E-mails to another Peace Corps volunteer

So, this week I went to the ladies house with the scarves.  Let me preface with that I'm good friends with the scarf ladies neighbor and best friend - I don't know the actual scarf lady as well, but I've had a few chats with her....meaning, I've done my fair share of IRB'ing (for non-peace corps readers, this is: Intentional Relationship Building – an acronym often used in PC).  I've also previously learned that the scarf lady is interested in selling outside of Thailand. So, I went there with the intention to take pictures of the scarves and hopefully start a conversation about her website, selling to western countries, and how if we translate her website she'd have to be open to working with credit cards and deliveries, etc.  When am I going to learn that I'm not in Kansas anymore?  When will I realize that nothing like the sentence I just wrote above EVER happens here?  Nobody talks like that, nor do they want to....especially when it's practically the 2nd sentence out of my mouth.  When will I learn that I can't go in for the kill so quickly....I mean, who wants to talk about business, websites and credit cards when we can have a photo shoot with the farang and dress her up in all of the clothing in the shop?  Exactly, nobody does.  So, that's what we did: they dressed me up in a variety of outfits, changing pasins and scarves, changing the scene, sit here, stand there, put your hands like that, etc.  And let's be honest, I loved it.   This isn't the first time this has happened either....every time I go and bring up the clothes, a photo shoot ensues.  I thought the 3 we've already had would've been sufficient, but I guess not. 

Outfit #1

 After the photo shoot, we looked at pictures and then she started to work on something that had to do with the clothing material.  There was my in...if I had just jai yen yen'ed (relaxed) from the beginning.  Either way, I  re-brought up the conversation and she's totally interested, she's already working on selling to other countries and she'd love it if i could help - she'd like to do it in the next year and half, so I should still be here for it....and so on and so on.

#2 - this one was a big hit with the ladies

 Monday night, I wasn't feeling well - so my Thai people boiled up some Thai herbs for me, told me to stick my feet in it, then sleep with crushed onions in a wash cloth on my pillow and relax on Tuesday.  So, I did all the herb and onion stuff, was in my yai (grandma) pajamas all day Tuesday, the village kids hung out all morning, I did some work on the comp, just chilled out.  Would you believe that it worked?  Wednesday, I felt completely back to normal.  I'm telling you, these Thai's have some secrets up their sleeves :)  


One of the boats!



                                                                                                                       We had a boat festival in my province on Oct. 12th.   Every district builds a boat out of bamboo...and I mean like 4 stories high.  Then they take the little 'coffee' tin cans and stuff them with some stuff that catches fire.  Then they create a picture out of hanging these things on 1 side of the boat.  It's legit art.  So, they've been sitting in the Mekong River for a while now....took a while to work on them.  The last night of Buddhist Lent, the boats are lit up and sent down the river.  And when I say lit up, there are men with bamboo torches that are climbing the boats, lighting up each 'coffee' can at a time....so dangerous!  Anyway, they were gorgeous.  I was so unbelievably impressed.  Laurie (fellow PCV friend) helped her community stuff the cans and her boat came in 2nd place! 



The initial lighting...it was a little windy!



My PC program manager suggests I meet with the non-formal education place in my community as they do things with disabled people and we are trying to get some of that going here.  I tell my counterpart I’d like to meet with them, of course, she has a friend who works there and we can go whenever we want.  I know we have one in my sub-district as well, but I don't know anything about it. Either way, I went to one of my village Wats to wait for the nurses I was meeting so we could go on a house visit together (the health workers make house visits to the disabled and chronically ill).  I got there early and went to say hello to the daycare teachers.  The pants lady who sells pants was there, I buy a pair (people go to offices, schools, etc. selling all kinds of stuff).  Some guy, who’s like a regular villager comes over and says he wants to buy pants too, but he needs a certain color for his work.  We start chatting about his work....wouldn't you know he works at the non-formal education center in my sub-district?  And he knows sign language! He travels all over the province to teach groups of deaf people.  So while I waited for the nurses, I learned how to sign in thai!!!!  Isn't it such a small world?  You do something just to help pass the time and something like that happens – I now have a new contact at this center.  I also learned, through him, that all the teachers in my sub-district non-formal education center are lazy and never show up.....awesome!