Farewell to Thailand

We left our home in Alexandria, Virginia, last summer for Thailand.  We arrived in Chiang Mai in late September and stayed there for 6 weeks.  We moved to Khemmarat, Thailand, on November 5, 2012, and taught first in Baan Nong Phue (about 16 miles from Khemmarat) and then in Khemmarat. On July 31 -- nearly a year after leaving the USA and 9 months after moving to Khemmarat -- we left, on our way back to the USA. As we hope the readers of our blog have seen, Khemmarat is a beautiful town. Its people are very warm and welcoming, even to farang who don't speak much of their language. We will miss Khemmarat very much, especially the friends we have made. There's no plan at this point, but it would be great to return someday. 

This is a view of the rice field just to the side of the apartment building where we lived.  In the distance on the left is the roofline of Wat Neua.

Here are other sights around Khemmarat.

 

Here is a beautiful temple bell at Wat Klang.

We imagine Khemmarat will look very different in a few years -- there is a lot of construction going on.  Here's a new building going up near the Khemmarat Market.  Notice the female construction workers: female laborers are very common in Isaan.

Our neighbor preparing banana leaves to use for wrapping food

Rice cakes drying in the sun

A typical old Thai house with an open air area beneath where folks rest and eat in the shade during the day

A couple of the many roosters who can be heard crowing morning and night

Pigs on the way to market

 

An evening at the Night Market

 

Delicious sweet treats

 

 Mary with Khemmarat Pittayakom teachers and teacher/friend Wachinee

Below, durian being prepared for sale.  According to Wikipedia: Regarded by many people in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, strong odor, and formidable thorn-covered husk. The fruit can grow as large as 12 inches long and 6 inches in diameter, and it typically weighs 2 to 7 pounds. Its shape ranges from oblong to round, the color of its husk green to brown, and its flesh pale yellow to red, depending on the species.  The edible flesh emits a distinctive odor that is strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as pleasantly fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and revolting. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine, raw sewage. The persistence of its odor has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.  (We saw signs in our Bangkok hotel prohibiting durian.)

 The colorful Mekong just a few blocks from our apartment

 

Cows and calves are a common sight

On the left, brothers Bat and Gan, on the right, a child who wouldn't speak but seemed to enjoy George's company

 

A girl in a family we saw most every day after we got our coffee at Moo's

We have admired these twins since we arrived in Khemmarat last year.  They spend a good part of their day near the food market, but we hadn't tried to get a picture.  George finally got out his camera and one boy hid nearly perfectly behind the other.  A day or so later, he moved more quickly and got the second photo.

A bird that liked the riverbank but was elusive and hard to photograph

Petrol for one's motorbike

Bear pastries stuffed with chocolate -- delicious!

Here's Mary with Kanun, holding a bag of tasty "donuts" that she made.  Kanun brought a variety of pastries every few days for sale at Moo's coffee shop.

Our dear friend Wachinee brought us these wonderful Thai Grandma and Grandpa cards, with clothes made of real Thai cloth, from Ubon. While we didn’t dress in traditional Thai fashion, we are looking more and more like this Grandma and Grandpa.

As always, a few plant and butterfly pictures,

One more glorious insect,

A video of some industrious ants that we saw on our walk one day

We had one final goodbye at Khemmarat Pittayakom School and we were invited to speak to the students so they would understand what happened to us once they weren't seeing us anymore.

Our colleague, Kru Doe, an English teacher, translated for us.

A big group picture with Director Paijit and many of the senior staff and teachers at the school.

Then a few handshakes and goodbyes.

We thank Kru Itthipon and Director Paijit for inviting us to teach at their school and the teachers and students with whom we worked for making us feel so welcome.

And Mary bid a final farewell to the school dogs that sometimes visited her classroom.  Here they are taking a morning rest.

We wanted to say one last goodbye to the school in Baan Nong Phue, where we had taught for five months and had a wonderful farewell ceremony at the end of March (see March 27, 2013 blog post: http://maryandgeorgesmidlifeadventue.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-fantastic-farewell-from-baan-nong.html).  We thanked Sawitree, the young student who had given us some illustrated books she had made. 

And we thanked Ulaiwan, who had given Mary a bracelet during her first week teaching at Baan Nong Phue. "Ulai" means "golden" in Thai and "wan" means "skin."  She does indeed have beautiful golden skin. We also took a picture of her with two of her friends.

  

We said goodbye to several teachers at lunch -- from left, Sukid, Ulai, and Pairat.

 

Teachers are government employees and wear uniforms, but just on Mondays.  Since we didn't go to school on Mondays, we hadn't seen most of the teachers in their uniforms before.

Here is Mary with our dear friend Wachinee in her uniform and with both Wachinee and Toom, another dear friend from Baan Nong Phue (the photo is from our trip to Pha Taem National Park). 

Here are Wachinee's parents, Kid and Chantid, who were so kind to us during our time in Khemmarat.  We had fun traveling with them to Ubon and other places, trying to converse and both sides learning some of the other's language.  Kid sent in some delicious treats with Wachinee during our time at Baan Nong Phue

This is us with Kanoklada (with whom George taught) and Therm, who made many delicious lunches for us.

Here is Mary with Serm, who helped with the children's lunch.

George got a picture with Will, an 8th grader who showed a special interest in English, sometimes showing up in other grades' classes to George's delight.

The day we visited Baan Nong Phue was Thai language day, and there were special events taking place to reinforce Thai language learning for the students.  As we explored the activities, good friend and teacher Win presented us with some gifts -- a model Thai floating market boat full of fruit and a special commemorative 100 Baht bill.  Thank you, Win and Supachai.

We went to Thailand to do some volunteer teaching, and we had wonderful experiences doing that at two great schools.  We were made to feel part of a family at both schools and we made some lifelong friends.  We hope we see some of them in the US one day.  Thank you all so much for all that you did for us.


We were also lucky to make many friends outside of school.  Here are some of them, but certainly not all, and some of the things they were to us in addition to good friends. 

Deng, daughter Ahbed, and grandchild Kuken -- Deng is a great chef and also gave us gifts of fruits

Kittisak and Wilaiwan -- neighbors, advisors of things Thai, gave us gifts of homemade Thai food

ABC -- translator, advisor about things Thai, fit senior role model, introduced us to many others in Khemmarat

Nivat and Sirinon -- he was our water provider and she a nurse who made sure George got good treatment at Khemmarat Hospital -- they both were good advisors about things Thai

John -- neighbor, tuk-tuk driver, translator

Dang & Joe -- they have a home in Baan Nong Phue (where Dang is from) and another in West Virginia.  We were lucky they were in Baan Nong Phue when we were: they taught us a lot and were very kind to us.  Here they are with Dang's nephew.

Chefs at nearby restaurant -- great cooks, always-smiling faces

Waffle-maker -- always-tender face, made delicious waffles we ate frequently

Lady who greeted us everyday on the way to Moo's coffee shop -- she always had a warm smile and happy laugh as we greeted each other while she rested in the shade under her house

Non and his child.  They live along the Mekong and he would greet us most Saturday mornings as we took a walk up the river.

Pum Pui Kungya, a pharmacist in Khemmarat, and her staff.  We were often looking for vitamins and supplements that are common in the US but not in Thailand.  Pum would always do her best to find them for us.

Ken and Namthip -- he was a Thai Air Force Academy student and became a Royal Thai AF officer, she is a nurse at Khemmarat Hospital, and they are engaged to be married in the fall -- he was very friendly to us on our first meeting at Moo's coffee shop and taught George (a former USAF guy) about the Thai AF

                         Here they are in a pre-wedding photo from Namthip's Facebook page

Moo -- barrista, translator, advisor about all things Thai

Kesinee, a senior at Khemmarat Pittayakom whom George had the pleasure of coaching for a speech competition.  He's hoping she'll stay in touch by e-mail so he can help her improve her written English in preparation for college.

George will always be indebted to Tom, who welcomed him into his family and taught him some Thai language, Thai culture, and a lot about the warmth of Thai people.

We made a collage of many of the pictures George had taken of his adventures with Tom and gave it to him as a parting gift.

 

This is the picture George will treasure most -- Tom & George looking over "their" rice.

Finally, we can never say thank you enough to dear Wachinee, who invited us to Isaan, helped us find a home, drove us to Baan Nong Phue School most every day, showed us so much of our new hometown and Isaan, and was so generous with her time and friendship.  We hope she will visit us in the US and let us return a small measure of her hospitality.  There are a lot of pictures of Wachinee throughout this blog -- testament to all the ways she helped us.  We liked this old Facebook profile photo of her we found.

 

Here's what Mary wrote in her journal before we left:

Even though I'll be happy to be back in the states, I am feeling sadness at leaving, as we very much feel a part of the town here now. The oddest part of this feeling of sadness is that we can barely carry on a conversation with most of our Thai friends and certainly not the people on the street who greet us with such big smiles and a reverent wai.  But the heart connection is stronger than with some people that I’ve known and conversed with for years. 

I didn’t feel this sadness when we left the U.S.  Here, I think the deep sadness is the finality of it – the fact that I know that I’m not likely to ever see these people – or have these same experiences – again.  

Part of it is being so immersed in such a welcoming culture for so long and then, suddenly, to experience its loss.  The environment is part of it too: walking out the door in the morning and seeing the beautiful green of the rice fields that surround our building; seeing all the gorgeous butterflies, bugs, roosters, cows, and yes, even lizards and insects, as part of our everyday existence; walking along the river just a short distance from our apartment; hearing the frogs serenading from the fields every night . . .  these are all the happy memories I will have when we leave.  

 

We do and will continue to miss you, Isaan!