Do you ever find yourself describing
what you are experiencing as if you were telling someone else? That
may be a long way around suggesting you talk to yourself, which is a
sort of mental health no no. But it could be that it is only a mental
health no no if you talk out loud and there is no visible audience.
Or if you claim to hear voices in response.
For me it happens all the time.
Especially when I am traveling and especially if there is no English
speaker anywhere nearby or even miles away. The phenomenon is even
more prominent when I know I will be writing a blog. So wee what you
are missing? Yards, chapters and volumes of the stuff. Lucky you. But
I wish there was some more efficient way of sharing some of the
remarkable events which make up my days here.
As with most weeks lately there was
the daily trip to the hospital. Each trip was preempted by
catastrophizing about what I might see in the very non private
emergency room. The nursing staff and Dr Thanet were always friendly
and reassuring that the leg was healing well and that the special
ointment with silver gel was doing its job.
Three volunteers left Isan Survivor
for Christmas with family or other visits and travel. The silence
they left behind was precious. St John Berchmans a sainted Jesuit
used say that his greatest penance was living in community with
unchosen others. Sharing meals and attempting to communicate across a
“gap year” gap with adolescents, was an challenging thrice daily
chore at Isan Survivor. I settled for being perceived as a crusty old
codger who shared little of their worlds. For them the place and
volunteering appeared like a dollop of some kind of travel gellato
sandwiched between a visit to Cambodia and various full moon parties
on beaches. I suppose the upside is that some children in some
schools were able to say that they had seen some fresh friendly young
foreign faces in their schools. I doubt students learned much English
from youths for whom it was a fractured second language.
Since this was to be my last week at
Isan Survivor I was invited to dinner at “Grandfather's House” on
a couple of occasions. Grandfather the sprightly bike riding, daily
temple visiting and bamboo musical instrumentalist had at 65 years
and retirement taken a boat up the Mekong to visit Laos and find the
miracle metal which had mercurial properties and which guaranteed a
long and healthy life. Would that I had had the Thai to be able to
listen to his traveler's tales, of adventures, mishaps, stories and
nostrums from forest monks and his return to his family and village
in Thin Dung.
Each meal was followed by fond
farewells and longings for future visits, and promises of welcomes
whenever I should wish to return. Grandfather played his music and
his shy little autistic grandson danced wonderfully for me. I was
moved.
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| Grandfather's house meal. |
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| Grandfather 94 on his bamboo instrument. |
During Christmas week at Beautiful
Mouth High School, most days were devoted to preparing presentations
of dance, singing and mime for Christmas Day itself. As usual
students gathered in groups allover the place cutting out pictures,
making signs, making posters, printing Tshirts, rehearsing, laughing
and yelling.
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| Students with whom I lunched to speak English. |
On the day itself I bid farewell to
Isan Survivor, to Jack's parents. Jack drove me to the school where
final preparations were taking place for the presentations and where
we had lunch. As usual timing was not of the essence; which was quite
a contrast with the Airport and Nok Air with whom I had a date in the
afternoon two hours drive away.
The Deputy Principal bid me farewell,
presented me with a Buddha neck amulet and the English teaching staff
gave me a shirt and trousers Thai style and the head English teacher,
Wahn, gave me some local trousers. I thanked them for having me and
for what I had learned while there, and as requested sang a song. “I
wish you a Merry Christmas, I wish You a Merry Christmas etc”. I
was quite moved by their warmth and kindnesses.
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| Receiving Buddha from Deputy. |
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| English Staff and Deputy after presentation. |
Jack dropped me at Udon Thani Airport.
We offered mutual thanks and appreciation. Jack is remarkable for
wanting others to be happy and nothing is a bother to his other
focussed acts. He continued on to see his Buddhist teacher several
kilometres away while I jetted to Chiang Mai.
Christmas Day can be a good day to travel as most people want to travel the day before or after. I lobbed in on a friend who was housing another four people that night but they found room.
