Adventure Time with Keri!

Thursday, March 28, 2013

I woke up this feeling better (thanks for the prayers!) and set off early to get to the center since I had to be there half an hour earlier than usual. Such a fail b/c we didn’t leave till an hour later. Haha!

I have always wondered when the kids arrived in the morning since every time I arrive they’re already dressed and doing so sort of activity. Well, I found out. I got there and there were kids and parents everywhere! Apparently the center makes the parents come in with their child to help them eat breakfast, help them change into their uniform, (those blue things we’re forever having to wash and fold) and help them prepare for the day. I also found out they make the parents pay a small fee depending on how much they make. The maximum they make them pay is 30 Baht, which is roughly around $1, which is about 30% of what it actually costs the center per day for one child (it takes about 100 Baht per child/day to cover the costs of food, etc). For some of the parents that don’t make a lot, it’s free for them. 

 Also, I forgot to post these pictures from Day 17 or was it 15? I can't remember!

Anyway, I set off with Pi Naam to do community visits. This entailed driving to a few slums to visit the day care centers that are actually in the slums. The center that I have been working at does training classes and teaches people how to properly take care of children for healthy development and then gives them a certificate of completion. I believe, then, that they are allowed to start their own small daycare, mirrored after ours, in the slums. They are not necessarily attached to our center, but they are closely monitored and are updated when there is new information about health and such things available. There are about 15-20 of these community day cares that Pi Naam visits each month (if I remember correctly). The first location we visited had three separate houses (or rooms if you want to call them that) that had about 15-20 kids in two of the houses and then about 5-8 babies in the third one. Pi Naam did a basic health assessment for the kids, checking for properly cut nails, tooth decay, and any signs of abuse, open abrasions, or sickness.  Because these kids are from the slums they are at risk since many parents are drug addicts, neglectful, or separated.  And yes, there are a few kids that are not actually taken care of by their parents because they were unwanted, which I will get to a certain case, in a moment. After the assessment on the kids, Pi Naam talked for a while with the caregivers taking note of how many kids they’ve had at the daycare, how many have been sick/abused/open abrasions, etc., and a few other things that I’m forgetting right now – basically the overall wellbeing of the kids and daycare in general. While this was happening the kids started yelling and pointing to the window and I saw what appeared to be rain coming down at a good rate. It’s almost the rainy season and has been extremely hot and humid here so I wasn’t surprised. What surprised me more was the fact that it was not actually rain, but just a sprinkler on the tin roof of the house. They put it there to cool off the area as well as a fire safety precaution. Pretty cool stuff!

The second daycare we went was little bit bigger and Pi Naam only talked to the caregiver since the kids were having nap time. There were older kids running around in the front of the building sucking on ice pops from the local stand. Apparently these kids have grown up going to this daycare and this particular caregiver, who is also a leader in the community, asked the kids to come and learn more stuff during their summer break (apparently it’s the school’s summer break now). 

After we were done with that we went in search of food for lunch and then had more coconut milk ice cream with sticky rice from a roadside stand for dessert. So yummy! This whole trip I had been helping Pi Naam with her English. Her English is surprisingly good (since most Thais actually don’t speak or understand English) and she is very eager to learn more and improve what she already knows. 

We went to the third and last location and talked to the caregiver there because the kids were either still sleeping or just waking up. There was one little girl (this was her second day at the daycare) who would cry if she wasn’t sitting in someone’s lap. Apparently she had been taken care of her aunt (?) who worked at a salon and since there are many untouchables for babies there, she was always being held by someone or another and got very used to it. Now, back to my story of unwanted children. They were discussing the dynamics of each child and came to a particular little boy whose parents didn’t want him and so an older couple (old enough to be his grandparents) with no relation to the child but only a lot of compassion for him decided to take care of him. Not sure if it’s an actual adoption or not. He also has a history of asthma and we could see that he was breathing shallowly and very rapidly. The caregiver said that his “grandfather” couldn’t pick him up till 6pm but Pi Naam said he needed to get to the doctor right away. Ok, for some reason or another (neither of us figured it out), his “grandmother” was available but the caregiver didn’t think she was able to take him to the clinic or something? I’m not sure the logistics of it all, but she was called and came over about 10 mins later. We took both the “grandmother” and kid to a nearby clinic where he hopefully was able to get help. (I thought I had taken a picture of him, but I guess I didn't....sorry!)

We got back to the center and the kids were playing on the playground waiting for their parents to pick them up. I played with them for a little bit and then helped the staff fold the laundry. I mentioned earlier, ever so briefly, that we are forever washing and folding their little outfits or uniforms…whatever you want call them. This is mainly because they go through two outfits every day since they always get really dirty mid-day and take a shower before their naptime. There are roughly about 60 kids at the center on any given day so…yeah, that’s a lot of laundry each day.

I stayed later than usual helping them fold laundry and letting them download all my pictures. I finally left the back way and was waiting for a motorcycle taxi to come by. After about 10 mins I got impatient and walked a little ways down the road to an intersection. While I was walking there, I saw one of the kids (the adorable one with huge cheeks) coming out of one of the shacks. That’s when it really hit me that all these kids come from similar places. It’s easy to forget that when they’re all tidy and in their matching outfits and just being kids. He followed me a little ways before going inside one of the open stores and in a few moments I was able to hail a motorcycle taxi. It took forever and a day for my bus to finally appear and it was jam packed with people. I think that’s the most crowded and longest bus ride back that I’ve had to endure. We were all crammed in there, no room for personal space, and either the traffic was so bad that people were cutting in front of the bus a lot, or he was just a really bad driver, but he did so many sudden stops that lurched us forward and propelled us into the person in front of us. My arm hurt from trying to hang on to the rail on the roof (ceiling?) of the bus. I would vow to never leave that late again…but I only have one more day left. I’m not going to dwell on that fact yet. I’ll get to that in a few days in due time. 

So sorry this didn't get posted sooner...the internet was down for a bit. Please notice when this was written =) Hope it's worth the wait!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

I am very behind, I know. These last few days have been quite exciting for me, many new experiences!

Let’s start with Monday morning. I once again saw my bus pass me as I was walking down the road to the bus stop. Not to be knocked down again by waiting for another bus in heavy traffic again, I ran to catch up with it…and succeeded. It kind of helped that someone else was running for the same bus right in front of me. Haha. The traffic is so bad that the driver got out of her seat and walked off the bus. Lol. She reappeared again in a few mins…don’t worry, she didn’t abandon us. Haha.

Today they let the kids sort of paint. And but sort of paint, I really mean they gave them cut up pieces of straw to blow designs on the paper with the watered-down paint. I’ve decided that if you mix kids and paint together you might as well not give them paper b/c the majority of the paint will NOT end up there and will, instead, end up on the table, floors, their clothes, and of course, themselves. Haha. Yes, this was the case, and b/c they had to blow into the straws guess where the paint ended up? Yupp, in their mouths. I’m guessing (and hoping) it was non-toxic paint b/c the staff didn’t look too alarmed.  

Most of the kids thankfully fell asleep during nap time except for four or five brats that absolutely refused to fall asleep. So, I went upstairs to go play with the babies instead. Haha. When the kids were outside on the playground there was a lot of screaming in my ear and roaring like savage animals going on. Haha. They love it when I chase them…but my body doesn’t. Haha. You can tell I’ve finally adapted b/c I was definitely texting when I was riding on the motorcycle taxi instead of hanging on for dear life like I did when I first got here. Lol! One of the parents took me back to the main road again and he wouldn’t let me pay him! I still have faith in humanity!

SO. On to new experiences. Later that night, I had the privilege to go with my host family to a wedding reception. The ceremony and reception do not take place on the same day as we are used to, so I unfortunately did not get to witness a wedding ceremony. But we shall not dwell on such losses, but shall focus on the gains. (Lol, I crack myself up.) The reception was held at the Royal Thai Police Sports Club b/c the groom happens to be a police officer or something to that extent. The whole reception was quite modern as you can imagine. My host family made sure they introduced me to everyone (Auntie seems to know everyone and their mother, quite literally) and there was a LOT of wai-ing involved (the proper greeting in this country). After the couple was presented, different people talked (this was all in Thai so I pretended to be attentive as possible while still eating the food. Lol). Po sat next to me and was trying to explain everything to me as best as she could. There was a slideshow presentation of their lives and how they met. Then they had a really cool [short] sword ceremony done by the police and then his entire police class got up on stage and sang their class song. Lol. It was totes cute. There was more talking and more clapping and more of me not quite understanding everything. Haha. There was the typical “tossing of the bouquet” and cake cutting. Actually the cake cutting was interesting b/c they used the same kind of swords as the sword ceremony (I’m pretty sure) and I don’t think they actually cut the cake on display b/c I looked at it closer and it didn’t look very cut to me. Haha. After everything was said and done Po and her cousins and I took pictures together. There was a lot more wai-ing involved when leaving and it took us a while to leave since Po’s oldest sister, Phon, was catching up with people. Yay for my first Thai wedding reception!

The first four wedding picture credits go to Dr. Chumkasian whose iPhone takes better pictures than my dinky point-and-shoot camera takes. Lol. It also helped that he was super close to everything. =.=

Anyway, on to our second adventure. 

My host family had invited me last week to go with them to Khao Khitchakut. They wanted to leave at 3am in the morning (!!!!) since it is a long drive and difficult to get up there. I thought it would be a great experience for me and Na Goi thought so too, so I requested to get off today to go with them.

Now, let’s pause for a moment. We had just finished with a wedding and in a few hours was going to traverse to the mountains. Another sleepless night for Keri! Haha. I decided to sleep as much as possible that night and set my alarm for 2:30am since they wanted to leave at 3am. What I forgot was to add in Asian time to the equation…which is very similar to Hispanic time and Islander time. Haha. Yeah, we didn’t leave the house till about 4:30am. I had, by that time, fallen asleep again (but ready when they were). So, bleary-eyed as we all were, we set off on our journey east to Chanthaburi. All of us girls (Po and Wan came along) knocked out pretty quickly and I opened one eye in the middle of the trip long enough to see the sun rising and beautiful mist all around us. If I hadn’t been so tired I would’ve gotten my camera and snapped a shot…but I was too tired to even do that. Haha. We arrived there about 3.5 hours later and took two 4WD trucks up the mountain. When I say “up” I mean “UP” the Prabad mountain. The mountain is over  1,000m above sea level, I’m told. It was seriously like an uphill roller coaster. There were so many sharp twists and turns I thought for sure we were going to hit another truck. It was great fun b/c it reminded me of when we go to my uncle’s plantations and get thrown around the truck. Thankfully we were all sitting inside of the truck and not in the back of the truck like everyone else. I probably would’ve felt less secure if I was back there. Lol. 

Ok, I must admit, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into (as usual).

APPARENTLY I just came back from a Buddhist pilgrimage. Apparently. Haha. Not everyone can say they’ve done that, I guess. Haha. And no, I’m not turning into a Buddhist; I was merely going for the experience, rest assured. Hundreds of thousands flock to this area to pay respect to Buddha’s footprint up in the mountain. Yes, you read that right, his footprint (footprints?Idk.). 

So, this place is only opened for 2-3 months [once] a year (right before the rainy season, I think) and Buddhists are supposed to make the pilgrimage 7 times in their lifetime. It’s about a 1 km climb up further into the depths of the mountains (it felt like a breeze after my Chiang Mai trip, haha!) and there are all these little huts selling things pertaining to the religion, like chrysanthemum petals, incense sticks, and the likes. There were hundreds and hundreds of people constantly going up and down the mountain. The whole time I only saw one foreigner, and of course, me, but I’ve proved already that I can pass as a Thai. Haha. I forgot to time us on the way up but I think it took about 30-45 mins with a few stops along the way. At one point I got showered by droplets of [probably] holy water that was thrown at my direction by a monk with a bunch of incense sticks. At that point you’re supposed to pay respect to whatever was there. When we got to the top we had to take off our shoes (all of us girls brought long skirts to put on before we reached the top) and walk on the rough rock. Well, it wasn’t quite what I expected, I can tell you that much, although I’m not actually sure what I was expecting. It was basically a rectangular stone within a stone with lots of chrysanthemum petals covering it and many people around it praying. But hey, to each their own, right? It was quite intriguing, I must say.The family and I took a few pictures after that since the view was great albeit a bit hazy.

Also, apparently making it up here means I have gained a lot of merit. Pretty cool, huh? Not exactly sure how that’s going to help me in life, but at least I can say I’ve done this, right? =)

We started on our way back down and stopped for water and snacks for a few mins. The way down by truck was just as sketchy as on the way up and I wasn’t too fearful of our lives b/c the worse that could happen (besides hitting another truck full of ppl) would be to hit a large rock or tree since there weren’t really any cliffs (thankfully). 

I slept some more once we got back into our car and we stopped somewhere to have lunch. Lots of traditional and yummy Thai food...but extremely spicy!! Haha. I feel asleep in the car again and when I woke up we were at the beach! Haha. We stopped by the beach near Chonburi just for a few minutes. I hadn’t had time to go at all since it’s quite far away. I love the ocean!! 

We stopped a few minutes later at the local market where they sell all kinds of snacks and food. We bought these really cool things called Khao Lham which is glutinous rice mixed with coconut milk and sugar and sometimes red bean. It’s so good!! I also got to try this other thing which I’m not actually sure what it was, except that it was sticky and coconutty and delicious. It was wrapped in banana leaves and grilled. So. Good. 

On the way back I slept part of the way again (trying to catch up on sleep is never easy!) and the traffic was so bad on the other side that we got off and crossed the road to go home instead of riding in the car with Wan to make a U-turn.  Told ya the traffic here is crazy!