Thai food

The village stay was quite interesting. my grandmother would be very happy to know that I had to sit like a lady (however, on the floor) at all times and that I wore a wrap around skirt most of the time. I came to be known for how well I dressed. The family I stayed with was extremely generous and very patient.

This particular village had never had westerners visit before. The villagers found us to be a strange lot, especially our eating habits. They kept on mentioning how little we ate. The entire time I was there, I was never hungry. I went between being full and less full. They fed us every 20 minutes. my family went way out of their way to accommodate my eating habits. the mother would make one meal for me and another for the family. my meal would contain lots of veggies, no msg, very little salt and sugar, and lots of tofu. you had to be careful whenever they asked if you liked something. you always had to say yes, but if they thought you really loved it, then you would get tons of whatever it was. i.e., there is a particular type of mango here that i really love. i told the mother and the next thing i knew there was a 10 pound bag of mangoes for me. she also told whoever we visited that a liked that particular mango, so they would serve it to me as well. there are so many different types of fruits and vegetables growing in the area that is unbelievable.

i also asked if i could have a piece of bamboo since candians consider it very exotic and they've got it growing everywhere here. my host mother asked me which tree I wanted (they're over 3 metres tall:) i also said i'd like to see how she makes her own dish and clothes detergent. she was more than happy to make another batch just to show me. i had no idea that it involved stirring for two hours follwed by letting it sit for 2 days.

i sold veggies and sticky rice in bamboo every saturday with my mother at an organic agriculture station. making the sticky rice in bamboo is very labor intensive with everything being done by hand and cooked by fire. got on famously with the 23 year old daughter. tried to teach english for an hour at an elementary school, had a foot massage at a school for the blind, went to two weddings, took part in ceremonies at the wat on religious day (you carry a candle around in a circle 3 times following behind the monks), made offerings of food to the monks in the morning on 3 separate occasions (did it wrong all 3 times), took part in a ceremony for us volunteers on the last night i was there that was to call back our spirits to provide us with good health and good luck in the future, swam in the canal with the local kids, butchered the thai language.

it was amazing to sit on the stairs of the house and listen to the bamboo trees cracking when the wind blew and to hear all the ripe fruit constantly dropping from the trees. lived among chickens and ducks. really loved taking bucket showers. discovered a new technique for using a squat toilet.