My Journal - Aug. 17, 1993

August 17, 1993

We met a past PCV (group 75) that became a Monk and stayed in Thailand. Phra Buddy, he called himself hyper-critical, I thought he was very opinionated. He was very down on western values, kind of surprising that the Peace Corps still has him come speak to new volunteers about Buddhism in conjunction with development. He explained a lot about the Buddhist thought, he put down any books written by western professors on the subject. He told us to question our role as a PCV, was development the best thing? Or by teaching English would we make it worse because when Thailand ran out of jobs in the tourist industry, what else could they do, besides work in brothels. I wasn’t too impressed.

Lisa, Julie, Ajaan Atcha (nickname Jiep), and I went to Uthai Thani last weekend (by tio), to an English Camp. It was really fun, I love the kids. One of the Ajaans from Tom’s school was also there, we met him in Uthai Tani, nom-jai! He paid for our bus fare to Lansak (an hour ride), Thai people are so nice.

There is a big rock mountain behind the school, with bats in caves. A million bats came out at dusk, millions! Looks like one bat starts the procession out and everybody follows. They follow each other out until there is a crooked line of bats as far as you can see. It takes 15-20 minutes, with mosquitos biting us the whole time. It was great.

The kids were beautiful, they were around 14 years old but really looked young. I made friends with the “Apple Group”. They all wanted to take a picture with the beautiful farang. I think they got a kick out of saying their names, or trying to.  The PCV’s that were there were really fun. But honestly, I hope we are not like that in a year, there were a couple that seemed uncomfortable, they didn’t appreciate the trouble someone had gone to for us. Our food was always ready and the table set, etc. I felt spoiled. They also seemed to go out of their way to break Peace Corps rules, riding motorcycles and smoking pot. We never saw any of that because they didn’t want Atcha to get in trouble. I have to admit they were more serious when it came to their teaching, that was impressive. We rode in our first song-taow and it was great, I prefer it to a bus. I know I have only been here for 3-1/2 weeks but I feel I have really seen quite a bit.

A couple of trainees went to see “The Bridge Over River Kwai” too cool! We are considering going next weekend, but that is when Khun Tom is coming to Ayutthaya to visit Atcha and it is our last weekend here before home stay.

David Henks and Paeng came to give us an idea of what we were going to be doing. His big piece of advice was to take extra time and learn Thai! I cant wait, we are going to get some serious technical training. The Fisheries people are pretty lucky too.

I am not sure what, but this will definitely give me some insight as to what to do with the rest of my life. Maybe I’ll be a writer with a nice garden!

We have such a diverse group of people for being so much alike. Julie is having a hard time with the Woman’s role in Thailand. Now personally I don’t like how it appears, that men are superior. In reality the women get much more respect and run the important things.