Thailand Letter
(This was received as a paper letter and Bob scanned it and emailed it to the family)
July 31,1997 Bangkok, Thailand
Dearest Family;
Well - I have been in Thailand for a month now and what a month it has been. Things are settling down a little bit and it is easier - I THINK?!!
WOOLLEYS - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR WONDERFUL LETTERS. I couldn't believe I had a letter from all the Woolley Grandchildren - when I saw the big envelope I said to Virginia "Oh, I hope I have letters from all the grandchildren" but I thought there was no way Ann would be able to talk Russell into writing - Ha!!! Susanna - I am SO proud that you have passed the AP English Test and have 6 hours of BYU credit - that's great!!! I'm also happy that you are going to room with Rosie - she is a favorite of mine. You will have such a wonderful time at college with so many of your High School friends being there also. Jimmy I am VERY scared of the snakes here in Thailand and later in my letter I will tell you about an experience I had. Russell 1 can't believe you are old enough to have your wisdom teeth taken out but I guess you are. Your campout with your Dad sounds like so much fun - "white water river rafting - Wow". Would you believe I haven't seen any cockroaches yet? When I see one I will turn it over and see it if will die naturally - that would be a lot better than squishing them. Lee Anna, I'm glad you skied on one ski - I wish I could have seen that. Jessie - your letters are so much like the ones I used to receive from your Mother - all decorated with Flowers and hearts. Did you like going to Utah State for cheerleading camp - I LOVE Utah State!!! My friends will be having their 50te class reunion there in a few weeks - we all graduated in 194. I think it is WONDERFUL that you are planning a private violin recital for Fall and I would LOVE to be there for it. Annie - I want to hear about the Sesquicentennial Spectacular - I remember that you had bought a ticket for me.
My life is SO different. We don't have a television so we never watch that - we don't get English newspapers unless we ride for two hours on the bus - we bought a little radio but we can't get English news on it - we have NO idea what is going on in the world. I guess that is the way it is supposed to be. The teachers pick us up about 7:30 each morning and we get home about 6 pm and we are "dead tired". We usually go to our air-conditioned bedroom and rest for a little while. Tonight we are going to teach a neighbor young man - Virginia really does the teaching but I add a little. He is doing very well and he is teaching us Thai. A teacher from one of the schools where we teach is also coming. The Thai language is very difficult - they have all the symbols or characters for the letters but sometimes we can get them to write it for us in "Romanized" Thai so we can figure it out. You can't imagine the frustration of sitting in front of a group of English Teachers and they cannot understand us and we cannot understand them.
I must tell you about an experience I had on Monday. We had just come home from teaching when it started to rain. I MEAN RAIN - it comes down in bucketfuls here. I was standing at our front door watching some men who were cleaning out the "khlong" (canal) in front of us and a' big black thing "sliver" along the road. Just a second after I saw it, I saw one of the men jump down from the tractor and grab it by its head and put it in a plastic bag. I screamed for Virginia
to come see it but she missed it. WELL - I thought about it all that night and the next day at school I drew a picture of it for the teachers and they said it was probably a cobra - I WAS SICK. That night the neighbor boy who is taking our English Classes said he had seen it too and it wasn't a snake - it was a fish that could be eaten and was probably an "eel" which is some kind of delicacy here - YUCK!!! I guess that is why they hurried and saved it in the plastic bag.
We have been served some very different things but the most different things have been this week. We were served soup and in it was this thing that had eyes in it. I ate the broth but avoided the other things - they looked like "sea horses". Well - today we had the same thing and I asked what it was and they said, very proudly "that's octopus". One of the ladies serving us took it out of my soup bowl and put it on my plate and cut it for me - I tried SO hard to eat it but it couldn't be chewed - it was like plastic. I simply can't believe there can be so many different things to eat - we have been here a month and haven't been served the same thing twice. They serve eggs in everything. Yesterday when we got to school they brought in an "American" breakfast - fried egg, bacon, ham, tomatoes, onion, toast and a hot dog. Virginia and I knew we had to eat it because they had fixed it special for us - it was wonderful except for the hotdog.
We taught six classes today - first grade through sixth. They bring all the classes together into an assembly like room - we are at the front with microphones and the teachers are at the back observing us - it is scary. We sing a lot of songs - 3 Little Monkeys, My Dog Rags, Peas Porridge Hot, Peter Rabbit had a Fly Upon His Nose, B-I-N-G-O, I Like Bananas (Mangoes, Papayas, Mangosteens,etc.), The Hokey Pokey, There Are Seven (for days in the week) and others. The children LOVE learning the songs and the actions in English. We also teach numbers, colors, objects like Windows, Doors, Table, Chair, Girl, Boy, etc. We taught in a room without air conditioning and we were zonked when we got home. The children are so responsive I can't believe it. They teach everything by "Rote" here and when I say, "Repeat After Me", the children say "Repeat After Me". They are SO cute and SO polite - they are always in uniforms - this morning the little 1'st graders all were wearing aprons - when I asked the principal if they did this every day, he said in broken English "To keep the dirty off'.
Our main Principal and Supervisor had her "OFFICERS" come and hang some curtains for us last night - she had had her clothing teacher make them. They make our place look much more homey. After they finished she took us to meet Marc & Cherry Hall at "The Big C". They are the directors of all the teachers and they took us to a big mall - I bought a new purse - I just needed a bigger one. Marc is the one who was President of the College in California. He has bought a Honda Car here and is trying to learn how to cope in the traffic and driving on the opposite side of the street from the way we drive in America.
I walked down the lane from our apartment on Tuesday and dared myself to have my hair cut at a beauty shop there - I had to walk a wooden plank. to get to it. She did a good job but my hair is still too frizzy. I also found a "Super Market" – Ha!!! It is a little store though where we can buy things like toilet paper and ant spray.
I surely hope you are a11 doing good. I gave my e-mail addresses to Marc and I can send you messages through his computer but you won't be able to send me any because of AOL.
Grandma also wrote on the bottom of the letters- I really miss you thank you for writing to me! John I felt bad that you missed Lake Powell but I hope that you were able to rent your home. Do you have tomatoes and cucumbers yet? How are the baby quails at the Bob Mellors? Barji, tell Boyd hi for me!
I love you all. Patrice, thank your mom for her letter!