This will be a very short post. I will post again next week sometime with more details and events.
All the farang (foreigners) got to participate in our school's sports day parade. Which means it was another day to get dressed up. Now, if I had written a post the day of or the day after this parade, it would be an angry one. But I have mellowed out on the subject and have found that it wasn't quite as bad a day as I had thought (wow the tenses in that sentences are screwy). I won't go into much detail, but we started 2 km from our school and then walked to the school, then we stood for about an hour waiting for a ceremony to finish (I only use these words because none of us farang knew what was going on, so we waited), then me and my friend had to stand on the road side and wait for our ride, for another half an hour or so. Luckily there was a shop just across the street and we bought some orange Fanta.
With my Rotary club here, we helped out with the flooding by packing bags of supplies for those unable to leave their flooded homes and for those who are living elsewhere. A big circle was set up and you would get a bag and then walk around the circle and people would put the supplies in your bag (a bad explanation, I realize), think of it like trick or treating for the Good Samaritan. The bags were then delivered to Bangkok; some of our club member (like our President) went to help distribute them. I myself would like to go to Bangkok to help out directly, but I have a feeling that it may be deemed dangerous. I will ask and in the meantime, continue to do what I can here. As long as you all over there do what you can as well (donate, pray, give support, etc.) --> there was this really nice commercial on here that had messages for the Thai people from Japan. They said things like ganbatte and sousou (meaning fight fight in Japanese and Thai respectively) as well as messages of hope and love.
I learned a new word in Thai that doesn’t have a direct translation to English its: nam jai, it expresses the idea in Thai culture that it is necessary to help other who are in need, whether you know them personally or not. From my understanding it means something like “water heart”, in the sense that you have to let your heart pour out in the giving to and helping of others.
On to something a little more light-hearted, I had my first moment of “Oh, I can’t remember what the word is in English.” It was brief and it involved the word “sapaloht” which means pineapple but, at the time, I couldn’t remember that J
That’ll be all for now, a non-picture post, as I have no pictures from these events on a camera that I currently have access to.
Tomorrow I am off Phu Kradeung National Park; where I will be climbing a mountain, taking beautiful pictures and attempting not to be eaten by wild animals (including snakes and leeches à ngoo and bling in Thai) or trampled by wild elephants (chang).
Thus I will be without internet until the 14th and probably too tired to write a blog about it until the weekend. I will however bring paper so I make notes to make sure I do not forget anything important that occurred.
At this park on November 10th, we will be celebrating Loy Krathong, a water and lights festival. It is a time when thanks are given to the water spirits, couples wish for happiness, others pray to Buddha and still others wish for good luck and longevity. All this is accomplished by floating a krathong (boat made from banana leaves) down a river after having lighted candles and incense on it and decorated it with flowers; as well as floating paper lanterns into the sky (like Tangled). If you would like to read more go here:
If you would like to see pretty pictures Google Images Loy Krathong Festival.
I will talk/write at you all soon, hopefully with pretty pictures. Until then....
See you on the flip side :)
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