If there’s one thing that’s on my mind more often than anything while living in Thailand it’s the world outside of Thailand; being in such a place forces one to analyze the world outside of it. I find myself constantly thinking about how different one location is from the next. Landscape, climate, culture, traditions, food, atmosphere, and attitudes are just a few aspects that change depending on your location. I grew up a full days plane ride from where I am living now and its the reality of that distance which helps me understand life an culture. No one is right and no one is wrong, it just…is.
It’s impossible for me to explain everything about Thailand in this blog. For one, there’s way too much to cover and I don’t have the time, for two I’m not a good enough writer to do it justice, and for three I’m too lazy to type it all up. What I’ve got instead is a story that will hopefully condense it all.
For over a year my village has been building a holy shrine in the local temple (wat). Thailand is 97% Buddhist and the wat is an extremely holy place, often the center of activity in a village. The Monks who live at the wat will often be called upon for anything from choosing a name for a newborn to presiding over a funeral. Well finally, two weeks ago it was announced that the time had come for the official inauguration of this beautiful pearl white cement, brown tile roof, yellow ornamental structure which houses an enormous Buddha figure.
I gotta ask questions. I must know. It’s in my nature to know, thanks to my father. So of course I ask the obvious ones: why are we going to the wat?; what’s going to happen next?; when is the celebration finished? But it’s like I just arrived yesterday! I know not to ask these questions because first of all they’ll never get answered and even if they do get answered, they’re answered differently depending on who is being asked and second of all I'm probably not going to understand the answer anyways. Inevitably I relaxed and left it up to the Thais in charge, helping out where I could. If I was to try and describe the tradition that took place, it wouldn’t make sense from a Western perspective but I will say that it involved great lengths of string, more food than needed, flowers and incents, and plenty of hard work from the villagers.
This story proves that 50% of my day is filled with wonder – half of the time I don’t know what’s going on. Survival in Thailand can only be possible if I allow myself to accept the fact that I can’t control hardly anything here. English words cannot describe just how difficult that is but Thai has a pretty good one (ngong meaning, “confused”). My parents are coming to visit me in November and I am extremely excited. I want them to have the best trip they’ve ever taken. Almost every time I talk to them on the phone, I find myself trying to teach them about the culture so that they’re more prepared when they arrive. But every time I give them some advice, I get stuck midsentence not knowing how to finish my thought. If I still have trouble understanding the culture after seven months in country, how can I possibly make any valid points to them?
There’s an analogy that has stuck with me since pre-service training and it goes a little something like this: if you are an iceberg, 10% of you is sticking out of the water and 90% is hidden beneath the surface. The 10% is what people can see and interact with. It’s what people make their snap judgments based upon. It's you, on the outside. The other 90% is you on the inside. It’s all of your emotions, hidden talents, personal values, morals, etc. It’s up to you if you wish to share that 90% with the world. Thailand is the same iceberg. The 10% is what you see on the news or hear about from someone who has vacationed here. It’s a small portion of the big picture. The other 90% is what you experience when you learn the language, begin to understand the culture, accept the people for who they are, and truly throw yourself into the lifestyle. I will never be able to give my parents advice on how to properly behave in this country, nor do I have to. I don’t know why I’m so worried in the first place. Finding out how to act in a culture unlike anything the West has to offer is an adventure into self discovery itself. That’s something anyone traveling here needs to experience on their own.
This is often what I feel like.
