The Final Chapter

I am back home in Michigan now and have been for a week. I did not finish writing about the trip, and I am a person who likes to finish things!! So.... I wanted to write the "final chapter" (for this trip anyway) for my time in Thailand and Japan.

When I am a "visitor", I first want to make it a comfortable "home" for myself and for the people that I will be with. And so it was in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. I knew that I was going to teach some of the staff, but I was also open to doing other things there as well. The people at the guesthouse continually made me feel like a part of the "family" and the guesthouse became a true home for me.
Some of the students who I started with left the guesthouse for various reasons, but Yui, a 16
year-old girl, was there for my whole month. I became very close to her.and it was magical to see her knowledge of English grow during that month and to see her continually strive to learn more as her desire to communicate with the guests grew. They loved her too, with her sweet smile and laugh.

I also taught Dao, a 20 year-old young woman from Myannmar (Burma) who had been in Thailand for several years and was trying to learn Thai as well as English. It took her a bit longer to get things --("Please take a seat anywhere." "Here is the menu." "What would you like to drink?" "How spicy would you like your food?", and the names of drinks and things like --fork, plate, chopsticks, and many more!) It was rewarding to watch her knowledge grow and to see her smile when finally "getting it" after many practices. She worked so hard and it amazed me as I watched her write Burmese by the English words to remind herself how to pronounce them with the Burmese sounds she knew.
Salisa ran the restaurant. She was there from 7 in the morning until 10 at night and even with the incredibly long hours, she always remained pleasant to everyone. She was always helpful to me with anything I needed with the lessons and became a friend during my time there .
When I had been there a week or so, May invited me to have "kin kow" (breakfast) with the guesthouse kitchen staff (Yui, Dao, May, Salisa) and that often was a daily part of life. I got to try so many new things that I never saw on any menu such as "sardine lime curry" and "deep fried eggs with tamarind sauce". It was always an adventure!
My day always started with a walk in the war memorial cemetery. With its neat grassy rows, I could walk each morning without the worry of tripping on any number of obstacles in the street (holes in the cement, rebar sticking up, a curb of new cement and many other surprises!). The dog in the picture always was in front of the entrance arches and greeted me with a wagging tail and walked with me for a while.
Then back to the guesthouse and when I came into the restaurant Yui would often greet me with a "Good morning, teacher" as I sat down for breakfast. Yui and Dao would have their lesson one at a time for about 40 minutes or so. Often I would help in the office with May as we greeted guests who were booking a room and others who had questions about what to do or how to get somewhere. (I got very well versed in explaining how to get to places, where the best laundry was, and where the nearest ATM was... and many other important tidbits of information.)
Here during this month, I learned much more Thai than I had in all my other time combined. Yui would often laugh at me as I tried to use my new words. On occasion I would say "kai" (chicken) when I meant "mai" (no) and that got a big laugh from her!. It think my attempts helped her feel more comfortable to try English.
I was invited on a few "outings". Dao had to go to immigration and so Apple, Dao and I were off on that adventure one afternoon. Despite the fact that the fingerprint machine said it WAS the same girl from her picture 2 years ago, the official did not believe it as she had lost so much weight and cut her hair, and said that they would have to make yet ANOTHER trip into Bangkok for the immigration process. Another day, I was invited to go to the hospital as Salisa got results for her mother's biopsy (she does have a second recurrance of cancer) and Dao got a physical. This was the public hospital, and I was amazed by the huge crowd of people that were waiting for any number of services.
Apple (one of the owners) was working with a man from Bangkok and forming her new website. During the time there, I did lots of rewriting for the website and she took pictures of me that are now on the website!! I am famous!
If you want you too can look at their website and see me posing as I look at a decoration in a room, or wai to Wandee after a wonderful massage! http://www.applenoi-kanchanaburi.com/guesthouse.htm
One of the things I loved was gathering flowers for the waterbowls. If Salisa did not have time in the morning, I would gladly do this and create the designs in the bowls. The gardens at the guesthouse always had SOMETHING in bloom and I enjoyed walking the grounds cutting a few of this and that into a basket to then place in the water for the days beauty.
Toward the end, there were so many feeling for me. I was in someways ready to go--it was hot and humid each day, I was wanting to see back home friends and family, and just be back to my life back home (but now that I am home, I realize that the life there had become a "home" for my spirit as well). I knew I would have some sadness on leaving, but when Salisa was talking about me leaving in a few days and Dao hugged me and started to cry... well that just started me crying, too. The last day was filled with such love and lots of tears. The people there were so kind and I felt like I was leaving my family by the time the last day came. Apple (one of the owners) told me that I was welcome to come back again and Noi ( the other owner) told me she was already making a list of things she wanted me to do! So the month turned out to be a richer experience than I ever could have imagined and was so much more than just a chance to teach English in Thailand.
After Thailand, I had 10 days in Japan. This time I knew how to get on the Hanzoman subway line and get to Linda and Joe's apartment in the Tokyo suburbs. They make it all such a comfortable place to "land"...showing me the internet and how to get NPR streamed into the living room, where things are in the kitchen, how to separate the garbage (and forgiving me when I put all the wet garbage in the wrong bag one day), and all other details for a relaxing stay. Linda and I enjoyed a day wandering around temple grounds, had a hike through the woods, and saw the giant Buddha in Kamakura. Another day, Linda, Joe, Yoshiko (a friend of theirs) and I went to the local onsen (hot pools) for a relax and dinner. While in Tokyo, I ate Mexican, Japanese, Italian and Brazilian food when I was there-- there are SO many possiblities there!! I took in a garden in downtown Tokyo one day and I spent time with Paulo, taking in his favorite part of Tokyo, Shinjuku. I met a friend of his, Glen and enjoyed dinner with the two of them and then some evening time at a "Cheers" type small neighborhood bar. The weather was lovely in Japan and a welcome time with cooler temps and less humidity. The time there also gave me some time to just relax before coming back home and some hours off the air trip back.
I am getting back into the flow of it all....tomorrow I am going to the farmer's market, I have been to a graduation, and a luncheon. It is nice to have long conversations on the couch with friends or be able to go out to dinner to familiar place. Of course, I have thought about what ithe next trip is but for now I am content to enjoy the summer.As I have walked in the morning, I have enjoyed the songs of the birds and enjoyed watching the swans on my small pond out the back porch.

And finally, I will end with a quote given to me by a good friend at the beginning of the trip. I have changed it to fit my own trip.

"Travel pushes my boundaries. When I travel, I can become invisible if I want. I sometimes like to be the obseerver, but mostly I chose to become part of the life around me. What makes people who they are? Could I feel at home here? (I did!) No one expects you to have the stack of papers back by Tuesday, or to check messages, or to fertilize the geraniums. When traveling, you have the delectable possiblity of not understanding a word of what is said to you. Language becomes simply a musical background for watching life waltz by-- asking nothing from you. Travel releases spontenaeity. You become a creature full of choices, free to visit a temple, get a Thai massage or simply take a walk and enjoy the smells and sites on the street. You open, as in childhood, and --for a time--receive this world. There's the visceral aspect, too--the huntress is free. Free to go, free to return home bringing memories to lay on the hearth."