It took about an hour to drive to Bansong from the airport. On the way Lan was telling us about the local area. The province is famous for palm oil and rubber which became aparant when we saw rows upon rows of Rubber and Palm trees. She also informed us that the house we were meant to be living in is not yet ready. Therefore we would be staying in a hotel for a couple of days. Before taking us to the hotel Lan took us to her house which is next door to her mother and father in law's house.
We met Lan's three 'little monkeys' or children as some would call them. We also were greeted by her mother and father in law. At this point we knew in their culture it is polite to 'wai' when you meet someone which involves putting your hands infromt of you in a prayer position and bowing your head. We had been told that the higher your hands are and the lower you bow your head, the more respect you are giving and you should give the most respect to royalty, monks, teachers and those that are older than yourself. Due to this I was a little unsure of how high my hands should be and how to bow. Feeling a bit awkward and at risk of being rude I attempted a little smile, 'sawadeekah' and a quick prayer handed nod. They didn't seem too offended so it was either fine or they felt sorry for the foreigner who was getting it all wrong! Lan's mother in law offered for us to stay at her house instead of in the hotel. As this seemed a little more reliable and so we could be under close supervision of Lan next door we agreed and entered our new temporary home.
We were very lucky because I think it's one of the poshest Thai homes I've seen! (This is based on now being here for around 6 weeks)
Outdoor kitchen
Me and Joy stayed in our air conditioned bedroom as we felt a bit hot, tired and awkward going downstairs into a strangers home with no common language to communicate! It didn't take long until wonderful Thai hospitality took hold and the monkeys were sent up with some mystery fruit for us.
We later found out that this is Guava and a sugary but slightly spicy/tangy dip. They thought it was funny because in Thai Guava is called 'farang' the word for foreign. Which is hilarious to them as it's the same word they call us, 'farang'. Interestingly potatoes also go by the name 'farang' due to them also being foreign to the country and imported. So maybe they're calling us potatoes and not foreigners... Food for thought!
We were then invited down to dinner at Lan's house next door. We went down are were immediately a little (LOT) overwhelmed by the amount of people that were there to greet us. We assumed it would just be Lan's family but there were many family friends, neighbours and their children that had all come to cook eat and welcome us. This was all very lovely and we had a great time, although it was a bit full on but being thrown in at the deepend is what we are here for!
We enjoyed some great food including rice, very spicy curry, crab, crabs eggs, and a variety of different shell fish.
It was here that we were given our Thai nicknames. Thai people all have first and last names which are mostly quite long and hard to say. Because of this they name nicknames which they are mostly referred as. Some nicknames include 'Ling' which means monkey, names of flowers, fruit and animals are very popular. Our mentor decided to give us names based on fruit. Joys is chumpon which means rose apple. Mine is Dangmoh, watermelon. I must have pulled an embarrassed or sour face at this as my mentor assured me that many Thai girls go by this nickname. It didn't seem like a problem until I heard my mentor introducing my nickname to other Thai people at school and around town. It always ensues this little giggle as if they've said something a bit rude. It turns out to be a bit of a Mickey take and we have come to realise that Thai people are very straight up and honest about each other's appearance. They have no qualms about calling people up about their weight, level of beauty and skin colour. (It is desirable here to have white skin so those with dark skin are certainly told about it!). We tried to explain to our mentor that in England you wouldn't call someone up about their appearance as often it's something that could be a sensitive topic or that cannot be helped. However she didn't seem to fully understand how it would be upsetting. Thankfully I have a thick skin and took my new nickname in my stride, although I urge the children to call me Teacher Chloe instead of Dangmoh!
We got an early night after the seafood party and even managed to have a lie in - despite the bed feeling like sleeping on a slice of foam on a wooden plank. Why the hard beds Thailand?! We woke up with a text to tell us that breakfast was waiting for us downstairs. We ventured down and began our breakfast life in Thailand away from the land of toast, cereal and fruit.
Who doesn't want fried chicken for breakfast?
(Rice soup with egg)
Myself and Joy began to plan some lessons ready to start school the next day mostly because Joy had no teaching experience and was fairly nervous. I tried to be as helpful and reassuring as I could but I also didn't really know what to expect especially because aside from having a class with mostly basic English and a first language of Polish on placement, I hadn't taught a whole class of children that were just beginning to learn English before. I was also worried about how I was going to set down ground rules or discipline the children as I expected their English to be very basic so how were they even going to understand me?!
In the midst of our panic we were brought a little slice of heaven in the form of fried banana and sweet potato.
That's one happy face. I'd never tried it before but I felt as if I'd been eating it all of my life, missed it and been given some again. In short, it was amazing.
We decided to get some washing done so took advantage of the outdoor washing machine which backed on to a bit of a farm yard/orchard.
We then walked to the shops and got caught in our first of many down pours, it is the rainy season after all!
We waited under the cover of the shop for a good ten minutes before I realised the rain just wasn't going to let off so I suggested we bought some umbrellas and we did...
We then caught up with Lan and she gave us our schedule for our lessons, told us a bit about the school and gave us yet more food!
We were then introduced to mangosteen. If you ever get the chance to eat mangosteen do it. It is the best thing I think I have ever tasted. It's just so sweet and delicious I could sing it's praises all day.
In Thailand it is called the queen of fruit. This is aparantly because during Queen Victoria's reign, she offered £100 to anyone who could bring her a fresh mangosteen. Victoria clearly knew what the mangosteen hype was about! I also learned that the Thai word for mangosteen is 'Mankut'. It is allegedly called mangosteen because a 'farang' asked a Thai person what the fruit was called after trying it. They replied 'Mankut' which was misheard several times as mango by the foreigner. The Thai person got angry and said 'mangosteen'. Steen means heel, as in heel of your foot and it is very offensive to say that to someone. The man didn't recognise this as an insult and understood that the fruit was called 'mangosteen'. Well anyway, whatever it is called, it's delicious.
One of Lan's monkeys, Tonkaow stopped being shy around us and let out all of his crazy personality, we even joined Baiboon, Lan's youngest and her eldest Baiboua for a tea party.
Post tea party, we had a delicious dinner.
We then went to get an early night before school tomorrow. However, some creepy crawly critters had other ideas.
When we got back to our room Joys screams let me know that there was a spider that had decided to join us. I sparked into action and it was murdered fairly fast.
Around 3 minutes after the first killing I spotted a lizard on the wall. We were both a bit scared but decided that we could only kill a lizard with fire and decided it was actually quite cute so it could live.
I then went into the bathroom to have a shower and I was greeted by a monster. A massive cockroach was strolling around on the skin. I went to inform Joy and on our return to the bathroom it had disappeard. After a while I chose to ignore the fact that I ever saw it and had the quickest (freezing as per, Thai style) shower of my life. We both got into bed and tried to get to sleep. Joy soon informed me that the cockroach was on the wall. I was too sleepy for murder number 2 so I decided to use the calming tactic. I asked Joy what is the worst that could happen? It'll land on your arm and you'll shake it off worst car scenario. Not even 2 seconds after I said this, the cockroach lost it's grip on the wall, fell and landed on my arm, I yelled and shook it off whilst jumping off the bed. Joy instantly thought I was messing about based on what I'd just said but the monster took flight from my shake and landed on Joy! We were both off the 'safe zone bed' and the cockroach occupied the bed for itself.
The beast soon disappeard under the bed and we decided that we were going to have to sleep elsewhere but we hadn't quite thought of a solution. We text Lan to ask for cockroach killing advice in the hope that she would come and kill it or offer us somewhere else to stay. But of course we got no reply and I didn't feel up to waking up our elderly hosts! We shuffled the matress around until the cockroach came out of hiding. We remembered seeing on Facebook that other ETAs used hairspray to kill a cockroach. The closest thing we had was deodorant. After a good doseage the cockroaches legs stuck together to make it less of a Usain Bolt and more of a Slow Loris. This made a perfect set up to smack the hell out of it with Joys Doc Martens.
After this photo of triumph the cockroach decided that it's fight was not over and started to move again! They really are indestructible. I then resorted to a squishing rather than smacking action with the boot which lead to certain mortality. Horrah!
I do apologise for the graphic content but the way I felt whilst taking this photo can only be compared to a King on a Stallion leading it's troops to a win of a great battle. Over the top I know but cockroaches just don't die easily!
After all of the nights excitement we managed to get some sleep ready for our first day at school!
I will leave you with our reaction to the bugs with our faces filled with worry at the thought of any more critters joining us in bed.
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