Ubon

I had a good visit with friends in Ubon this past weekend. I rode the train up Thursday night (skipping class on Friday). I actually slept pretty well on the train. Not realizing a breakdown during the night had put the train two hours behind schedule I got up earlier than I needed to.

The delay meant Kris wasn’t able to take me along to see the village school where she teaches English. In the afternoon she was able to take me by to visit Benchama, the school where I plan to teach starting in May. It was a good connection.

Saturday afternoon I went with friends to a village they often visit. The village is more distant from my American experience than either Bangkok or Ubon.

Bangkok is very much a big city. It has its subways, buses, and taxis; its tall buildings, its museums, its universities; Its poor, its rich; its neighborhoods, its international communities. I’m sure I’m missing some good big city things that are in Bangkok.

Ubon, for my Wboro area readers, could in many ways be compared to
Chambersburg. I think there’s a similar number of people. It’s a central kind of area where those outside come to do their walmart style shopping.

The village is a village. People seem more connected to each other. Property lines are not readily distinguished by the foreign eye. Time, in the 7:48 sense, seems a non-issue. Time, in the the-peppers-are-ready-to pick sense, and in the heat of the day / cool of the day sense, is much more significant. Clothing is much more laid back. The men in Bangkok and Ubon wear slacks and shirts with collars. Some of the guys in the village were chilling in nothing more than a knee-length checkered cloth.

Through the afternoon we visited with different people in different settings. We visited an older couple at their field house. We visited another lady in what felt to me like a back yard. We sat with a blind woman in her house.

In the evening several people came together in yet another house. Quickly, for those of you trying to visualize, there is a large single room. There’s a TV against a wall. There are closets towards the back of the room creating a divider, behind which is a sleeping area. In the middle of the room 15-20 people ages 2-62 sit in a circle on a tile floor.

We sang some songs. Kris told a story. I was very pleased with my ability to follow the story. I had known ahead of time what the story was going to be about. After the story, still on the floor, with a mat in the middle of the circle on which sit the shared bowls of food, we ate a meal together with our hands.

After the story a mat was unrolled in the middle of the circle of cross-legged people. Bowls of food were placed on the mat. And we all ate (sans silverware) together (from the same bowls).

I’m now back in Bangkok. I had another person join my English class this afternoon. I think she improved the classroom dynamic. Two was too few (for the setting).