That day we made our way to the village, only a couple hours from the city but seeming like many years back in time. No more tuk tuks or buildings, only kilometers and kilometers of shiny green rice fields. Arriving at the village I couldn't believe that this gorgeous place would be my new home for 2 months.
Dirt roads with orange soil, wooden ancient looking huts, some bigger than others, some less wretched up that others, my smiley and curious neighbors, dressed up in sarongs and most of them barefoot sitting on bamboo rafts outside of their houses nibbling on lotus seeds or chewing tobacco, the weekly market with loud music and children running around and riding on their bikes. The rainy season was at its full so there would be huge black clouds with loud thunders followed by curtains of rain slightly flooding the place making it all seem more movie like.
My days at the Namkhun consisted on waking up very early , watch the caravan of monks at dawn with their alms bowls passing through the village. "Shower" scooping water on myself with a little bucket from the water containers, usually sharing the bathroom with a frog or two jumping around. Breakfast consisting of spicy vegetables and sticky rice. Then to school.
Arriving every day was like the first day, the students where just as excited as I was for class, maybe sometimes nervous. I had from 3 to 6 classes per day, usually 40 students per group, aging from 11 to 19, I became very attached to seeing them every morning, for me it wasnt an everyday thing to be able to share so much a day with 200 kids. A teacher has a respected position in Thailand, and the gratefullness shown by the students is amazing, specially being used to western schools. And though it was challenging, sometimes hard work and, it was for sure worthy and rewarding. Playing all sorts of games, acting, singing, dancing, jumping and many others, we all ended up quite tired, covered in chalk dust but happy.
After school we would go back home and get ready for dinner, placing the woven mat on the floor and carrying on the dishes. Sumalee's sister, Jin, to make some of the best vegetarian dishes that I have ever tried, all Issan dishes. Curries and sauces of all colors, vegetables and fruits I had never seen, all eaten with our hands and sticky rice. We would all sit then, Sumalee. her parents, sister, often neighboring children and I and talk about the day, more like I would pretend to understand what they were talking about. But I really enjoyed being able to be with a family and share their day to day life.
The Thai fame for being very warm and friendly people is well gained, I might have got 5 adoptive mothers, whom besides making me finish my meal, not allowing out in shorts and other motherly things, made me feel not like a foreigner in their house but like a friend. On the weekends though, I would come back to the city and enjoy Ubon's great nightlife with some of the staff, creating just like my stay at the village, life changing experiences, some maybe a little too blurry.
There are so many moments from teaching and living at Namkhun that always will make me smile, just like my life in Ubon, with its very different beauty from other cities, which in my opinion is more about the lifestyle and its people instead of monuments and tourist attractions. I am very thankful to have found such opportunity which has changed my view of many things. It was so great, that I'm still here after 4 months, but even when I go somewhere else, Namkhun, the students, the people from the village, Ubon, and my dear friends here, I will have them with me and remember. It might sound like too much to say that I'm a different person, that my life changed for good, but it is true.
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