A problem shared is a problem…. quadrupled?

As is customary when living and working away from home, everything just seems that little bit harder than it should be (Scandinavia excluded). In Thailand however, the difficulty probably increases ten- fold. The length of time a perceived ‘everyday’ task will take is directly proportional to the number of people that are involved in the decision- making process.

Katherine’s birthday fell in late August. Cue one of the most hilarious incidents from my time in Ban Mi. Nipa, our mentor, had been talking about organising a party for quite some time, and she had decided that it would be a surprise party. Unfortunately, rather than leaving it as a nice surprise for the evening, she engaged Katherine in some sort of bizarre mind game (where she pretended she didn’t know it was her birthday at all, despite having joked the previous day about a surprise party). The situation then deteriorated into utter chaos, with Nipa insisting on driving Katherine and myself to the restaurant a half hour before the party was due to begin, thereby replacing the element of surprise, with… a thirty minute wait. When other people did turn up, it actually turned out to be one of the best evenings we’ve spent in Ban Mi, finishing up at the local karaoke bar, where we were able to sustainably re- invest our wages back into the local economy.

The Lop Buri Massive 

Nipa & family ( me included): a great time was had by all, with the exception of the fish

Karaoke!

It’s the misunderstandings and cultural differences that have made our time in Thailand so much fun. On just my third day at Piyabut school, I was fortunate enough to have experienced a school trip, Thai- style. In my entire life, I honestly think I will be hard- pressed to find a level of chaos comparable to that fourteen hour day. At five thirty in the morning, all eight hundred students arrived at the school, only to then assemble in lines in the courtyard for an hour and a half, while everyone waited for everyone else. Piling onto at least ten buses, the entire school travelled in convoy to Ayutthaya (the old capital of Thailand). That day, we were on the bus for at least six hours, and from seven thirty am onwards, the aisles were filled with students dancing and singing to what was pretty much the same K- Pop song stuck on repeat. Over the course of the day, we visited various attractions including a massive temple (complete with a British influences exhibition, many Thai soldiers, and beautiful landscaping), a university, an aquarium, we took a train ride and then spent some time at a floating market. Not once during the day did I witness a head count or any sort of registration process; the teachers got on the bus, and then the buses just moved onto the next place. It was mad. Presumably, we left hundreds of Piyabut school students stranded in various locations in central Thailand that day... Mai pen rai. Even now, I’m still not sure if there was an underlying academic reason for the school trip, or if there was any sort of cohesion between any of the stops on our itinerary, either way, everyone seemed pretty happy.    

Dancing on the bus at 7.30am

At the temple in Ayutthaya 

Chaos!

The Floating Market, near Ayutthaya

However, one thing that completely baffles me is the school uniform in this country. I’ve given up asking the students why some of them are wearing scout uniforms, some are in tracksuits and others in shirts and neckties. No two days seem to be the same, and yet, all the students seem to know exactly what to wear on which day. It really is astounding.