Adventures

Well, I did end up getting sick. I stayed home from my placement on Wednesday to catch up on sleep. I'm feeling much much better, but still a little congested. Yesterday I went to the clinic by myself because Kate wanted to visit a daycare. After lunch we went to the market and I always cause a big fuss because the local people never see Americans. One lady invited me to her house for lunch on Monday and gave me a big bunch of small bananas. She also has a meat stand. The meat at the market is all very fresh and just hanging up. There are pig ears and feet and lots of other nauseating things. She had a huge slab of grilled sweet pork and she chopped off a corner of it and hacked it up into small pieces with a cleaver. She gave it to me as a gift along with the bananas and another fruit (don't worry mom, I didn't eat it!). It was a sweet gesture, but it's so unsanitary there with no refridgeration and lots of flies everywhere. Another lady I've run into twice there is CRAZY! I can't tell if she likes me or hates me. She always grabs at my things (my earrings, bracelet, camera, etc.) and then she hugs me and speaks a little English but mostly Thai. It's confusing and scary. I don't want to offend the people there because I am trying my best to understand and follow their culture, so I just politely in Thai say "Hello, how are you? I have to go. Goodbye." After a few minutes she left me alone. Luckily she hasn't actually stolen anything from me- but I still can't tell if she's trying to take it or if she's just looking.

Anyway, after the market we went back to the clinic. A little boy came in with aniphilactic (sp?) shock. He had been bitten by an insect near his ear. He was very swollen and crying. It was so sad to see how worried the mother and father were. The nurse practitioner gave him an injection of dexomethasone sodium phosphate (or something along those lines) and then had to start an IV. The parents had to hold him down in order to get the needle in him. I couldn't watch the whole thing because I was feeling queasy and sad to see the boy so upset.

After we got done at the clinic, the nurses took me to Tham Le cave and we took a boat tour through it. It was so awesome, but soooo scary. There were bats flying everywhere and in parts of the cave there were tons hanging upside down just chilling out. The last part of the cave was called Dragon Cave and we had to lie down in the boat to get under it. The top was only just above our heads and the boat kept getting wedged in between rocks and the guides taking us through had to push the boat out from between rocks. The boat was scraping very loudly and the air was stale. It was terrifying. It took us about 20 minutes to get through that part and I was so happy to finally see light!! On our way back to the dock I saw several monkeys hanging out on telephone wires!! It was so awesome. I'm so scared that something is going to happen to my camera and I won't get to show you all of the amazing things I've seen here.

The nurses took me to a market where people carve beautiful puppets and animals and boxes out of wood and then we went to the same funeral we went to a few days ago to eat dinner. The celebration was still going on and we prayed in front of the casket and ate a lot of yummy food! Eventually they took me home, but it was such a great, unpredictable day! Today the director is taking us to some hot springs and then I'm getting another massage- I can't wait! Tomorrow I am going to try to get to Nakhon Si Thammarat because there's some amaazing history to see there. On Sunday, I'm going with another volunteer to Krabi to go elephant trekking for the day. I'm really excited to see the elephants. I can't believe I only have a week left here! There isn't enough time to see everything. But I also miss home- I can't wait to see everyone! I'm sure I'll have a ton more adventures to tell about later...

Lots of love,
Jen