Catching up after vacation

  Thailand and Cambodia, Samoa Western
Friday, October 26, 2007

Hi everyone, I'm finally back to the blog. We had a quiet few months after mom and Josh left. Ray managed to fill the time with the workbench project which is going very well. A few benches have been finished but the going is slow. He only works with the students for about 3-4 hours a week. Sometimes class is canceled for other important things like practicing singing and dances for visitors. There will be an exhibition of student projects the first week in November and the ministry wants to show some of the workbenches. I have been going to the primary school once or twice a week and helping with a English program for the kids that are behind.

Map at Palauli Primary School

I have also been doing a lot of work with other volunteers that want to paint world maps at their schools. We have completed murals at 7 schools and a number of the newer volunteers are planning on painting maps too.

Samoa Map at Papa Sataua

Molly and World map at Papa sataua

I have also been trying to get improvement projects started with the primary school and the handicapped school but it is all talk still at this point.

The end

Boat on the Chao Phraya 1

Boat on the Chao Phraya 2

of August found us at the airport for our first trip out of the country. We went to Thailand and Cambodia for a month. Had a really great time experiencing the great, interesting and flavorful food, the ease of getting around, and the incredible variety of things

Boat on the Chao Phraya 3

Local transport

to buy. Transportation was so convenient and there was an amazing variety in the types available. First class busses with hostesses and video, local busses with A/C or not, big trucks and pickup trucks with caps used for local busses, motorcycle and bicycle rickshaws, motorcycles and bikes. Then there are the boats. I almost forgot the sky train, subway and trains of Bangkok. We found that in Thailand the best way to get to something off the beaten track is to have someone write the destination in Thai so you can show it to people. Once they know where you are going they will help in any way possible but many don't read or speak English and we could never figure out how to pronounce things properly. We spent a lot of time in Bangkok as Ray was getting some 1860's suits made and required many fittings.

Katchanburi

In between fittings we went to Katchamburi, where the Bridge on the River Kwai is,

Interesting club

Phitsonuloke, where we visited a very nice museum about everyday life in old Thailand. There were exhibits of traditional toys, crafts, farming tools, homes and other things. There was also

Budda

a brass foundry making buddas, from small to huge, and other gods, bells and things. We also went to a crafts training center started by the queen that taught traditional weaving, wood and stone carving, basket weaving, mask making and other things. If you are going to Bangkok we highly recommend that you go to the Joe Louis Theater and see the puppet show. Very entertaining story and cool puppets. They are the traditional puppets invented in 1903. It takes 3 people to work them and the people are an extension of the puppets, moving and acting the same as the puppet.

Bayon temple at Siem Reap

A temple in ruins

Tree on the ruins

Carvings at Ankor Wat

1000 year old bridge

Next we went to Siem Reap in Cambodia. We spent 3 days visiting the ruins of Ankor Wat and many other temples. They are quite extraordinary. The age, beauty, intricacy, carvings and the work that is being done to restore them. It is impossible to see all of them and easy to overload. No way to tell about it, go see it yourself.

My brother Rob and Hai

My brother Rob and his girlfriend Hai met us in Siem Reap. We went to Phenom Penh with them and stayed another week at their house. Rob was able to show us the side of the Cambodia that the tourists don't see. We

Biogas at an orphanage

Waste product crafts for sale

visited with his friends that are involved with development work with orphans, waste picker

Very informal education

children, biogas, recycled products used for building materials and crafts and many other things. We visited Hai's relatives out in the country, traveling rough dirt roads and river ferries. Then it was back to Bangkok for a final fitting and the flight home.

We expected an uneventful flight back with a layover in New Zealand but it didn't work out that way. About half way through the layover I started to feel kind of sick. I ended up in the hospital for 2 nights with gall stones. It was really bad until they gave me morphine. That stuff is really great and I had no more pain at all. I had it easy laying around in the hospital. Poor Ray had to schlep all our luggage to a new hotel closer to the hospital so he could walk to see me. Imagine Ray's suprise/dimay when he went to the store to get something to warm up and found only frozen taro in the freezer. Turns out he was in a Samoan neighborhood. We got back to Samoa in time for our Mid-service conference which was 4 days on a small island off the east end of Upolu.

Namua

Uninhabited island near Namua

Namua only has the resort, no other people, no electricity just lots of quiet and stars. Had a really good time reconnecting with the other volunteers in our group. Then a few days later I was off to DeKalb for surgery. Everything went fine and I will be back in Samoa by Halloween. Peace Corps policy only allows the sick spouse to be Medivaced so Ray has been held hostage ensuring my return. If it wasn't so cold in Illinois the ploy might not have worked.

So now you have to dry story of our last few months. I will get Ray to write up the colorful version when I get back to Samoa. Take care everyone and be safe.  Don't forget to look at the rest of the pictures in the photo album.