Thailand Letter
September 18, 1997
Bangkok, Thailand
Dearest Family,
I have thought about Sarah all night because if I have my time right, she was coming home from having surgery during my night here. I think anything done to the mouth is SO painful and she was having a lot done. I have never heard of having a chain put on a tooth to bring it into place but I hope it works. I will say again though, that I think it is WONDERFUL that she can have that done. I love you Sarah and I wish I could bring you a milk shake or something. You will have to recuperate fast so you will be able to go to all your nutcracker practices won't you?
A neighbor friend of ours brought us a "black egg" - it was gross!!! It was in a shell that had been covered with something black like dirt. He said we didn't have to refrigerate it so we left it on the table. Virginia cracked it last night and fried it in a frying pan - the yolk was a very dark yellow and it was hard. We took a picture of it and then threw it away. I have never seen so many eggs - they have them in all the stores and in the vending places and they are NEVER refrigerated. We are served many egg omelettes and they are good.
Yesterday was our "planning day" at Sai Mai. They picked us up at 7:30 and took us to school - in about l5 minutes they brought us hot chocolate (they call it ovaltine), tapioca with coconut cream on top & brownies with carameled cashews on top. They kept bringing us ice water and then at 11:15 they served us lunch - it was really good - lots of curried fish on Chinese soft noodles, a very delicious mushroom and vegetable soup and of course rice and different vegetable and chicken toppings. We had watermelon for dessert. About 1:30 they brought us guava (sp?) and they serve that with a sugar, salt and chili pepper mixture and also a large goblet of delicious orange juice. They brought us home about 4 o'clock and sent a big box of the cashew brownies with us. HOW WILL I EVER BE ABLE TO LOSE WEIGHT!!!
It is about 5 o'clock in the morning here and it is quite cool. This is their rainy season and it rained last night and I mean REALLY rained. It never gets below 65 degrees but I believe it is that cool this morning and it feels SO good. They have told us to never complain about the "smells" here and I have to remind myself of that all the time because with khlongs close by it is bad!!!
We go to the same district we were at the first of the week. It takes us an hour to get there and we go through pretty country. We are teaching 15 teachers for five days - it is hard to come up with enough material to keep them interested each day. I spent all day yesterday making visual aids - ugh!!!
I love you all so very, very much. Hang in there Sarah. Grandma B