The "Nation-wide water fight"

Well, JACKI,
the reason for the nickname is purely because I have a horrible memory, my meh from training grows cucumbers to sell at the market and i took me about 9 seperate times of them telling me the word (over a span of about 2 weeks) for me to remember it... so in order to be "funny" they decided to call me that, it started out as a joke and now it has stuck and even followed me to site, I walk through the market with random Thais yelling Dang-qua at me, and they arent trying to sell me cucumbers either

the reason for the title is because of the Thai new year called Song Kran... It goes for around 5 days in April, the hottest month in this country, and it really is a nation-wide water fight, I personally "len nam"- ed(literal meaning "play water") with the two kids I live with on 4 different days and it was fun, and of course you could get arrested in the states for throwing water at a passing motorist on a motorcycle, and i had a flash back to when i was younger and some kids in the back of a pickup truck sprayed my mom with a watergun as we were driving past... needless to say my mom popped the minivan into reverse and went and told on the kids to their mom, and they got in trouble... but not only is it OK but the kids and I were inside playing a game and the mom of the family actually came in and told us to go outside and play, so anyway all of the water was accompanied by a old fashion community activity day complete with egg toss and potato sack races (apparently both are universal worldwide) and of course that day I was dripping wet for about 5 hours because EVERYONE (and I mean EVERYONE) thought it would be funny to throw a bucket of water on the farang (foreigner), and now I have a wicked cold... but i wouldnt trade it for the world, it was a once in a lifetime experience and i had fun, I feel like a real member of there community, since they invited me to participate in community activities and i feel very honored, especially since I havent even been here a month
alright i have to go play with the kids (luk-ett, 13 and guay, 9)
I love and miss everyone
Becky

More pictures for those of you bothering me about it... *cough cough mom*

Back in training, one person patches a tire while we all stand around looking busy... we like to say we are helping but who are we kidding
(from left: Jenny, Pam, Ron, one of the PC drivers, Arnold, Meegan)









My family wanted to have my Farang (Foreigner) friends over for lunch the last Sunday at our training site, these are the people willing to ditch there families to come to my house j/k
(from left: Paulo, Reuben, Mollie, Brian P, Aui, ?, Bonnie, Chai(my sisters boyfriend), ME, Meh, Nong, ?, ?)
the "?" are my sisters friends, i can not for the life of me remember their names oops









Paulo and Amanda acting stupid in the hotel when we got to bangkok, what they are doing is from some Mad TV skit about anna nicole smith that Paulo loves,(do you know what he is talking about Rob cause I have no idea)













Some of the women from the government office I work at
( From Left: Noi, Nan, Jai, Get)
They are great and patient, I had no idea where we were going when I got in the car, we went to the hot springs not too far from my site










they insisted on getting me in a shot
not all that exciting, although I color-coordinated my outfit splendidly that day














there were about 300+ Thai men on these little rafts throwing nets out to catch fish for a "Big Fish" contest, the winning fish was a monster
it was actually really cool to watch believe it or not













action shot
















this is a usual site at the office
me looking confused and my friends searching in a dictionary to find the word for me to make me unconfused (they are gonna have to look a long time before that happens)

I love it, they are too much

(Noi, Me, Jai)






well thats it i have been tying up the phone line at my homestay for too long I hope you enjoy the pictures and thanks for caring about what im up to,
miss you and love you
Becky
Thai nickname "Dang-qua"
(it means cucumber, if you laugh at that you are not the only one, every Thai person I tell laughs, thanks to Meh and Aui for giving me the nickname that brings laughter to EVERYONE)

Just for Jacki

I saw this in Bangkok in a department store and just knew you would LOVE it...


I love you and miss you
(sorry I had to do it)
Becky

At Site Now- And God It's Hot

Alright now I am at site and it is the hottest month of the year in Thailand... My room is approx. 95 degrees when I go up there for the night (other than the other night when it was 80 and I was freezing, Jacki's reaction to that was "Oh my god you are one of those people now") Yes, yes I am. I am living with yet another family since the house I want is currently being rented, I have been told it will become available in the next month or two so cross your fingers everybody I cant wait to live by myself, mostly because I have been living in other peoples houses for the past 3 monthes and I would like to make my house an american space if possible and a place where i dont have to speak thai constantly.

I have made a good friend at site already her name is An and she works at the government office where i work, she is the one with the most patience so we were forced to sit with each other and talk (with a lot of help from the thai/english dictionary that Peace Corps gave me and another one the office bought) we have dictionary races were she says something and I tell her the word i dont understand and then we see who can find it first An is usually the winner

Let's see... i spent the week before coming here in Bangkok and i have some conclusions about that city, it is loud, noisy, and expensive for someone living on a Peace Corps budget, but the water taxi is beautiful and there are so many malls i felt like i was at home, I am not a huge fan of bangkok, especially since there are so many amazing places to visit in this country but if anyone comes to visit and wants to go i will (just for you)

My boss at the government office wants me to get permission from him before I go anywhere, but i have a feeling that will end soon, and my counterpart wants to follow me on my bike in his car so that i will be safe, I hope that will end soon too, I have had about 7 invitations from old women to come and live with them/ come to dinner, and An doesnt want me to move to my own house because i will be too far away from her and i wont be able to come to dinner everynight (even though i will be just down the street only in the opposite direction of where i am now and i will probably come to dinner everynight anyway) all of these are just examples of the fact that this community is very protective of me already and i have only been here a week, so family, dont worry about me too much, even though i know you are going to anyway

Now I would like to thank bigfo and bereheiko for looking at/posting to my blog, it was so nice to see you guys took the time to see what i have been doing, it has not been easy (in fact it has been the hardest thing i have ever done) being here like this and i really appreciate it

Alright
Peace out
I love and miss everybody
Becky