Sa-wa-dee-ka means hello in Thai!
I absolutely adore Thailand!
It’s an incredible country. Our first morning here we went to the market and I had coconut waffles and fresh pineapple for breakfast. Like… is this real life?? Also I know my brother Ben would love it here, you can get freshly made smoothies on just about every corner for 15 baht, which is less than 50 cents. Not to mention the amazing cashew chicken and pad thai! AH! I’m in food heaven!
In addition to amazing cuisine, the Thai culture is very different from American culture, and I wanted to write a blog about it so you would feel a little more connected to the people here.
Thailand has a TON of social rules you have to follow. First of all, the head is seen as the best part of the body and should be treated with honor, so you can’t touch people’s heads or point to them, not even kids and babies. Similarly, the feet are the lowest and dirtiest part of the body and its considered offensive to basically even acknowledge that you have them. You can’t use them to move things, step over people, or even sit in such a way that your feet are pointing at someone because it’s basically flipping them off. You can’t show emotion in public, you can’t speak or laugh loudly. Thailand is known as “The Land of Smiles” so you must always, always smile at people and greet them with a traditional “mai” which is folding your hands in front of your face and doing a little bow. Thai people love their King, so we have to be careful never to talk about him so we don’t offend them. If we do say anything, we say “the king is a good man” nothing more. People get thrown in jail for saying bad things about the king! You can’t step on or sit on money, since it has the king’s face on it. He actually is a really cool guy, he’s the longest reigning monarch in Thai history, he’s been in power for over 60 years! He was actually born in America, knows about 8 languages, and cares about his people on a personal level.
So there’s a tidbit on Thai culture for ya. The people here are so sweet and loving; I will truly be leaving a piece of my heart here when we leave. I’m still working on my blog detailing ministry this month, our days are so long here I’m usually too tired to blog! It’s coming soon, I promise 😉
