I thought this story would be fun to share even though its a little embarrassing! So a couple days ago Andrea had a little melt down. As you all know im living in a small village that can be very claustrophobic at times. My Thai mom Mali is very loving but very forceful. When she tells you to do something she does not take no for an answer. Mali is very clean, if their a crumb on the ground the same color of the tiled floor she will see it. If you wear a shirt a second time before washing , she will notice and make you take it off. At lunch, if you say you are full, she will give you more anyways. If she tells you to shower (even if you have twice that day) she will not stop talking to you in Thai until you do it. And understand you cannot say no to Mali, don't get me wrong, I love this women so much, but after two weeks of this motherly love you can go a little crazy!
Andrea likes to workout and thought she was clever for rewearing dirty sweaty socks for running a couple times before rewashing. I advise you not to do this at home. It can lead to a skin infection on your feet that is unbearably itchy and painful, which also grows very quickly up your legs. But anyways! I had gone to the doctor to get medicine and they gave me two weeks worth of steroid pills to take 3 times a day. Let me just tell you, I've turned into a nut. One minute im laughing and two seconds later im crying. I blame the pills. So the other day it was about 100 degrees, the night before I couldnt sleep so I was running on about two hours of sleep and we had to pick weeds in the rice fields all morning. Our team decided to have a meeting after lunch like we do everyday to plan out the day. After about ten minutes one of my teammates were talking to me and I just started crying, and i asked, can I go on a walk. All of them confused shook their head yes and so I go on my walk.
Im trying to walk out of the village before any of the Thai women see me( especially Mali) because I know that could lead into something really crazy.Its very small town oriented, everybody knows everything about everybody at all times. Okay so im heading into the farm fields of beautiful open land where nobody is around and I can just cry,Just let it all out. I turn around after five minutes and their is Mark ( our Thai friend and translator) coming after me on a bike. Instead of being a normal person and stopping to explain I take of sprinting….. I think I've gone mad. Of course he catches up to me and trying to tell me that I need to just go back to the village. Behind Mark comes three Thai moms on their scooters including Mali to come and get me. It took everything in me not to scream a naughty word. Then Mali sees that I was crying and she starts crying (probably thinking she did something wrong). Then I start crying even more because I know I'm not going to get to go on a walk or be alone for even five min and now I have to explain to Mali she did nothing wrong.
This story ends with, I never got to go on my walk. And now the whole village calls me a crybaby, no joke. But I know that my patience has grown so much and the challenges and hard times have been all worth it. The old Andrea would have probably cussed and maybe even threatened to hit Mark. ( Mark is also very demanding at times). The moral of the story is……DO NOT REUSE SWEATY SOCKS AND DO NOT CRY IN THAILAND EVER!If you need to have a meltdown just go in the outhouse and stay in their until every tear is out. THE END.
