Rain Storm in Thailand!

It is 11 pm, Tuesday night and I am sitting here listening to the rain pounding on the steel roof. Lightening and thunder roar in the distance. Hearing the rain all around us is a very relaxing feeling, just listening to the pitter patter of the drops, hitting the window panes and then collecting in the puddles under our windows. I do not think it has rained this hard since we have been here. Something about the rain is calming, and takes me back to the summers at home.

Standing on the balcony, I can smell the rain. Yes rain has a smell. And I can smell the rain on the iron bars. The rain is so loud, reminding me of when I was at camp in a cabin. I can barely hear misty across the room over the pounding on the roof top. Welcome wet season, and welcome rain. I can assume that this is not the only rain storm we will experience, but one of many in the coming months. I think I need to get an umbrella very soon.

Today was our first day back at Mercy after our small vacation. It was not as hard to wake up early again as I expected. Thank goodness. I only had one class today as my other classes had to rescheduled to other days and other times because some of the students I teach just started attending summer school. I had my adults doing quick writes in class today, except they were not quick at all. One of the stronger English speakers in the class was not in attendance today so I was able to see the ability levels of all of the students. I was very happy to see the improvement in one of my students in particular. Misty attended my class, and after class we were discussing what happened in class and I was talking about how far some of my students in the adult class have come and I realized that the whole class I mistaken the student who is at the top of the class with the one who has the most difficulty. That is how much she improved! I had them mixed up in my mind.

We went to visit the adults in the AIDS hospice for a while. Nancy was very happy to see us again, and they were all excited to see that we brought along pictures and video from our vacation in Chiang Mai, and from the Songkran festival. They shared their stories with us from their celebration back at Mercy. I had a very good heart to heart talk with Nancy, about he (yes I said he) contracted AIDS and the absence of his parents in his life. Nancy got AIDS from his husband of three years. His husband is a dancer at one of the red light districts who has “boyfriends a lot.” Nancy’s husband was his first sexual partner, but unfortunately his husband had many other parents, and passed on the AIDS virus. I do not know much about the husband’s role at the present time now that Nancy is very sick and receiving treatment, but Nancy is not sure if he will go back to him when he is well enough.

Nancy also passed on some news about Egg, one of the patients I have been visiting from the day I arrived at Mercy, and the one who always kept me updated on the status of all of the other patients. Egg was having very bad stomach pains and was admitted to the hospital 5 days ago. Please keep him in your prayers! I pray that he responds to his new treatment and is able to return soon. Egg is a funny guy, and told Nancy and his friends that we always buy food for him every time we come. They were disappointed to see us arrive our first time visiting them empty handed. I do not know why Egg thinks that but it is a big joke with the others now. He always brings a smile to my face.

After class I waited around Mercy until lunch time for her to finish up with her student. We used to teach students at the same time but now I have a bigger break on Tuesday’s and busier days the rest of the week.

After lunch we took the BTS skytrain to Siam where we went to Siam Ocean World in Siam Paragon. This is the largest aquarium in Southeast Asia. It was quite expensive but worth every penny. I have never seen an aquarium so large, where there were tunnels for us to walk through! We also took a glass bottom boat ride around one of the enormous tanks and watched a shark feeding. The whole experience was very exciting. Other animals included otters, water rats (yes I got a picture for Derek), penquins, sting rays the size of young children, turtles, sharks, and many other sorts of fish. I also held two snakes! One was huge and I could feel it trying to move on my hand so I kind of freaked when Misty took a picture. In the picture I have the biggest smile on my face, but I was quietly screaming on the inside. Later when I felt more daring I held a smaller one all by myself (mom and dad you would be so proud). And don’t worry, I took tons of pictures.

They also had some pretty cool exhibits where they made a fish tank inside a fridge, a microwave, a television, a wine cooler, a washer and a car! It is hard to see from the pictures, but the car is the most impressive fish tank I have ever seen. Oh the creativity.

After our underwater experience we went to MBK, which is a large shopping complex geared towards teenagers. It is one of the teenage weekend hotspots. No major purchases, however we did get some movies and I got some things for people back home. We treated ourselves to a romantic meal at McDonalds, which we quickly regretted as our stomach seemed to be rejecting it all. We took a BTS and did some speed walking home, to try and get rid of it. I think Soi 40 is the longest and stinkiest street in Thailand. We have to walk from one end of the street to the other. I do not know how long it actually is, but there is no way you can see from one end to the other. There is a small man made river that comes out of a large pipe and stretches along the full length of the road and I think eventually empties into the river by the slums. You cannot see through the water at all as it is very very dirty. I also think this might be where human waste empties out as you can smell a very strong sense of ammonia at the main outlet and many times at different points throughout the walk. We have to wait by this in the morning as well if we take a songtheaw to work, so sadly when it is not strong we do not really notice the smell anymore. It is very unhealthy that is for sure. I am just thankful we cannot smell it from where we live.

Upon our return to Soi 40, we met up with SiJie and watched P.S. I Love You. I cried the whole time, much to the amusement of the other two. I would recommend this one. Finally it was time for bed, falling asleep to the sound of the rain hitting the roof.

I will try and post some pictures as soon as possible (maybe this afternoon) when I have a secure internet connection and some more time. Mom and dad, you will for sure enjoy these.

Jodie

P.S. I love you