Cultural Observations

1. Come Here: Imagine waving your hand when you call someone over to you, saying “Come here”. Now imagine that same gesture with the palm of your hand facing the ground instead of the sky and without the supporting words, “Come here”. This is the Thai gesture that all the kids at the school have been doing. It’s taken a while, but we now realize that this means “Come here”, not “Go away” as we have been thinking.

2. Same Same but Different: There are shirts sold here that say “Same Same” on the front and “But Different” on the back. I’ve been confused about this shirt, which was demonstrated by my non-stop staring at a girl who was wearing this shirt recently. Last night at dinner I was enlightened to the saying by Weaw. Thai people do not really say “no”. Instead, they tend to say “Yes, but…” or “Same same, but…”. For example, if I were to ask if a phone worked, a Thai person might say “Yes, yes, but it can’t call out and it doesn’t receive calls.” What an interesting cultural difference!

3. Thai Secret Solution: Even though I think my body is acclimating itself to the humid climate here, I still sweat quite a lot every day. The Thai people, however, seem to have very soft skin that isn’t covered in drops of perspiration. I didn’t get it- Are they just used to the climate?...possible explanation. After pondering this mystery, I was so excited to discover the answer. There is an ancient Thai remedy to cure the never-ending drops of sweat and to promote soft skin- baby powder.

4. Driving Nintendo Style: Driving here is very different than what I’m used to seeing in The States. There is one highway that passes through all of the towns in this area. It has one lane going in each direction. Since a lot of people live in this region and even more seem to pass through, the road looks like an old video game, cars constantly passing each other up and nearly colliding with oncoming traffic, motorcycles and pedestrians (sometimes) on the side. The motorcycles are small, about the same size as a normal Yamaha in The US, but apparently up to 3 adults and a small child can fit on one of these motorcycles.

5. Exercise: Thai people don’t seem to exercise, at least not in public. Although I don’t suppose they need a workout schedule to go along their daily work out in the heat. When I run in the mornings, I feel like I’m on display as the Thai people stare at me and have their image of the crazy American re-affirmed.

6. Restaurants: Even though the culture here is very relaxed, Thai servers are very prompt in taking orders in the restaurants. They seat you, hand you the menu, and then return in less than 1 full minute to take your order. This is in the case they do not stay at the table, waiting to take your order immediately. Most restaurants double as a place to take laundry as well. I wouldn’t quite call it a dry cleaner because I heard that a lady asked for a stain to be taken out of her shirt and they did, but literally, by cutting a whole in the shirt where the stain had been. Think I’ll stick to doing my own laundry.

Playing Chicken and Other Games

Hitching experiences seem to be getting more interesting by the day. The rain, for example, always seems to come out 1-2 minutes before we need to hitch a ride somewhere. My raincoat didn't seem to work today as I was soaked from head to toe. Maybe it's because I was in the back of a pick-up for a while.

America/Australia v. Thailand: I noticed that as the three of us Americans and 1 Aussie were far apart, fending for ourselves to keep as dry as possible in the back of the truck we hitched a ride home in today, several other pick-ups passed by with 4-6 Thai people in the back. They were all huddled together behind the center of the truck window. Yet another example of how Thai culture seems to be communal compared to the independent characteristic of American culture.

Before the rain came, a huge construction truck picked us up in front of the school to take us part way home. The driver decided to play chicken with several cars and trucks- we almost lost, twice. He also had a horn fixation so our ears were bombarded with this loudness until we arrived at the post office and jumped out of the gi-normous vehicle. A piece of advice about foreign post offices, especially if you don't speak the language- do not take pre-paid stamps or vouchers for stamps with you abroad. The US post office may say they're accepted in the foreign country(ies) you are going to, but ultimately it depends on the knowledge of the people in the post office you go to. Needless to say, my 1.75USD vouchers for stamps did not work here. 1.75USD is a little more than 70 Thai Baht. However, the guy at the post office would only value them at 19 Thai Baht. I ended up paying with bills instead, so no worries.

Another thing I've been noticing is that Thai people tend to be very polite, respectul and generous. Even though I was in the post man's country and unable to speak his language, he tried to speak English and smiled every time he spoke to me. There was never any anger in his voice- perhaps a patient man as well. The kids at the school don't seem to have much, but they keep trying to give me all of the candy they buy at lunch time.

Classes went really well today. We played BINGO to review numbers and Duck-Duck-Goose (and Cat-Cat-Dog) for animals. We also sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" as well as "The Hokie Pokie" to review parts of the body. The kids are very enthusiastic about games, songs and dances, especially when we look ridiculous doing them and they can laugh at us.

Riding in Style

Today we hitched two rides in order to get all the way to the school. Our second ride was provided courtesy of Thailand's Head of State for the Prime Minister's Office. This man, whose name I can't recall, drives down to the Phang Nga area once a month in order to do city planning for this part of southern Thailand. His English was not that great, but probably the best we've heard from the non-Aiesecer locals. He took us about 10 minutes past his turnoff to the school- a very kind and friendly man.

We finished reviewing in all of the classes today, so tonight we will begin creating our own lesson plans. If anyone has good ideas for games that would be fun and easy to play with the kids, please feel free to send your suggestions my way. We have reviewed some basics involving names, occupation, adjectives, numbers 1-60, silverware, weather, etc. with them.

Peter, a 21 year old guy from Sidney, Australia, joined us today so there were four of us teaching each class. I think we'll be figuring out a way to break ourselves up into pairs and teach after the semester break, which begins October 6th and ends around October 20th.

Ghetto Baby made me laugh aloud in one of the classes today. We usually have all kinds of kids running in and out of our classes after lunch, which is obviously distracting, so we try to send them away. Well, in our last class today there was a boy poking his head in and Ghetto Baby turned and gave him a thug glance- cracked me up.

Trip to Rai Lay Beach

A man selling freshly grilled corn on one of the gorgeous beaches


This past weekend in Rai Lay, a penisula about 2.5 hours south of Khao Lak, was a fun and relaxing weekend in one of the many paradises that I am now convinced Thailand has to offer.

The beaches, which I spent most of my time on, were just like all the pictures you can see in tourism ads. The ocean water was crystal clear, even more so than Hawaii. The peninsula has several mountainous limestone rocks that are popular for exploring. Rock climbing, sea kayaking and snorkeling are the popular activities there.

Fire twirlers entertain at The Last Bar (at the end of the beach)


Saturday was spent mostly on 1 of the 3 main beaches of the peninsula, walking around a bit, watching fire twirlers and dancing to a variety of music at a couple of the local bars. The Thai people are so wonderful to share the dance floor with. Both guys and girls seem comfortable dancing like no one is watching. Groups of Thai guys were jumping up and down like crazy, going nuts dancing together, and I didn’t see a single Thai guy approach a girl and start to grind or get freaky- what a nice change for The States! I was dared to approach the biggest guy out of a trio of gangstas with white headbands, dance with him and tell him I liked his headband. He wasn’t looking my way at all when I was dancing next to him, so I tapped him on the shoulder and asked, “Can you do this?” before busting out my limited sea-walking skills.

Also on Saturday night, I met someone who is working for the Tsunami Volunteer Centre (TVC)- the organization we traveled with- that survived the tsunami. He was in a hotel near the beach, heard a loud noise and then the water came in. Almost a year later, he has a scar on his forehead and his left leg looks badly injured as it is still healing from the wave and getting stuck in some of the debris. His wife, who was in the hotel room with him, died in the tsunami. I think it takes a lot of strength for him to return and I admire coming back to help rebuild houses in the area.

After my first day of sleeping in since I’ve been in Thailand- the heat usually wakes me up before 8:30a, but I stayed in a room with tinted windows and a ceiling fan- I awoke to a cloudy day. At breakfast on Sunday, Dean, Robby, Vicki, John and I decided to try rock climbing and sea kayaking. We took a scenic, non-touristy route through a rainforest to a different beach on the west side of the peninsula and looked at the cave we planned to climb up to, when it suddenly began to pour. After running along the beach to find shelter, we tossed our bags into a dining area and ran into the ocean. The ocean water was significantly warmer than the rain, the wind was blowing up big waves, and I’ve never had so much fun swimming in the ocean before. We played chicken fighting and swam around until the rain stopped. It kept raining on and off, so we didn’t go climbing or kayaking. Instead, we climbed some little rocks to get to the 3rd beach on the west side of the peninsula. Then we hiked through another rainforest to get back to the east side. The plants in the forest are such a bright green and a lot of them have a fresh waxy look about them, I guess due to the rain and shade provided by the taller trees. I felt so refreshed and energized walking through the forest. It’s an experience in paradise I will never forget.

John (British) and I taking cover under an gi-normous rainforest leaf

First Night Out

Last night we went to a bar in Khao Lak (5 minutes south of our house in Bang Niang). It was full of volunteers who were cheering on their friends in the pepper eating contest. The smaller the pepper the hotter it is and these were less than bite size- the winner ate 69.

I played foose ball with some internationals and was beat pretty badly at the end of the night by a Thai champ, the owner of the bar. I met some volunteers from Australia, Whales, England and The States. A couple of them are teaching English in some of the other schools, but most are building on a nearby island. They've invited us to a weekend trip that all the TVC (Tsunami Volunteer Centre) people are going on for their break. It's a few hours south of here and is supposed to be a great place for sea kayaking, rock climbing, and relaxing. Gota go pack...

First Day of School

I went for my first run in the heat and humidity a little before 8:00 this morning. I came back looking like I had been in a sauna for an hour. I didn’t last very long, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it and build up my endurance and tolerance to running in this weather during my time here. It was a beautiful run to the beach with all of the locals staring at me- I don’t think they exercise here, at least not in public. I saw one guy running- he must be Thailand’s track and field star for the Olympics.

Today was our first day of teaching and hitch hiking. These were both fun and challenging experiences. On the way to the school, we were walking and sticking our thumbs out like good American hitchhikers, but we had no luck for about 5 minutes. Then a Thai guy saw us and gave us a helpful tip: wave your hand up and down while facing the cars. As soon as we began practicing the art of Thai hitching, which by the way is not as common and part of the culture as we all thought it was, our friends Weaw and Brian pulled up in their truck and gave us a ride to the school.

The “English teacher” at the school tried to explain our schedule, but he didn’t really seem to speak English, which had us all a little worried before our first class. 6th grade is our biggest class, about 20 students. We tried to get them to repeat after us, but they didn’t understand the words “say”, “repeat”, or any of our hand gestures. At some point they understood though, and our review was much smoother from then on. There are 1-2 students in each class who seem to be picking up English very well. They were very helpful when other students didn’t understand what we were doing or asking. Our 4th grade class consists of about 6 students and there are about 9 5th graders. We teach each class for an hour, which went by quickly today. The school is pretty unorganized. There always seem to be at least a few kids running wild and just roaming around the school. They run in and out of the classrooms while we are teaching. One little kid ran into our first class with a spoon in hand and remnants of yellow baby powder all over his face. He handed the spoon to his older brother and then left the room.

The kids love to give and receive attention. They give so many hugs that it feels like I have extra limbs attached all day. Some of the kids really like to practice certain English words and phrases such as “I love you” and “You are beautiful”. We all came home with “I love you” written on our hands, candy from the kids in our pockets, and cramped hands from signing autographs (writing our Thai nicknames) all day.

We have the coolest “ghetto baby” at our school. She’s a little over 3 feet tall, but she wears baller XL clothes. Today she was wearing a bright yellow and green outfit that looked like something by Fubu. Her bling bling was an oversized silver chain link necklace.

Ghetto Baby

Thursday September 22, 2005

After our last class got out at 3pm, we went to the road to try our luck at hitching a ride home. Another helpful tip from Brian: stay where you are because if you are walking people will think you only have a short ways to go. We got a ride within just a few minutes- success! (It’s about a 20 minute drive from our house to the Ban Lam Pi school.) I love riding in the back of pickup trucks here. It’s a surreal feeling to have the wind blowing in my face and cooling me down while we drive along the beach and observe the vibrant greenery that surrounds us. It’s part of the incredibly comfortable culture here- Sabeye, Sabeye (literally translated- relax, relax. English equivalent- take it easy).

First Day in Ban Niang

Today we ate at the European Bakery down the street. They didn’t really speak English, which was somewhat surprising because we live in what used to be a tourist town and it’s a European Bakery- thought they would’ve spoken English.

We walked to the beach in Ban Niang. It took about 10 minutes from our house. There is a lot of reconstruction taking place- some huge resorts and some smaller houses along the beach. We walked up to the ocean and I could sense a little bit of fear, possibly a sliver of what the tsunami victims must have felt last December 26th. I wonder who hired the construction guys to build. Are they friends and family members of those who died in the tsunami? My guess is yes. So, wouldn’t that be hard to be working right near the ocean everyday, having a daily reminder of the loss you’ve suffered from such a tragic natural disaster?

Weaw drove us to a town called Tap Tawan. There is one highway that goes through all of the nearby towns, so it’s not really confusing. There is a group of teenage girls there that are getting sponsorship help to build a restaurant and to sell Batik, a type of artwork we were privileged to have the girls teach us today.



The girls look so young (12-13), but we found out they were all around 18-19 years old (see what you think from the pictures). They are very talented and fun loving. One of the girls, Ana, who asked what our names and ages were, has a wonderfully contagious laugh. She randomly began cracking up a few times while we were painting and even though we had no idea why, we couldn’t help but join in with laughter (not unlike my mom and her 3 sisters).

The girls have been asked to do the Batik paintings of the tsunami. They already have an order for 200 pieces like the one pictured above and I think they will be able to earn a lot when tourism picks up again. I guess this is supposed to be tourist season, but the foreigners we see tend to be volunteers. There are several volunteer organizations and programs being run to help rebuild the communities affected by the tsunami, which is inspiring to see.

We begin teaching classes at the Ban Lam Pi school tomorrow, so tonight Carrie, Jessica and I planned our lessons for tomorrow. I hope we can have a positive and lasting impact on these kids.

There is discrimination even within this “Land of Smiles”. There is a group of people called Morgans or Sea Gypsies, who lived on the water, but were pushed to shore during the tsunami. They are now moving onto land and are being discriminated against by the other local Thai. How can we show these children the importance of equality and peace?

My New Home

We arrived by an overnight bus to Khao Lak this morning. At 7a, the bus driver told us it was our stop even though we didn’t see the “LG” store sign we were supposed to get off next to. We had passed our stop by about 2 miles. Fortunately, we had been dropped off in front of a tsunami relief volunteer office and there were two friendly Americans working there. The husband of the couple, Dave, had a pickup truck and gave us a ride back to the LG store. Weaw, our Aiesec contact here, arrived just then and we entered our new home for the next 3 months.

It is a two-story “house” without furniture. I say “house” because it feels more like a pristine warehouse when we lift up the metal plated garage door instead of a front door with a handle or a knob. The floor is made of smooth tiling and the walls are white and bare. Jessica, Carrie and I set up 1” mattresses in our room, which has a huge sliding glass door to our ocean view balcony. Weaw says the tsunami went past our house, affected the first floor, and that the water was up to our balcony. We have an American toilet instead of the typical Thailand squatter (see pictures)- thank God! The shower is like most of those in Denmark and some parts of Europe I’ve seen. There is a showerhead connected to a knob- no separation from the toilet and sink area. We have no hot water, but it’s not a problem at all- it feels great since it is hot and humid here.

We helped Weaw hand out new pants to the kids at a nearby school and we visited Ban Lampi, the school in which we’ll be teaching English to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. The kids seem more open and full of love than I’ve ever experienced before. All 40 of them immediately huddled around Jessica, Carrie and I and began speaking all the English they’ve learned so far- “Hello, what’s your name? Where you from?” Some of the girls told Carrie and I “Sit down” so they could show us some of their Thai dances. The school has about 4 rooms with desks, chairs, and a chalkboard. However, the teachers were nowhere to be found. I guess there are 3 “teachers” that get paid to work at the school, but none of them actually teach. The kids are creative and play on their own, but they want to learn. They showed us drawings and some of the things our predecessors have taught them over the past 3 months. They asked when we would come teach. And, something I have never heard from an American student, the kids asked if we could teach a special English program during their semester break.

I am so excited to begin teaching English to the kids at Ban Lampi. I have a feeling I will learn a lot from them too.

Welcome to Bangkok

Monks receiving food from the community

Carrie and I arrived Saturday afternoon in Bangkok. It’s so nice to share this experience with someone I know for a change. We stayed with a girl named MauPrang and her parents. The family seems to be very well off- they had their chaufeur take us from their house to Lynn’s (a Thailand Aiesecer) place across town. Their house was gated, had a yard full of different greenery, and was very clean inside. MauPrang and her parents took us out to dinner the first night and we met one of MauPrang’s cousins, who works for Nestle. He speaks English well and was incredibly grateful that we came to help in the tsunami-hit area.

MauPrang and her family were great about helping me order something vegetarian and not too spicy- it ended up being a Chinese dish instead of Thai, but I'm sure there will be more options. We ate communally, so I also tried native Pad Thai, a mix of vegetables, and taro root ice cream.

Sunday was such an amazing day. Thailand is really beautiful, and so are its people. MauPrang’s dad is Buddhist. He was a monk for 3 months when he was younger, as he says most men are at some point. He invited us to go to the temple with him. We caught the end of a sermon, meditated (focused on breathing in and out) for 5 minutes, and went to see the oldest and most well respected monk in Bangkok, maybe even in all of Thailand. This 92 year old man sits on a chair a few levels above everyone else and accepts money and food from people so that he can pass them on to the poor. Every Sunday people bring the monks tons of food. The monks eat a little of it, but they give the rest to the poor. They only eat early in the morning and a little before noon. They learn and practice Buddhism for the rest of the day. During the week, the monks go out into the community, relying on others to provide them with food and drink.

After the temple, we went to Ko Khret, an island known for its beautiful ceramic production. We saw thousands of clay pots waiting to be sculpted in detail and then fired in the kiln. We also took a small boat around the island. It’s amazing how many houses are on water. The water is a muddy color and yet I saw kids jumping and pushing each other in, as well as people washing their dishes in the water. We tried eating the only vegetarian dish on the island, fried flowers. There were 3 kinds including the beautiful plumerias found in Hawaii.


Clay waiting to be fired at one of the ceramic factories

We also caught the last hour of the weekend market- huge flea market full of colorful Thai fashion, food and decorations. I got a pair of Birkenstock sandals (yes, probably fake) for only 199 Thai Baht ($5)! I wish we would have had more time at the market, but it may have been a good thing budget-wise that we didn't. We took motorcycle taxis back to the car in the parking lot. MaPrang’s dad (59 years old) had never taken one before, so he paid the drivers to take us around the parking lot a few times- 3 people on a bike at a time.

I had a great time in Bangkok, but was also ready to go to a more rural area and to begin helping with the reconstruction. MauPrang and her family have insisted that we stay with them again when we return to Bangkok to catch our flight back to the US. Hey, I’m not putting up a fight.

Leaving Bangkok for Phang Nga

I am currently in the Bangkok office of a wonderful organization- The World Youth Peace Summit. I arrived 2 days ago after 22 hours of flying with one stop in Tapei, Taiwan. Carrie and I made ourselves stay awake until about 8pm before we passed out the first night in Bangkok so we have not suffered much jet lag. We stayed with a girl named MauPrang and her parents, who remind me of my grandparents, last night and the night before. I've learned several things about Thailand and the culture here so far:
- Car steering wheels are on the right side of the vehicle
- They drive on the left side of the road
- The humidity and diverse rainforest foliage remind me of Hawaii- what a great surprise!
- People are very friendly and helpful, even to complete strangers.
- Everything's cheap (i.e. 60 Baht for a nice Thai dinner = $1.50)


MauPrang and I in her driveway

V-STAY Goals

Due to my 1.5 hours wait so far to board the airplane, I do not quite understand why China Airlines said to arrive 3 hours before the flight. In any case, it has given me the opportunity to write down some of my goals for this journey.

Here are a few of my personal goals for the V-STAY program and how I hope to evolve during this experience:

1. I would like to make lifelong friends from around the world.
2. I would like to leave feeling like I truly helped restore some normalcy of life to the Thai people who suffered last year’s tsunami.
3. I would like to have a lasting positive impact on at least 1 person.
4. I would like to learn a great deal about the Thai people and culture.
5. I would like to become a better person- more selfless giving, truly peaceful, friendly, etc.
6. I would like to grow spiritually.
7. I would like this experience to help me in determining a future career path.