Long Live The King

On December 5th, we celebrated the 87th birthday of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, also known as Rama IX (the ninth king of this dynasty), and affectionately referred to by Thais as po kong prathet (พ่อของประเทศ)   which means Father of the Country. Many Thais wear yellow all month long in The King's honor (yellow is the color-of-the-day for Monday, the day on which The King was born). The King was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts while his father studied at Harvard,  he is the only living monarch to be born in the United States. In 1946, when he was only eighteen years old, Rama IX began his reign, and has been on the throne for the better part of the past century (over 68 years). He is currently the longest-serving head of state in the world, the longest reigning monarch in Thai history, and for the vast majority of the Thai population, he has been the only reigning king of their lifetime.  (Side note for history buffs, the history of the Siam/Thai throne is quite interesting, right down to the series of events that led to Rama IX's ascension.)
 

The King is greatly revered in Thailand, the level of respect and admiration that people hold for him was described to me by a Thai colleague as compared to what many Westerners may feel towards a modern-day Jesus Christ/Mother Theresa/Princess Diana/Michael Jackson, all in one person. The King is most known for his kind heart and his generosity; he is also an artist, photographer, accomplished musician, and very intelligent; he holds patents for his invention of rain cloud makers, he has been involved in social and economic projects and has made tremendous contributions in the medical and agricultural reform of the country; he led the country into its democratic state; and everyone agrees that he is quite handsome. The King's portrait can be found in just about every home, school, office, business place, market place, courtyard, and major street intersection across the country. Despite laws that prohibit anything (spoken or written word, forms of art, music, movies, etc) that may be deemed as insulting to the throne, the love that Thais have for their King seems to be quite genuine. 

 

This year, the King was unable to make his much anticipated birthday address due to doctor's orders. It was stated that he is not in fact ill, but rather recovering from recent illness and medical procedures. The King's health has been declining for the past several years and everyone hopes persistently for his improved health and wellness. The King is truly loved and has done a tremendous lot for the country and for the people throughout his reign, understandably, most Thais cannot imagine a Thailand without the beloved King and I cannot imagine the state of *indescribable emotion* that the country will be in if when he is  no longer with us. To the King, and for the sake of the people, I join the country to sincerely wish him many more birthdays, and the best of health, strength, and sound mind to the very end of his days.

 

 
 
This year, the King's birthday fell on a Friday, there were various activities throughout the week, however my time was spent primarily in the schools. On Thursday, I spent my morning at school and the afternoon at a cultural/agricultural exhibition/festival in my district, then Friday, which was a national holiday, was all about preparing for the evening's ceremonies. Below are some pictures that from the festivities that I attended in my district.


With Kru Toi at our community's booth

 

A troupe from our community dressed in traditional gear for the opening performance

The leader of our district and his team at our booth to inspect and judge for the competition



Some items from our booth



Produce grown and decorated in our local villages

Such lovely arrangements!



And guaranteed deliciousness :-)

 


Different strains of rice



Craft items, clothing, and purses for sale, all locally made



More clothes and a photo display of various community events

We also brought fish from our pond at the local government office where we've been raising fish and frogs

Teachers passed through with their students to check out our display and identify the various plants and fruits

Our Nayoke/Mayor collecting the prize, our booth won FIRST PLACE!!

  

With one of my school directors, We are #1!

The leader of our district opening the day's events

 

District leader doing a demonstration of the afternoon's first activity.
First you shake the rice grains off of the stalks

Then toss the stalks over to your partner

Now let the games begin! I called it "The Rice Games"

Stalks are separated to be rebundled for feed



Rice is mortar and pestle'd out of the husk



Then the husks are sifted away

Check it out! I don't think we placed in this competition after the rice was weighed, but I sure learned a lot!

 

They told me to give it a try. But I wasn't fast enough or strong enough apparently lol

I was resigned to taking pictures and having my hand held

 

The stage all set for the evening's events



With Pii Baow, our community development officer,
who has recently been assigned as my counterpart.

Pii Baow and Pii Noi (my host mom) assisting the Nayoke/Mayor
in paying homage to the King

 

Paying homage to the King on behalf of our community


 

Government officials, community leaders, and other representatives from every
community/subdistrict lined up to pay respect to The King

Once everyone had gone, candles were lit and national songs were sung

Officials from my community

All officials were dressed in various forms of traditional Thai-wear

The candles were all placed onto this sand table. This is part of Buddhist merit making ritual,
and usually when I see this, I think of it as resembling a giant ash tray,
but this night, it most certainly resembled a giant birthday cake

All of the tributes to the king

And then the performances began



Performers from the secondary school in my community




Maw-lam-sing -- regional song and dance -- performed by our local government office.
We won SECOND PLACE!

 

The celebration was wonderful, and lasted well past my bedtime, but it was incredible. As Father of the Country, The King's birthday also doubles as Father's Day in Thailand. The Father's Day aspect of the day seemed to have been overshadowed by all of the celebrations of the King's birthday though. I believe that some schools had ceremonies, but I was not able to witness any this year. Nonetheless, I wanted to close off by giving a Father's Day shout-out to all of the father's reading my blog, especially my own! 

Happy Father's Day Daddy!
Thank you for your love and support.

 

 
 

Events of November

This post was prepared to be published on Thanksgiving Day, but various events prevented that from happening. I must say that the month of November has been one of the most eventful (and exhausting) months to date, but it's been awesome! Hopefully, you'll see some of that below :-)
 
 
It's that time of the year, when most American families come together to express their gratitude for all of the blessings of the year, and of course, to eat a huge meal and watch football, American football that is. Although I've spent most of past several years living away from my family, I've always managed to find a home for Thanksgiving, and this year was no exception. This year, I enjoyed a Pre-Thanksgiving potluck dinner with fellow Peace Corps Volunteers in Bangkok. It was a really nice get-together, a much larger crowd than the usual, but I had a great time with my fellow group members and got to meet some of the senior volunteers for the first time.

 

pretty awesome time with a pretty awesome group :-)

As is custom, I've taken time to reflect on my year, and as always, I have so much to be thankful for. On my long list of blessings, here are three that I am especially grateful for this year.

 
1. The opportunity to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand.
   Cliché as it may be to say this, I am truly having an experience of a lifetime, in so many ways. A few years ago, even in my wildest imagination, the thought would have never crossed my mind that I would ever come to Thailand or that I would even consider becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer. I look back at the events , situations, and circumstances that led me here, and I am so sure that I am right where I am supposed to be and I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm thankful for every moment.
2. Family
   My family has been so supportive of my decisions, and that has been such a blessing. In the beginning, naturally, there were a few questions about whether or not I was sure that this was something that I wanted to do at this point of my life, partly because I'm not exactly the adventurous, journey-across-the-world-for-two-years type, and also because it meant leaving really good employment behind, but once everyone was sure that I was sure, it's been 1000% support. I've realized that this isn't the case for everyone, and it makes me appreciate my family even more.
   
   I'm also extremely appreciative of the Thai families that have taken me as one of their own. I can go on and on about how at home and how loved I've felt in my time here, but there's just so much more that I can't articulate. I couldn't imagine more perfect matches than the families that have adopted me since I've been here, and I am extremely grateful for them.
3. Friendship
   Over the past several months, I've developed some pretty incredible friendships, among my fellow volunteers and within my community. I have a feeling that these friendships will extend way beyond my two years here in Thailand. My pre-Peace Corps friendships have been put to the test of time and distance with various outcome, but I'm thankful for them all.

The month of November has actually been quite eventful. I'm glad that schools are back in session, while that's been great, I've had a few pretty awesome adventures outside of the schools as well. At some point, my camera went missing, so some pretty awesome moments are undocumented, but I'm glad for the memories. Thankfully, I found my camera hiding out oddly positioned in a corner of one of my bags, I was so relieved when I found it, almost to the point of tears. Here are some moments that were captured this month.
 
Lao Border Market

 

 

 
My host family had told me that we would bpai-tiiao (take a trip) to the Lao border market, it wasn't until we got there that I realized that we would actually be crossing the border into Laos. Luckily, I had my passport and the Peace Corps director was gracious enough to grant me last minute permission to leave the country. It seems like ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) nationals just need to show ID to cross the border from one country to another, so my family just waited patiently as I completed visa applications and went through all of the customs clearance procedures. I got nervous when my host cousin started taking pictures (despite the sign) but the customs officers didn't even flinch when the flash went off (quite a contrast to my travel experience through the US, Canada, and Caribbean where officers threaten confiscation at the sight of any recording device). We had a fun time shopping and afterwards we had a nice lunch on the river market. As we ate, we were amused by the 'banana boat' riders getting drag raced through the river by little speed boats. Once we were finished eating, my host brother and cousins convinced me to take a ride with them, I sat securely in the middle and received the least splash (and whiplash) and we all had a screaming good time. Twas a great day!
 

Loy Krathong Festival
 

 
Loy Krathong is the annual floating festival. It was a beautiful event. River floats (krathong) are made from banana leaves, flowers, and other natural materials, then a candle is lit and the floats are sent down the river. We release negative emotions into the river along with the krathong and make a wish. There are also huge lanterns that are lit and sent floating into the sky (same concept as the hot air balloon), my host mom and I got to release a lantern together, and we were told to make a wish as we did so. The lanterns were so beautiful floating away in the sky. I couldn't get many clear pictures, but it was a beautiful night. The main event was a beauty pageant, it was somewhat similar to pageants in the US (minus swimsuit and talent exhibition). 



Ten contestants from the villages competing



The contestants are dressed gorgeously from head to toe in traditional Thai wear

As they get to end of the stage, they receive flowers from their family and village supporters

 

Everybody gets involved!

 

It was a lovely event

 
 
 Giiao Kaao
 
 

 
It's rice harvesting season out here. I was invited to giiao kaao (harvest rice) with students at one of my schools. It was nice to do something outside of the classroom with the students. Mr. C, the Cameroonian English teacher, was there as well and it was also his first time harvesting rice. Many of the students (4th through 6th graders) already had experience with rice farming and harvesting, so most of the teachers just supervised and it was up to the students to be our teachers and correct us when we made mistakes, they got a kick out of that, but they were great and we all had a really good time.

 





Drying out rice from my host mom's field in front of our home



Bagging rice with my neighbors at another neighbor's home

The rice irritated my skin, so I had to sit out with the little one

 

Road Trip

 

I invited two of my teachers to attend a Peace Corps hosted workshop with me. We were meeting at a site about five hours away, but we made a few stops and bpai-tiiao'd (had some fun adventures) along the way and extended our road time to twelve hours. It was exhausting, but fun, my teachers are pretty cool.

 



Our first stop was an ancient palace and temple in our province, the
Prasart Wat Sra Kampaeng Yai, the largest in this province

 


Our last stop was "The Verona" - a gorgeous spot that mimics the Italian city. 
We were all tired at that point, so we had dinner on site and went straight to the hotel.
"The Verona" is actually still under construction, but I can already see this as a
neat little wedding spot.

   

Student Friendly Schools

 

Peace Corps hosted a workshop to address gender based violence in schools. We learned a lot from the conference and from each other, and  we had fun too!

 

Wonderful workship

 

The food was amazing too



We had a pretty great and successful time together.

 
Bangkok Randoms... It's always a great time when I get to hang out with other Peace Corps Volunteers :-)



Hanging out, chit-chatting after pre-Thanksgiving Dinner

The Christmas Spirit :-) Outside of a Bangkok Mall

So glad we found these super awesome scarf shirts



In good company with Peace Corps Thailand's
Country Director and new Training Director



With all of the happenings of the month, I especially loved sharing Thanksgiving with my students towards the end. I taught about blessings, gratitude, and Thanksgiving foods and traditions. We made thankful hand turkeys and/or colored Thanksgiving pictures as we watched "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving" in English and Thai. Here are a few student masterpieces...



This creative masterpiece is my personal fave



 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Suuk-San-Wan-Kob-Kun-Prajao!