Half Way

Not half way to the end of training, but halfway to our language exam, which feels like the end. I did my site interview today, which will have a big part in determining where I end up for the next two years. I asked to have a role in business development or social entrepreneurship, but we shall see. I didn't give a preference for rural or urban, I just said I wanted to be close to a mode of transportation like a train or bus station, so I could possibly end up anywhere. The biggest anxiety now is ending up on the other side of the country from the people I've grown closest to, but there's not much I can do.

We got a text update that there are more protests in Bangkok this week, this time by the opposition to the folks that took over the airport back in November. I asked about it all, but don't really understand it. We are all supposed to have a night in Bangkok in two weeks before we go out to visit our sites for the first time, and for a lot of us this is the light at the end of the tunnel. We're all worried that the protests will last and cancel our trip, which is selfish, but we need a night off. Kind of desperately. Once again, not much I can do except cross my fingers and hope.

Last night I had penang curry and a rough version of edamame, which was a fantastic break from fish. Language is going well, but tones are becoming more of an apparent problem, such as the use of tones. for instance, spelled with english phonetics the best that I can, the words dog, horse, doctor, mom, come, cat, and hand, are, in Thai, mah, mah, maw, meh, ma, mao, and muh. We starting to learn the thai alphabet, which is helping, but it's still a little rough.

Tomorrow I get my midterm review, where they tell me if i'm on track to get sworn in in 6 weeks, so I'll let you all know how that goes. In the mean time, I'm going to try to post pictures here in a sec, and here is my most recent entry:

23/2

Hi blog friends. I had to reread my last post to see when I last wrote and what to catch you all up on. Friday we had a former PCV from Thailand group 32 (I’m group 121. Group 32 served from 70-72) who has a consulting firm in Bangkok focusing on developmental entrepreneurship. For me, this was the best class or speaker that we’ve had so far, because he actually talked about potential projects and ideas and approaches with tangible results. So much of what we’ve been doing has been focused on learning about our communities when we get there, that it’s easy to lose focus and motivation for the real projects. I really needed this class, and it was even great outside of this context.

Saturday was PST sports day, and we broke into teams and played each other in soccer, tukraw, and bocce ball. Then we played a bunch of local officials and tied them, which I was personally impressed with. Downside of the day was that I ended up getting pretty badly scraped knees and an ankle, which has since become infected. More to come on that. So the sports ended around 2, but me and my friend Bekah missed the bus back to our bikes because we found a massage place in the wat next door to where we were playing. The massages were a half hour, and the bus wasn’t supposed to come for a half hour, but it came early and we were still lying in stupors in the shade of the wat as our friends rode away. It ended up working out really well though, because we got a ride back in one of the buses that the staff use, which is air conditioned (as opposed to the open, seated back of a giant truck that everyone else rode back on). I’ve started to realize that air conditioning isn’t as scarce here as the trainers have made it for us, but that doesn’t make it any less fantastic when we chance across it. When we made it back we met some folks at a bar and a few of us sat there for the next few hours drinking, stumbling into some pretty serious conversation, and learning a lot about each other. I biked home just before dark and then played tukraw for a while before dinner and bed.

Sunday I woke up early and did laundry before heading to meet up with around 15 volunteers at the waterfall again. We brought guitars this time and rented mats and bought beer and were talked at by a drunk police officer trying to feed us whiskey and looked for constellations in the forest canopy and helped write songs and it was nice. I had to leave before most people because it’s over an hour bike ride home and I had to help cook, except that when I got there to help cook they told me to go play tukraw after 20 minutes, so I did. Played for over two hours and was exhausted, so, like last Sunday, I had a small dinner and went to bed.

Today was Monday, and we had class in town so I got to see everyone again. I almost felt spoiled on it after three days in a row. I’ve taken to writing haikus during class. They’re mostly bad and just about the class and being bored or frustrated, but they keep me from dozing or distracting other folks, so they’re effective. And sometimes even decent. The day dipped when the nurse asked to take a look at how my ankle was heeling and said it looked a little infected, and then the doctor came in and confirmed. They cleaned it and rebandaged it for me, but sure enough, within about two hours it started to pound. It hurts to walk on, but what’s worse is the pain playing on the melancholy and bringing me down an extra notch. I’m making a point now of resting up and it’s helping, but I know I’ll have to consciously avoid being lethargic in the coming days.

Tonight’s dinner was four different kinds of whole fish, and egg and veggie dish, and a soup based on some unrecognizable plant stuffed with pork. The meals are getting a little more intense, and I’m rolling with it, but a lot of the time I’m trying a little bit of everything and then settling down on something more tame. Two of the fish tonight were small enough that they were being eaten whole, but unlike the first go with little whole fish, these were about twice the size and had bones that were big enough to choke on… So there was no such thing as a pop it, chew it, chase it with some whiskey. You actually had to chew for a while and make sure that all the bones were chewed up thoroughly or picked out. The fish themselves aren’t really bothering me so much lately as having to pick the damn bones out of everything. I long for a boneless, skinless chicken breast. Also this week: more bees’ nest, deep fried small shrimp cakes with shells and heads still on, fried frog skins, and two dishes that weren’t in my dictionary. The frog skins are eaten like chips dipped in hot sauce, and they’re not my favorite. The rest isn’t bad.

I don't get much internet, but when I do I can upload any emails and read them later when I have time. It'd be great to get updates about lives and news and so on. take care, all.