So our trip has finally begun. We left from JFK at 9:00 am on Thursday morning headed to Hong Kong. Luckily, we were able to get seats next to each other, one in the aisle and one in the middle. We were not so lucky with our window seat companion; he had some sort of intense whooping cough and refused to cover his mouth. I thought Stephanie was going to lose it. But he slept for part of the trip, so we did have a small reprieve.
We learned a few things on this flight, one being never order the vegetarian meals. Never. Even if you are a vegetarian, order the normal meal and eat around the meat. We were extremely jealous every time a new meal came out. Ours would be mushy and tasteless, while everyone else got decent looking meals with all these extra goodies we didn’t get. Anyway, lesson learned. Secondly, Cathay Pacific is a great airline. Not only was everything on time, the flight attendants were so kind and helpful. We nicknamed ours Genie, because he was so jolly and reminded us of a magic genie. He even snuck us some ice cream bars (which don’t come with the vegetarian meal, hence my first point). The flight was long, 16 hours, but with all the movie choices, t.v. shows, books, food breaks, and the occasional shuteye, it didn’t seem all that bad until about the last 3 or 4 hours. Those dragged.
Once we got to Hong Kong, and after a few missteps trying to maneuver the airport, we had a 2-hour layover and then another 4-hour flight to Bangkok. Again, vegetarian meal, again nasty. Seriously, don’t order them. Both of us were able to sleep for most of this flight so it went by fairly quickly.
We finally arrived in Bangkok and met up with our boss, Lam. She is the most amazing woman and we would have been completely lost without her. She is responsible for the creation of the Farmer Community School and hopes to teach the youth here numerous skills to help them advance in life. She has made major progress so far and has lots of plans for the future.
Anyway, she brought us to a hotel in Bangkok, where we passed out. In the morning we went to the bus station to catch the bus headed to the village. We ate breakfast at the bus station, it consisted of vegetables, noodles, rice, and soup. The soup was my favorite, it was very much like pho. Although, it had these big globs of gelatinous material floating around, which we found out was blood. We tried it, didn’t taste like much. Weird texture though.
The bus to the village took about 6.5 hours, which went by really fast. Once we got to the bus station near the village, we were met by a few of the other villagers. There was a market going on, so we walked through and bought a few food items. Lam made us eat this sticky rice on a stick that you dip in fish paste. It was pretty tasty, but hard to eat.
Finally, we arrived in Plaboo. It was much different than I expected. It is a community of about 68 families. It reminds me of a campground, where everyone is walking from house to house visiting and laughing with each other. There are cows, buffalo, chickens, lizards, frogs, and lots of bugs. Everyone was extremely friendly and really excited to meet us. They laugh at our broken attempts at speaking Thai. They gave me a Thai name, Allisaka, and they love saying it and giggling. One girl, Sao, even went through her English worksheet with me and did a great job! She seems to be the most enthusiastic about learning English. We met Lam’s parents, who were so nice. We couldn’t understand a word they were saying, but they kept talking a mile a minute to us. They then each tied string around our wrists while wishing us health and happiness while we are here. They also said the string represents them as our parents while we are in the village and that if we need anything, we can turn to them. It was pretty awesome. I can’t say enough about how welcoming everyone has been and also how grateful they say they are for us coming. It makes me feel like we definitely made the right decision. On the way out of the house, we ran into a lot of the smaller children of the village. Three of four of the little boys could not stop looking and laughing at us. I don’t think they have ever seen hair so crazy and skin so pale. They were adorable.
Tomorrow we are attending a meeting in the nearby city with Lam on expanding her curriculum outside of Plaboo. But first, we have to master the shower. That should be an experience of it’s own, I’m sure.
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