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More recent posts about Thailand

Articles from Thailand

Tree Planting

This was at a school in Amphur Sega. Eucaliptus trees were planted for fuel and to help manage mixing of the salt and fresh water aquafers by having the trees pump out water between them.
Me with my homestay family

During training, we spent 2 weeks in a village in Nakorn Sawan, learning Thai during the day and lifeways in the evening.
Talking Crops and Weather

Just like home, famers spend a lot of time talking about the crops and weather. This was a project to raise fish in the rice paddy. A deep water area was excavated for the fish to stay in during the hot part of the day. The fish would eat insects in the rice and fertilize it as well, and provide a profitable addition to small acreages.
Trust the Children

In one of my favorite places I worked, Ging Amphur Bung Khong Long, some of the village boys were showing me how they fished.
Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Touted in Songkran Parade

Songkran is the Thai New Year and is celebrated from April 13-15 each year. Traditionally, it was to visit and pay respect to elders, including family members, friends, neighbors and monks. Now, it has a new twist all tied to water and lots of it! During parades and or just trips down a road -- you are doused with water from containers, water guns or water hoses. You can give it as good as you receive. Groups also roam in the backs of trucks tossing water at other trucks or even people on the...
Life as a Female Monk

I was recently offered the opportunity to join in a 2 week event which is allowing Females the same opportunity that Males have had forever. The opportunity was to ordain as a Female Buddhist Monk. The lineage of Female Monks in Thailand and in other parts of the world is in question but there are groups who are working to change this and make it possible for Females to experience the time honored tradition which has, for hundreds of years, only been available to Males. The experience was ...
Life as a Female Monk

I was recently offered the opportunity to join in a 2 week event which is allowing Females the same opportunity that Males have had forever. The opportunity was to ordain as a Female Buddhist Monk. The lineage of Female Monks in Thailand and in other parts of the world is in question but there are groups who are working to change this and make it possible for Females to experience the time honored tradition which has, for hundreds of years, only been available to Males. The experience was ...
Sukhothai

Visiting the Sukhothai historical park site.
Excited to see a "farang"

My first day at school, the kids went wild when they saw a "farang" (foreigner) arrive. Those who weren't supervised by teachers ran out of the classrooms to get a look.
Telling me how it is

My host mom is a very sweet and caring person. However, she doesn't look it in this photo. She was trying to get a point across and I wasn't understanding what she was saying. Shortly after this photo was taken, she playfully hit me on the arm, laughed and walked away.
Peace + C

This is myself, right, and my friend and fellow volunteer, Dev, after the swearing-in ceremony. Get it?
Crazy parade

This was taken at a parade in Ratanaburi, Surin. The parade was for the upcoming rocket festival. What this man is doing and representing, I don't know. But that's half the fun of Peace Corps - figuring out what's going on around you.
Golden Buddha & Home,

Gold leave Buddha super-imposed over typical rural house.
Building Relationships

These are the students that we taught during our training. The best part of any classroom is getting to know the silly side of your students.
Impromptu Classroom

Here we teach young minds the finer points of "eyes, ears, nose, and mouth," while on a break during Thai language class
Team Building

Making friendships that will last a lifetime before heading out into the great unknown that is Peace Corps service.
Discovery

This blurry images captures the essence of discovery. On one side we have a 25 year old well traveled American and the other a 3 year old boy; both equally amazed.
Quick Learners

These boys picked up a frisbee for the first time in their live and by day 2 were teaching others the finer points of Ultamite. Long live the language of sports...
Just because

Who couldn't love this little guy living right down the street from them?
Paa Boon

Keeping the traditions alive.
Children of the Hills

Some children on the steps of a temple, dressed in traditional hill tribe clothing.
Children of the Hills

Children belonging to a local hill tribe. They help their families earn a living by allowing people like me to take pictures of them.
World AIDS Day - Getting to Zero

Two PC volunteers, about 10 adults and 130 children -- participated in a bike ride for World AIDS Day on December 2, 2011. The bike ride was the final event from a AIDS/HIV Life Skills Camp held earlier in 2011 in the province of Nakhon Phanom Thailand. Participants showed their support to those living with HIV or AIDS by wearing a red bracelet and also by displaying one of several signs on their body or their bicycle. Signs shared 5-year goals from the UNAIDS program. Signs were available i...

This is not just a job, this is life....

On November 24th, my host father, Sub-Lieutenant Kusol Kongsri, passed away at the age of 74. The experience of his death, the grief, and the funeral were the hardest part of my Peace Corps experience to date. In all honesty it has been one of the hardest experiences of my life. It is hard to explain all of this through writing but I believe that it is important to share. My host father had been suffering from diabetes for quite some time, but he was extremely active, smart and engaged d...
Female Monk - Bhikkhunis Samaneri

I was recently offered the opportunity to join in a 2 week event which is allowing Females the same opportunity that Males have had forever. The opportunity was to ordain as a Female Buddhist Monk. The lineage of Female Monks in Thailand and in other parts of the world is in question but there are groups who are working to change this and make it possible for Females to experience the time honored tradition which has, for hundreds of years, only been available to Males. The experience w...
A Taste of Thailand

I probably bike a good hour and a half each day -- which is good, getting some exercise in with all the food I'm eating. I take a shower when I get home, maybe wash my clothes by hand (not the most enjoyable of pastimes, and not intrinsically rewarding in some kind of hokey, sweat-and-blood sort of way, in case anyone idealizes that whole Wordsworthian "common man" mystique), and then wait around for dinner and by the time that's done I'm pretty spent so I usually jot a coup...
About a Girl

Prologue: A Good-Smelling Woman is Hard to Resist Girls complicate things. This is a well known cross-cultural phenomenon. Anthropologists all over the world have conducted field studies, and the one thing they agree on is, Women are crazy. This theory has been verified to such an extent as to become anthropological law, or, more precisely, a series of laws. The Laws of Women: The First Law of Women states that all women, without exception, are nuts. The Second Law of Women states ...
Mai Pen Rai means "Never Mind"

Mai Pen Rai means “Never Mind” Tim Hartigan TEFL/X, Thailand Group 95 (1989-1991) Questions borne of tragedy define generations of Americans. “Where were you when…Kennedy was shot?” was followed by “…the Challenger blew up?” and then “9/11 happened?” Buffalonians of a certain age also define ourselves by a much smaller traumatic question: “Where were you when the Bills lost their first Super Bowl?” I got to my Peace Corps site in rural northeastern Thailand in 1989. Part of my...
Thai-napped

Volunteers were warned about how different the concept of time is in Thailand. We were told things moved slower and at a more easy-going pace. They didn’t tell us this also pertains to Thai notification. Many volunteers are finding out Thais aren’t keen on letting volunteers know when they’re about to go somewhere. I’ve heard countless stories of a volunteer happily sitting in their room enjoying the quiet when a member of their host family will come in and say, “C’mon, it’s time to go,” ...
I have become a dharma bum

“Hopping a freight train out of Los Angeles at high noon one day in late September 1955 I got on a gondola and lay down with my duffel bag under my head and my knees crossed and contemplated the clouds as we rolled north to Santa Barbara.” Jack Kerouac ruined my life – or saved it. I’m still trying to figure that out. At the completely ignorant age of 18, Anoka-Ramsey Community College had the audacity to ask me what I’d like to study. “They tortured and scared you for twenty-odd years ...
A Guide to Knowing When You're in Trouble

When the two of you start having things. A thing we had early on was sometimes during a conversation I would just stare at her and smile, partly because I enjoyed looking at her (she's a very look-atable gal), but mainly to annoy her, which worked magnificently. She would ask Mii arai? (What is it?) and I would play dumb and ask Mii arai? back and we'd have a little Mii arai? war until she'd get frustrated and snap Mai mii! (Nothing!) and I'd pretend to ponder over this and reach an und...
Nice to See You and Good Luck

I swore in last Monday and took the Peace Corps oath, and am now an official volunteer! So that's pretty cool. I probably won't be able to top that in the course of this post. Some bullet points of interesting mishaps: I went to get a supposedly blind massage from a supposedly blind masseus, but he in fact had the gift of sight and was using it to the fullest. Meanwhile my friend's masseus was either a ladyboy (Thailand's notorious third gender, men who surgically become women) or a ve...
Loosen the Grip

[Paul has an epiphany of a child. Lets see what it is....] The other day my host father grabbed a large handful of hay and brought it close to the house. The next thing I knew he had lit it on fire and was moving it around with a stick. Not having lived on a farm before, especially one in foreign country, this seemed a bit strange. However, I did not have the capability to ask what in the world he was doing. Watching on in wonder he then grabbed a can of bug spray. It became clear that...
Surprise!

“I didn’t know, o my gosh, I didn’t know!” This is all I could say as the Thai PETA enforcers kicked through my mosquito net last night and challenged my devotion to the cute and cuddlies all over the world. After an interrogation lasting well into the morning, with taped eyelids being shown picture after picture of kittens wearing hats and monkeys with mohawks, I was able to convince the band of hemp suit wearing brutes that I had nothing to do with the crime and indeed love all of earth’s ...
The Bathroom Chronicles

In the bathroom this morning, doing business as usual, except, for some reason, today is different. I still have almost-diarrhea (AD), which, as the name implies, isn't quite diarrhea but still isn't quite kosher. I like to call it Harey Diarrhea (HD), because it's as if halfway through the race diarrhea just decided to stop and take a nap. I've had AD, or HD, take your pick, let's just start calling it ADHD, every day at site thus far. Not fun. Sometimes my progress is tormentingly slo...
I thought that's what I just said

Today I felt like Inspector Clouseau. It happens every day. I know the Thai word. I say the Thai word correctly, or so I think. Just the other day I was asking a store owner if she had a Thailand flag. I asked if she had a “tong”. She looked at me in confusion. I repeated the word: tong. She still had no idea what I was talking about. I even said I was looking for a Thailand “tong”. No go. I eventually found her Thailand flag hanging and pointed to it. Her face brightened and ...