I’m sorry for lack of blogs the past month. This is something that i wrote about but didn’t get a chance to post this month.
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After 3 months living in Africa, arriving in Thailand was a different breath of air. You know when you go to someone’s house and as soon as you walk in, you notice a different scent in their house from yours. It’s kind of the same feeling when we arrived in Thailand. The air smelled different.
There are many sights, sounds, smells and tastes here in Thailand that have stimulated my every sense and triggered my childhood memories of living in Asia. As we drive down the street, we pass vendors after vendors selling noodle soup in a cart, and/or fresh fruits. You would consider that the fast food of Thailand. The restaurants are not your typical indoor air-conditioned seated type restaurant, even though it is 40 degrees celsius during the day. It consists of plastic lawn chairs and tables, under an awning. There are no menus, most of the locals know exactly what their options are. At the corner 7-11, which is as numerous as our Tim Hortons back home, you can buy pre-made food that they warm up for you in the microwave. I am immediately drawn to all the variety of asian snacks, seaweed wraps, dried squid and cuttlefish, banana rolls, and coconut jelly drinks. While the smell of some of my childhood snacks and fruits disgusts some of my teammates, to me, it brings me back to my childhood days and I munch on everything with a big content smile.
We arrive at our contact’s home, Tik is our translator. She is a gentle spirit with a childlike laugh but beyond the surface, she has a deep, mature soul – something that I also can relate to. We meet her parents, the Pastor and his wife who we call “Mum”. They both have matching outfits, a common Asian trend to show that you are a couple in love. I find it both cheesy and adorable. Pastor is a quiet man with a huge heart to serve the Lord. He and Mum have been serving the leper colongy that live behind their church.
I can only best describe Mum as an energizing firecracker, she works tirelessly from the crack of dawn till midnight and the woman does not stop. She has a whole lot of spunk that puts us younger ones to shame with our energy level. Her outburst laughter is contagious to everyone. Their love and generosity to us is overwhelming.
After spending a few weeks with this family and being in Thailand, I have come to a realization that being here has awakened the asian culture in me that I have subsided while growing up in Canada: Eating stinky fruits and snacks, embracing cheesy matching outfits and secretly wanting one with my future husband, riding in the back of a pickup truck with absolutely no safety precautions. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely feel blessed that I grew up there, but being here has affirmed my appreciation for my asian culture. “As the saying goes, you can take the girl out of Asia, but you can’t take the Asia out of the girl.”
