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Published: June 23rd 2008
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Well my second weekend here in Northeastern Thailand did not go as I planned at all. I will start with Friday. I had a really long day Friday teaching as I have four classes and one of which is the youngest group of kids. Once I was finished for the day I decided to go fishing in the local pond with a pole one of the teachers said I could use. After about an hour of no success with the finishing pole, a local villager showed and started fishing Thai style. This means he used a massive net that he throws in the water and then jumps in and pulls the net out. It was really cool to watch and after a while he let me do it. Once again I didn’t catch anything but he caught like 15 fish. That evening one of the craziest thing happened at dinner. We eat all of our meals on a table outside. Well it just so happens that on this night these winged worms were passing and decided to flock to the light above the table. This would have put an end to most dinner plans but not in Thailand. We ate dinner
with these insects flying around us everywhere. IT WAS NUTS. They were crawling on us and getting in the food, but my host family did not seem the least bit fazed. All I could do was laugh; I have come to live by the philosophy that if they are ok with it, it most likely won’t kill me. After dinner I went to bed and made sure to turn off the light so these winged beast would not be there in the morning. WELL, this is where you learn that I am an Idiot. I did turn off the light that they were attracted to but forgot to turn off the bathroom light which is not 10 feet away. When I came down for my morning bucketing, I got quite a surprise. The bugs had shed their wings and the wings where ALL OVER THE BATHROOM. It took me more than an hour to clean it all out. On Saturday after cleaning the bathroom I meet up with 2 of the teachers and a class of students and we headed to the mountain. The Vehicle we used to get to the mountain which was about 30KM away was a jalopy
to say the least. At one point we had to get out and push it up a hill. The students and I plied in the back of this jalopy like cattle being taken to slaughter. The ride their was really cool as I got to take some really cool pictures and I also saw a woman herding water buffalo down the road through the middle of a village. On the ride to the mountain I took my pocket knife out to cut something. Well when the students saw it wasn’t doing the job they pulled out their machetes to help. I was shocked these where 14 year old kids with Massive machetes. I laughed so hard at that. The mountain trip was amazing except for the fact that it was the hottest day since I have been here. We walked to one side of the mountain to see a waterfall which was really cool. Then we walked to the other end of the stream to a pond where the students swam and we had lunch. (SIDE NOTE - the family that gave me a lunch must have been playing a bad joke because they made me the spiciest meal ever!!!
I had to drink a whole bottle of water after eating one bite). After lunch we hiked to the top of the mountain to a lookout point which overlooked the whole valley. It was pretty amazing. When all is said and done I think we hiked about 10 miles most of which was up hill. When I got home I was so exhausted I didn’t even go to stay with the family in the city for the rest of the weekend like I was suppose to. Instead I stayed at the home stay alone and became very ill. I think I have contracted Travelers Diarrhea which is just loads of fun. At this point I am just happy it is not malaria which I initially thought it was. I am going to the doctor tomorrow which is Tuesday because it still hasn’t stopped. OH and a fun fact - everyone in the school has found out about me not being well because I haven’t been eating. So now all the teachers make farting noises as a way of asking me how I am feeling. HAHAH. That is all for now hopefully I will start my next blog with news of
me feeling better.
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Benjamin Grannan
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hahahaha I can't find the words to put here. great stuff