I’ve spent the two weeks in Thailand. After a 4-day debrief in Bangkok, the
14 men have been brought to Kanchanaburi (sp?) for “Man Month.�
We are living in tents in the middle of some Banana fields and frankly,
its really awesome. Every evening
is a gorgeous sunset and we are surrounded by nature in every direction.
Here are 10 interesting things I have learned during my time
in Thailand.
1. Rough’n
it. Squatty potties and bucket
showers aren’t so bad. I am
mastering the art of going poop in a hole in the ground and taking showers by
scooping buckets of water over my head.
You quickly learn how to scoop around all the dead (and living) bugs in
the water trash can. Bugs in
general are something I’m learning to tolerate. I’m used to food covered in flies and I am constantly
bombarded with fire ants, beetles, bees, spiders and the occasional
scorpion.
2. Electric
fences. Don’t use pieces of
seemingly dry wood to test them.
Even though I touched it with my arm, it felt like someone kicked me as
hard as they could in the back of the leg. It has become the team punishment when people fail to follow
the “man rules.�
3. Street
Meat. I could easily live off
Thai street market food. For under
two bucks, I can grab a plate of Pad Thai noodles, a bun, and a pineapple
smoothie. That was in the city,
now that I am in the countryside, I eat pad thai or fried rice pretty much
everyday. Last night, after
planting banana trees all day, Big, our translator took us too the pineapple
field and we got to eat it right off the vine.
4. The King
is a Good Man. There is insane
loyalty to the Thai king. For
Rachel’s birthday in Bangkok, we went to watch a movie and at the theater, one
of the “previews� called on all the patrons to stand up and pledge allegiance
to the king. There was a sappy
video clip of the king hugging kids with music from Thailand’s Celinie Dion in
the background. All Americans have
been briefed to respond to any questions about the king with “The King is a
Good Man.�
5. Cows have
horns. They also never
stop eating and are extremely protective of their young. One of our daily duties is to feed 20
cows. We either chop down banana
trees and slice them into bite-size pieces for 5 hours, or we herd them to a
field a few hundred yards away. I
wish I had a video of me trying to herd a bunch of cattle. They are stubborn, frequently charge
without provocation, and search out opportunities to make my life more difficult. On one occasion, I found myself
cornered against a wall facing a charging bull mother and had to grab the
bull’s horns and leap out of the way to keep from being gored. Some of my teammates have better
stories involving butt wounds, heh.
Who would have thought I would come to rural Thailand to become a cattle
rustler.
6. Building
complicated structures doesn’t require planning. We have built several small buildings and roads without
really knowing what we are doing but just making up solutions as problems
arise. Its almost humorous, but
there is very much an attitude of just jumping into the work rather than
wasting a lot of time planning every detail out from the beginning. (This isn’t the one we built, but its indicative of the houses in the area and has a gorgeous view)
7. Tapioca
comes from the flour made from ground up tree roots. One of the team’s jobs was to chop up the tapioca stalks and
replant each segment. The other half of the time we are working with banana trees.
8. Seatbelts
are overrated. We generally
have to fit 14-16 people in a small two-seater pick up truck. We cling to anything we can get our
hands on as we speed down the bumpy roads, ducking under branches and catching
one another when we lose our grip and fly into the air. On my ride here, I was standing
vertical as we sped 80 mph down a highway. Its really interesting how much we care about sanitation and
safety in America when I am washing dishes with dirty lake water and dangling
from the sides of trucks. I have
seen entire families of 6 riding on a one-seater motorbike. Crazy. (Another thing that’s dangerous, petting tigers)
9. Thai
country people think all Westerners (“Farangs”) are here for one of two
reasons. Either they are here to
sleep with Thai women, or they are a manager trying to take advantage of cheap
laborers. Seeing us working for a
Thai man (who is working alongside us) has prompted the local non-Christians to
ask a lot of questions, “why would the white people work for a Thai man?�
10. Most Thai’s
don’t know God. Since they
associate Christianity so much with Westerners and since Westerners come mostly
for sex, they have trouble taking anything a Christian says seriously. I am hoping to undo some of the damage
in our short time here. Keep us in
your prayers!
