Decisions, routines, & habits

Time runs differently here, less hustle and bustle and more "at your own leisure". Sometimes it's refreshing and sometimes I can waste an entire day grocery shopping. I can't say it's bad, it's just different. I have settled into my own routine: teaching, planning, cleaning, relaxing, repeat. I sort of feel like the Lost Boy's in Peter Pan, the longer I stay, the less I remember what I miss back home, which can be a good thing since I've made the decision to stay until at least May of 2016. Don't get me wrong, there still are things I will not give up, like my Deva Curl shampoo & conditioner and my Gold Bond lotion, however, although I am finding that I am less reliant on things I used to have readily available back home, I am still excited to go back for 5 weeks this March. I've already made a list of the restaurants I want to eat at and stores I want to shop at, Target and Chipotle being at the top of those lists.

*Dear Target,
If you happen to be reading this, I would like to suggest building a Target in Thailand. Us Americans would greatly appreciate it and I promise your stores would do amazingly well here.
Sincerely,
An American missing your store*

It's interesting when I have conversations with my students about life in America. To me, that's the life I grew up in, the only life I've ever really known. It's natural and comforting in my eyes but to them it's an extravagant world, so far away it seems impossible to imagine. As a foreigner in Thailand, I can see how far away America seems from the Thai's way of life, for example, how all our classrooms have A/C where most of the A/C action here is in big grocery stores or the mall (that's if you shop in those places, most shopping is done in the street markets), or how all homes have hot water, but if you want hot water here you have to buy a water heater for the specific shower or sink.
*side note*
Speaking of water, our battle for consistent water is still ever-present. It's gotten to the point where I have to resort to "bucket showering" (Bucket Showering: for those who do not know and I hope you never have to, is heating water up on the stove and pouring it into a bucket in order to get a good shower because there is not enough water pressure to shower using the actual shower head). It really is a humbling experience. You don't realize how precious and valuable clean running water is until you don't have it. It always reminds me of the one summer day our youth group walked like 2 (maybe 5, I can't remember, but it felt. like. forever.) miles, from our church to a creek and back, filling up plastic gallon water bottles (man, they were heavy bringing them back). It was a cool exercise to show our students how precious water is and how many countries have to do the exact same thing, but every day, sometimes twice a day, to get drinking, cleaning, and bathing water. Although my walk is shorter, from the kitchen to the bathroom, it still reminds me of how lucky I have it when I go back home and that I have the ability to go back "home" where people here don't have that opportunity.
We also talk about the holidays celebrated in America, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have a translator who helps me when I teach at the school and she explained that it's hard to teach American holidays because she has no way to know if she's explaining it correctly or not. She enjoys when I discuss American things because not only are the children learning but she learns more about the American culture as well and if she's right or not on her understanding of our holidays.

Even though the children here have less resources available to them, they are more resourceful than I ever was as a child. One day I went to one the girls home and on the side of the house 7 of them were grilling fish they caught.

If anyone had asked me in my teenage years catch my own fish, season it, start a grill, and cook the fish, I would have said, "That's yucky. No thanks". Besides, my mom wouldn't want me playing with fire, but these girls put me to shame. Even at 28, I still won't stuff my own fish and grill it, I mean, that's yucky. But the kids get a kick out of it and I love their independence.

Being here for the holidays has been a cool experience as well. Being a Buddhist country, Thai's don't celebrate holidays like Christmas and Easter, but they do have holidays like "Mother's, Father's, and Children's Day". This past weekend, our 4 homes went to one of the temples that threw a Children's Day party and my roommate and I were invited to celebrate with our Remember Nhu kids. It was such a fun, relaxed afternoon of eating, drinking, and playing games. There were 5 or 6 different restaurants that volunteered free food to everyone who came (our organization was one of the 6 who feed the community) a couple of drink stands, games, and a huge prize table that was raffled off to children who signed up. It was almost comical seeing our children run up to different tables for seconds and thirds on food, soda, and ice cream, and then crashing 30 minutes after their sugar high wore off.
PS: We were the only white chicks there. Sometimes it's so strange being the "foreigner".

So now, I count down the days till I board the 26 hour plane ride back to Florida (about 7 weeks if you were wondering). It'll feel odd, going home but not staying home, only visiting, but there's still so much work to do here that I can't just pack my bags and call it a day. Besides, I can't go home yet, who know's if I'll ever have another opportunity like this again. 

Till next time.