A Day in the Life of Jeeem in Thailand

I’ve been thinking about doing this for months, but you know how it is….one thing leads to another and things get in the way. Well, I’ve a couple days off and not much to do except play on the computer, so here we go…

“Jim’s Quiet Musings…” as you all know, is a lie. I’m rarely “Quiet” about anything in my life. Wanda used to say to me, “Jim, you are one of the most assertive people I know…you say exactly what’s on your mind. The trouble is your delivery sucks!”

I learned a lot from that woman. May she rest in peace.

I got to thinking about the “purpose” of this blog. What’s the purpose of any blog? I suppose there are as many purposes as there are blogs. My purpose, I think, is to share my experiences and thoughts about my life with people who may be interested in them.

I must admit, I’ve been remiss about sharing my true “musings,” with the world.

I live in Thailand now, but I have lived in Asia for coming up on two years, and have failed miserably in sharing the minor stuff that is knocking around in my head most times. Being a westerner, one can’t help but compare daily life in Asia to stuff more familiar back home….

That is the stuff that’s interesting!

School lunch

Most days I eat lunch in the school cafeteria. Some days I skip it, depending on what’s being served, but most days I eat there because it’s free and well…I’m hungry.

I wait to eat until just about 12:10 p.m., because that’s the time when there’s a lull (peace and quiet) between Prathom 1, 2 & 3 (Grades one, two and three) and the beginning of lunch for Prathom 4, 5 and 6 and Mathayom (high school) kids.

The school cafeteria is an open concept design. What I mean by “open concept” is, well…it has a roof, but no outside walls. Essentially like an outside picnic area. This idea is not new to Asian culture. The first time I saw this design was in the Philippines. In northeastern Mindanao, I visited a University that had no windows, per se. Just bars on the uh….openings.

My first “western” thought, upon seeing this, was…poverty. Nevertheless, after six trips to Asia, I finally figured it out…it’s the heat. Classrooms are NOT air-conditioned. Air-conditioning classrooms in Southeast Asian heat would be like putting a Band-Aid on every mosquito bite. It’s not only impossible, it’s expensive.

The heat is oppressive, so open concept….well, .works!

So, I waltz through the “open-concept” cafeteria, surrounded and embraced by my loving students, to arrive at the kitchen. I hunt out the plastic bowls and accept a dollop of rice from one of the kitchen crew. I then hunt around through the various huge containers for the Thai treat of the day.

The menu is usually the same, but it’s actually damn good. Yellow curried pork rice with string beans, spicy fried chicken parts, Daikon radish, mushroom and pork rice with vegetables, fish balls in a curried rice stew with rice, beef satay with peanuts and rice…the list goes on. The food is healthy and good, but God I’m so sick of rice!

As a reprieve, the school usually has a “snack” area that is set up for the kids (and me). This snack area offers delicious, unbelievably delicious snacks like: Fried Phatong shrimp, Seafood Wittaya wontons, fried sausage, spicy hot chicken wings, fried cuttlefish on a stick, fried octopus surprise and something that resembles fried tortilla chips in a sweet and sour sauce (sometimes stuffed with crab)…all generously supplied with heaps of sliced (and spiced) cucumber.

The “drink” section features a dark, sweet iced coffee – coconut juice with immature coconut rind, and an “orange juice” which is much more like some sort of powerful Gatorade mix, that is clearly my favorite. Other “special” drinks include “milk” drinks that are usually for the kids (and me) which are made with evaporated milk and something sweet, like cherry, blueberry, or other sweet flavors.

Tables are bussed by the students, which means that if you’re gonna sit down, you had better check out your chair first…as it’s often loaded with food particles left behind from first, second or third graders. Each child has their own assignment…push in the chairs, wipe down the table, collect the drink glasses.

Every day, several local, wild dogs course through the cafeteria, scrounging for food tidbits. The local cats are a bit more discreet. Birds swoop through the cafeteria, landing on empty tables to pick on remnants of rice and other little smidges.

My “Western” mind takes in all of this, thinking to myself: “Kids back home would Freak with a capital “F” just seeing a dog walking through their cafeteria…let alone a bird flying through their protected cafeteria, or a cat winding between student legs in search of a handout.

It seems westerners are so compartmentalized…whereas things here in Asia are just so simple.

Kids here in Southeastern Asia, walk past the dogs, birds and cats as if they weren’t there. I empty my dish in a five-gallon bucket near the cleaning area, often having to push the muzzle of a stray dog away from the bucket that he was eating from…

I think to myself, “All of this would just about totally ‘gross out’ a western kid. Sadly, I feel grateful and happy for the simplicity of life in Thailand, compared to the remorse I feel for the complexity of life in the west.

-Jeeem-

2005 The Year of the Rooster

In less than twelve hours, the Year of the Rooster will be upon us here in Asia. The quiet sound of wind blowing through bamboo, palm, coconut and banana trees surrounding my home is increasingly being shattered by the machine gun-like explosions of fireworks set off by my neighbors, supposedly to ward off bad spirits and sweep away the bad memories, leaving room for the new ones to enter with the new year.

An appropriately named New Year! Ironically so, because of the shrill awakening of my slumber every morning with the cackling, crowing, choking sounds of the infernal beasts that live around this neighborhood.

I don't think I'll ever get used to that sound.

I'm off for two days, in celebration of the Chinese New Year, mainly because we've got a heavy presence of Chinese in this neighborhood. So yes, I do get to practice a little of my Mandarin, which never seems to get much better, even though I still study at a fairly regular pace.

I'm starting to prepare some regular blogging about some of the basic, mundane events in my typical daily life here in southern Thailand, after realizing one day that although they are mundane to me now, some of the things I see and do, are rather odd by Western standards. Hopefully somebody will get some enjoyment out of my posts.

Of late, I've finished a rather disturbing book called, "Tuesdays with Morrie." Disturbing because it has managed to call attention to my somewhat lonely existence and brought back into focus, the importance of family.

I've always had a tendency to avoid looking at the very things I should be looking at, hoping beyond hope they would just dissolve or wisp away with the wind. But, nothing like having issues thrown up in one's face eh?

Thing happen for a reason, don't they?

-Jeeem-

Posted by Hello

It's a heat wave here in southern Thailand!

The cool months of December and January have left us and now the sweltering heat is creeping into February. Nights are tepid, mornings are warm, foggy and heavy with dew and by mid-morning it's hot, hot, hot.

At my school, the kids and I are busy putting together our skit, "The Three Little Pigs," for the upcoming English Camp, on the 10th and 11th of March. The kids and I are having a blast, but....the management of the school is having a bird.

Somehow, with management concerns, the presentations tend to drift from the childrens' hands, to the adult hands.

Suddenly it's, "This play has to be good, because the parents will be here to see it and they want to know that their kids are learning English appropriately!"

Somehow I'm managing not to get caught up in the management's paranoia, and I'm having fun with the kids. After all, I remember how important it was to me, to be an actor in a play in school at their age.

I teach approximately 1,050 students a week. All these students have Thai names or nicknames and it's impossible for me to remember all their names...but, I remember the names of the children in our play. I see them in the cafeteria, on school grounds and in the classroom...and I call them by name...

"Hello Namfon! (a small, skinny, Chinese looking girl with short, bowl cut hair) How are you?"

"Pichayet, (a short, pudgy faced Thai boy who speaks English with a flair) how are you doing today?"

"Prangtip! (An adorable young third grader, with pigtails and a devilish grin) How are you today?"

"Good afternoon Sarocha! (The cutest little second grade girl on the planet earth) Do you like rambutan?"

"Hello Hakimeen! ( A tall, shy Thai boy who dearly loves to speak English) Are you happy today?"

"Suchanat! (A sweet, pudgy Thai girl who's smile could light up New York) How is the weather today?"

"Pimpika!! (A tiny, cute, frail looking Thai girl who has a voice that would shake you out of your seat) Do you like to dance?"

And the list goes on....God, I love these kids so much! And they are doing wonderfully in their practice sessions for the play.

Other news?

• I've fallen in love with a woman that is unobtainable (again).
• I've been offered a job in North Western Africa for money that's double the highest amount I've ever made in my life.
• I've made two new friends, one from Belgium and another from India.
• I'm feeling unsettled for the first time in my life here in Thailand, mainly because of the job offer.
• I'm reading the most I've ever read in my life.
• I'm actually practicing my Chinese and my Thai and learning more and more phrases.
• My long-time friend Jessie Herrera and I finally made contact after approximately fourteen years, and we may soon reunite.
• I've made contact with another one of my childhood friends, who as it turns out, has been living in Japan for the last 22 years.
• I'm beginning to get age spots.

Well folks, that's about it! Chinese New Year is fast approaching southern Thailand and I'm hoping that the fireworks won't be as loud or as frequent as when I was living in Guangzhou!

-Jeeem-

Posted by Hello

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!

Computer problems again. This time it was not only a faulty RAM chip, but a nasty virus to boot!

But, like a bad dream......I'm back once again!

I'll update this weekend probably, when I've got time...

-Jeeem-

Well, it's New Year's Eve here in Thailand.

There are activities planned for tonight, celebrations in town, etcetera, etcetera, but I'm not interested. I'm enjoying my peace and quiet here at home, surrounded by reading materials and the makings for some pretty delicious western food.

I'm a pretty good cook, at least when it comes to western foods and Mexican food, but I'm limited to the supplies that Tesco Lotus in Hatyai has to offer. Most labels and descriptions are in English, which helps, but some things aren't, or they are called something different than their western counterparts.

Anyway, I'm making Philadelphia style cheese-steak hoagies tonight, something I learned from living in south Philly for three years. Yum, yum and double and triple yum. I simply can't wait. I picked up a big french roll, excellent green bell peppers, mayonaise, some hot orange peppers, onion, cheddar cheese (sharp), some semi-lean top round beef and some mushrooms that had that "mini portabella" look to them but were called something else I didn't recognize.

Firecrackers have been exploding all day and now, at 7:05 p.m., they are intensifying. Nothing I can't handle though, as I managed to get through weeks of the Chinese New Year, last year in Guangzhou, which can only be compared to being in a war zone of exploding shells for weeks at a time.

Something about the noise scaring the bad spirits away or some such nonsense.

I'm off until next Tuesday, so my plan is to take it easy, clean my house and read. I might head out to the wet market and pick up some shrimp ("Prawns" as they call them here) and cook up a Cajun seafood gumbo. Who knows.

I visited the bookstore at Lee Garden yesterday and picked up two books. Their selection sort of sucks really, but there were a couple books I think I can stomach. I asked them if they could "order" books and the conversation went like this:

"Hello. Um...can you order books for me? Books you don't have available here?"

"Oooda?"

"Books. Can you order them?"

"Oooder?"

"Do you have anyone who speaks English?"

Mr. Oooda points to a counter behind me. I thank him and saunter over.

"Hello. Can you order books for customers?"

"Oooda?"

Finally I just politely thanked her and left. Obviously the girl behind this counter was related to Mr. Oooda.

After purchasing my books I took a familiar jaunt to the Swan, a local haunt for foreigners that has a nifty yet small book exchange going on in one corner of the restaurant. I had with me my two recently read books, "The Dive from Clausen's Pier" and "Ladder Years" both graciously sent to me from my cyber-sis Shirl the Pearl.

I ended up picking out two paperback novels that I will probably have to choke through (although who knows, I may be surprised) and dickering with the guy behind the counter to get an even trade. At first he wanted 80 baht, but I just flipped the books over and showed him the prices (truthfully not even having a clue of the exchange rate) and telling him he was getting the deal of a lifetime.

It worked. I got an even trade, thanked him and left. I now have in my possession five books to read. I'm in literary heaven.....literally. Not quite the books I would have chosen to buy if I were at say....Borders or Amazon, but books all the same.

So, old fart that I am, I'm starting to enjoy my books again and learn to fold into that quiet place I know so well. School will begin on Tuesday and this coming Thursday we'll be beginning practice sessions for our school plays.

Me and my little ones will be doing "The Three Little Pigs," which ought to be a blast. Oh! I finally got my pictures back. Nothing earth shattering, but I will have to have my pal Auay scan them and get them online soon!

Happy New Year to you all!

-Jeeem-

God!

I am so, so sorry for not posting sooner. I've had some major trouble with my modem and had to take the old one back the computer shop, which had to be sent to Bangkok for repair. Finally I'm back on-line with a "loaner" modem that works pretty good.

Yes! I am okay!

I live at least 140 kilometers inland from the devastation that occured in Krabi province, Koh Phi Phi Don island and Phuket. The news casters say that Phuket and Phi Phi islands were the worst hit.

Such a weird situation....as many of you know, I had just traveled to Koh Phi Phi Don for a vacation in October and spend a glorious five days there, living in a small bungalow at the Cabana Hotel on the beach.

Today, the Cabana Hotel is non-existent...and the bungalow's are all gone....washed out to sea along with their residents. The tidal wave hit at peak tourist season....a day after Christmas, when people were lounging around on the beach or just leisurely taking in the day.

Suddenly, forty foot waves hit the beach and took everything with them...cars, bodies, huts, buildings, brush, trees, you-name-it. Bodies are still being discovered. It was so strange for me to see the recognizable remnants of the Cabana Hotel where I stayed on Koh Phi Phi Don and see the flattened structure where I had enjoyed breakfast in the morning hours of my vacation.

Here in the south, although peaceful and dry, the tremors made their mark. The buildings at Lee Gardens in Hatyai were damaged by the 9.0 tremors and aftershocks and the street was strewn with glass and debri. Luckily, nobody was hurt.

So, once again I've escaped major harm, dancing away from danger only months ahead of time. Perhaps my life is one that is touched in some way? I'd like to think of it like that.

The death toll in Asia minor has reached beyond 70,000 now and is expected to continue to rise rapidly as the missing become accounted for....

So sad. My heart goes out to those who are missing relatives or have discovered their deceased family members or friends.

-Jeeem-
Posted by Hell

Merry Christmas from Sunny Thailand!

Howdy folks!

Well, it's Christmas Day here in southern Thailand, a hot, sunny and breezy day. While most of you are tucked in your beds asleep, visions of sugar plums dancing through your heads, awaiting Santa and his reindeer to alight atop your roof, I'm just enjoying the day as if it were any other regular day here in Thailand.

Being that the area I'm living in is predominately Muslim and/or Buddhist, there isn't much happening here, except people gearing for the end-of-year celebration to rock-in the New Year.

Most of my er, uh...Christmas cheer, was obtained from the happy smiles on my students faces throughout the week as they colored and prepared Christmas cards for their parents. Most brought me Christmas cards, and I received a pretty, little heart shaped sachet from one of my first grade girls and also a "Winnie the Pooh - Tiger tree ornament," both of which I will undoubtedly hang on to for life.

It was so much fun watching the children's faces as they gazed at our classroom Christmas tree and intently sketched snowmen, Santa Claus, Christmas trees and presents on their cards, crayons and colored pencils flying through their little hands as they completed their little works of art, finally bringing them to me with serious looks on their faces, for my final scrutiny.

I'd take each card in hand, study it for a while, pointing out what they had drawn and finally exclaim, "Beautiful!" or "Wonderful!" which of course caused a huge smile to break out on their face.

The remaining part of my Christmas cheer came from an unexpected package I received in the mail from Lansing, Michigan and a very unexpected e-mail in my Yahoo box.

The package I received was from my big Cyber-sis, Shirl-the-Pearl, and contained two books. One, "The Dive from Clausen's Pier" and the other, "Ladder of Years," both of which I had been wanting to read.

Thanks Shirl!

I'm already done with Clausen's Pier, finishing it in a record two days. It truly was one of the best books I've read in a long time. It really made my holiday season!

The unexpected e-mail was from one of my childhood friends, Raul Herrera, a.k.a., "Camel" who's brother Jesse, I've been trying to hunt down over the internet. The irony of this is that Raul and I used to discuss traveling to Asia, as kids in high school will dream about far off places.
Only thing about that was that both of us DID end up in Asia. Raul has been living in Japan for the last 20 some-odd years and here I am in southern Thailand after a year in China.

Weird.

He supplied the information I'd need to contact his brother, who' s living in Missouri now. Funny how we all seem linked somehow.

Merry Christmas to you all!

-Jeeem-

Posted by Hello

It's Christmas time again!

I wouldn't even know about it, had it not been for others mentioning the fact and my Thai assistant at the school where I teach mentioning setting up the Christmas tree for the kids.

So, today I'm going into work (a Sunday) to set up the tree and some Christmasy decorations. I'm actually looking forward to it. I've never been much one for holiday celebrations, but I think I can put aside the "Bah Humbug" attitude long enough to focus on making our classroom look cool for the kids.

After so many winters spent in New England, it seems funny celebrating Christmas here in southeast Asia. Last Christmas was spent in Guangzhou and although I didn't celebrate the holiday per se, Phoenix City, Guangzhou and Xintang all did it up with decorations, fireworks and the like.

We'll be handing out little presents for the kids, small gifts of chocolate or candies, which will be as much fun for me just seeing their smiling little faces as it will be for them receiving them. There will also be some Christmasy music, sing-alongs and possibly a Christmas movie for the kids to watch.

P.S., Happy birthday to my mom, who would have been 85 today.

-Jeeem-
Posted by Hello

And you wonder why I teach Thai children?...

Don't cry because it's over;
smile because it happened....

-Jeeem-

Posted by Hello

LOI KRATONG is the festival I celebrated last Friday night.

Every year in Thailand, on the full-moon of the 12th lunar month, Thailand celebrates Loy Krathong, which is also known as the “festival of lights."

On this evening, the country's waterways - rivers, canals, even hotel swimming pools - turn into a sea of dazzling lights. The lights come from small floats that carry people's cares downstream. This year Loy Krathong fell on November 26th. "Loy" means "to float," and 'krathong" means a “leaf cup." Hence, most floating objects you see during the Loy Krathong night are flowers formed like cups, or artificial lotus petals shaped like cups.

The one I floated down river was made by my friend "Wut," who lives near my home. It was a simple structure, made of palm stalk, banana leaves and flowers, with candles and incense burners in the middle.

While walking down the river bank to deposit our "Krathong," I tripped on loose leaves and dumped the whole thing onto the ground. We managed to piece it back together, but I couldn't help but wonder if bad luck had dropped it's dark shroud upon us. (Me and my uncoordination may have cost us our lives in the next world).

Loy Krathong is a colorful event, and many people call it Thailand's loveliest festival. To mark the occasion, Thai women wear resplendent, colorful traditional attire, (this I can attest to and I must say I was quite impressed!) and festoon their hair with flowers. (not to mention tight, tight jeans!).

Explanation of the festival's significance varies. There are those who say that as the floats embark on their journey, they take with them the owner's misfortunes and believe this is a way of sloughing off one's sins as well. (Good deal for the Jeeemeister!)

On a lighter note, it is also believed that lovers can tell their romantic fortunes by watching their krathong float together downstream. As far as lovers are concerned, a pair of krathong sticking together into the darkness promises lifelong partnership... You don't need to believe the myth and philosophy behind it.

-Jeeem-


Posted by Hello