I’m sitting on the floor P’Jim, my Thai mother who has taken me under her wing for the last seven weeks. We’re watching the four crabs she bought at the market that afternoon as they slowly begin to warm up and stretch their claws. One of her eight kittens timidly circles us, not sure what to make of these prehistoric looking creatures; it attempts a sniff but thinks better of it and jumps up onto the nearest chair.
It’s moments like this that I could never have imagined stepping off of the plane seven weeks ago into the humid Bangkok air, and which will be the hardest to explain when I get back home.
There's two weeks left and things are starting to get sentimental. P'Om re-juggles her weekend so we can go and see her favourite beach: Ban Krut. Off the beaten track it's nestled in a bay between Chumphon and Bangkok. The road winds down to the a peaceful seaside resort, with low-lying restaurants and bungalows, and only a smattering of tourists strolling along the beach and cycling down the road. We stop for lunch beneath the shade of a tree; dining on sticky soy sauce clams, som tam, fried rice and stir fried vegetables. The soft warmth of the sea air compared to the clammy humidity of the air inland and the gentle splash of the waves is heavenly. We spend the afternoon wandering round the beautiful cliff top temple, Wat Tang Sai; the patient Bhudda staring out into the turquoise oblivion.
We count the days until I leave: fourteen. How did it go so quickly? Two weeks is still half a month, I try and reassure her and myself. In fact out of a nine week placement two weeks is almost a quarter of the time. It's hard to imagine all of this coming to an end. We talk about her coming to England to stay so that I can return the kindness she has showed me. We even buy lottery tickets, hoping that luck might have it that it would cover the airfares. But we don't win.
Sunday morning we're back in School and preparing for a health competition the following day. Students stand slightly dumb founded as I arrive in shorts and a t-shirt and not my usual school attire. Clasping their hula-hoops (all set for a health day performance) they waddle over to the car to check it's me.
I manage to sneak away for a couple of hours to see a nearby ETA. We even find a coffee shop where we can catch up and shelter for the rain. Although my green tea comes in a litre sized cup with ice and topped with condensed milk and although we're stopped for photos by the cafe owner, the ease of English conversation in our cafe is as close to Western as we'll get in Tae Sae.
We both agree that everyone's experiences in the last seven weeks are so unique from one another that it's hard to sum it up even to someone who has been living round the corner from you. I, for one, have had the privilege of being cared for morning, noon and night by my Thai family which has been the making of my time in Thailand.
As I arrive home that evening the crabs are back. This time they're freshly steamed and served with garlic greens. We crack them open and laugh over my still clunky Thai pronunciation. I wish I'd learnt more Thai, I wish I'd payed more attention to all the delicious dishes that I've tried, I wish I'd been more organised in my teaching so the students could understand more English. But then again, two weeks is still half a month, so I have plenty of time left.
It’s moments like this that I could never have imagined stepping off of the plane seven weeks ago into the humid Bangkok air, and which will be the hardest to explain when I get back home.
There's two weeks left and things are starting to get sentimental. P'Om re-juggles her weekend so we can go and see her favourite beach: Ban Krut. Off the beaten track it's nestled in a bay between Chumphon and Bangkok. The road winds down to the a peaceful seaside resort, with low-lying restaurants and bungalows, and only a smattering of tourists strolling along the beach and cycling down the road. We stop for lunch beneath the shade of a tree; dining on sticky soy sauce clams, som tam, fried rice and stir fried vegetables. The soft warmth of the sea air compared to the clammy humidity of the air inland and the gentle splash of the waves is heavenly. We spend the afternoon wandering round the beautiful cliff top temple, Wat Tang Sai; the patient Bhudda staring out into the turquoise oblivion.
We count the days until I leave: fourteen. How did it go so quickly? Two weeks is still half a month, I try and reassure her and myself. In fact out of a nine week placement two weeks is almost a quarter of the time. It's hard to imagine all of this coming to an end. We talk about her coming to England to stay so that I can return the kindness she has showed me. We even buy lottery tickets, hoping that luck might have it that it would cover the airfares. But we don't win.
Sunday morning we're back in School and preparing for a health competition the following day. Students stand slightly dumb founded as I arrive in shorts and a t-shirt and not my usual school attire. Clasping their hula-hoops (all set for a health day performance) they waddle over to the car to check it's me.
I manage to sneak away for a couple of hours to see a nearby ETA. We even find a coffee shop where we can catch up and shelter for the rain. Although my green tea comes in a litre sized cup with ice and topped with condensed milk and although we're stopped for photos by the cafe owner, the ease of English conversation in our cafe is as close to Western as we'll get in Tae Sae.
We both agree that everyone's experiences in the last seven weeks are so unique from one another that it's hard to sum it up even to someone who has been living round the corner from you. I, for one, have had the privilege of being cared for morning, noon and night by my Thai family which has been the making of my time in Thailand.
As I arrive home that evening the crabs are back. This time they're freshly steamed and served with garlic greens. We crack them open and laugh over my still clunky Thai pronunciation. I wish I'd learnt more Thai, I wish I'd payed more attention to all the delicious dishes that I've tried, I wish I'd been more organised in my teaching so the students could understand more English. But then again, two weeks is still half a month, so I have plenty of time left.