March 25, 2011

As of Monday March 21, 2011 the fabulous people of Peace Corps Thailand Group 123 are no longer your average trainee, we are officially volunteers!  The Swearing-in Ceremony was a really nice event.  It’s the 50^th Anniversary of Peace Corps so we watched a video on that and it was really touching.  Then our current Country Director (who we love!), Dr. John Williams spoke and we were later sworn-in by the new U.S. Ambassador of Thailand.  She’s not only new, but the first female U.S. Ambassador in Thailand….a very proud feat.  Both were great speakers and I, of course, was emotional during the ceremony.  Our group is full of really great people excited to do good things and I was so happy for everybody that our time has come.  Afterwards one of the other volunteers, Luke, and I made a speech in Thai that spoke on behalf of our 10 weeks of training including our teachers, PC staff, our host families, the communities we stayed in and of course the relationships we’ve built with Thai people and amongst ourselves.  I was really nervous but honored to have been asked to speak.  I believe the video of it is on facebook if you want to check it out….although you won’t be able to understand us.  The speech is also attached to this blog (in English!) if you’d like to read. 

So, as I write this I am sitting in the room that my new host family has set up for me.  I will live with a host family for 5 weeks to help me integrate into my new community.  After that, I have the option to live on my own.  As lovely as they are, I am looking forward to living on my own again.  The house I’ll be staying in is basically a 3 minute walk from the new host family, so they’ll be so close anyway.  Last night as we ate an unbelievable Esan meal, they told me they were worried about how I was going to eat living on my own.  It was cute that they couldn’t imagine that I might actually be able to cook for myself!  But I told them that I would buy vegetables every day at the market and then go to their house and cook and eat with them.  That made them happy and me as well.  Although I look forward to my own space, I do prefer to be around people.  Since I’ve been here, we have not eaten Thai food, we’ve only eaten Esan food….very specific to the region.  So, we don’t use utensils….only the hands that God gave us.  The vegetarian part of the meal consists of sticky rice, eggs, some veggies and some bugs….yes folks, I said bugs!  Bugs are common here and within 1 day I have eaten red ants, red ant eggs, fried crickets (my favorite) and a bug spread that we dip our rice in.  When I found out I’d be living in Esan I told myself that I’d eat bugs, or at least try them.  I often kill them if they are in my space, so I figured it can’t hurt to eat a few considering I’ve killed them anyway.  Either way, I really like it and I assume it’s a regular dish at my new dinner table.

The people of Don Nong Hong (my Tambon) are amazing.  My supervisor of the SAO office I’ll be working with is an adorable older man who has gone out of his way to ensure my comfort.  I stayed with his family for a night and then we travelled 12 hours together to Esan.  The whole family is quite sweet and kind.  My host family is exactly the same way and I know that I am surrounded by good people.  Language will continute to be an issue for a while....my limited Thai gets me by, but it’s really limiting for anything comfortable and not awkward to take place!  I think I’ve offended my new host family at least 6 times today!  This will certainly be the learning experience of a lifetime!