After-school Adventures
After finishing up class at Baan Dang school on Thursday afternoon, two of the teachers, Kru Boopee and Kru Pem, took me out on a mini adventure around Roi Et. They really wanted to get me something to thank me for my time at their school, so the first stop was a silk shop downtown. Here, I tried on a variety of different styles of Thai shirts, laced with intricate and vibrant colors and patterns. The store owner took advantage of the foreign “model” in her shop and snapped a couple of photos as well. Eventually, I found a shirt that I fell in love with and that was also in my size, as well as an earthy brown scarf. I’m so grateful for these gifts and will treasure them immensely, but part of me can’t help but feel guilty about having to stuff nice silk clothes into a backpack in order to bring them home. I guess that’s what steamers are made for.
Once we finished shopping, they brought me to a restaurant with a very modern cafĂ© vibe. The staff there were so friendly and went out of their way to accommodate me. I ordered a Thai tea (“chaa Thai”)—perhaps my favorite Thai drink—and went over the Thai menu with the teachers to decide what to order. We ended up getting wing bean salad, pineapple curry, and som tam, and I also ordered some khao pad (fried rice). The food itself was extremely delicious. It was more sweet than spicy, which was a nice change from what I’ve grown accustomed to. If our miniature feast wasn’t enough, they also ordered two kinds of toast for desert: one strawberry and one caramel. In typical Thai fashion, they were chock-full of sugar, but I guess that’s what made them so delicious. This giant meal took place at the awkward time of around 4 o’clock, but considering how I ate until I was full, it served as my dinner.
The last stop on our afternoon adventure was quite unexpected—at least to me. On our way back to my village, the teachers had to drop some snacks off at a scout camp. Learning this excited me for two particular reasons: first, I’ve had practically zero interaction with high schoolers in Thailand, so it’d be interesting to get to meet some. Second, I was involved in scouting for ten years back home and have participated in my fair share of scout camps, too. I never went to the World Scout Jamboree, so this would be my first exposure to how international scouts camp. Upon arriving, I saw scouts scattered all over the place. We presented the snacks to the director and were given a tour of the place. Besides a few things here and there, it was indiscernible from scout camp back home. There were tents, lashings, and clothes drying on sticks. People were cooking over fires, playing games, and goofing off. It was the quintessential scout camp.
Tree Hugging
I don’t know if it’s the reality that I’ll be leaving Thailand soon or my growing interest in Henry David Thoreau, but I’ve been really interested in the local nature this past week. I’ve started to literally stop and smell the roses when the opportunity presents itself, and I love admiring the busy bees as they loudly pollinate the trees in the early morning. While eating lunch at Baan Nonghin School, I noticed a massive tree in the courtyard. I’ve eaten lunch here countless times, so I don’t know how I’ve gone this long without noticing this tree (I suppose I was too caught up in my own thoughts), but it’s easily one of the most impressive ones I’ve seen in Thailand.
Like a total dork, I ran up to the tree and began sizing it up. I enthusiastically asked one of the teachers to take some photos of me with the tree and began asking as many questions about it as I could. Apparently it’s a rain tree (also called monkeypod or samanea saman), which is called jamjuri in Thai. The trees are native to South America, but they have been brought all over the world, and as you can see, this tree is quite old. I know that this is a random topic to mention in my weekly report, but I’m still a bit obsessed with this tree and figured I’d share the love.
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