Farmer Dress Code

In case you were wondering how to dress for chemical spraying. 

(Pro Tip: Don't eat or smoke while spraying chemicals.)

Drawing by me. Awesome research by the GAMAS rays.

ลอยกระทง

November 28 was Loy Kratong (ลอยกระทง also known as lantern festival), a good luck festival where you float boats in the river. Apparently, it's a really big date night. You're supposed to float a banana-leaf boat with your sweetie, and if it floats, you're meant to be... if it sinks, maybe it's time to re-evaluate your relationship. 

Our Kratong (Banana leaf boat)

Loy Kratong happened to fall during project time, right when we had to schedule our trip to Na Samai to conduct interviews and research on our project about agro-chemical use. We tried to plan so that we would be back in Khon Kaen for the festivities but it just didn't work out. Instead, we got to experience a legitimate, village-style Loy Kratong, complete with a beauty contest / talent show for both ladies and lady boys. 

It was a really lovely night and I'm so glad I got to experience it with our enthusiastic paw and the villagers of Na Samai. 

There wasn't really a current in the lake thing so all of the boats just floated and clumped up to one side. Still beautiful though.

Loy Kratong is also known for it's lanterns. Apparently in more popular places like Chiang Mai they fill the sky like stars,  and also present a potential fire hazard.

Here is a janky home-made kratong. Apparently they used to be more often made of styrofoam, but it was discouraged because it was so polluting for the river.

It was all a dream...

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, everyone has been referring to the program and our time here as if it was already over. We're watching Christmas movies, old standards that remind us how impossibly removed we are from that physical reality of winter, of Christmas, of family. 

For me, all it does is intensify my homesickness to the point where I am almost living a double life in my head; I'm not really in Thailand... I'm at home, strolling Hawthorn street and drinking a peppermint mocha.

In less than 2 weeks, project time will be over. My group will have gone to Yasothon and produced a report about chemical agriculture and a pamphlet for villagers. Then it will be a solid week of goodbyes. Then my parents will be here.

It's all going go go by so fast. I fear that as soon as I go home it will all feel like a dream, just as my life at in Portland has felt like a dream this entire 4 months. I'll probably lay at home, wrapped in a blanket, trying to recreate in my mind that constant slightly-sweaty feeling, wearing shorts every day and walking  to 7-11 to buy some kanoms. It will probably be just as inconceivable then as cold weather is to me now.

When Faith Meets Fireworks

Here a link to my blog post about the end-of-buddhist-lent ceremony I got to participate in earlier this month. It was really amazing, so take a look!

(Just kidding, here it is)

Imagine smoke, everywhere. Not in a way that is unpleasant. It’s just swirling in the air around you, either perfumed with spices or with the sharp smell of gunpowder. In your ears flow Buddhist prayers, interjected with the crack of fireworks nearby. Everything is lit with orange glow of the little candles perching around the temple.

This is Ok Phansa, the celebration of the end of Buddhist lent, which happens once a year at the end of rainy season. We were lucky enough to experience this unique event while on a homestay in Sisaket province. It was beautiful and chaotic and smokey, and a joy to experience with my temporary Sisaket family.

As a Religion major, I had some preconceptions of what Buddhism might be like when coming to Thailand, but the reality of it has been full of surprises. Hoping to participate first hand in Buddhist ceremonies, I was disappointed to find that there were no temples nearby my homebase in Khon Kaen. Fortunately, religious life is more essential and intertwined in village life. I’ve had the opportunity to give alms to monks early in the morning, and I’ve been entangled in several impromptu string-tying ceremonies.

What really strikes me about what I’ve observed of Buddhist religious practice is how relaxed it is… so completely different from the stiff and stillness that exists in the cannon western religious practice. Even while wai-ing and chanting along with the monks, the women present at the temple for Ok Phansa turned to chat and laugh with each other, as fireworks popped and cracked constantly throughout the entire time, lit by the pre-teen rascal boys of the village. Feem, our four year old sister, was much more interested in playing with the dripping orange candle wax than sitting still, and her mother made little attempt to keep her in attention.

The practice was so much more based in action than in silent contemplation. For these villagers, religious observance is carried out through the lighting of candles and the donation of pillows, mats, rice, and banana-leaf-wrapped snacks, accompanied by the carrying out of the rituals of the ceremony; lighting incense that is strung in a vast web across the courtyard, and circling the temple three times with our candles.

If you’ve studied religion even a little bit, you’ve probably learned Émile Durkheim's theory of Collective Effervescence; the idea that just because of the sheer amount of people participating in religious ceremonies (or any other event), an energy is created and felt by those involved that is perceived to be larger than the sum of its parts. 

Never having been particularly religious, explanations like Collective Effervescence are what I have to explain how I felt that night. A unique feeling arose in my chest as we moved slowly with our candles to light the webs of hanging incense. We lit the incense methodically, and fragrant smoke began to swirl around us. This was nothing like anything I had ever experienced before. Maybe all of the smoke was getting to me, but I really felt part of something big, even though I didn’t know what most of our actions were for.

I think we were all grateful to get to experience Ok Phansa, but, at least for me, I’m even more grateful for the persistence of the kind, yet unexplainable actions of our host families. The easy way that they really truly include us as a part of the family, with little ceremony, really makes me feel like I’m part of something much bigger.

Pad Thai ไม่เข้าใจ

Pad Thai? ไม่เข้าใจ (Mai Kao Jai)

Sorry that I haven't blogged much... Things are getting busy here in Thailand. It's almost Thanksgiving, and almost every one of our little project is due around then. It adds up.

Less than a month of my program left. It still feels like maybe it's summer, that school hasn't really started yet.  But I've learned a lot, and I'm excited to bring back this new knowledge with me back to the states... including the knowledge of what good Pad Thai is.

Hi I'm Molly & I Don't Understand Beaches

My basic impression of "tropical vacations" was something along the lines of spending the whole day in a bikini on a towel, taking breaks to drink something fruity and alcoholic. So far, my Kho Tao experience has been almost the exact opposite of that, though I have been spending a lot of time in a swim suit, and I have been drinking a lot of fruity drinks (especially these amazing coconut shakes they have everywhere.)

Not a coconut shake, but a ginger juice, served with a fancy flower of course.

Outside of those two things though, I've spending my time not relaxing but being beaten up by this island. For one thing, it's extremely steep. Since we refuse to rent motorcycles (because they're dangerous and we're squares) we have to walk everywhere. Getting anywhere is either straight up or straight down a 90 degree incline (or something like that).

This is a steep-ass island!

For another thing: I forgot how white I am, and how much I don't wear sunscreen. The first day at the beach ended with severe burns all over the dang place. 

Not that I'm complaining. My travel companions are very active, and have gotten me to do things I would have never considered, like kayaking around the whole south side of the island! And swimming out further than I'm  comfortable with (aka 5 feet away from the shore) so that I could see some sharks!

Setting off on our kayak trip!

The shark I saw looked a little like this, maybe 3 feet long or so. It was a pretty chill little shark.   

Even though I feel completely beat up, I'm so glad I came here. Getting to chill here in the sea breeze is so calming, and a wonderful contrast to the past few days. It's been really amazing to experience this new part of Thailand.... I've almost forgotten where I am... But I'm here to try new things, and I'm doing exactly that, even if I'm a little awkward at it.

Me and a giant cuttlebone, after our kayak journey, looking less than excited, but really I am!

Planes, Rains and Catamarans

Swimsuit?

Sun screen??

Shorts???

I don’t even know how to pack for a beach that isn’t the Oregoncoast. My usual beach attire is jeans, a sweatshirt and a warm hat. I canremember maybe two times in my life that I’ve been to a sunny beach…

Yet, here I am poised to go to Kho Tao for a week, aplace where even sunny-beach lovers yearn to go. I hope they have room for apoor Pacific-Northwesterner in this tropical corner of Thailand.

16 hours later...

I'm here! After a taxi, a bus, a plane, 2 catamarans and riding in the back of a truck, We've finally reached Koh Tao! Now it's off to the beach!

View over the ocean!

View of the sunrise from Bangkok

The water is such a beautiful color! Some little rain storms are brewing in the background there.