Now that all the volunteers are back, when I wake up at 5:30am I can’t just turn all the lights on and do yoga next to my bed. I snuck out (loudly) and went for a walk. The neighborhood is pretty quiet in the mornings. Today I walked a little further than yesterday and made it to the International School.
Got back and since the girls are on holiday (no school), we decided to go on an outing. There is a waterfall called Mae Sa Water Falls. In that park there must have been 5 or 6 waterfalls which you must hike to. We played around and didn’t get very far. By the way all the girls plus a few volunteers wore flip flops for this outing. It is the Thai way. The waterfall was nice; the color of the water was questionable.
We were all splashing around, sitting on rocks and we would hold hands in a line to get across the water so nobody would fall in.
Ploy, one of the highschool girls fell in the water… First she started laughing because she got taken to a lower level and separated from us and I think it must have been fun but she couldn’t get a grip and there was nothing to hold on to so she got carried by the drift again! She was getting carried through small falls but there was a much bigger one had she not been saved by our only guy volunteer who basically had to ride the current to save her. She was scared, everyone was scared. He rescued her, everyone was fine….
She was laughing once she knew she was safe. Meeju, Uyi, Ning and I wandered off to see more trail.
So the sign below says: 132 steps to view point. Fitness test.
I wasn’t worried about the fitness part but the stairs looked really creaky and old. The hand rails had a sign that read “no climbing or shaking”, but I was too scared to rely on it. There was moss on the trail that was a tiny path with no side rails so you’d be doomed if you slipped of the cliff. The path was quite narrow. It was scary and the view point was very blah…. Nothing special. The view point was like a large balcony made of wood over some rocks. Part of the wood was missing so it made me want to go back down… Everything was just too questionable.
Foreigners were charged 100 baht while locals were charged only 10 baht. Rip off! I played in the gross water because I didn’t want to make it seem like I was grossed out by the color of the water, although I think it’s just mud. Another reason I went into the water was because it was so hot! Humid and sweaty! I needed to cool down. The girls were all smiles and that made the volunteers happy.
To get here we all rode a 5 seater pick up truck. There were I think 16 of us total. 7 rode inside the car, the rest of us rode the back of the truck bed. I enjoyed it….
We got back, washed up and pooled our clothes together to do laundry. The workers asked for our help to sift some pebbles from the gravel. Hard to explain so I will show you in photos.
Why do we need to do this??? Well the large pebbles will be used with concrete to make a path from the new house.
So again I was sweaty and gross. Just another day in Thailand. They had to turn off the water for plumbing purposes so we were done for the day. Fah (house mom) made us a refreshing green drink. We don’t get ice everyday so I felt like I was in heaven.
Fah said that she liked me because I work hard. She said ” I like you soo-san, you work good”. I try!
I helped Uyi crush chili into powder.
After dinner, I was walking back to our room and saw a crab just walking along. So random.
I read some more of my book and went to bed. The book I’m reading… My name Lon, you like me? It’s basically a viewpoint from a woman born in northeastern Thailand who isn’t accepted as Thai which means, poor job option, poor education and even with the best education, they make maybe $40 a month. This is of course working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Lon has two sisters and one brother and if there is any money, it goes to the brothers well-being.
Lon being the oldest sibling is looked at to bring in money to make sure the family can eat, the brother can go to school etc…. Lon willingly chooses to go into prostitution because it is a faster way to make money. She always sends money home and her purpose for wanting to make money was so her two sisters would be able to continue attending school.
Even though school is free until 12 years of age, the teachers tack on ridiculous fees to get more money out of each child. If they go to authority, they do nothing. So Lon sacrifices for her family which is typical in Thai culture for the oldest daughter to go out and make money. The book goes on to describe what she does and who she meets. There are instances where men fall in love with her so she thinks she is free from having sex with much older men for money, but somehow she always ends up back in the sex business…. To care for her family.
In fact, if she were only worried about herself she could have been out of the business and married at an early age but in order to provide for her family she has to continue her work. She is 14 when she starts getting paid for dancing and sex. The men she talked about range from 24 to 50 or something. In the book she mentions often that nobody sees her as a human being with feelings or emotions. People would pay to play out their fantasies which she did for the money but she could not understand why anyone would want to hurt people the way she was hurt… Physically and emotionally. Foreigners would call her names like whore, slut and low life but she only chose this life to provide for her family. In the Thai culture, it is the children who take care of the parents, in America the parents do whatever it takes to provide for the children.
I finished this book in two days.
Tonight Laura went out to meet her friend Dun and asked us girls if we’d like to join. Rahel, myself and Esther tagged along. We went to a bar which was within walking distance. By bar I mean a neighborhood store with tables and benches. My first drink, was Thai whisky on the rocks with water. Too strong, after one glass, I changed to beer. Chang beer is your everyday Asian beer. Works for me. The girls all get along together well so it was fun. We were all cheersing in our own language…. Korean, Thai, English, Dutch and German. Then Laura taught us Hebrew way which is to say “al hime”, which means “to life”. By the end of the night, we all were having a jolly time and got back around 11:30pm. Latest I’ve slept here so far.
Leave a Reply