19/06/2020
Enjoy the next chapter of my book:
Thai 8:
Hello my dear ones,
Many thanks for your mails. I am glad to hear from you!
I´m sure you are in eager anticipation of the latest news from “amazing” Thailand – as the Americans call it. And here they are:
At the weekend my cousin and her husband from California visited me on their tour through Asia. We had an awesome time together. First, we went elephant riding – well, that was an adventure! Then we were on the highest mountain of Thailand called “Doi Inthanon”, which is 2565m (=8208 feet) high. You can see a wonderful waterfall and two colorful temples there: one for the king and one for the queen. As far as I know they both serve as a future mausoleum. Then we had dinner in a typical Thai restaurant where you eat sitting on the floor. While enjoying our meal, we could admire graceful Thai dancing. Racing back to the hotel by a tuk-tuk - a motorized rickshaw on three wheels and mostly used as a taxi - we could see the driver´s laughing face on the rear-view mirror. He was highly amused at our panic-stricken faces - since we were afraid of the tuk-tuk´s incredible wind speed! Afterwards, we had a great swim in the hotel-pool. The water was clean in contrast to the water of the swimming pool next to our house, where you can´t see the bottom because of the growing seaweed. Furthermore, if you are blond, you´ll get green hair because of the chemicals in the pool water. Monday morning my cousin went back home.
With the help of some obliging Thais from our church, I moved to a nicer house which is closer to my colleagues. There aren´t so many noisy animals here, but noisy neighbors instead! We have super pink curtains – the Thais love pink! My housemate goes back home to Germany soon. She was caring for the kindergarten kids and today my new housemate is arriving. I´ll have to adjust myself from a 60-year old to a 19-year old roommate then.
I took a shower yesterday. That´s nothing special, but when I tried to turn off the water, it was flowing and flowing. That reminded me of the former house where we also had a flood. That time it was not caused by the shower, but by the river overflowing the riverbank. Meanwhile our shower-head was repaired. You have to accept the fact that constantly things break down, that you don´t get drinking water delivered regularly and that water and electricity fail. But you know the motto: “Mai pen lai.”- Don´t worry, be happy!
It is good to know and to experience how God cares for me and how problems vanish into thin air. Here God´s goodness is more present because HE makes the best of every situation. Another small but concrete example to this: Sunday morning a colleague of mine and I went to church by moped. On our way we had a flat tire – namely exactly opposite a garage! After only ten minutes we could go on by a repaired moped and we even arrived on time at the church service.
And this leads me to the next topic: moped. The rainy season is over and I rented my rental moped again. In the meantime, I dare driving in the chaotic and stressful traffic. You won´t believe it: I am the proud owner of a Thai moped driver´s license after all! The Thais are extremely bureaucratic and you must not smile on your passport photo. I guess this is the only situation in Thailand where you are not allowed to smile in the “Land of Smiles”. For our driver´s license we needed a health certificate, some papers, a lecture in Thai for one hour (without any translation) and a script with the questionnaire in English. I answered all the questions with brilliance and I was the first who finished. The Thais admired me for that. For the practical part I had to drive around the house and then park my moped. For the medical examination the doctor looked me in the eye, put me on a weighing scale and touched my calves – probably to prove that they are tough enough for the
moped´s kick starter. And that was how I got my health certificate.
It´s funny: you are always put on a scale even if you just get a vaccination.
I still love teaching here. My two students with behavioral disorder I finally have under control. My kids are so nice that I still can´t believe it sometimes.
In the end I have to add some animals you can get at the market: I saw half-grilled cockroaches that were moving in a plastic bag, grilled frogs and toads on a spit and some other indefinable things/insects. Thrilling!
Sawadee ka (means not only “hi”, but also “bye”!)
Claudia
