Thailand Letter
August 14, I997
Bangkok, Thailand
Dearest Family;
I should keep copies of the letters I write to you so I will remember what I have written. I did that at home and it made it so much easier! ! ! My life here is SO busy and exciting that I need to write every day so I won't forget anything. ROY, PATRICE, EMILY, TIMOTHY AND JESSE - Thank you SO much for your wonderful letters and pictures. I was THRILLED to receive the ones you had copied so I know now that you really had written to me. I have received the one written on July 28t" and then the ones that Emily and Timothy wrote to me on August 2'u but they are the only ones until I received the copied ones. Emily - I LOVED the beautiful artistry on your paper and Timothy - I LOVED your drawing of Hans and his bottle of medicine - thank you for remembering him. Emily - I don't believe they do cursive writing here - all I see is the Thai symbols and they are done very carefully. I want to take your letter and show it to the 4'" graders here because you do such a good job. Roy & Patrice - I was SO happy to hear that you are doing things with Ted Snider and his wife - Chris talks about him often.
Bob - I forgot to thank you for copying the article that was in the Church News about the teachers serving in Bangkok. We had heard about it but hadn't seen it. We are supposed to get the Church News and also the Ensign but so far we haven't received any. I know it must be a REAL job to get my letters to everyone and I hope to have that solved by E-mail soon. I appreciate all you do more than I can say. Claire - how is Relief Society??? They had a big Stake Fair here last Saturday but I couldn't go - I hear that it was very, very good.
When we went to school on Monday (the Sai Mai School) it was a Mother's Day Celebration and many of the children's mothers came for the prof,am. They had it out at the side of their school and they had chairs all around for the Mothers of the I,000 students and then they had a sofa for Virginia, the Principal and me. Before it started they had a special ceremony for the grandchildren of the woman who had donated the land for the school. They have statues of this woman and her husband in a little courtyard and they made many speeches about their gratitude to her and put f7owers on and lit candles by the statue.
After the program in the yard we went inside and saw more Thai dancing and a special sword fight. The swords were tin but not sharp and I worried that the students would get hurt but they didn't. Then we had a delicious lunch and visited with dignitaries from the district. We then taught the English teachers in our air conditioned office for two hours. We had to leave early because we had to meet the executive from the Marriott Hotel. I wish you could have seen "her". She is just gorgeous and looks very much like Marie Osmond. I found out that her parents own the land that the Marriott Hotel is built on - that's her connection. It was very interesting to talk to her - she had her elementary education in Bangkok and then went to Michigan to study and also to Virginia. She speaks very good English and it was fun to visit with her. She said when she first started school in Michigan all her friends told her she would
die very soon from the cold if she didn't get some warm clothes and drank lots of milk and eat a lot of food - so that's what she did. She wants to come to school with us and teach the students to not "parrot" everything that is said to them - that would be a miracle if she could do that. We go into a classroom and no matter what we say to them they parrot it back to us.
Dr. Hall, our director, met us at the place where we were visiting with the Marriott Lady and took us to "Data Mations" where we bought a computer modem. Now all we have to do is get time to go apply for Internet Thailand - we have the application but the place is downtown and it will take us about 2 hours to get there and 2 hours to get back. We are thinking that maybe we will be able to do that on Monday because that is a preparation day for us at school. THEN, we will have to wait until Dr. Hall can come and hook it up for us. You just wouldn't believe the traffic here - I believe I have mentioned that many times before in my letters. There are buses, taxis, tuk tuks, motorcycles and cars all trying to find a place on the roads. I know there are at least a million motorcycles and it is SO funny - we see beautiful young women riding on the back of them and they don't even hold on.
Tuesday was a Mother's Day Holiday. The lady who is in charge of us from the BMA asked if we wanted to go see the Royal Palace. She and her husband picked us up at 9:30 a.m. and we went through the Royal Palace - there is absolutely no way to describe it. I believe I read that it covers 60 acres but I'm not sure. It is GORGEOUS and there is gold, glitter and jewels everywhere with huge statues of meaningful "things" all over. We saw the "Emerald Buddha" and I tried to take a picture but they stopped me. This Buddha dates back to 1434 A.D. and was found when lightning struck a "chedi" in northern Thailand and it was found inside. It was covered with stucco and one day a priest noticed that some of the stucco on the nose had flaked of and he could see the color green so they removed all the stucco and found the Emerald Buddha which is really Jade. It is SO funny - they change the clothing on it for every season. It has the "rainy season" clothing on now. I have heard about the Emerald Buddha from everyone who has ever visited Thailand and I was expecting something much larger. It is rather small compared to most of the Buddhist but it GREATLY revered. It is placed high up in the place where we saw it and it is surrounded by gold, flowers, more gold and jewels.
We also went to the temple where the Royal Family worships and it too is beyond description. Then we went to a HUGE museum that covers many, many acres. The grounds were so beautiful with every blade of grass in place and we sat in kind of a pavilion and watched Thai dancing. Then they took us to dinner and brought us home about 7 p.m. We were SO tired and hot and went to our bedroom to rest and the air conditioner wouldn't work.
We went to Sai Mai School the next morning where another driver picked us up to take us to a school that was WAY OUT - we told our Principal about the air conditioner and she sent her "OFFICER" to fix it. The compressor was out so he couldn't fix it until today so we slept with fans last night. It was fixed when we came home from school today and we are THRILLED.
Yesterday we just taught in the morning and then Sallee (the woman from BMA name and got us and took us to a convention hall in downtown Bangkok - actually her daughter took us - she is 26 years old and is an airline hostess for Thai International Airlines and is just gorgeous. This was a special afternoon that had been planned for many months but we didn't know about it until Tuesday night. One of the King's Princesses was the honored guest - we still can't figure out who she is but we think she is the King's sister-in-law and she has eaten too much rice Ha! ! ! You wouldn't believe all the pomp and circumstance - there was a long red carpet put down and maids kept sweeping it with special brooms. There were gorgeous flowers everywhere and especially on the stage where she was to sit. We were invited, I think, because some book publishers had displays of their new books for teaching - I bought a Thai cookbook. We were given places of honor to sit and we waited and we waited and all the dignitaries were in full dress uniform - Virginia wouldn't let me take a picture!!! I am still in awe at all them ceremony and regalia. Finally there was loud music playing some kind of ceremonial song and we all stood up and she came in flanked by more dignitaries. Some people spoke and of course we had no idea what they were saying and then some of the teachers in uniforms filed across the stage and she presented them with some kind of plaque. This took a long time and then the loud music started again and she walked out. We couldn't believe it but she didn't say one word. Sallee explained to us that she handed out some awards for excellence in schools.
Sallee took us shopping at a nearby store and I bought a blouse. It is really too small but I believe I can get by with it. EVERYTHING here is either for these tiny Thai women or else the sizes are "Free Sizes" which means very large. I believe I will be able to wear it with the skirt of that outfit I bought at the reunion - it belonged to Carol. Poor Virginia - she can't find anything to fit her - she is quite a bit taller than I am. One of the schools we went to last week had a book on display that had pictures of us when we visited their school shortly after we arrived in Thailand - I was SO embarrassed because I was wearing the same dress - OH WELL! ! ! I would like to have more clothes made but it is SO hard to find time to go shopping for material and then it takes awhile to go to the dressmaker and have her fit me. Virginia is having one made by the lady who made one for me and she has had the material for 3 weeks. I had a nice letter from Don. It made me sad because it was poorly written and he said he had a hard time writing because of his Parkinson's Disease. I didn't think he had that. He and Cheryl had just returned from their Alaskan Cruise and they had a wonderful time. They went with some Utah State Alumni. He said he had talked to Stan Lewis who is leasing the Farcn. I surely wish some of you would visit Saratoga when you have time and tell me about the housing development that is going on there - I went there about 6 months ago and it looked GREAT! ! !
I also had a letter from my neighbors, the Littles. They live in the basement apartment of Shauna and Mike Theobald. Eileen Little had written it and she was in Missouri with her son for a baseball tournament. She said they had become acquainted with John & Juliannas' dogs but they hadn't met them yet. She didn't mention my "hill". They sympathized so much with me when I was digging there and planting the St. John's Wort - is it still alive? She also said that the new neighbors who live where the Wilcoxes did are WONDERFUL! ! ! Gary Little is a counselor for EFY - I wish Michael would get him because he would be so good.
I also had a letter from Chris Jordin. It is SO much fun to receive letters from all of you and from my friends. I keep much TOO busy and I kinda' hope no one will invite us to go anyplace for awhile. Teaching is REALLY fun - we are spending most of our time now teaching the
English Teachers which is what we are supposed to do. I was in front of a group of teachers not long ago and I said, "I want to know if you understand what I am saying. Please raise your hand if you understand what I am saying" - not one hand went up and I looked at about 15 teachers with this blank expression on their faces. I have pictures of things in the room - clock, table, desk, chair, flower, plant, girl, boy, pencil, book, etc. and then I have the words on pieces of paper and ask them to match them. It seems so elementary but the students in grades I through 4 can't do it. Virginia has numbers on cards and then words of the numbers and they are supposed to match them. Most of the teachers know their numbers and so do their students. She also teaches pronunciations - Thai people have problems with their R, V, L. and Z sounds. One teacher was talking about sports today and said what I thought was "Water Ball" and I said I had never heard of that - she was talking about "Volley Ball". They are very cooperative and want to learn. I teach conversation skills and pretend to call them on the telephone - I can't believe all the things I have learned from them. They really respond to the questions I ask when they understand them. I asked one teacher if he worked at night and he said, "No, I want romance". We laughed because he was in his fifties and has two children. Another teacher told me she had "no sons" and then in the conversation she kept saying "he did this and he did that" - she had her he's and her she's mixed up.
I hope Ron has his building all rented out. I'm sure that won't be a problem for long because it is in a fabulous place. Ann - will you continue to work for Ron when you start back at BYU? I am excited to hear news about Susanna and college.
Barji, have you quit Marie Callenders yet? You will be much too busy to work during the school year.
It clouds up a lot here but hasn't rained very much yet. I guess when it does rain the canals and streets are flooded. It is still mighty hot and muggy and they say this is the cool season.
I love you all SO very much and thank you for writing to me. I miss you but this is a fabulous experience and I'm grateful for it. We have finished the D. & C., the Pearl of Great Price, and now we're starting on the Book of Mormon. Virginia is REALLY a studious person and very, very smart. PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.