Ratchada 42

An evening at Ratchada 42

Aey’s home, my retreat

The task at hand is dinner. Aey and I head towards her black Toyota Camry, I walk a little further down the driveway to pull back the iron wrought gate… I leave it open because the little market is just right down the street.

We arrive to get the essentials – chicken, squid, peppers, spices, tomatoes, and vanilla ice-cream (my doing of course).

We exit the car and are greeted with the laughter of the neighborhood kids gathered around the market, soccer balls in tow. I feel myself the subject of curious, timid glances; I smile back because they are not the unrelenting, impertinent gazes I am usually on the receiving end of here in Bangkok – they smile back…and scatter.

Purchases in hand, we head back to the car and back to Aey’s family home – a quiet, unassuming house draped in foliage in the midst of the cold concrete of Bangkok. We head to the kitchen. The sun hangs midway on the horizon, leaving the kitchen caught between the heavy humidity of the day and the ever-so-slight cool of the evening. My job is to wash the vegetables. I sheepishly admit to Aey that I don’t do much cooking, nor am I good at it even when I try. She holds back her laughter when I ask if I am to peel the lettuce as I try to wash it. She channels my mother when she asks me what I will do when I have a husband. Her giggles give way to a loud guffaw when I send back my now well-memorized reply,

“He will have to cook for me.”

Aside from this exchange, much of the time is spent in silence. I am concentrating as much as is humanly possible on my vegetables while Aey works her quiet magic on the chicken. Pleasant minutes pass and Aey’s friend Cam enters into the kitchen. The vegetables eventually pass Aey’s scrutiny and I am reassigned to the task of grinding the pepper seeds and garlic… with a mortar and pistle. My station overlooks the backyard and the sound of the pistle cracking against the seeds harkens back to my few kept memories of Nigeria. The sun is almost gone now and we are rewarded with a cool breeze that flows through the open windows.

The calm is broken when Cam enters into a barrage of Thai and Aey, in response, has almost doubled up in laughter. “Your butt dances while you grind the pepper” Aey manages to get out (in Thai-lish – the hybrid language that we usually engage in amongst ourselves). Cam joins in when I respond “There’s not much that I’m doing that my butt doesn’t dance to…” The silence is permanently severed but is replaced by quick whispers and cheek-spliting references to events from the night before. Cam is piling up dishes and silverware, Aey taste-tests each of her quickly prepared delicious dishes, and I have my hands wrapped around my ice-cream cone – a reward for a job well done.

With darkness to our backs, the beckoning voice of Damien Rice lulls our company into the dining room. We set our creations on the table and glance back and forth towards one another, thankful. As we each take our seats, before I set my mind and mouth on the first of many dishes, I think out a quick make-shift prayer – I pray for you my friends, my family, my loved-ones. I pray that I am on your heart as much as you are on mine, and I hope that God is so graciously blessing your lives as he does mine…everyday…as I am so blessed and lucky for the people He so wonderfully brings into my life. I pray for you, I miss you.

Amen.

Mindscrew

It's 11:49 pm BKK time and I'd really like to take this time to write a wonderful, meaningful post about my life over the past week.

But...

I just saw THE DARK KNIGHT and Christopher Nolan has destroyed my brain and left me with just enough to get home and get to bed, so I'm going to do that now.

Update later...perhaps much later. :D

In other words, go see that movie right now!

Busy Busy Busy

Dear Readers,

I'm sorry that my posting has been lax as of late, but I truly have not had the spare minutes to sit and write a meaningful post. Even now, I am writing amidst the mountain of work I have to prepare today for the days ahead. We are in the throes of midterm season; preparing tests, putting together grades, and the like. As such, my days are fully devoted to school and my evenings are spent running around Bangkok taking care of menial things like buying tissue paper, but then also trying to spend times with my growing number of Thai friends whom I obviously do not have the enjoyment of seeing during the daytime.

This past weekend (4th of July), me and some other teachers - Nick, Kim, and Marisa - went to Koh Samet; one of the plentiful and beautiful Thai islands. Moreover, the cost of the entire trip (transportation, hotel stay, food and drinks) was the equivalent of 60 USD. So, I think you should all come visit me and we shall go island-hopping okay?? :D Koh Samet is very close by, only a 2 hour van ride and a ferry to leave the grey, polluted skies of Bangkok for the white sands and blue water of Koh Samet island. I had an amazing time and I daresay I had greater shock going from Koh Samet back to Bangkok than from the USA to Thailand. :D This computer isn't allowing me to put up pictures right now, so I will do so another time.

Ah well... as I said, we are in the throes of midterms. I am so looking forward to next week because we have a four-day weekend! Plus, I don't teach on Wednesdays, so I will only be teaching on Monday because my students will be taking a listening test on Tuesday... whoo! :D I am excited about the four-day weekend because I am going with my same beach-group to Koh Chang (Elephant Island), it's renowned for it's beautiful waterfalls!

But, till then I must suffer under the strain of school work. I seriously have been averaging 4 hours a night these days, like college life but not... lol. I'm still waiting to get letters/postcards/anything-snail-mail-related from someone (thanks to dear Tom who sent me a web cam last month)... so get on it people! :D

Miss you all!