My Host Home

I'm halfway through my first week at my host home, I'll be here for a couple months and will be taking more pictures along the way. Right now, I'm a bit hesitant to take pictures of the open areas, so please stay tuned for more in a future post.

I live in a very traditional Thai home with a very loving family. I'll be sharing more about the family dynamics in another post, but for today, I'll just share a little bit about my new living space. 

My room consists of a firm mattress and pillow, repellent coated mosquito net, and a lovely carpet (straw mat) --  all of which are provided by Peace Corps. My bedding is mostly Peace Corps provided, I sleep with three blankets (we have lows of 51°F) my own blanket at the top, green PC blanket, and pink blanket from my host family. I also have a desk, chair, clothes rack, and wastebasket provided by my host family. It is a fairly small and pretty simple room, but I have sufficient space and everything that I need. 

My room! (Sleep Area)

My room! (Study/Dressing Area)

The bathroom is located in a separate building and consists of a squat toilet and a wash area. I am getting accustomed to the squat toilet, I've had a couple near-slip incidents, but nothing serious. I scoop water from the container next to the toilet to flush. Notice that there is no garbage container and no toilet paper, so that has been quite an adjustment. I did bring wipes with me, but I must use them sparingly as I have only 40 sheets, and they are not available in the neighborhood stores.

Bathroom (not shown, clothes hamper and towel/clothes line)

The wash area is pretty straight forward, water runs in from outside into the reservoir, and I scoop out the water with a little container for my bath. This is the one aspect of my living arrangement that will probably take the longest time to adjust to. The water is cold, even in the daytime. I have considered boiling water for my showers, and will probably do so if this arrangement is still unbearable after the first week.

Our meal area is outdoors. My host mom cooks pretty well. Each person is served a bowl of rice, and the other dishes are placed in the middle of the table. Throughout the meal, each person reaches into the middle of the table and grabs a little bit of whatever they want to eat with their rice. This is the ritual for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So, I'm eating lots of rice. I'm encouraged to try all of the different dishes, and sometimes my host parents place different things on my plate. Usually, I don't mind. One of my most common dinner phrase is nit noy mak pet, which mean "Just a little bit too spicy" -- we have very different definitions of spicy, but my host mom tries to be accommodating, and I'm constantly trying to increase my tolerance.

Breakfast! rice, boiled eggs, fish pumpkin soup, chicken, pork) 

It's been a pretty good experience overall. The biggest challenge is the language barrier. I am more motivated to learn the language so that I can communicate more with my host family. There are a few other personal challenges that I'll be working through, most specifically the cold water and firm mattress situations. At the end of the day, it's all about the experience, and I'll be a stronger, better person because of it all.