Feb 22, 2008

We have arrived safely. Nitaya and SiJai picked us up at the airport in Bangkok last night. It was only about a 20 minute drive to our new home from there. Misty and I are sharing a room (and a bed,...which seems to be big enough for 4) on the second floor of the boy's orphanage. There are about 70 boys in this building. This morning we woke up around 6:45 to prepare for our day. Our morning began with a lovely cold "shower." When I refer to a shower here...I mean the throwing small buckets of water on ourselves, while standing in a shower, from the water that we saved up during the night in a large garbage can. There is not enough water pressure to wash the soap off your body. (Mom and dad, I promise I will never complain about the water pressure at home again). The water was a little shock to the system as it was not very warm either. The toilet does not flush well as it does not fill up with water easily. However, we knew this was all part of the deal coming into this. Our room feels like a mansion compared to the rest of the place. We have a wall full of windows that overlook the street. There is also an air conditioning unit and 2 ceiling fans to help cool things off.
Misty and I traveled with SiJai on the back of a pickup truck...I will post a picture of one of these and give you the real name for it in a later post. The ride only costs 5 baht, and saves a 20 minute walk. SiJai is from Malaysia and has been volunteering here for 4 months already, and only has 4 months left. She has been an incredible help to us and has made things flow very smoothly.
The Mercy Centre is impressive! There are so many different departments including those who look after the aids patients, the school teachers, community outreach groups, volunteer coordinators, cooks, etc. We greeted everyone with the wai, and were greeted back. I was surprised how many people spoke English.
We also met 2 of our students today. Both girls are applying for a scholarship to the WUC in Norway. We are helping them make that transition and adjust to life as university students, including what to expect when you live in a different culture, how the school system is different, and helping them practice their English. One of the students is more confident in speaking than the other. Only one of the students will be selected to travel to this small university in Norway, the other student will attend a local university. The school in Norway only accepts 200 students from 88 countries. In order to apply for this scholarship the students have to be some how related to the orphanage as it is about educating the children in the slums. Also, their family conditions are taken into consideration as well. The students will find out next week which one is selected to go. For the next month we will be working every day with the students from 10am-4pm. Their English is good, so it will be fun. We also planned for Fridays to be the day that they do presentations and that we do role plays or practice social skills in English by going out around Bangkok. The students are also having fun trying to teach us Thai words. They have even suggested that Misty and I do a presentation for them in Thai on Fridays as well.
Oh, I can't go on without talking about the food! The children in this house wake up at 5 am every morning, and have their breakfast at 5:30. This morning we ate at the other location. Breakfast consisted of rice porridge, salty eggs and some kind of slimy green leaves. The porridge was more like a soup. Let's just say that we might be skin and bones when we get off the plane in July. We did not eat too much for breakfast, but lunch was more promising. It consisted of rice, which you squeeze lime on, eggs and soup. Cucumbers were also available and pineapple. They dipped the pineapple in a mixture of salt, sugar, and chili peppers. The pineapple itself was delicious!
Now...the bathroom situation. So I learned how to ask to go to the bathroom in Thai, pretty exciting I know. I figured it was one of those necessity phrases. So anyways, thanks Marco for the heads up, but there is no toilet paper here. Instead, there is a little hose beside each toilet that is used to wash off. I do not know what they use to dry off, but I guess they wash off. Thankfully, I have a wonderful mother who insisted that I take some rolls just incase, so I have been carrying some around with me everywhere. Also, you are not to put toilet paper in the toilet as the system cannot handle it, so instead it goes in the waste basket beside it.
Oh another interesting thing is that you must take off your shoes every time you enter a building. It is hard to get used to, walking around offices and buildings in bare feet, but it is also kind of refreshing on the cool floor.
We met Father Joe this morning. He has an incredible looking house right in the center of the orphanage. The money for his house was donated to him as a thank you for everything he has done for the people over the years. He is very present around the orphanage and has bumped into us a few times. Tonight we are invited to his house to attend a party featuring some VIP guests, the "Burns Family" (I think I have that right) from the United States. They will be playing some music for the children. There are also some people from England visiting, that he introduced us to.
Oh, I cannot go on without telling you about our big adventure. So...Misty and I had some free time this afternoon and decided that we would walk back to our room and have a small nap before the party tonight. I guess when you are half asleep on the way to the centre in the morning, and not really paying attention to the route, this is not the best idea to do on your first day. So we kind of have an idea of where to go, so we head in that direction. After walking about 10 minutes we are not able to recognize any more of the surroundings. We asked one of the truck drivers if he knew where our place was, however we did not understand what he was saying and he did not understand us. He called over one of the motorbike taxi drivers, and after explaining it all over again, it became apparent to us that he also had no idea. Then, a taxi car stopped and once again, he had no idea. So here we are, far away from the Centre, with no idea how to get back home. We decided we should probably turn around at this point and head back to where we started from. On the way back we ran into the driver from the first taxi and he pointed out a direction for us. It did look familiar so we decided to continue on with our adventure. Don't worry mom, it was day light, and the streets were well populated. (Traffic here is CRAAAAAZZZY). So in our new direction we go, crossing over some major roads, and going to what looked like a familiar place. Along the way we stopped at a 7 Eleven to rehydrate ourselves and pick up a local map. I was kind of shocked to see that a map and a coke costs 209.00 but then I reminded myself that that was Bahts. Outside the store we ask one of the street vendors for directions to 40 Sami, however she does not understand our English and gets another vendor to help, who also does not understand English who then gets another vendor to help. Three vendors later, we realize that our destination and our current location...are not on the map! However, one of them kind of knew the area so she sent us off in another direction. Down this road we go, walking and walking, nothing looking familiar. We stop at a local post office, take a number and wait for help. Thankfully one of them spoke English and told us we needed to turn at the next intersection and walk about 500 meters. Off we go again, walking to the next intersection and then turning left. Only to find...nothing that we were looking for. At this point we decided to turn around, as our 20 minute walk was turning into a 3 hour adventure. We walked back by the women who helped us before, who only smiled and kind of laughed at us, and walked all the way back to the centre. Here we asked SiJai to help us, and she got us on a motorbike taxi and we were off again.
It turned out that we were one street before where we should have been, so if we would have kept going a little further we would have made it. The bike ride was pretty exciting, but also very scary. I cannot even explain how traffic is here, but I can tell you I would not want to drive in it. I will try and get some pictures of it later.
I am going to end my post here for now. I need to have a "shower" before the party tonight. Misty and I are also going to eat with the boys in the orphanage. Hope you all don't miss us too much, and to those reading this in math class...get back to work!!

UPDATE: We are just getting home from Father Joe's house. What an amazing evening. The Burn's Sisters from the US sang and played, as well as John Murphy and the Philippine Choir from Father Joe's other parish. There was an endless supply of liquor and food, and by the end of the evening we were all singing and dancing to classic oldies pop.
Oh, and the food was amazing!! I will post videos and pictures when I have more time, it's off to bed now... Church in the morning.