Easy Riders

Today started out with two meetings at Plaboo. About 15 of the people involved in the Farmer Community School (FCS) met at Plaboo to discuss future plans and the progress of the program. In attendance were village leaders, teachers from other villages, government officials, and other members of Plaboo. Everyone was really excited to meet us and learn about where we are from and what we are doing in Thailand. We couldn’t understand anything in the meeting, but everyone was really engaged and of course Lam was the most enthusiastic of all. At the same time as this meeting, another meeting was going on with Heifer International, a non-profit. They provided the village with 150 cows as part of the agricultural subgroup of FCS. That meeting was attended by the farmers of Plaboo and representatives from Heifer International. 

After the meeting, we served lunch to all the attendees, which included scrambled egg patties, pork and vegetables, fish stew, that same spicy slaw that pops up everywhere, and of course, sticky rice. The egg thing was so delicious, everything else we have had before, as they are pretty much the staples of most meals. One of the teachers from the neighboring village asked us if we could come to his village once a week to teach English, which we accepted excitedly! We will ride bikes to his village every Monday to teach. 

Because Lam had to leave for a meeting in the city, it seemed like it would be a lazy day at the village. We thought we might be able to explore a bit since we have been too busy to see all of Plaboo. But we ran into a couple of the ladies on Lam’s staff in the office, Om and Toi. They were on the computer using Google Translate; a program where you can type in a sentence in English or Thai and it will translate it. We were finally able to communicate with them, something we have had difficulty with so far. They thought it was so funny every time we wrote something; we have learned that the villagers think most things we say are funny, whether we are speaking in Thai or English. As we were using the program, two of the other village women came in the office and started playing too, Yu and Dia. Eventually we ended up sitting on the patio over the pond teaching each other Thai and English. We learned all the parts of the body, colors, and a few sayings and taught them the same things. We all had a lot of laughs trying to remember everything and we have been practicing ever since. The two ladies on staff are a little younger than Stephanie and me so it was nice to hang out with people are own age. At the end of our session, all four of them tied more strings around our wrists to symbolize that we are a part of the family and to wish us good health and happiness. 

After our lesson and just hanging out for a little while, Om and Toi took us on the mopeds into town. We went to the market that occurs about twice a week. They sell fish, vegetables, raw meat (kind of gross), clothes, shoes, candy, and just about everything else. Toi and Om stopped at the bug lady, so I tried fried cricket and worm. The cricket wasn’t that bad, sort of like a chip. The worm on the other hand, was crunchy on the outside and then this goo squirted out of the inside. Not okay. I won’t be trying those again. We picked up a few things and then headed to a little 7-11 type store. This was great because I needed conditioner, as I left my big bottle at home. We then drove to the noodle shop to eat dinner, where Om and Toi had a lot of fun making fun of our chopstick abilities. I thought mine were decent before I got here, but they twirl noodles with them and all sorts of other fancy moves that I obviously don’t have. 

As we were driving back to Plaboo on the mopeds, I looked up and saw more stars than I ever see in Philly (love you Philly but clear skies are not one of your selling points). I felt so lucky to be on a moped in Thailand, after eating crickets and noodles, looking at the stars, on our way back to this awesome village. Not a lot of people get opportunities like these, so I want to take as much in as I possibly can.