So at training camp, the Race always talks about cultural differences, but you really don’t truly understand them until you’re actually in the situation. Our first night at our ministry site, we had one of those moments…
We had a wonderful first day of ministry that ended around 4pm, and we decided to go for an evening run and play some volleyball with the students before dinner. By the time we finish up, it’s around 6:45…dinner time! Right? Wrong.
We’re in a town called Mae Ai, it’s a pretty small village surrounded by rice fields, but we were told there was plenty of street food for dinner! Perfect! We even scoped out a little restaurant just in case we didn’t like the options. No problem!
First stop: Roti Man. Right outside the school gates, a man has a fry pan and makes roti for 10 baht each (about 30 US cents). It’s like a crepe with an egg on the inside, and with sweetened condensed milk and wrapped in a roll. So. Good. But, not too filling. So we each get one and decide to keep walking.
Next stop, a little shop. No food though…so we just pick up some toiletries we needed to pick up anyways. Great! We love toiletries! Continuing on…
We come up on a house with pots of uncooked rice outside and some covered pots. My teammate tries to ask if it’s a restaurant by making an eating motion…and the lady waves us in and her husband clears off the table of pots and pans…we sit and look under pretty confused as they smile and stare at us, there’s no menu..no kitchen…and then walks in one of our English students from school! Perfect! A translator! We ask her if this is a restaurant, and she laughs and goes, “no! This is our home!”
….oh. This is awkward. Well, thank you! Sorry for the intrusion! We’re gonna awkwardly shuffle out of here now bowing our heads as we run…
Well! That was quite the experience, let’s laugh that off and head the other direction and go to that restaurant! Walking, walking…and a grapefruit stand! 30 baht? Cool! Let’s get one! That’ll be a nice snack! More walking…
Here’s the restaurant! We walk onto the porch and look at the family eating at the long table..the food looks great! We stare, no one says anything..and oh! Another one of our students! She walks up, laughs, and let’s us know, “no food”.
…oh. Well then. We’ll just be on our way….bowing our heads at the family as we awkwardly shuffle away…again….
Well. We’ll just eat another roti and peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. No big deal!
…until the next day. Our host (one of the teachers at the school) comes up to us the next morning and asks if we were ok…um, yes? We’re great!
And then he informs us that not one, but TWO of his students called him the night before extremely worried because “the new teachers are wandering around the streets! They have no food!!!”
And that, my friends, is when we find out that everything in Mae Ai closes at 5:30pm at the latest, and the students and locals got quite the laugh out of the six American girls wandering into strangers houses looking for food…
It was by far one of the funniest experiences I’ve had on the race. Sometimes, cultural differences are best learned with humor, and roti. Lots of roti.
