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!

A month in review...

Dear Readers,

I can hardly believe that I have been here in Thailand for a month now. It feels like the days have simply flown by. During the past week, it has been quite difficult for me to update given the ever increasing preparation and grading for classes as well as my constantly fluctuating illnesses. My recent bout as of late has been with my asthma; in the US my asthma was confined to overexertion due to exercise or random problems with breathing. However, Bangkok's permeating pollution has made everyday breathing a task in itself. It got to the point where I woke up once in the middle of the night simply unable to catch my breath for what seemed like unbearable minutes. I went to the palace clinic a few days ago where I was given a cornucopia of medicine - 1. Ventolin Evohaler - contains 100 micrograms salbutamol 2. Symbicort Turbuhaler 3. NAC long Acetylcysteine4. Lolergy 5. Diphenyl Expectorant Syrup... the first day on the medications was wretched and I wondered if I had not made a worse decision in taking the meds than in simply suffering through. However, I have now been on the meds for 3 days and am happy to note that I am almost able to take a deep breath without chest pains or succumbing to a coughing fit.

After all this, the sicknesses and the craziness of Bangkok, a month into it I can say that it's one of the best decisions I think I have made. There are moments of extreme homesickness (more the loss of a general surrounding of friends and family rather than any particular home or city), but these are farther and fewer between. There is something to be learned about myself here in Bangkok and I do believe that I am beginning to see that. I think, for now, my greatest challenge to be learned here is to be still. Ever since I can remember, my life has been a series of tasks after the other. My time at Baylor was spent flitting from classes to jobs to meetings to social events on repeat 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It got to the point where the simple, few hours on a Sunday afternoon - when I did not have much to do - became unbearable to my restless spirit. This past semester I managed to juggle 19 upperclassmen hours, 2 jobs, friends, and a number of extracurricular commitments and eked out straight As. It was a great accomplishment, but...

I think I kept myself so busy because I did not know how to be me when no one else was around, when I wasn't teaching, or helping, or running around, or being the crazy Star that everyone was so familiar with. I lost track of the Star who used to be content to sit in a corner, with a good book, or a piece of paper and pen, and let her mind run free. I am finding her here again in Bangkok. Amid this bustling, crowded city, this chance to be farang (foreigner) is giving me another chance to find the familiar that is somewhere within me.

It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts. ~K.T. Jong

Back to School

Another day of school today. I'm actually glad that we are able to have school again because I was getting antsy having all of that free time to myself.

In other news, unfortunately, I am getting sick again. I think it is the combination of 4 years' worth of exhaustion, the terrible Bangkok humidity and pollution, and dejectedness.

In other other news, I have gotten to know some really great Thai people, Skip and Aey, Skip works for a hotel events company and Aey is a costume stylist who has her own clothing shop! Aey has so kindly invited me to the MTV2 party going on in BKK tonight, hosted by a client of hers, and I am really excited; perhaps I will even spy some celebs!

That's all for now and it's back to class. Have a good day everyone.

Protest Update

Given the time difference, most of you who are reading this are still asleep but I figured that I would give you on update on the situation. This was taken from the Bangkok Post online and was in the breaking news section:

Protesters pass last barricade, heading to Govt House

(BangkokPost.com) - Some 1,000 protesters were able to pass through police barricade at Misakawan intersection, the last blockade to reach the Government House at around 2pm Friday.

Hundreds of police were at the intersection while police trucks were left in the middle of the Phitsanulok Road to block protesters.

But protesters tried to overturn a police truck that block the way with bare hands. They were finally able to get through the trucks and march to the Government House, where other protesters were expected to join them

Furthermore,

Friday showdown: PAD v police

"If they try to break through using flag poles, baseball bats or other objects they will be regarded as using weapons... Police will take action according to international crowd control principles." - Pol Maj-Gen Surapol Thuanthong, deputy police spokesman

Police said on Thursday they will not allow protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy move to Government House or parliament on Friday.

The PAD said it would push forward with its plans to move its rally from the Makkhawan Rangsan Bridge early on Friday afternoon, and defied the police to arrest its leaders.

Core PAD organiser Maj-Gen Chamlong said the group had every right to move to Government House, but promised no one would go inside - "even if gates may be open for us. Our aim is not to lay siege to Government House but to show our force,"

At Government House, a siege mentality set it. Non-essential workers were told to take Friday off, and other workers were warned not to park their cars in the compound.

All schools in the area of Government House were ordered shut for Friday.

"All schools" includes Chitralada Palace school... waiting to see how this develops...

Wai Kru Day/Protestors

Sorry that there have been so many days between posts - Life has just gotten unimaginably busy. The acute feelings of lonliness have abated but every now and then I still get twinges and miss my friends, family, and the like. Nevertheless, what have I been up to for the past few days?? School, of course! We are in the middle of testing and if you thought that taking a test was hard, you should try making the test up yourself unaided as well as grading them! The unfortunate thing about teaching the older students is that we are responsible for creating quizzes, tests, and any activity or work sheets that we want them to do. It's nice because we don't have to adhere to a particular style of teaching but it's also unnerving when you are like me - completely clueless to the art of teaching. I didn't know who was more nervous when I administered my first test ever to my M3 students - me or the students; I didn't want the tests to be too hard but I didn't want them all getting 100s either because that just meant that they didn't actually learn anything. Tomorrow was supposed to be test day for my M2 students but I'll get to why that won't be the case in a little bit.

One of the things that I have grown to love most here in BKK in the enormous respect that the students have for their teachers. Students wai everytime they see a teacher (see an older post for the definition of wai) and really hold them in high regard. This is most evident in something they have at the palace school called "Wai Kru Day" which means Wai Teacher Day. There are two separate ceremonies, the first being for M1-3 and then for M4-6. All of the teachers who teach students in that particular grade sit up on the stage and all of the students from that grade sit in the audience. They then present flowers, one row of boys and girls at a time, and then wai the teachers after they lay down their flowers in front of us. After everyone has done so, a student comes up and speaks about how loved and important the teachers are to them (the entire ceremony is done in Thai mind you...translations are thanks a sweet teacher named Tip). After this, all of the students sing a song about teachers and respect for teachers and then they wai us again as we walk off the stage. I went to both ceremonies since I have students in M2, 3, and 5. I got goosebumps during the ceremonies because the sincerity of the students is so evident. The way America disregards its teachers has always been a saddening thought for me, but after seeing the way students have such honor for their teachers here, it truly magnified the terrible situation back home. Additionally, the crown prince's daughter, who graduated from the school last year, came back for the ceremony and we all got to meet her and speak with her - my first intimate taste of Thai royalty! :D The students have almost all of their classes cancelled for the whole day and they are free to give flowers to their favorite teachers throughout the course of the day. Even though I have only known these students for about 3 weeks, I was lucky enough to receive some purple/white orchids as well as some pink roses...

Then, the craziness hit. I was sitting in the English Dept. room preparing for my classes tomorrow when one of the secretaries came in to inform us that school would be closed and classes would be cancelled tomorrow due to the government protestors that have been slowly inching their way towards the palace. The People's Alliance for Democracy has been protesting in various places since I arrived in BKK but now they have brought their protest to the palace doors and the school wants to be cautious because many of the students here are from extremely important families in Thailand and it would be disastrous if something were to happen to them, additionally there are several members of the royal family in attendance here...

This means that my M2 kids are lucky because their test will be postponed till next week. The protestors themselves aren't dangerous so I'm not scared or anything - rather I am excited about having my first 3 day weekend...these things just don't happen in the States.

That's all for now and I'll be sure to update if I hear anything else regarding the situation.

All my love.