Name: David Cartwirght
Location: Thailand
Report Title: Mai Pen Rai - No Worries.
Report Date: 15/02/2009
Dear All at Hazel’s Footprint Trust, I have survived the extreme heat, mouth-burning spicy food and regular harassment by the lady boys (boys from the age of about 9 who dress up and act like girls and much like all the women here, have taken a shining to foreign men….scary but hilarious as they’ve more chosen to scream at, grab and try and hug Joe, the lad Project Trust partnered me with). I have been living in and amongst the community in Tak, North-West Thailand for 5 months now and I have to tell you, it is something I recommend to anyone. The people here are the nicest in the world, the food here is the tastiest, the weather is the hottest and the lifestyle is the most laid back as the Thai people live by a culture of ‘Mai Pen Rai’ or ‘No worries.’ Any problems, anxieties or stress, the Thai people simply eat well, relax and sing karaoke – yes, sing karaoke. In the words of the great play (a very intellectual quote will now follow, thus showing the depth of my literary knowledge)…… ‘Hakuna Matata’ is the fundamentals of Thailand. (For those who did not recognize the quote it was from the Lion King and you should be shot for not knowing this). On arrival into the small, but adequate town of Tak, myself and Joe were introduced to our hosts, Pradit, a retired English teacher and his wife, Jan Pen. We stayed in their house for two weeks before moving into our own house in the Tak Pittayakom School Nikkomkroo (teachers’ accommodation – a small estate of houses on stilts, housing some of the teachers from the school we were to be working at). Even today, five months on, Pradit and Jan Pen visit every day to check the house is being kept clean, that we are OK and occasionally bringing food around. Although we greatly appreciate everything they do, at times, for example when we get in from school, have a nap and get woken up by a voice shouting up our stairs ‘Dave….Joe?’ we feel they mother us a bit too much. Never mind. We love them anyway and Jan Pen, although she speaks very little English is absolutely hilarious. We are all constantly in fits of laughter. As for the language barrier it is becoming easier and easier to communicate with Thai people in Thai. Joe gets very frustrated how we get stared, pointed and shouted at, with regular shouts of ‘Farang, Farang!!!’ meaning ‘foreigner, foreigner!’ They are not being nasty; they merely want us to notice them. It’s lovely to see, that when people see the foreigners it makes them smile and the surprise they get when you start speaking their language to them. I felt it time to write to those who have very kindly sponsored this trip. I would have loved to send this earlier but in my current capacity as a teacher, teaching 700 students, I’m sure you can imagine, free time is very hard to come by. At present I am teaching Matayom 1 (ages 12-13) and Matayom 3 (15 and 16 year olds). Believe me, I take my hat off to all the teachers of the world ‘coz you don’t ‘alf get some bloody little s**ts in the lower sets. However, on the whole, my students are lovely. I absolutely love the teaching and although I have tough days and days when the teaching doesn’t go as well as I think it could have, the general ambience in the staffroom is just fun and games. Christmas was a time of great memories for me. My first ever Christmas away from home was spent in Tak. All the other Project Trust volunteers made it here and we had a party with two imported turkeys from Iowa. We had a great time. After a successful English Camp on the 27th and 28th December, 17 of the volunteers headed from Tak, down to Koh Chang, a paradise island in the south of Thailand. We stayed there over New Year, spending New Year at a beach party on the island. HEAVEN! (from what I can remember of it). 3 of us slept on the beach. It was simply heavenly. After an intense 8 weeks of testing, teaching and marking we are now coming up to our summer holidays in which I am planning to head East first to Cambodia and Laos and then to see the other volunteer’s projects. After two weeks in the east, I head back to Bangkok to meet my Dad who is here for 10 days and then I head to Borneo for 10 days before back into teaching again. It’s really weird how much me and Joe miss Tak when we are away. Even a 5 day English Camp in Nakhon Sawan last week seemed to make us miss Tak. Worrying, considering at some point we will have to leave. Speaking of leaving, I’ve decided not to tell anyone when I’m returning and just to show up. I’m crap at keeping secrets so it will be difficult but that’s the plan. I can’t contemplate life without Tak now, my cheeky little students bowing to me in the street, my massage teacher telling me to push harder (it’s not what it sounds like) and even Pradit and Jan Pen waking us up on a Saturday to bring round some newly concocted squid dish or something. It sounds bizarre and it is, but that’s what I love about it. Thailand is now part of who I am. When I hear people shout ‘Farang’ I now reply ‘mai chai farang, phom ben kohn thai’, in other words, ‘I’m not a foreigner, I’m Thai’. They usually laugh, but I do feel that this is a place I will certainly return to, who knows if it will be for good. All I can say is thank-you for giving me this life changing opportunity and I am eternally grateful. Anything you want to know, please just e-mail. All mine and I’m guessing other people you sponsored photos will be up on http://www.facebook.com/ so I suggest signing up will be very worthwhile. Many thanks again and I will write more when my workload ceases. Dave
