Homestay in Nan

Last Wednesday, we drove to Nan, a province in northeastern Thailand, to stay in a village composed of people from ethnic minority groups. After a rather long van ride, we arrived in the village, and we met our families. Actually, The people who were staying in the Mien village I was staying in (two other students, Reid and Evie, an ajan, Pi Neung, and myself) met the head of the village, who drove us to the village before placing us with families. At first, he just told us to choose a house, but after driving us past all three locations, he pretty much placed each of us with a family. I stayed with the village head's parents, though I mainly saw him, his wife, and their children. Across the street was Pi Neung, and the other two students were down the road (in opposite directions). Before we went to the village, everyone pretty much expected to be living in a one room hut with a family, so I was a bit surprised to see that all of the houses in our village were concrete houses. I had a room to myself, and there was an indoor bathroom, although I did take showers with a bucket.

My room


View of kitchen and car port from the balcony next to my room


Thursday, I woke up at about 4:30 in the morning. I was told that I was going to the market with my family's grandma at 5, so I wanted to be ready. I was ready, but she didn't knock on my door until 5:30. The market was small--mainly just a local shop with a food stand in front. It was run by one lady, but many people came to buy groceries. I saw a lot of people in traditional clothing.
Later that morning, Evie and I went for a walk around the area. Eventually, we ran into Laura and Seashia, who were staying in a house together in a Hmong village. At their house, we met their host brother, and he wanted to take us up a mountain.
We spent the rest of the day with them, doing a lot of climbing and exploring. We went to a waterfall near the beginning of our journey, and everyone wanted to swim because it was very calm compared to other waterfalls we had been to. We also stopped at a lookout point to take pictures on the mountain. We could see tons of lychee farms. On the mountain, there was another Hmong village, and the host brother teaches English at one of the schools there, so we stopped by. We also spent some time walking around, and we saw fighting bulls and climbed a bit of a rocky part of the mountain. Before we left the village, we went to a cave that was filled with Buddhas. We climbed through the cave barefoot, and it was an amazing, though slightly frightening, experience.









Friday, we visited a former refugee camp, and we listened to Seashia and Laura's host dad talk about living there--which he had done from the time the camp opened until it closed. Then, we visited another waterfall, where we spent the afternoon. A lot of people went swimming, and everyone at least stuck their feet in the water.
Friday night, there were movies showing at the school near my village. After dinner, I walked over with Evie, her host sister, and several members of my host family.
I was rather shocked by how violent the first movie was. I was even more shocked by how many little kids were watching it. The second movie was funny but almost too funny.







Saturday was a long day. Nothing was really planned, and as usual, Evie and I took a walk around the village. Eventually, we met up with a group of people, and we spent a good portion of the day (until a bit after noon) at Reid's family's shop. After that, we walked around to a couple other houses, and at one, we tried on some Hmong traditional clothing.



That evening, we had a huge dinner for all of the families, and my family decided that I would wear traditional Mien clothing. As I was getting dressed by my host mom and a few other women, Evie came over, and they started dressing her too. When we arrived at the dinner, we were the only people in traditional clothing, but soon more people showed up in outfits, and some families took students back to dress them up. By the end of the evening, nearly everyone was wearing some sort of traditional clothing, and all of the families were taking tons of pictures.
Although the outfit I was wearing had long sleeves, the only really difficult part about wearing it was the weight of the jewelry, not the fabric.
This morning, I woke up and packed to come back to Chiang Mai. After breakfast, my host father invited me to a Mien ceremony. I wasn't allowed to go near what they were doing because I'm female, although I did get to go into a house where an altar was set up. This contained many items, including a whole pig which was to be cooked and eaten after the ceremony.
When we went back to the village, we packed up and said our goodbyes. My host father gave me a silver necklace. He owns one of the silver shops, and I had spent some time watching him work and picking out gifts for friends there earlier in the week.
Overall, it was an amazing experience, and I'm both glad to be back and resting and sad that I'm no longer in Nan.

My host father and brother with me on Sunday morning

Could You Get Around?

The first week that I spent in Thailand, I had the chance to do a bit of walking either around the campus or at markets. Since then, every day has usually consisted of at least one walk to campus or perhaps to Carrefour (somewhat like Walmart..). Walking in Chiang Mai is a task, to say the least. When there are sidewalks, which there are not always, they may seem to be more dangerous than having to walk on the side of the road. A lot of times, they are composed of bricks--lopsided and often missing. Usually, in the middle of the sidewalk, there will be trees that the bricks go around. This has proven to be dangerous for those of us who can, in general, walk safely on two feet. I have found the idea of trying to travel around on crutches, in a wheel chair, or blind to be almost unimaginable. I find this strange, especially since there seems to be a rather large blind population in Chiang Mai.

While I am at the dorm, I've noticed that yes, there is an elevator, and there is a ramp, and the rooms do seem pretty accessible. At the same time, the minute I reach the building where I have the majority of my classes, I think that it would be rather impossible for a person with a physical disability or injury to get around. Each day, we climb to the fourth floor of the building, and although it's good exercise, I'm pretty sure that many people would take the elevator if the option were available. Of course, this is not just a problem on campus. Often, many restaurants or stores I visit have steps to get inside without any sort of ramp, or if it is possible for someone in a wheel chair to enter, certain facilities are not accessible inside.
For instance, I went to a movie this weekend, and although the mall has several elevators, the theater seemed very in accessible. It is possible that there is a way to get to the theaters from an elevator if one cannot go up the large flight of stairs next to the concessions, but once we entered the actual theater, to find our seats we had to first climb and then walk down a lot of steps.

Perhaps if someone is simply injured for a period of time--he or she broke a leg or had surgery--this would not me much of a problem, but to never be able to see a movie in a theater simply because one cannot walk may be upsetting. At least there are many other things to do at the mall?

Of course, for someone in a wheelchair to get to such a location, he or she would have to find adequate transportation. The sidewalks are impossible, and the red trucks probably aren't much better.. If a wheel chair fit inside, one would need a makeshift ramp as well as some sort of contraption to keep the chair inside the vehicle.

On Wednesday of this past week, a woman to visit the place where I volunteer. When I saw her driving up to the building, I was amazed. She was driving a motorcycle while sitting in her wheelchair.

She had asked a mechanic to attach the steering mechanisms to the front of a cart, and she sits inside in her chair to drive. The body of the motorcycle is attached, and she could take a passenger for a ride as well.

The next day, I visited her house, which I learned had been specially built for her. It had ramps, wider doors, and the table outside had three seats around it and a space so she could pull her wheelchair up to it. While I was visiting her, she discussed how difficult it can be to get around--and how some places are just not options. It is interesting to think that one cannot have certain experiences simply because he or she does not have access due to a physical disability or injury, especially coming from a culture where there are designated spots for parking to increase accessibility as well as designated stalls in bathrooms and seats in movie theaters.

Geert--Cultural Dimensions

The biggest difference I see in cultural dimensions in Thailand is probably dealing with what Geert (http://www.geert-hofstede.com/) refers to as "masculinity", what we called "quantity" in class. On the other end of this spectrum is "femininity" or "quality". It is obvious to me that Thailand leans much more toward the quality side of the spectrum. For quantity-oriented countries, competition and assertiveness are important, where as quality-oriented countries are more modest and caring, and they place less emphasis on competition.

I think the lack of competitiveness can easily be seen just walking down the street. Local business have their own hours which are often not the most convenient for those who would be their customers, losing them business but not imposing on their lives. At times, when we are walking around, looking for lunch or dinner, or we see a shop we would like to go into, although the hours on the door may say that the shop should be open, in reality, the owners have taken a day off, or they left early. This can be frustrating when we are getting impatient trying to find something, and everywhere we look, shops are closed for the day or for a few hours.

I can also see this type of mindset at my placement. When the artists do their work, they work until they are tired or bored, and then they take a break. It is not about how much they get done during a day. It is more about doing some work and enjoying it than competing for an income. It would seem unnatural for the artists to spend the entire day working at the looms without a break, and it would, in a sense, destroy what they are doing because a competitive need to get the most done would remove the art from the work.

Even when I'm in PIH, I have had occasions where the idea of quantity versus quality has come close to changing my plans for the evening. Once, several friends and I wanted to order food, but the restaurant we planned on ordering from closed at 8:30, and it was about 8:25. To me, it seemed a bit strange for a restaurant to close so early to begin with. Most places where I live are open until at least 10. We decided to try calling anyway. At first they said it was too late. Then they called back and said that since there were still people in the building, they would fill the order. It seemed to be more about convenience than getting money.

Back home, I have friends who work in restaurants who get very angry when people call five minutes before they close. This is because they are required to fill all of the orders until the restaurant is actually closed--even if it's a minute before and they will be working past the actual restaurant hours.(Actually, sometimes we purposely call because we know that our friends are working until the restaurant closes.. knowing that they'll be stuck a bit longer..) There, it is definitely more important to fill as many orders as possible than to have a convenient situation for the workers. Of course, this does not mean that you're going to get the best quality food calling in a minute before the restaurant closes. It's possible you might ingest a bit of spit or something.. The idea of having a set number of hours that one works and then being done until the next shift is very different from working when one wants until when thinks a sufficient amount of work has been done.

Language Exchange Lunches

The first language exchange lunch I attended was on February 10th. About four Thai Studies students arrived at the canteen to meet.. two tables full of English majors. We divided ourselves between the tables and started talking with the students. I mainly talked to Xin and Banana, though I had a bit of a conversation with the entire table. It was pretty impossible to talk to everyone one on one, though we had several broad conversations.

Xin has spent some time at Payap studying Thai. She's from China--the Yun Nam province. Xin is 21 years old, and she is an only child. When we first started talking, she reminded me that we had met at Carrefour probably the first week that I was in Chiang Mai. She was behind Laura and me while we were checking out. Xin told me that the last movie she saw was Bedtime story. Also, she drives a motor bike. Actually, I recently ran into her on the way to class (not literally), and she asked if I would like a ride, though I declined for safety reasons. Before we said goodbye, she gave me her phone number so we could get together and practice Thai and English.

Banana is also 21 years old. She is from Chiang Rai, several hours away from Chiang Mai. After she graduates from Payap, she would like to go on to get her masters degree. Banana has two younger sisters.
Within the larger conversation, we found out that several of the guys like to listen to heavy metal music.. though most of the girls prefer pop.


The second language lunch I went to was on February 13th. Being so close to valentines, I ased what the girls I was speaking to were going to do (if anything) for the holiday. Eing, who is 20, told me that she would be going out to dinner. Som, 21, said that she was going to give a present to her boyfriend.

Som, who as been to Australia, would like to be a flight attendant. She is 21 years old and has one younger brother. Eing, who is from Lampang, has one older sister. She told me that she would like to go to Japan.

This time, when I asked about music, the girls told me that they liked pop music and Thai singers. A guy who was sitting near by mentioned that he enjoyed Britney Spears and Taylor Swift quite a bit. He also told us about his job as well as his opinions about farang girls. It was an interesting and amusing conversation.

The last language lunch that I attened was on Friday, March 13th. I sat with Reid, a guy named Bank, and several girls. Bank told us that he wants to be a steward. He also picked up Reid's habit of saying "yep, yep, yep". For Bank, though, this was a bit different than it was for Reid. He would go "yep, yep, yep!" any time that he had no idea what we were actually saying. This made everyone laugh.

We also had a conversation about Judiasm.. sort of. Reid and I had to attempt to explain it, which was difficult since there was a bit of a language barrier. It's also a bit difficult to explain when the majority of people around you are Buddhist and not Christian. I find it interesting that so many students are Buddhist when Payap is a Christian university. I have only met a few students who are Christians.

Anyway, during this conversation, one of the girls said, "I think the Jews are the pretty ones." This comment was made, I believe, in reference to my skin color, since I'm a good bit pale. Reid is also a bit fair skinned, so it would make sense that this is what she was referring to, though it was a rather strange statement, and it led to a discussion of Judiasm having a blood line and being a religion, which just became even more confusing with the language barrier.

Overall, I really enjoyed the language lunches. They were a great way to meet other students and learn about their lives. I will miss these get togethers!

A Kateoy Show

Just walking around in Chiang Mai, I see many ladyboys. They're cashiers in stores, students and teachers--just an everyday part of society. It is interesting to see how well one can blend in, especially when the second annual gay pride parade was canceled due to protesters.
Because ladyboys, or kateoys, are an aspect of Thai society that does not seem to appear the same way in our culture back home, most of the Thai Studies students have been asking to see a kateoy show pretty much since we arrived in Chiang Mai. We figured that Bangkok would probably be our best chance, and we did, in fact, get to see a kateoy show.
On Friday night, around ten, we all met in what appeared to be a rather new club. We had been told by a few of the students who went to the same club the night before that the show was going to start at ten, but since things so far hadn't usually started on time, we thought arriving around ten would probably be earlier enough to get good seats.
It was.
We got a couple couches on the floor by the stage, and we waited.
We waited some more.
Eventually, (I think around eleven) the show finally started.
The show consisted of males dressed as males and males dressed as females. I think this may have been one reason why several of us found it hard to believe that all of the females were (or at least had at one point been) male.
I have been to a few drag shows in the United States. My college has a "gender bender" every year, and drag queens and drag kings perform. The kateoy show was a slightly different atmosphere.
Instead of just lip-synching like the shows I've seen at home, the performers had several numbers that were just dancing, and there was one skit. We had been told that the show was a fashion show, and that was what the first half of the show mainly consisted of, but there were also many acts that were more like different types of performances. At two points in the show, a man descended from the ceiling on a large piece of fabric, in a somewhat gymnastic manner.
The show had an intermission. This were a bit difficult to sit through since we had waited so long for the show to start, but we were excited to see more, and it was worth the wait.
The second half contained the skit and a rather risky act in which several men danced wearing only towels wrapped around their waists. I thought this half was a bit more upbeat and interesting than the first half, though the first half was definitely interesting enough to make me want to stick around for more.
I would love to see another kateoy show if I have the chance.

Bangkok

Tuesday evening, we climbed on to a train and rode overnight to Bangkok. I've never spent the night on a train before, and I found it a bit difficult to sleep.







I woke up Wednesday morning (my birthday!) to see us entering the city. Upon my first glance, I did think it was a bit different from Chiang Mai. I saw a few tuk-tuks, but the roads were mostly filled with brightly colored taxis.
After arriving at the guest house (it was pretty much a hotel, really), we took quick showers before leaving for our canal tour. The ride in the water was refreshing and perhaps a bit frightening. Well, getting in and out of the boat was the frightening part. Everyone seemed a bit afraid of falling into the water. We got a second shower in the boat as waves crashing into the sides of the boat splattered us. During the ride, we saw houses on the water, several wats, a few teenagers swimming, several vendors in boats, and gigantic lizards!











We visited the Royal Barges Museum, where we saw many heavily decorated ships, and then we went to Wat Arun. By that time, several of us were extremely warm, but several climbed up the many stairs of the temple to get a good view and to see all of the artwork.











We spent the afternoon at the Museum of Siam where we learned much about the history of Siam and of Bangkok. The museum was very interactive, which helped keep me interested after spending the first half of the day in the heat outside. In the last room, we could write our names or thoughts on a screen, and they would appear on the wall, where we could have them follow our heads like thinking bubbles. Jess wrote "Happy Birthday Eva!", and someone took a picture of me standing with the bubble floating by my head.
When we returned to the hotel, we watched a movie about 6 October 1976 and listened to a student talk about the past and present political situations in Thailand in order to prepare for our tour we would take on Friday.

Thursday was a very informative day. In the morning, we went to the Duang Prateep Foundation in Klong Toey--a slum area in Bangkok. We spoke with a volunteer at the foundation about its founder as well as all of the programs that they run. Then, we visited the kindergarten before taking a tour of Klong Toey. It was an experience I will never forget--it is one thing to know that people live in such conditions from reading about it, but to experience it--to see and smell and be in the place creates a whole new sense of reality to the situation at hand.











After lunch we walked to the Bangkok Refugee Center. Here we not only learned about Thailand's take on refugees, but we learned about the actual refugee population in the country. I think most of us had believed that the majority of refugees in Thailand were Burmese, simply from the camps on the border and from the situations that we see in Chiang Mai, but in Bangkok, there are refugees from many other nations. Even though these people are registered as refugees, they can be arrested and removed at any time.

Friday was the busiest and probably hottest day of the week. First, we went on a democracy tour. We visited monuments dedicated to people who died in protests, a monument for democracy, a monument depicting the constitution, and several other sites. At Thammasat University, we heard the story of student protests again, walking through the areas where they actually took place.

















The afternoon was filled with temples. First we visited Wat Prakaew--the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The temple is gigantic. I'm not sure exactly how many buildings we saw during the tour, but they were all elaborately decorated with jewels and metallic pieces as well as gold leaf. I think my favorite part of the tour was seeing the emerald buddha. This might actually be because the emerald buddha is actually one large piece of jade, as I was greatly amused to find out. I also was intrigued by the fact that the buddha's garments are changed several times a year and that he has not yet been changed out of his winter garb.
After Wat Prakaew, I went to Wat Po, where the second largest buddha in Thailand resides. He is also a lying down buddha. On the bottom of his feet are intricate designs made out of mother of pearl. After seeing the gigantic buddha, one can pay 20 baht and make merit by putting coins in many bowls. After spending the day walking around in such intense heat, I was relieved to relax in a park as we waited for the rest of the group before heading back to the hotel. All of a sudden, I thought someone threw something at me. When I looked again, though, the something was a pigeon! I was quite terrified and waved around to get the bird off of me. Then I was quite ready to hop in the shower and relax for the evening.























Saturday was a free day. After Jess, Shannon, and I walked around a bit, we decided to go to JJ Market. Of course, as we were advised to go early to avoid the heat and the mobs, we managed to show up exactly in the middle of the day. I think we lasted about an hour and a half. Any longer, and we probably would have melted. From the skytrain, we could see the market--it's gigantic. We had been told that it's in the Guinness Book. I would not be surprised. A lot of the stores are somewhat inside--under roofs at least, which provides some shelter from the broiling sun. We saw the same products that seem to be at most markets--clothes, food, jewelry--just in much larger quantities. I think I would like to go back and explore that market more if I had more time.. and an ability to not sweat.
When we got back to the hotel, we rinsed off, changed, and headed back to the train station. Everyone purchased food before the train left the station--having been greatly disappointed the first time around--and we set off on our final journey for the weekend. I slept much better on the train back to Chiang Mai, and I was very happy to see that it was a good bit cooler back here than it had been in Bangkok.