The SQUATTER

Ah HAH!

Hello lovers and lovettes!

Greetings from Sangkhlaburi, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. I am here, yes, in my final destination and already two weeks into the swing of things. And it is lovely.

Upon first arrival I was greeted by the two women I formerly knew only by email and conference calls, Mi Kun Chan Non and Seik Non, and it was amazing to meet with their smiles as I loitered at the “bus station,” which appeared to merely be a cement block. The warmth and beauty they exuded that first moment has carried through these past few weeks and characterized the majority of my experiences thus far.

First off, the nitty-gritty:

• What I do: I am teaching a group of 15 AMAZING Mon (an ethnic minority in southern Burma) individuals aged 18-28. Among them are current students, teachers, members of the Mon State Army, farmers, dress makers, and many more. There are 12 chicks and 3 dudes. Once again, I cannot stress how very incredible these people are, but I will get to that later.
• Hours of work: I teach a four-hour, English-intensive day with these same 15 students, Monday-Friday. We go 10-12, break for lunch, and then 1-3.
• Schedule: My schedule thus far has been to get up around 7 (with the ridiculous yelping of the roosters (note: roosters here speak a different language. Instead of saying the good ol’ American cock-a-doodle-doo, these guys taper off at the end, rather sounding like they have just been clubbed in the head. It’s more like a cock-a-doodle-(now lower your voice about ten octaves and heighten the volume) uhhhhhhh)), eat some breakfast (rice with something fried and delicious), go to the internet café/ plan my lessons for the day/ week, wander aimlessly and play with small kittens, etc. I then teach, correct homework from 3-6 or so, eat dinner at 6:30, ponder my existence while the rain patters on our tin roof, do class planning/ filling out documents for various things, and go to sleep with the sound of my gecko Stanley annoyingly calling out to his friends in the surrounding houses.
• Future social life: The schedule so far has been very work intensive, however, things have changed and lightened this past week as I entered into the initial stages of developing a social life outside of my students, and also realized how AMAZING just chilling with my students can be, regardless of what we are doing.
• The food: Awesome. I often eat with my students and the other office members of the Mon Women’s Organization. While I thought I would return home to flawlessly order the most delicious of items at any ol’ thai place, unfortunately this is not the case. I am learning, however, how to make a killer fishpaste and some incredible Mon curries. We eat tons of vegetables, much to my pleasure, and absolutely every meal is based on rice. Mon people also eat with their hands, which is very cool. I join in from time to time, but must admit that my obsessive-hand-washing-complex often leads me to use a spoon. Ah, OCD.
  Oh and by the by, don’t go thinking I just consume here, I also am on cooking duty with two of the MWO staffers every 6 days, which involves rising at 6 to hit up the market, where you can feast your eyes on still-flapping-fish, pig heads, every type of fruit and vegetable you can imagine, orange-clad monks wandering the streets for their daily food donations, and people, people everywhere.
• My house: Is a palace. I am renting the house next door to the MWO office (where my students and all staffers also live—a characteristic of many non-profits here). Not only is this house the nicest I have seen thus far in all of Sangkhlaburi, but it is also the cheapest to rent of the options available. It’s a two-story, tile-floor house meant for a family, and here I am wandering it all alone. And all this for a total of $60 this month and around $80 for the following ones. Hopefully I will meet some cool person to share rent with me, but until then it is quite nice. What is great about the location next to the office is that I have invited my students to share some of this space with me (they were a bit squished sleeping 12 girls in a room the size of one American single-person bedroom), and they rotate through, four living here each week. It’s a slumber party every night, but they have homework to do and I have lesson planning. Two nights ago I got them to spill the class gossip and discovered that indeed there is a couple! What’s more is that they may have even held hands! (note: holding hands in Mon culture= seriously badass).
• The toilet: Okay. I know you all want to know the details about the squatter. And I will spill the beans. Peeing on the squatter is okay, but the splash-effect is not always the best. Doing the other thing we do (I dare not say the “p” word) works quite well, as you are logically aligning your body for the deed.
  I, however, am a lucky child. In my house, RIGHT off my bedroom, in fact, is a throne-- a western-style toilet-- cover and all. It’s not a flusher (you must pour water down it manually), but it is pretty luxurious in these parts.
• My bed: Is a mat on the floor with a mosquito net covering. I dig it.
  
  Whew. I have many anecdotes to tell about enormous insects, palm-reading, teaching Mon nationals how to rap, soccer balls used as pots for plants, Burmese courage and survival and heartache, the plump boy in my village who is my arch nemesis, plastic bags everywhere, sweat- heat- rain, resourcefulness, feeling low and feeling high again.
  
  But those are to come. It is back to the grind for me, and back to the grind for you.
  
  Much love and sweet dreams-
  L