our team took a trip to the mae hong son, a small village in the mountains of northern thailand, to put on an english camp for the local children. i’ve been really busy but here is the long awaited part three of our story in a multi-post series telling about our trip and the things we did. we've just arrived at the guard post were we left the truck as we took boat rides up and down a small river in northern thailand to visit a few villages.
loading into the back of the truck again we headed further up the mountain. eventually we came to a temple. monks with shaved heads and orange robes roamed around as temple goers offered incense. we did what tourist do best.... took pictures. this time i didn't feel like a dirty tourist though. the peacefulness of the place gave off a calm quite disposition that left one in a good state of mind to appreciate the beauty of the mountains and the town nestled in the valley far below. my third cornetto of the day probably added to my harmonious mood. (ice cream is good for peace and quiet joy. the world would be a better place if ice cream was more plentiful… at least it wouldn’t hurt.) it was strange to be in the face of another religion in such a real way. looking back it leads me to think about how other religions or non-religious people see christians. what do they see? i saw people carrying out rituals, nothing too strange there. burning incense. offering a silent prayer to something unseen. is that what others see when they look at christians? waking up early on sundays. singing songs. praying. ceremonies. traditions. customs. rituals. is there not something deeper? i believe there is. do others see it though? interesting thoughts. we just took pictures.
that night we slept in a hotel owned by jenny’s parents called ban farang (“honkie house”?, if i haven’t yet explained farang or falang let me do so. farang is the name of a guava i think. it’s a white guava so it also refers white foreigners. so it’s kind of like saying honkie or cracker… but in kind of a nice way.) we slept well that night, (but not without get my fourth cornetto of the day) our first true full rest since the bus ride. we woke early to travel to the village we were having the camp at. the road this time was possibly more winding than the bus trip (although more upward than rollercoaster-esque) but it was during the day and not packed into a bus seat. the road slowly went from paved to paved and overgrown to dirt and then all of a sudden we stopped. rains had washed the road out in some parts and a truck was stuck in one of the grooves carved out by the rain. the driver of our rot dang (reminder: “red auto”, the taxis of thailand) was very protective of his vehicle. not peculiar due to the care it looked like he had put into it but definitely not the norm for professional drivers required to navigate the chaotic streets of this country. never the less he was not excited about the trip so far and although we thought he could bypass the automotive obstacle he was unwilling to budge until the owner had relocated the entrenched truck. this was not pleasing news since we were all anxious to get to the village and begin (we did have a schedule to uphold). eventually we were able to manhandle the small truck far enough over that our driver attempted to pass. we made it through but not without a small scrap on the canvas of his truck’s camper-top (oops).
our church had been to this village before but last time the town’s people did not have electricity. since that previous visit poles had been erected and power lines hung. despite this modern amenity the village still seemed quaint. we meet the student, all of them very shy, and started to play games and sing songs together. then came the whole teaching english part. we broke into four stations each of which would teach different words and had a different game for the kids to play. adelina (one of the one month interns) and i had a station that was to teach different types of animals. robert had told all of us that our goal was to help the kids become more comfortable around foreigners and help them to be more confident with english just as much as it was to actually teach then new words and phrases. after teaching each group about 15 english names for animals that group would then play a family feud style game of 5 on 5. there purpose of the game was for me to act/sound out the animal and then the first person to “slap” in and get the name correct earned their team a point (or vice versa I say the name and they had to act it out). some animals have obvious actions associated with them (ie a chicken or and elephant) other animals you have to rely more on the sounds they make (ie a pig’s snort, unless you want to roll around on the ground with your finger squishing your nose back). however, we found out before the camp that animals in thailand apparently don’t sound the same as they do in america. for instance a duck doesn’t say “quack-quack”, it says “gap-gap”. pigs don’t say “oink-oink” they say “oot-oot”. the rooster cries “ehkie-ehkie-ehk-ehk” and a cow say “maw”. (we actually heard a rooster while we were there and i tried to argue the point of cock-a-doodle-doo, but alas it was hopeless). the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves and before too long it was time to break for lunch.
during lunch we saw a small (albeit noisy) procession make its way past us as we dined. apparently, a wedding was coming up soon and the bride, lead by some music playing family members and half a large pig carried on a stick of bamboo between two men, was making her way to her husband-to-be’s house. quite a sight indeed. after we ate we played some more group games with the kids in the heat of the mid-day sun. the really cool part about it was that a lot of these things we had to come up with on the spot. it was a really nice way of having to work as a team and think on our feet. after games we took a short break before or next planned adventure. i’ll finish the story in my next post and tell all about the waterfall and how drew and i became superstars.
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