards and other interesting revelations

Actually, I have seen Thai people eat bananas both from the long stem and the short stem.  But, in a recent get-together, I was teased by the way I eat bananas because according to the company I was with, Thai people normally eat bananas from the other end because it's easier. The more I think about it, the more I realize they might be on to something.  Think about it, how many times have you ended up mashing the top of the banana because it doesn't split properly?!

I know all this banana talk may seem trivial, but it brings up the larger issue of how differently and uniquely my Thai counterparts, friends, and community members perceive the world and daily activities from myself and other Americans.  Staying on the same topic of food, I have had many people ask me from back home how I can deal with having to taste/eat bugs, worms, and frogs.  Well, here in my lovely rural community, these kinds of foodstuff have been part of the local diet for a very long time.  Such insects and small animals have provided an inexpensive and important source of protein for hundreds of years in this area of the world.  People don't perceive them to be disgusting or inedible because they see the nutritional value in them and have found ways to prepare them to make them 'delicious'.   The way we perceive creepy crawlers and frogs as inedible and disgusting is psychological and, I believe, societal.  I used to think I had become desensitized to this psychological predisposition until I recently was asked to try a boiled silk worm.  For some reason, my predisposed psychological fear of eating a worm surfaced.  I squirmed for a good 5-10 minutes before I eventually acquiesced to trying it.  It, no less, drove the point home that even though I attempt to be relative in my impressions of the culture, I do still experience bouts of learned, predisposed reactions.  

 Silk Worms

I have also come to realize that people here live more intimately with nature and therefore posses more knowledge about their natural surroundings.  They also are highly attentive to the spirit world and transcendentalism. Therefore, people are generally more superstitions and pay more attention to the spirits of the land and of their ancestors that surround them.  For instance, when I moved into my house, my landlord had to do a special ritual and make merit to a small spirit alter that sits in my bedroom to his deceased ancestors in order to 'okay' him moving out and me moving in.  Also, to make sure the spirits would receive me well and continue to protect the house.  Practices like this are very common throughout Thailand.  Spirit houses are often found in homes, businesses, and offices and they stem from a long history of belief in transcendentalism and animism in Thailand that dates back over 1,000 years.  See also: Animism, Transcendentalism 

Now, I am not normally very attentive to such things but I find it fascinating and I see the relevance in paying respects to the deceased and to the spirits that surround us.  

Perhaps being tied to these beliefs, I also discovered that it is normal for Thais to buy baby clothes and necessities after the baby is born.  It is a superstition that buying clothes and amenities for a baby before it is born is bad luck--less something happen.  I discovered this when I was buying baby clothes to send back home to my unborn niece and my co-workers were bewildered by why I would do this before the baby was born.  I had to explain that in America it is normal for people to buy lot of things, have baby showers, and prepare a room for the new baby.  This conversation was so interesting and after I tried to explain things (in Thai) they begun to realize, too, the differences we respectively posess in regards to world view and learned attitudes.  And so goes the cultural exchange!  There will be many more revelations and experiences, I am sure.  

I will be getting away from my site this weekend to meet up with some other Volunteers.  Should be interesting and fun to hear about their like experiences and discoveries of differences in culture and society.