Lost on Earth

This will be a long post since so much has happened and I have not written in several days.

Mae Hong Son is delightfully different than Bangkok. The market here is cleaner than the Pike Place market in Seattle, and they even keep the flies off of the meat that they sell and hose everthing down at the end of the day. It is possible to walk through the Mae Hong Son day market and not retch because it hardly smells at all.

I have spent the last several days watching Ruby teach classes, getting to the know the children, and settleing my living situation. The children are energetic little angels with big smiles. They are extremely affectionate with everyone they meet, and quite precocious. They relentlessly ask questions in whatever language happens to be on their lips at the time (Shan, Thai, English, Burmese...and all of the other languages they speak...). They have a very difficult time saying my name (sounds like "Header") so instead they just call me teacher, or "Teechuh", but they have the most difficult time saying the name of the other volutneer, Blaise (sounds like"PraySH").

These kids have been learning English for 8 months now and their proficiency is better than I thought it would be. I, on the other hand, am not learning Thai as fast as I would like. Ruby's command of the language is so good that it is downright embarassing to be around her sometimes. Blaise and I are going to sit through the children's Thai language classes in the mornings (The kids mostly speak only Shan, so here in Thailand they can't really communicate with anyone very well except each other).

The children have so much energy that someimtes it feels like electricity is in the air when they are all in one room together. When asked to repeat a sentance in English they all yell at the top of their lungs "AYE AM A CAHPENTER! WHAT EE YOUR NAME?! HOW OL AAAHH YOU!" etc. They are so cute that I have a hard time leaving them alone to play or to study. They are so eager to learn that I think I will hate all American children when get back. These kids are so grateful for their education, and American (or European, for that matter) kids slack in school, skip class, and don't do their homework. I think that if I let them these kids would take English class even on the weekends.

My living situation has improved greatly. After a day of shivering, terrified in the thick darkness of the room under my mosquito net fortress that I built I was a jumpy and nervous ball of sashimi raw nerves the next day. Everything came to a head when a small black crab crawled out of the rice paddy and sidled through the front door. I saw it out of the corner of my eye, and first thinking it was a spider, I jumped up, screamed, and immediately started crying. Ruby packed me up on the motor bike and dropped me off at a guest house for the night. The next day Kham Chuen helped me negotiate rent on an apartment that is just down the street from the office. I pay 1800 baht a month, which is less than $50. Yeah, I could get used to living here...