Nausea and Escorts

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Don’t you just love the elderly? Okay I admit sometimes it’s not my favorite type of patient to take care of, but this time I actually loved being with the elderly people. Today we drove to an elderly school community and partook in activities. First off it was a beautiful place, outside with a gorgeous temple on the site. We were there with two other schools, one of them were the Thai students from the college we stay at, and another group was Muslim students from southern Thailand. After observing their national anthem, meditation, and stretching activity, it was time to be introduced. We had an activity planned that the elderly absolutely loved. We blew up balloons, had them sit across from each other, and gave them fly swatters to pass the balloon back and forth. They absolutely loved it. I never saw elderly groups get so competitive before. One woman realized that if she attacked the balloons by stabbing them with the tip of the fly swatted, they would pop. So she spent the rest of the activity lungeing at the balloons trying to pop them all. Eventually it turned into all the elderly standing up trying to pop all the balloons. It was just like they were kids again. Next we played some Simon says, and other stretching activities. We were paired up with an elder, and I sat on the ground next to them. In Thailand elderly are highly respected, so it’s custom for us to pay great respect to them by sitting at a lower level than them. I introduced myself to her in the most broken Thai I could, and I couldn’t even tell you how I think her name is spelled. The only word I could understand from her was “Barbie”. The translator said multiple times that she was saying how beautiful we are and that we look like barbies. I took the compliment.



After that we got in the van to go back for lunch, and it was just about the greatest gift God could give us. Fried chicken. We just about inhaled it all. Then we prepared our bags and packed in the van for the 4.5 hour drive to Chiang Rai. I should’ve taken a zofran or something because I have never been on such windy roads in my life. As we trek up further into the mountains it just got worse and worse. It’s a beautiful drive though. Gorgeous mountains and crop fields all around. It’s worth the nausea. We stopped a few places for bathroom breaks and gas, one of them was a 7-11 where we jumped out to grab some American snacks (I was craving some bugles). Another was a beautiful hot springs area. These are natural hot springs that people were bathing in and cooking raw eggs! I think we go to one later on in the trip and can actually stay longer so I’ll give more details later. The most exciting part of that trip was the squatty potty. The second I stepped in the bathroom stall I knew something was different. The toilet was flat on the ground, and I had to find the best way to squat over it. To save you the details and embarrassment, we’re just gonna say that it was a huge success.



What should have been a 4.5 hour drive turned into a 7 hour drive. Yeah we got lost in the mountains of Thailand, almost hit the border of Laos. It got to the point where our drivers asked the locals where we were. Eventually we contacted the place where we were supposed to be, and once we got to the main road we found an ambulance with flashing lights ready to police escort us to our home stays. Yeah you had that right, I was police escorted in the remotes villages of northern Thailand. That’s one for the books.



We finally arrived in The small village on the outskirts of Chiang Rai, in the Chiang Saen district. The second we stepped out of the van there were dozens of villagers welcoming us with music and dance. There were little kids even dressed in traditional garb dancing for us, they would get distracted so easily or just run away but it was so cute. I was so overwhelmed with the hospitality efforts they go through just to welcome us. After the dancing, we had an introduction period were we learned our group members for the homestay, I’m living with Rebecca. And then they danced some more and served us dinner on the floor. It was another family style dinner, with rice and soup and pork and papaya salad. I thought it was good, after a long drive like that though anything could have tasted good. Then they performed their rituals and blessing for newcomers. There were these huge baskets of flowers that were put in the middle of the circle, one of the leaders said a prayer and started singing. And then they took the white yarn that was laid around the flowers and ties them around our wrists while saying “good luck, good fortune”. The white yarn is symbolic for luckiness through the rest of the year. I got two white yarns so I’m gonna be double lucky this year. Then Rebecca, me, one of our school leaders, and a resident took us to her house. Being in a small village basically in the middle of nowhere, I had no clue what to expect for our living arrangements. I was thinking cots on the floor in a shack with mosquito nets. I was pleasantly surprised though, it was an actually house, and we had our own side room with a king size bed! Score 1 for Molly. The real struggle was (again) when I stepped in the bathroom. No running water. The shower is a big bucket filled with cold water. I tried to at least clean myself off and it was about the fastest “shower” I’d ever taken. I don’t know how they do that every day. I have a feeling this weekend we are gonna be pretty smelly and craving a real shower. It’s an experience let me tell you. Until bed, we sat on the floor with our teacher and homestay residents and watched “terminator” in Thai on the tv.. can definitely say that is something I never expected to say. As much of a shock some of these living arrangements can be to us Americans, it’s their norm, and I’m excited to see more of their lifestyle in this beautiful place.

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