Reaching a Quarter-Century in Thailand

March 30, 2009 With some Thai family and my Volunteer friend who shared the same host family as I.


For me, turning 25 in Thailand was a lot like turning 24 in Thailand. And maybe the same as any other geographic location for that matter. Time hold no prejudice to location. Only, I feel older. Older in the sense that I know so much more than I did before and of what I do not know, I am acutely aware. I took a trip down memory lane and visited my old host family in Lop Buri Province from Pre-Service Training to celebrate my birthday. To refresh everyone's memory, I lived in Lop Buri with all the other volunteers (trainees at the time) my first 9 weeks in Thaland while I went through language, cultural, and technical training. Last year, they threw a wonderful party for me and for almost a year now, I have been promising them a return so we could do it again. Three splendid days and two nights I spend in Lop Buri. In a sense, it was like going home. Right away, I was greeted warmly and insisted on being taken care of and dispering all kinds of stories from my site in Sisaket Province. When I was tired, I rested and they let me rest. We ate great meals and had a good many laughs. My mom insisted on doing my laundry and taking me to the market to pick out goodies for dessert. In the afternoon, we took a picnic lunch to the waterfall we visited over a year ago and took to wading in the water, just as we had the year before. Later, we sifted through albums of my host brother’s wedding that had taken place the month before. They too, had met many changes throughout the year.

Needless to say, my family in Lop Buri is full of exceptional people in personality and hospitality. My father, a village headman and farmer, is a predominant leader in the local community and has friends all over. When I came back, many people gathered for dinner and reminiscing. We had birthday cake and sang karaoke. They all commented on how well I could speak Thai and how much I had improved in a year. To such an extent that I finally took a hard look at the past year and realized how much I had, indeed, gained in the Thai language. We could finally communicate with an extent of fluency and ease. This from when I first came to live with them and was able to say only a handful of words. Baffling to think, it was a struggle to complete a simple conversation like asking for a towel to take a shower! I marveled. Lately, I'd been working on my writing skills and they were impressed to see that I could write my address in Thai... even if that was all I could write.

It was so nice to go ‘home’. Also, because the weather in Lop Buri is quite different and much more conducive than my site in Sisaket. Granted, it gets hot just the same but there is more variance there by way of cool winds and thunderstorms and overcast skies. The landscape is more exciting with rolling hills, small mountains, fields of corn, groves of palm trees, and shallow valleys. Somehow, it reminds me of Iowa. The soil is a rich midnight black favorable to growing corn, sugarcane, cassava, and tobacco. Whereas, in Sisaket, scarcely is there any relief to the unbearable burning sun and humidity. The land is dry and arid with silt-like soil good for growing rice. I would also venture to say that there may be less prosperity where I live. All these distinctions I had never noticed before. Perhaps to an extent, but I think once you live somewhere for a while (like I have in Sisaket) you forget how different other place are. Everything just looks the same for so long and eventually fades into the background.

My short trip to Lop Buri was over before no time and I found myself sucked back into the world of my current reality. Being able to go back gave me perspective of how I was in the beginning and how much I had changed and grown—-not to mention what the future would bring. Sometimes, it feels like I’ve been here for several years after all the changes and adaptations and surprises and blunders that have occurred in the past year. A lot of RPCV’s (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) say that the second year goes a lot faster, especially since you aren’t enduring so many drastic changes all the time. I guess I’ll just have to go through it to see if that’s true for me. I’ll turn 26 before this is all said and done.