Back in Thailand. All
sorts of feelings about leaving home again to return back to my second home. Considering I'm happy and established in Thailand, I thought it’d be fairly easy to return back. Not so much. Leaving home for the second time was just as
hard and emotional as it was the first, but I don’t regret going home at all –
not for a second. The time I had to
spend with my family and closest friends was invaluable (see pics on facebook). It’s been a difficult transition week,
largely because since returning to Thailand, I have been travelling for meetings
and trainings and only returned to my village yesterday. Yet, being surrounded by my Peace Corps
Volunteer (PCV) family this past week was helpful in my transition. Back in the village 24 hours now and thought I'd share what my first day was like.
Arriving home to my
village: When I pulled up to my little house, my neighbors and the kids
began to cheer and scream shouts of joy.
This sounds cheesy and maybe even a bit arrogant, but I don’t know how
else to explain it. The kids were
jumping up and down, wai-ing me
(gesture made in place of the American equivalent of a hand-shake or a hug) and
yes, they were cheering and screaming shouts of joy. I wai’ed
back to my elders and also gave rounds of hugs because I was so overwhelmed
with my emotions of happiness with seeing them after being away for 5 weeks
(Not all of this was spent at home – lots of PC business travel as well). The kids began to follow me into my house and
thankfully the elders told them to give me a hot minute to relax, shower and
unpack.
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| They loved the sticky bugs! |
The kids: That
hot minute didn’t last very long. I was
pretty much hanging with the kids from the minute I got home until dinner time:
badminton, coloring, giving of gifts from America and playing games. But my
favorite moment was when one of the little girls threw her garbage in a forest (this is not so much a forest as it is a small patch of trees, but we
call it a forest) we were playing near. I asked her if that
was a forest or a garbage can. All the
kids started jumping and screaming "It’s a forest and it’s natural." They then decided to begin their own trash
scavenger hunt – they snapped on some gloves, got on their bikes and rode
around the village picking up garbage to be separated at my house for recycling. They nominated that I’d
give them prizes too – they sure know how to work me: initiate their own
recycling activity and they know I’ll be all over the positive rewards!
 |
| Thanks mom for being thoughtful - the kids loved the games |
Erica was on T.V!: My
neighbors told me (let me reiterate that they were so positive about this they
didn’t ask me anything first – they began by telling me) they saw me on T.V. last week. It went a little like this:
Neighbor: You were on T.V. last week at a boxing match
Me: Interesting – I’ve never been to a boxing match.
Neighbor: No, Grandpa (my landlords dad) saw you in the crowd at
the match while watching T.V. He said
there was a farang as beautiful as you and had the same face as you. Grandpa was sure it was you!
(Everybody joins in by telling me how beautiful I am. I tell ya, that is one thing I'll never get tired of!)
Me: (laughing) Thank you but sorry
guys – that definitely was not me! Must’ve
been 1 of the other billions of farangs in this world! (I didn’t really say
that last sentence – I just thought that in my head)
I later saw grandpa and I said to him “Wow, you saw me on T.V. – I can’t
believe it!” He started to laugh and he said “I knew it was you!” I couldn’t go on too long with my joke so I
immediately told him it wasn’t me – he actually didn’t believe me at first and
it took a while to convince him.
I guess to him, all farangs look alike!
