So many things have happened since I last posted that I don't even know where to begin. I had been planning on writing a post about a very unique experience at a funeral, a project at the daycares, baking lessons for kids, Christmas Day, and life in general. Since I have been a slacker on the posts lately I don't have time to write an individual post on all of those topics so I'm just going to give a brief overview of my month and then maybe sometime next year I'll have time to give a few more details. This post is going to be very jumpy and unorganized but it's the best I can do for now.

First of all I know you have all been wondering about Porky so I thought I'd share a picture of him. He is just as adorable and feisty as ever and really enjoys catching his own bugs for dinner.

Last weekend I went to the Chiang Rai Flower Festival with my host family. The following four pictures are all from the festival. We went at night so I couldn't get really good pictures of a lot of the most beautiful areas.

My host mom. I had to force her to smile for this, she is awful at smiling in pictures.

This is made from flowers and banana leaves.

Hmong Hill Tribe girls dancing at the festival.

Christmas Eve my neighbor told me we were doing a ceremony called Suu Quan and said I had to participate. One of my neighbors died a few weeks ago so this ceremony was to bless the house she died in and also to make sure her spirit was not haunting anyone. Apparently they were worried about her haunting me and even following me back to America because I was there and actually touching her when she died. My neighbor asked me for a shirt which she rolled up and placed on a dish in the middle of a circle of people. I had to sit inside a circle of string with other people who were there the night my neighbor died while the village elders chanted, tied string on my wrists, and took the heads off of dead chickens. In hindsight this may or may not have been an exorcism....

My shirt was placed on a plate next to this banana leaf creation and everyone sat inside a big circle of string around it.

Christmas Day my coworkers all wore red shirts and santa hats. When I walked in one of my coworkers started singing Jingle Bells. When I asked her how she knew the words she responded "Kayla! I am very good English! Why you not believe me?"

Christmas Night I had a party at my house for all of the neighborhood kids. I made sugar cookies the night before and had bags of red and green frosting so the kids could have fun decorating cookies. We also cut out and colored paper snowflakes and had Suki for dinner.

All month I've been working on a project at all 9 daycare centers in my village. I spent one day at each daycare distributing soap, soap dispensers, toothbrush holders, and toothbrushes for all of the students to use at the daycare. I did a few activities with the kids to teach them how to wash their hands and brush their teeth using a large model borrowed from a dentist. Each student now has a chart and they get a sticker from their teacher everyday that they spend 2 minutes brushing their teeth after lunch. In one month I'll be going back and distributing prizes to students at each daycare.

Lunch time at the daycare. These kids have to sit on the floor to eat because there are over 50 students and very few chairs.

Having a volunteer come practice brushing her teeth on the model.

Three of the daycares are about a one hour drive away from my home (and yes they are still in my village). We have to go up and through the mountain to get to them so we stopped and took some pictures along the way.

That's all I have time for for now. On Friday I'm heading to the South of Thailand to spend New Years with a few other Volunteers then my parents arrive on January 2nd! Probably won't be able to post again until mid/end of January. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Loi Krathong

Last week was Loi Krathong, a festival that is celebrated throughout Thailand on the 12th full moon of the Thai lunar calendar. A Krathong is a decorative float that is usually made from banana tree trunks, banana leaves, and flowers found around the house. The night before the festival I spent a few hours with my neighbors making Krathongs that we would float along the river the following night. We bent banana leaves and folded them into different shapes so we could pin them onto the trunk with small pieces of wood. Then we placed flowers around the leaves to make beautiful arrangements. Finally we put incense and a candle in the middle of the Krathong. My first experience at making a Krathong was surprisingly successful and even my neighbors agreed that mine was beautiful.

Dew and Ao making their Krathongs.

Some of the almost finished products.

Showing off our floats.

This one is mine!

The night of the festival we had a huge party on the big field outside of my office. There was a big stage with insanely loud speakers, food carts, trampolines, bouncy houses, and darts. It started around 5pm with a parade. Each smaller village picked the most beautiful woman to ride on a large float and participate in a contest to see which village had the most beautiful woman. After the parade there was a concert, Thai dancing, Hill Tribe dancing, and awards were given out. 

My friend Jam was selected as the most beautiful one in our village so she got to ride on the float.

After the parade we lit hundreds of big lanterns and watched them float up into the sky. This is actually part of a Northern thai festival known as Yi Peng but it is always celebrated simultaneously with Loi Krathong. I thought for sure I was going to catch on fire at some point during this but I managed to escape unscathed. As the lanterns float away we "tamboon" or make merit.

To finish off the night I went to the river to Loi (float) my Krathong. At this point it was around 11pm and I had to climb down this muddy bank in the dark, light the candle and incense, climb on this tiny wooden ladder, and place my Krathong in the river. I have no idea how I managed to avoid falling in. Before you Loi your Krathong you make a wish. I also think you are supposed to imagine all of the stresses or troubles in your life floating away with the Krathong as you watch it disappear down the river... or at least that's what I did.

Loi Krathong was definitely my favorite Thai holiday so far. I hope to sneak a few of the lanterns in my bag to bring back to America.