Sunday, September 30, 2012

Buddhist Funerals

Last week one of my elderly neighbors passed away. It happened at midnight on a Friday and about an hour later the house was crowded with people cooking and preparing for the next day (or so I hear). I slept blissfully through the night and found out early the next morning when I woke up. Everyone kept telling me it was okay that I hadn't come the night before because I didn't know. The next 5 days and nights hundreds of people came to eat food, listen to insanely loud Thai music, and chant with the monks every night. I went every night and every day that I wasn't at work and was immediately put to work cooking food, serving food, and doing the dishes. Oddly enough being expected to do all of these things made me incredibly happy. I was no longer sitting in a special chair, being served food and water, and being stared at by everyone, I was finally part of the family. I no longer had to follow my host family around like a little lost puppy, I could finally wander around comfortably on my own. No one even asked if I would be coming back the next night, it was just expected that I would be there to help out.

The whole side street was lined with tables and tents, there was a karaoke machine, huge speakers set up along the street, and cars and motorcycles everywhere you looked. The women sit in the back and are responsible for all of the cooking, serving, and cleaning. They also play bingo, sell clothing, and socialize with the neighbors. The men sit in the front and socialize and drink whiskey. Everyone is wearing all black or white. Children are running around everywhere with no supervision. Everyone is laughing, telling jokes, and having a good time. For 5 days and nights I didn't see a single person shed a tear. Everyone in my area is Buddhist and believes that when they die they will be reborn. Someone who was a good person in this life and gave offerings regularly will be born wealthy and healthy, while a not so good person could be reborn as an animal. On the 5th and final day everyone gathered at the house around 1pm and walked in a slow procession to the crematorium to say goodbye to the grandmother and send her off to her next life.

This whole experience made me realize how comfortable I have become here and how well I have integrated into my community. While the staring and shouts of farang will never stop I can accept that as long as I'm still being asked to do the dishes.

In other news, I am leaving for a vacation to Nepal next week! I won't be able to post again until late October, but prepare yourself for some breathtaking pictures of the Himalayas.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Sex Ed Project

Last week I completed my first big project. It involved the Education Officer, the Community Development Officer, the Public Health Officer, 1 doctor, 1 nurse, and 2 people from Raks Thai Foundation. It was basically a sexual education week with 8th graders. The project was very difficult to plan mainly due to the language barrier. I spent days drafting the plan in Thai and English, meeting with different people, trying to gather support and trying to make people understand my Thai. Then I had to plan all of the activities and lessons for the whole project.. in Thai. Everyone wanted me to lead some of the sessions but I refused to teach. I wanted all sessions led by a doctor or nurse who was a native Thai speaker. Surprisingly, I got away with that and didn't have to teach a single thing.

Many of the students at the school are from the Mhong Hill Tribe and are often expected to get married and have kids very early in life (14-15 years old). I wanted to encourage these kids to think about their choices, their future, and make decisions for themselves. If these students want to have children already, I want them to be as informed as possible and know what they are getting into.

The project began with the students carrying an egg around with them for a week and treating it like their child. The teachers were all told about the project and were supposed to help make sure the students had the egg everywhere they went. After a week of this we asked the students how taking care of the egg was and they all complained about how hard it was and how many of them had broken their egg sometime during the week. One student actually ate his egg for breakfast on the second day. When we then compared taking care of a child to taking care of an egg and asked the students if they wanted to have kids yet they all screamed "NO!"

The last day of the project was a full day of sexual education training. The girls learned about family planning, birth control, and how to be confident enough to say no. Their session was led by a female nurse, and 2 women from Raks Thai foundation. The boys also learned about family planning, a little bit about birth control, and then STDs. We played sex jeopardy and taught both the boys and girls how to use condoms by putting them on cucumbers.

I surveyed the students at the beginning to find out how much they knew, and found out it wasn't much. Many of them had no idea if you could get an STD from hugging someone, if birth control was the man or woman's responsibility, if it's okay to ask your partner about STDs, etc. I surveyed them again after and they learned quite a bit, but some of them definitely still have a long way to go before I would consider them well informed to make safe and healthy choices. I also learned that a few of the students are already sexually active at such a young age. I am hoping to do a lot more work on sexual education  both with these same students and with students even younger. I would love to do a project with the parents too, teaching them how to talk to their children about different topics that are never talked about in Thailand.  Hopefully we can actually make a difference in a few of these kids lives.












Sunday, September 2, 2012

Birthday Festivities!

Birthdays in Thailand aren't a very big deal. At work the birthday person pays for lunch for everyone for the day to celebrate. In the weeks leading up to my Birthday I had explained to a few people that in America, or in my family at least, we do things a bit differently. I told them about my homemade birthday cakes, presents, parties, and all my favorite home cooked meals. Leading up to my birthday I wasn't expecting much, but I did tell my host sister that I was making myself a cake (I bought a mini electric oven for about $30) and that she needed to decorate it because it would be bad luck if I did it myself. Most people here have never heard of anyone actually baking a cake,  or even owning one of these ovens. The day before my Birthday I made the cake and had all the kids come over to watch and "help" me. I was also given a purple, flowery, crocheted Thai style dress the day before my birthday from my coworkers. I was told it was my Birthday dress and I had to wear it the next day!

I woke up on my birthday expecting a day like any other. I threw my dress on, skyped with my parents while I opened packages sent from home, ate my yoghurt and went to work. At work everyone yelled Happy Birthday when I walked in and immediately grabbed me and had me sit down. Next thing I know I'm getting my make-up done and my hair is put into elaborate braids. Then I am ushered into the Mayors office and there is a Birthday cake awaiting me. Everyone crowds in, the lights are turned of, they sing me Happy Birthday, and I get to blow out the candles and eat my cake. At lunch time they took me to my favorite restaurant and I was planning on paying for everyone but one of the ladies at the office had given 500 baht for everyone to take me out for my Birthday. I get home from work and my sister comes over right away to decorate the cake. I made chocolate frosting and then buttercream to decorate. We even had a bit of pink food coloring. I taught her how to put the frosting in a plastic bag, cut of a corner and slowly squeeze it out to decorate the cake. Then I went over to my neighbors where we had snacks, soda, and my favorite foods. A bunch of the kids and neighbors came over and when it was time to cut the cake there were over 20 people singing me Happy Birthday. The kids gave me presents like marbles, toy soldiers, and plastic rings. My sister gave me a beautiful purse, and one of the ladies from work gave me a wallet. Overall it was an incredible birthday, everyone put in so much effort to make me feel happy, welcome, and at home on my Birthday. I am so grateful that I was placed at this site, and that I have so many amazing neighbors and friends here in Thailand. Enjoy the Birthday pictures!






 My host sister doesn't speak English so my cake ended up saying happy day instead of Happy Birthday. I think that made it way better!