The Village Times

Dear friends,

I am actually writing from an island in the South of Thailand where I traveled to today as part of a wellness/yoga retreat. While I told myself I would use most of the retreat time for quiet reflection, I am also going to try to update the blog a little since I have been in transition and/or with intermittent Internet service throughout my whole trip.  And, I can't help but take a little advantage of the wifi here. It is excellent!  

So, back to the village re-enter experience. 

I have started to enclose some pictures (below) from that trip and you can begin to see all the social activity I crammed in while I was there. It was exhausting, fun, happy, and with only minimal tong sia (upset stomach or diarrhea--sorry if that grosses you out, it's actually worse to experience... turns out my stomach has not been around fermented fish, real Thai chili and semi-raw oysters in a while and of course I had to indulge.) Pictured immediately below are 'yie' & 'dta'--or you see me refer to them as "grandma" & "grandpa" this is more or less a generic term used to address an older person/person of a certain phase in life--but these 2 are my original 'yie' & 'dta'--even though younger than my actual parents they were (more or less) the family that took care of me most while I lived in Jaidee village for 2 years.  I stayed at their house. 

From there, you can read the captions on other pics for more detail. It was really nice to see my previous co-workers, especially the old counterpart who ended up lifting me a ride to the provincial city where I caught my bus back to Bangkok--not to mention treating a huge feast my 3rd night there.  It's weird, you kind of expect to leave a bit of a legacy behind when leaving a Peace Corps site but you don't really know how it will happen until you're gone for a while.  

It warmed my heart to see pictures I had given to people still posted around and people in the village calling out my Thai name "Chomphu!" as a rode my bike by like a day hadn't passed since I left.  I suspect for many villagers,  I am the only Westerner they have really known in the flesh for a period of time so it's easy for them to remember. Many people still think I am French.  which, I guess is something that can't be helped at this point!  If they don't know I'm American by now...

I was also happy to see the daycare water project still in tact. What is more, sustainable agriculture practices have really improved.  A lot.  There is now an Ag. resource learning center at my old office (which I am soooooo proud of!--that it happened, not that I'm taking credit for it or anything ;) It seems like everyone is doing more of their own raising of small animals and has their own vegetable garden and composts more often. It really made my trip to see all that!

The health clinic has grown in structure as well and school curriculum is changing to better align with ASEAN goals--becoming more progressive (I hope)

Other things that I was not too excited to see were...

--Garbage burning--still happens and the air pollution is evident and pervasive

--HIV/AIDS # of infected cases has actually gone up quite a bit in the last 2 years.  I didn't have a chance to see the Hope group in the District--the PHA (person's having HIV/AIDS) group I worked with. 

--Young persons dropping out of primary school as early as 10, 11, 12, to work, marry, whatnot.

All in all, it was good and I was very glad to have the opportunity to visit again. It was a strange feeling like I didn't have enough time there and on the other hand...I had too much time!  Village time tends to move reeeeeealllllllly slow.  Particularly, when just coming from a fast-paced place like Bangkok.  

Tis a bit hard to explain--the time balance of village visits.  

~More pics/posts shortly!

"Grandma" sitting with the assistant village headman and "Grandpa"
pictures without a shirt. This is business as usual, their house is a hotspot
for information and gossip.  Behind "grandpa' lies their little convenience
shop.  Sadly, "grandma" no longer has to noodle stand.

My sleeping quarters for 6 nights while I stayed at Yie & Dta's
"Grandpa & grandma" house. It's amazing how quickly my body
forgot the hardness of sleeping on a floor when I returned stateside...

My buffalo friends were replaced with ducks...seriously...
my neighbors buffalo are all gone.  Sad, but I can jive with duck I guess.

Sitting with my old supervisor (P Che) and his wife.  He's a fan
of tea so I brought him some Tazo from America.

At lunch my 2nd day back with many of my old co-workers from
the local government office--some not pictures. My old supervisor
treated everyone.

View for the lake where we ate dinner. 

Eating (again) with a good teacher friend of mine (to the left of me)
and her fellow teachers--second time in one day I ate fish dishes
 under a bamboo hut on a lake!