Chinese New Year's Parade

     Last Friday our hosts Nett and Anders took my son and I to the Chinese New Year's parade in Thai Meaung. This was a most interesting, and enjoyable!, experience. The action started at the Chinese Temple, which is, from what I understand, the place of action for many festivities in town. In the morning people had set out tables of confectionary turtles: big ones, little ones, big ones with little ones, all through the square
around the temple. They were all red, and had various decorations on them, from iced dragons to peacock feathers. My understanding is that these were offerings to the Gods of the temple. These turtles were on display all morning, until just before the parade preparations began.







     Just after noon the more active preparations, from a spectator's perspective, began.  People appeared, milling about in the square with even more in the temple.  Incense was set alight, drumming began, the occasional firecracker was set off, and children with flags and dragon costumes appeared.

   
     Things became quite noisy, crowded, and hot.  Small palanquins appeared, ranging in size from 5 to 8 ft, approximately.  These were of two types, one which consisted of a chair, presumably for a person to sit on, and another which resembled small temples.

These, I was told, were for the statues of the Gods which would soon be removed from the temples, embued with their God's presence.

     Inside the temple, other preparations were proceeding. I could not see much other than a lot of smoke and people moving about, but, since the idea was for those participating to become possessed by the various Gods represented in the temple I am assuming that this is what was happening and the increasing noise and activity level indicated progress in this.

     The noise and activity level inside the temple continued to increase until, somewhere around 1:30, a path was cleared in front of the temple doors and the God statues began to appear. These were quickly and discreetly placed in their houses, and the curtains closed.  Following upon the heels of the statues were the possessed individuals.  Their appearance was rather more showy, with the individuals gyrating around to the music of the drums, and the spectators being careful to avoid looking them in the eye.  The possessed individuals made their way over to what I will call the piercing table, upon which was a selection of metal rods ranging from perhaps 3 to 5 ft in length, and about 1/2" in diameter.  Each

possessed individual chose a rod, or two, which was then slowly slid into their cheek on one side of their face, and then out the cheek on the other side.










     And now it was time for the parade itself.   Palanquins, God statues, carriers, possessed individuals, drummers, spectators, we all set off towards the main street in town.  Being careful, of course, to avoid the rods sticking out of the sides of the possessed individuals heads...

     Once we reached the main street, the crowd dispersed somewhat, with the main participants(these being the palanquins, the carriers, and the possessed individuals) taking center stage and the spectators (including myself and my hosts) falling back.  We retreated to the shop front of my host's parents, where they, like so many other shopowners, had set out a table of offerings for the Gods.

   
     Many shop owners had also set out firecrackers, which would be taken by the participants, lit, and then tossed under the feet of the palanquin carriers.  













    We waited and waited, and then, there they were!  The parade was coming our way!

    First to arrive were the enclosed statues and their carriers, accompanied by a man who would stop and bless the shop owners.  

This was relatively quiet. Following this, however, was more excitement, as this was where the possessed individuals again made an appearance, this time to the accompaniement of the noise and smoke of firecrackers. Those firecrackers that shopowners had put out were now being put to use... they were collected, lit, and then tossed among the feet of those people following along with the possessed individuals.  This created a lot of noise, smoke, and, well, burn marks on the carriers' legs and clothing. 


     And then, finally, after lots of smoke, banging, and drumming, the parade was done, at least for us.  It continued down the road, of course, and then eventually made its way back to the temple.  After about two hours of excitement and heat, however, my son and I were done, happy to have experienced something completely new in this land of smiles. 

Valentine's Day

     Today was February 14th, Valentine's Day, and so today we did in class what many children back home would be doing, we made Valentine's Day crafts. In this instance, we made Valentine's Day cards. What a lot of fun this was! The children were amazing, their artistic abilities are incredible, and the thought and effort they put into their creations was inspiring. It was a wonderful bonding activity which allowed us to share in a tradition from a culture not their own, in a way that they enjoyed and found familiar, I think, through the process of drawing and colouring together, and yet different. So Happy Valentine's Day Thailand!

February 9th - Living in Thailand

So what's it like living in Thailand? Well, it's different than living in Canada, and it's the same. My son and I are living in a little two bedroom house, with a front verandha, front room, kitchen area, bathroom, and even a resident dog, so that experience is similar to what we have at home. But.... then there are the differences. The floors are all tiles. Makes sense in this climate, I would hate to see what would happen to carpet here with all the humidity, but it's not what we are used to. The bathroom is as we experienced when we travelled in Cambodia and Vietnam, all in one piece,with the movable shower head, toilet, and sink all in one undivided room, with the handy dandy squeegy for drying off the floor after one showers. The kitchen area is large, and we have a refrigerator, which is wonderful and I am not sure if everyone here does, but there are no cooking facilities, which is very strange for us. So the basic living experience, although similar in that we are in a house, like at home, is also different. Enough certainly to be somewhat unsettling at first, and to require some adaptation, but also, once one gets moving on it, to be somewhat exciting.

The experience of going about one's daily life is also similar, but different. For one, most people appear to go out for their meals, which, fortunately for my son and I, is a much less costly undertaking here than it is back home, with a fully satisfying dinner for the two of us running around the equivalent of $7 Canadian. If I were to stay here long enough I would perhaps forget how to cook! Luxurious as it may sound, the eating out experience is one of the experiences I am finding hardest to adapt to. I like my quiet times, and dinner time back home is one of those times for me. I enjoy being able to retreat into my kitchen at the end of my day, putter around with my stuff, and then sit down to a leisurely meal in the comfort and privacy of my home. This is not possible here. But we are adapting. We are substituting a quiet leisurely breakfast for our dinners, as well as a peanut butter sandwich lunch at home for many lunches, and although it is not the same, perhaps this is helping.

Many other aspects of going about our daily lives are also similar, but different. The requirements for living are still the same... we still need to get up in the mornings, eat breakfast, go to "work", do my son's school, have dinner, go to bed. The house still needs to be cleaned, laundry done, groceries purchased. But how these things are accomplished is all slightly different. Just enough so that we feel slightly off balance. We're still having yogurt at breakfast, but it's a different flavour. We aren't having our usual eggs, we're substituting with bread with nutella, which I was very happy to find here, especially since it is even considerably cheaper than it is at home! We also have fruit with our breakfast, just like at home, but again, it's different fruit. We often have apples at home, but the apples here are different, and seem to taste more like cucumbers than what we identify as apples, and I haven't even seen any strawberries or raspberries, so we've switched to bananas, which I am happy to say are far tastier than the bananas we get at home and as a result a more than suitable replacement for our apples. Cleaning is also very different. At home, we vacuum. Here, they sweep. With these wonderful brooms which work far better than any I have encountered back home. But this sweeping needs to be done daily. And the things that get swept up are somewhat different than what gets picked up off the floor back home, notably in the inclusion of bug carcasses. I have not yet inquired as to why, or how, we get so many bug carcasses, I'm just rather glad they are carcasses rather than the live ones. Although we've had a few of those too.... a couple of scorpions, several millipedes, one smallish for here (about 1" across) spider, and one huge spider that just appeared in the middle of our floor one evening. Sweeping appears to be a daily activity everywhere, including at the schools. At both schools I have seen the children out sweeping the dirt and the walkways before classes start, and when we went to visit a local waterfall I could swear that dirt pathway had broom stroke marks on it. I think this is because of all the leaves that fall. Whatever the reason, it does make everything appear neat and tidy.

Food storage is also vastly different here than back home. Back home I am accustomed to having a rather large supply of food stored within my house in various forms.... frozen meat in the freezer, dried goods in the pantry, canned goods, fruits and vegetables that will do me for a week, at least, milk, yogurt, juices.... large quantities designed to last me for a long time. Here, well, you aren't storing anything outside of a well sealed container or the fridge, the ants will get to it. And that means you'd better have your garbage sealed as well.... no large garbage cans inside the house here! So... people appear to tend to get food as they need it, whether for their home or for eating, and that's really how our place is set up too. So I am making way more frequent shopping trips here than I do back home. Thankfully we do have a fridge, so I am able to keep some things on hand, like cold drinks and yogurt for breakfast, and I have a safe storage place for my fruits and comfort foods like oreo cookies.

Getting supplies, including food, is also different than back home. It appears as though pretty much everything is available from the many store fronts which line the street, or the three-wheeled carts which come and go along the sides of the streets in front of the shop fronts, which carts seem to come in the greatest numbers around mealtimes. The streetside shops sell huge varieties of items, from sandals to shirts to bags to electronics to pastries to sweets to fruits and then meals. The three wheeled carts seem to be restricted to food items, generally. And there is a nice air-conditioned 7-11 which I believe even has slurpees. It is a very different experience shopping from these little stores than shopping back home, it is a much more leisurely activity here, which can actually be somewhat unsettling when one is going out for what would typically be a focused "get groceries" type of trip. The existence of a small grocery store towards the edge of town does make it a little easier, adjustment wise, on those of us new to town, at least for food and personal items. The grocery store setup is a much more familiar environment, with an in/out experience more like what we are accustomed to in our pursuit of food items back home.  And they have some of our home foods, like peanut butter and Oreo cookies!, right there, easily accessible.  The cookies are even reasonably priced, although we are paying a premium for the peanut butter.

And there's so much else... garbage disposal... this is done via bins placed along side of the road, certainly I wouldn't want to keep food garbage unsealed in my house, that would be like an invitation for those ants that seem to magically appear as soon as I even think of opening the peanut butter!  And water... this is from big jugs of drinking water.  And vehicles... we're driving a moped instead of a large enclosed vehicle.  And we drive on the left.  And traffic rules are quite different.  And women don't go swimming on the beach in bathing suits.  And there are way more birds (which is wonderful), and butterflies (also wonderful).  We now shower at night, to get rid of the sunscreen and to cool off, instead of the mornings.  And we aren't having baths, there is no bathtub.  The washing machine (which I am oh so happy to have because being able to easily do one's laundry at one's residence is oh so convenient) empties into a big drainage spot inside the house, which somewhat alarmed my son the first time as he thought something was broken!  And we're sleeping under mosquito nets.  And we have been told to hang our clothes instead of keep them in our suitcases, so they don't go moldy (moldy!  we're from Calgary, nothing goes moldy there!).  Wow.  Unsettling, yes.  At first.  But also exciting.  It is so neat to see how, even with all that is different, so much is still the same.  We're all people, and we all have the same things to do... eat, work, socialize, rest.  We just do it in slightly different ways.  And learning about this is, well, exciting. 

One week and one day in Thailand

One week and one day in Thailand, and it is being quite an experience.  A good experience that is.  It is, of course, absolutely beautiful.  We are in Thai Meung, which is right on the water.  The beach is a short moped ride from where we are staying, and a wonderful, cooling, way to end the days, which are quite warm for us.  The people have been very friendly, and helpful, which is nice.  Of course, every time I start up the moped, or start to drive, I appear to provide them with some amusement, but I think they would be friendly and helpful even without this.  I am teaching at two schools, one fairly close to our residence, and another a little further away.  Both are primary schools, with children up to the P6 level, which is supposed to be about 12 years old, but at the second school some of the children are somewhat older, as they are primarily children of Burmese  refugees and therefore started school a little later than what is typical.  Teaching these children has so far been a very pleasant experience, the classes are small and the children are eager to learn.  The classrooms are decently supplied, and it is easy to forget the hardships many of these children face in their lives, at least compared to the vast majority of children from where I come.

We have established a bit of a routine this week, which is comforting and helps with our adjustment.  The mornings are spent teaching, and the afternoons reviewing that morning's lesson, planning the next day's lesson, doing my son's lessons, and then finishing off with a cooling visit to the beach.  Yesterday as I was sitting on the beach watching my son play in the sand I was struck again by the beauty of the location, and how this experience, of being able to sit back and appreciate the beauty of our world, should be available to all.  There is no reason why in this world we are in now this experience, of being able to sit and relax, in a  clean and safe environment, comfortable in the knowledge that we are not in danger, knowing we have a home to go to, with basic supplies such as clean water, food, and safety, with a future for our children, should not be available to all who desire it.  Wherever they may be, whether it is on a beach in Thailand, a mountainside in Canada, or next to the desert in India, this should be available to all.  Why do we not make it so?