verbingnouns

Travel Log Part 9

Thursday, March 8, 10:40pm

Today has been a difficult day. This morning, we went to the city hall which was interesting, but drug on for too long. One interesting thing: they showed us where they make their government ID cards, so I showed them my drivers license to compare/contrast. The first thing they said when they saw my smiling face on my license? You're not allowed to smile in your ID picture. No one could explain why, but I thought it was funny.
After a not-so-yummy lunch, we went to a sad village. It's in an area that was mined for fluoride years ago, leaving a hole in the ground which has become a lake that is now the exclusive source of drinking water (and has been for 3 generations). Though the villagers know that the water is contaminated, they continue to drink it because they have no other water to drink. This has caused 10% of the population to have severe mental and/or physical disabilities. It was incredibly difficult to see the poverty and affliction.

From Thailand Marc...

We visited the elementary school in the village, where they singled out the children with mental problems and the ones who had "teeth freckles" (a sign of health problems to come). We felt very uncomfortable having the children singled out...it felt very exploitive of the children and was one of the day's many indicators of extreme cultural differences.
Our host is supervising a project to educate the villagers and encourage them to drink rain water and show them how to collect the rain water. The other problem is that is rains only one or two months out of the year, so they have to first, have money to buy a cistern to collect and store the water and then be able to keep it potable for the next year.
I feel like such a brat for complaining about how difficult it was for me to see that sad situation, but it was a tough day.
Of course, sunshine follows the rain. After the village, C & I were treated to an incredible hair wash - 30 minute of washing/massaging plus 30 minutes of styling - all for 70 baht (about $2.25). Incredible!
Tonight, we had a very fun dinner party - good food and fun people. Everyone was laughing at us trying to speak Thai, but they love to teach us and love to learn new English words.

From Thailand Marc...

Also in Thoen, I met an English teacher whose husband is a Baptist minister. She is a very sweet lady and she learned to speak English from a Texan who taught her to say, "howdy, y'all. How y'all doin'?" -so cute!

Posted by christin at April 25, 2007 12:08 PM | TrackBack