Happy New Year! Okay, it may be 4 ½ months late for most of the world, but here in Thailand, the New Year festival has just ended. Let me tell you, these people are serious about celebrating this holiday! They don’t just celebrate one day, but 3 or 4 and perhaps in some areas…even a week! And since it is the hottest week of the year in Thailand, they celebrate with a nation-wide water fight! I mean, literally, the whole country arms itself with water guns, balloons, buckets, hoses, and as crazy as it may seem…baby powder!
Considering we are 6 white girls in a part of the country that sees very few foreigners, we stuck out like a sore thumb and they loved to attack us every chance they got. When we walked to the internet café, when we spent the day in Roi Et exploring the city, when we rode in the back of Pastor’s truck to dinner at someone else’s house. For 3 days straight we were soaked from head to toe and covered in baby powder that strangers seriously just rubbed right onto our faces. Of course we just accepted the fact that we had to get immersed into the culture, so we bought ourselves some water guns, and on the last day, Pastor agreed to drive us around to ambush the town. We loaded up a couple barrels full of water, hopped in with our local friends and had a blast celebrating in the Thai tradition!
