Vientaine
31 May 2007
Between the heat, the strange location and the mosquito bites (somehow extremely prevalent in spite of the mosquito netting we were sleeping under) I didn't sleep too well my first night in the village. It didn't help that at 5 am some kind of recorded religious song started blasting across the village PA system. Rachel and I tried to ignore it until about 5:30 when we gave up and went downstairs.
We had a snack of peanut butter crackers and Pa fixed my hair since I hadn't done it to her satisfaction. We then walked across the street to the temple for some kind of ceremony involving incense, prayer, and giving food to the monks. It was really cool how much the village delighted in having us join in on the ceremony and it was funny to watch people teaching our group how to pour water into the jugs, divvy up rice, light incense and bow respectfully, etc. The prayer was very rhythmic and very relaxing to listen to - I can understand the appeal of religious services of that nature!
After temple we had breakfast and then met with our research groups to hold focus groups. We interviewed a group of adolescents, the village elders and some very young children. When we got home we discovered Pa had bought our lunch somewhere, and it was my very favorite dish, N3 with chicken. (Oh Sukho Thai how I miss you!) I was dismayed to note that instead of putting what we didn't eat into the fridge, Pa gave it to Chop, the dog. After lunch we relaxed for a bit of a siesta, conveniently during the hottest part of the day, and some of the local middle schoolers came by for some kind of avon lady thing our host sister did. A major accomplishment of the morning: taking a dump on the squat toilet and flinging the water just right to flush it. I am so into Thai toilets.
We went on a village walkabout to get an idea of how people live and how close people are to the health center. En route we ran into the food safety team headed off to market and we decided to tag along. We ended up at the same market we visited the other day, almost half an hour from the village, which made me wonder how people in the village do their shopping if they want something other than what the merchants that pass through are selling. We gave our host family the presents we'd brought for them once we got back from the market and they loved them. Pa put on her Wisconsin tshirt right away. She also gave us 10 baht bills, which are no longer in use because they have been replaced by coins.
After dinner some friends of Pa's daughter came over, including one who was transitioning, or "boy-girl" as they referred to him. I don't know much about the trans situation in Thailand - lots of people transition and I think people travel from a ways away to have surgeries there because they are relatively cheap even in the upper end specialized hospitals. I don't know enough about the culture to really understand the (lack of) stigma. I think more people transition, and people are more open about it, but I think it is still a pretty stigmatized position to be in.
We waited and waited until finally the music started up again and it was time to return to the wat for the evening celebration. We visited the ancestors in the wall (mausoleum?) and Pa showed her Wisconsin tshirt off to the all the Americans. We sat on the ground around the wat and eventually the head monk started talking (teaching and praying) and people took pictures of the Americans celebrating Vientiaine (at this point we still didn't really know what it ment, we later learned it was the day Buddha was born, attained nirvana and died. Pretty big deal.) After the prayer and teaching ended, we lit little bundles of flowers, candles and incense and walked three laps around the wat. I ran into one of our teachers from the university and asked her what the laps were for. The first one honors Buddha, the second his teachings, and the third is in recognition of the monks. After all three laps we placed all our burning bundles together - it was really pretty in the dark. More pictures of the Americans were taken and we returned home for evening showers and bed.
Between the heat, the strange location and the mosquito bites (somehow extremely prevalent in spite of the mosquito netting we were sleeping under) I didn't sleep too well my first night in the village. It didn't help that at 5 am some kind of recorded religious song started blasting across the village PA system. Rachel and I tried to ignore it until about 5:30 when we gave up and went downstairs.
We had a snack of peanut butter crackers and Pa fixed my hair since I hadn't done it to her satisfaction. We then walked across the street to the temple for some kind of ceremony involving incense, prayer, and giving food to the monks. It was really cool how much the village delighted in having us join in on the ceremony and it was funny to watch people teaching our group how to pour water into the jugs, divvy up rice, light incense and bow respectfully, etc. The prayer was very rhythmic and very relaxing to listen to - I can understand the appeal of religious services of that nature!
After temple we had breakfast and then met with our research groups to hold focus groups. We interviewed a group of adolescents, the village elders and some very young children. When we got home we discovered Pa had bought our lunch somewhere, and it was my very favorite dish, N3 with chicken. (Oh Sukho Thai how I miss you!) I was dismayed to note that instead of putting what we didn't eat into the fridge, Pa gave it to Chop, the dog. After lunch we relaxed for a bit of a siesta, conveniently during the hottest part of the day, and some of the local middle schoolers came by for some kind of avon lady thing our host sister did. A major accomplishment of the morning: taking a dump on the squat toilet and flinging the water just right to flush it. I am so into Thai toilets.
We went on a village walkabout to get an idea of how people live and how close people are to the health center. En route we ran into the food safety team headed off to market and we decided to tag along. We ended up at the same market we visited the other day, almost half an hour from the village, which made me wonder how people in the village do their shopping if they want something other than what the merchants that pass through are selling. We gave our host family the presents we'd brought for them once we got back from the market and they loved them. Pa put on her Wisconsin tshirt right away. She also gave us 10 baht bills, which are no longer in use because they have been replaced by coins.
After dinner some friends of Pa's daughter came over, including one who was transitioning, or "boy-girl" as they referred to him. I don't know much about the trans situation in Thailand - lots of people transition and I think people travel from a ways away to have surgeries there because they are relatively cheap even in the upper end specialized hospitals. I don't know enough about the culture to really understand the (lack of) stigma. I think more people transition, and people are more open about it, but I think it is still a pretty stigmatized position to be in.
We waited and waited until finally the music started up again and it was time to return to the wat for the evening celebration. We visited the ancestors in the wall (mausoleum?) and Pa showed her Wisconsin tshirt off to the all the Americans. We sat on the ground around the wat and eventually the head monk started talking (teaching and praying) and people took pictures of the Americans celebrating Vientiaine (at this point we still didn't really know what it ment, we later learned it was the day Buddha was born, attained nirvana and died. Pretty big deal.) After the prayer and teaching ended, we lit little bundles of flowers, candles and incense and walked three laps around the wat. I ran into one of our teachers from the university and asked her what the laps were for. The first one honors Buddha, the second his teachings, and the third is in recognition of the monks. After all three laps we placed all our burning bundles together - it was really pretty in the dark. More pictures of the Americans were taken and we returned home for evening showers and bed.