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| Yup, that's me...maybe not the most flattering picture, but not the worst! I am down about 30lbs! Woo hoo! Let's keep on truckin... |
Written May 26th
It’s amazing how much more gratifying it is to eat macaroni and cheese that you had to sift through to get rid of ants, than it is to easily just pour it out of the box into the pan. I know, I know…I talk about ants (and rain) a lot, but such is my life. I mistakenly thought that my mac & cheese would be fine just sitting on a ledge in my room. I mean, why would ants want dried noodles. The cheese was safely stored in its own wrapping, so there is no reason for ants to infest my perfectly tasty box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese…boy, was I wrong. A whole colony of ants made its way down from the ceiling, scampered up the sides of each of my boxes (5), and entered my precious (*creepy voice*…’my precious’) boxes of cheesy noodles. Unlike the time when the ants ate some kit-kats, or when they infested my Girl Scout cookies, I was not going to let them stop me from eating this (chocolate covered ants just did not sound appetizing at the time).
Unfortunately, this means that I was not able to wait until moving into my own place to eat these boxes. I had put the boxes in zip lock bags, but the damage had already been done. Ants were now trapped inside the bags with the mac & cheese, and they continued to feast. So, how does one go about eating these? Well, first you have to pour the noodles into a bowl. Then you toss the noodles just as you would a salad. This scares the crap out of the ants, forcing them out of their playground of tubes and slides. You have a choice at this point. You can patiently wait for them to crawl out of the bowl, or you can kill on site. Me, well, I chose the direct approach (the American way). I killed every little ant that I saw. You can use any object that you want, but I figured out fingers, especially thumb and index, work best.
Now, at this point, you would think the job was done. But, of course, it is not. Ants do not only have the ability to enter things through small holes, they have the ability to make those tiny holes in the objects that they want to enter. So, my cheese packets that I thought were so safe were not. I will tell you now, this did cause me to pause. Back in the states, I would not have eaten my mac if I saw any sort of ant even entering the box…now I am contemplating eat it when the ants have not only breached my box, but also breached my precious (again…*creepy voice*…my precious) cheese. Screw it!!! I want mac & cheese and I am going to eat it.
Again, process goes as follows. First you have to dump the cheese into a bowl. This time, instead of tossing the cheese, you have to carefully sift through it to find the ants that were buried during the dumping. As you sift through, you carefully remove the ants with a spoon, then kill said ants with your fingers.
Step 1 and Step 2 of preparation are now complete…and macaroni tastes delicious. I am now down to my last box and am contemplating whether I will eat it tonight, or save it for the weekend…hmmm….choices, choices.
On another note, I turned in my suggestions for the Tessaban budget for next year. I was super nervous about what they would think about my suggestions and was anticipating them coming to talk to me about it. I put in 2 suggestions for what I would like to do in the next year. The first was a World Map Project. This is something that many PC volunteers do, because it has been discovered that geography is not something that is taught very much and it is a good way to teach students and adults alike about the world. Pretty much, it entails painting a large world map in a public place. It could be at a school, public health station, community gathering place, etc… It gives the community a chance to work together to create something, while creating a lasting map of the world that they can look at. The second project is a Life Skills Camp. These are camps for youth that can be geared to hygiene, STDs/AIDS, leadership, etc… I am planning on doing a leadership and empowerment camp. My balot (supervisor) liked the idea so much that he decided to double the budget I suggested and stated that we will be going to a resort for the camp. He already has ideas on speakers and other things to include. I will probably still need to find more funding for the camp, but I am very excited that they took my proposals seriously and that we have some solid plans for the next year.
One of the village leaders came and talked to me yesterday. He came, sat down at my desk and straight up asked me why I wasn’t at the dtalot (market) more often. This is a central part of my Tambon where everyone comes to buy food, clothes, and household items. He proceeded to tell me that if I was there more, than my Thai would get better and I would get to know the community more. You know what, he is absolutely right. I know that I need to put myself out there more and talk with the people more. I originally had a schedule set up for myself to do this, but it got destroyed when I discovered that a lot of my headaches were caused by the sun and the heat. I need to re-establish a new schedule to encourage me to go out in the community to do my job. I can only do so much at the office, my job is the community; building the community.
(Side Note: You may be confused about the whole ‘my precious’ business throughout this post, especially if you have not seen Lord of the Rings. There is this dude, can’t remember his name, but at the beginning, he seems like this adorable little goblin guy. Throughout the film though, he gets creepier and creepier, and I cannot stand it when people try to emulate his voice ‘my precious. Makes me shiver and creeps me out.)
Written May 27th.
Happy Birthday Dad! Ok, well, it is still the 26th back in TX where you are. Hope you and mom had a good walk.
Anyways, yesterday was great. It had rained the night before and clouds still covered the blazing hot sun, so I decided to drop off my computer at home in the afternoon and take a bike ride around the Tessaban and beyond. It was wonderful. A cool breeze (powered by me and my bike) brushed past me as I peddled down the road. I decided to do a little exploring onto roads I hadn’t been on before. I saw rice fields in different stages of growth (dry and cracked, to almost ready to harvest), I found a banana tree farm, a couple more wats, many people willing to wave and shout hello, and finally, I found myself lost. I really thought I had kept track of what direction I was going the entire time. Apparently, my internal compass is not as grand as I had hoped. When I finally resigned to the idea that I had no idea where I was, I decided to just stay on one road and ride until something looked familiar (or I saw a sign with a little English advising me where I was headed). Yes, this isn’t the brightest idea, asking directions probably would have been smarter, but it was still early enough in the afternoon that I would be able to turn around at any time and make it back to my village within an hour.
I continued to pass stores, homes, schools, and children along the road (none of which I had seen before). I would wave and smile at people acting much more confident than I was. I was not ready to admit defeat. I was about to give up when I saw a road ahead. As I neared it, I saw a school that finally looked familiar. Woo Hoo!!! I knew where I was. Success. I am a genius…see I wasn’t lost, I was just misplaced for about an hour. I decided I deserved a victory break and bought myself an Orange Fresca (Orange soda is my new thing out here) and went to the lake to chill on some steps for a while. Ahh…relaxing. Not too hot, no sun to hurt my eyes, and I can feel myself being content with where I am…and then it rains. Darn!
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| Banana Tree |
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| Banana Tree farm |
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| Rice field after its been flooded |
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| Another rice field after its been flooded. It rained the day before I took this, check out the deep grooves the rain made in the dirt road |
It was a great afternoon. I can’t wait til I have a chance to do it again. Maybe today. It rained a lot last night, so today is quite cool as well. I just have to hope that the looming clouds doing hold a nice wet surprise for me.
Written May 30th
That was a great weekend. I slept in until 8am each day (ok, that is only 30 minutes, but it is much more gratifying to wake up on your own than by your alarm clock, right?). On Saturday, the sky was coated in clouds. Without the sun blaring down on me, I decided it was a good day to take a walk and go do some reading out at the lake. I ended up sitting at the lake for 4 hours on a bench under a tree reading. By the time I left, the sun was out and it was definitely time to go. I had gone through 2 liters of water just sitting out there. I was in the shade most of the time, but discovered that my short walks gave me back my tan that had been diminishing since I have been indoors so much.
Some kids discovered me while I was sitting out there, and I think they got a kick out of the farang sitting doing nothing except reading for hours (you don’t see this widely done here). Each time they would pass me, 3 bikes, 2-3 kids per bike, they would shout out something and giggle: “Hello!”, “How are you?”, “What is your name?”. They wouldn’t wait for a response as they passed, just continued on giggling. On each return trip, I would answer their last question. Super cute kids. I am sure that I will be seeing them again.
Sunday. (Happy Birthday Mom!) This was also a nice relaxing day of reading and just hanging out. I had thought about going into town this weekend, sitting at a coffee shop and reading, but I figured that I should wait at least one more week before I headed out of town again. I want to make sure that I am in my community as much as possible (at least not look like I am trying to leave it). Read a book (yes, the entire book), hung out in my room, and took nice walk. Last night I fell asleep to the pounding rain on my roof…yes, tomorrow will be another cool day.
May 31st
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| This is the house I have been staying at for the last two months. |
Lookin Good Megs!!
ReplyDeleteGolem is the name of the little dwarfy guy from TLOTR.
Ant's Mac n Cheese, YUM lol note to self, send ziplocks! Do the ants get inside the ziplocks though? or just bore through cardboard... hmmm.