Day 85 - 112: Among the Hmong
Let me start off saying that this blog post is really hard for me to write. I am going to do the best I can, but Khun Sathan was filled with so many emotional hills and valleys (not to mention literal hills and valleys) for me and the rest of the group. So, here it goes:
Dreamfood:
- I've been living inside a national park, Khun Sathan National Park, to be exact.
- Our TBB group did the Panama dance
- I returned to Chiang Mai and further explored the beautiful city.
- I traveled to Pai for the first time and went to a BUNNY CAFE!
Homestay Heart + Culturescape:
- My host family is Hmong, not necessarily Thai.
- The first night in my homestay, my roommate, Jen, and I didn't think we could make it. The house seemed like a re-vamped barn. They had dirt floor kitchens. Our room was a curtained off area in the middle of the house. We slept on mats on the tile floor. In the bathroom, there was a squatty potty, faucet, and assorted buckets. There was an open fire in the kitchen, and the only difference between outside and inside was a couple of sparsely spaced wooden planks. We were shocked. By the end, it was just our house, and we loved it.
- One thing that actually took longer to adjust to was the Khun Sathan nights.; roosters going off at 2 am, our 2 year old host brother, Pum, wailing into the early morning, our host family's 5 am wake up alarm, and worst of all our ambiguous host dad's horrendous snoring. As another student, Matty, described "there's a chorus of livestock every night." Sleep was spotty for a while, but we pulled through. One way of coping my friend, Nishtah, found was screaming at roosters on our way to school.
- So, as everyone here on TBB is aware, Jen is severely allergic to shellfish. On our first day with the new family, we were playing with Pum. He decides to run over to a corner of the kitchen and picks up a large pot. He can barely lift it, but when he waddles over to us we peek inside and live crabs. The pot is full of maybe seven live crabs. Jen screams and runs prompting Grandma to quickly correct the situation, and in this chaos I see something fly at me. It lands and is a crab that Pum has chucked at my face. Luckily, it was just a really realistic toy crab.
- My host family did not have a completely floored house, a real toilet, a shower, or many (western view) essential kitchen appliances. But, they did have smart phones and a nice truck. This was a similar trend throughout host families, and many students, including me, were intrigued by what the Hmong people chose to spend their money on. I thought someone would have bought a tile floor or a stove for the kitchen before they bought a nice truck like that especially when they have motorcycle too. But, this made me confront my western views of basic necessities. A smart phone is probably more tactful to have than a sitting toilet or real shower. Views = Challenged
- Miscommunication became normal. One of our first experiences with this was in our very first Thai host family, in Khlong Chinda, on the very first day when they took us to the market. As we strolled around the market, we came across this black jelly (?) drink stand, and I remembered how disgusting I thought it was the first time I had it when I accidentally ordered it in a Starbucks frappucino in Chaing Mai. My mistake was pointing at it when I said this and my host mom saw and immediately pulled out her Baht and swapped it for a cup of black jelly for us to share. This is only one example of so so many.
- The academic unit for Thailand was education. We were supposed to work in schools shadowing teachers. But, because the miscommunication issues, most of our days were spent sitting around and watching the kids have assembly after assembly for dolling out donations or not even going since they had a whole week off for Hmong new year.
I've been waiting to post this for so long; trying to get the words perfect to capture my experience. I now realise my experience in Khun Sathan can not ever be fully captured without experience. I'm just going to post it since it has made me fall behind on my blog posts. Sorry, that I can't express the insane rollercoaster that was Khun Sathan.
Human Highlight:
Pum <3
Fun Fact:
80% of the kids in Khun Sathan drop out of school after the equivalent of 9th grade.
BE perseverant.
I was stronger than I thought I was.
"Hello From Khunsathan, Thailand
I've been enjoying all the
sight. say hi to the gang
For me. see you."
- Anonymous
Keep Thinking,
Meg
