baby bees and rubber trees

After 10 long weeks of training I took an oath on Monday and swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer! The completion of training felt like such an ending, when really it is only the beginning of my service here in Thailand. I am now at my site and will not be seeing any other volunteers for a few months. Even though I have been in Thailand for a while now, this feels completely different because I am not surrounded by other Americans everyday. 

After a 12 hour overnight bus ride I got to site around 6am yesterday. For breakfast I ate baby bees. They were actually pretty delicious even though the texture was a bit funky. By 8am I was at work meeting people and getting to know the community. For some reason they insisted that I bring my pet porcupine with me.  He sat next to me all day long.  Thai people think I’m strange enough as is so bringing a porcupine to work just makes me even stranger to them. They kept saying they hope he dies so they can eat him! 

At work I met all of the police and fire volunteers then someone handed me a scary looking knife and I carved a tree until rubber came out. The rest of the day I tried to practice my Thai and avoid falling asleep.  After work I went home and met all of the neighbors. For a few hours I sat outside and talked to the kids while neighbors came by to see me. The whole time there were about 10 kids ranging from 2 to 16 years old hanging out in the yard.

After dinner my host family asked me if I wanted to go watch people do aerobic exercises. When we got there I realized they didn’t want me to watch they wanted me to actually do aerobics because they want me to lose weight. Aerobics was fun and I got my 5 year old host brother to join in.

So far I love my new home and am excited to see what the next two years will bring! The office building in my village has internet so hopefully I will still be able to update my blog weekly.

Last week of training a few volunteers and I found real bread and cheese! First time I have had either in a few months and it was by far the best grilled cheese I have ever had. It must have been well over 100 degrees kneeling next to that fire cooking but was certainly worth the effort.

Singing karaoke at a going away dinner. It's not a real Thai party without karaoke. 

My Sing Buri host family at our last dinner together. This is one of the only times I was able to get a picture of them all together.

Porky.  Looking fly as always.