| Here at Mirror Foundation we hear strange noises all night. Geckos squeaking right outside our windows that sound like they are right next to us, very loud crickets, and I even saw lightning bugs :) Last night, washing my hands I saw what looked like a small, blinking yellow light. I got closer to it since anything electrical is an anomaly here. It was most definitely a dying lightning bug lighting up and going dark, lighting up and going dark. Pretty crazy. Also, I was sitting on the floor in a spot trying to get internet at one point last night—I had to keep shooing away ginormous, winged ants, and then at one point I looked at the wall next to me—six inch centipede. I wanted to cry. Also, I wanted to cry when I had to shower in a freezing cold shower. If it were as hot here as it was in Bangkok, I’d be excited about that. Here it’s much cooler, so a cold shower isn’t super pleasant. Then there was a crazy beetle flying all over the shower and spiders with longer legs than I’ve ever encountered all over the ceiling. I’m definitely gonna have to toughen up here because I swear I had anxiety just sitting in my bed trying to sleep, thinking about all the bugs that could easily crawl in bed with me during the night. Apparently here in Chiang Rai there hasn’t been a case of malaria in 10 years—dengue fever is the problem. But most volunteers don’t even wear repellant. I think it could be a small miracle if I don’t get bitten by something poisonous here. Yesterday I was tired, so I thought I’d take a little nap. That was around 1 pm. I woke up at 4:30 and it was raining pretty hard. So I went back to sleep, woke up at 6:30 pm. We thought we’d missed dinner, so I went back to sleep til 8:30. What the heck, right? Janella woke me up at 8:30 to let me know that there was dinner left over. Yay. So we got some of that. It was spicey again. Jalapenos and such. I guess Monday is spicey food day—they make real Thai-level spicey stuff because the foreigners aren’t here. Somethin’ like that. After eating, mouth burning and all, we decided to try to go into the village. It was really dark, so we had to puddle dodge in the dark, but it wasn’t too far. I got laundry detergent, some kind of bread thing that I’ll try, and some cookies for 20 baht. The bathroom situation here is less than pleasant. Once again, I’ll need to grow up, grit my teeth, and get over it. The toilets are bucket-flush (one of them is squat, bucket-flush), and they’re in the same room as the shower. You can’t flush TP down, and they have hoses for those who prefer that. Can’t say I’m one of them. Anyway, the result of hoses + shower heads in the same room is that it’s constantly wet in the bathroom all over. We can’t wear shoes inside, so it’s just kinda gross. As for our bedroom, there are about 15 bunks in our room—it’s one of two rooms the girls are in. Janella, Pear (China/Houston), Steph (Ontario), and I are in the room with all the Thai interns. Our “mattresses” are about an inch thick haha. Wasn’t too bad though. It’s basically like roughing it for a month out here. Cool experience. The internet works—except when any rain starts falling. It’s monsoon season, so…yeah. God Bless America. I love the U.S.  |
Martha! Wow, bugs!!! I just remember when I worked at Aspen Grove with a bunch of college girls and we stayed in a dorm, the mass hysteria that broke out one evening because of--MOTHS--and also because when a girl woke up in the morning she found a centipede curled up underneath her in her bed :-))--so a little anxiety on the subject is completely understandable! We had a prayer and some of the guys who were elders came and gave some of the girls blessings. OK--we got snow today. So how's that for cool? I LOVE YOUR DARK HAIR! You look almost Thai! Anyway, beautiful. Best of luck to you tonight and tomorrow sleeping and working. You are a trooper!!!
ReplyDeleteLove!
Mom