Homestay
My experience as a white water raft guide prepared me for my home-stay by endowing me with self confidence, attention to details, awareness of my surroundings, and a strong digestive system. These have been priceless tools during my time in Ubon Ratchatani. My host family consisted of mother: P. Kay, father: P. Chai, sister: Panaan, and brother: Bawaan. P. Kay is a nurse, she speaks a little bit of English. Panaan is 12 and also speaks a little bit of English. The father is in the army, he was away on vacation for all but the first day of our home-stay. The little brother, Bawaan, is 8 and very hyper. A girl from S. Carolina and I shared ten days in their home.
During my home-stay I didn’t have to worry about anything except being polite. My host mother took care of feeding us, transportation, and daily activities. She took us to many of the local temples. During our field trips she would patiently point to objects and repeat the Thai name until I pronounced it correctly. At every meal she delighted in having us try new foods. She said she was worried that we were not eating enough but I was stuffed worse than at Thanksgiving for the entire ten days.
In exchange for star treatment I had to learn the rules of the house and observe the subtleties of Thai culture. For example: it is not polite to wear your shoes in the house, it is not polite to bring your fork to your mouth, and it is polite to shower at night after dinner.
Our family has a house worker, a young soldier, who washes dishes and laundry. He never really responded but I always said hello to him anyways. We were to set out our dirty clothes for him in the morning but we had to wash our own underwear in the sink. The first night when our host mom was telling us how to wash our underwear and that we should shower I thought she was implying that we were dirty and smelly, but I think that’s just how life goes in her house and she wanted us to live that way too.
The Thais are constantly eating. I don’t know why they are so skinny. This is where self confidence and a strong digestive system came in handy. I have a healthy and strong body but the Thais are so skinny. Skinnier than I could ever be without an eating disorder. They eat some things that in the U.S. would be considered pretty weird. I’ve been a vegetarian for about a decade now and recently I accidentally ate cow blood. It looked like a rye-bread dumpling. It was pretty good. I also ate fish balls, liver paste, and octopus. After three summers of living out of the “guide fridge” and Wilderness Aware Rafting my stomach handled the influx of questionable foods just fine.
Occasionally during the home-stay there would be periods of down time where I was caught between being bored and being polite. These were opportunities to take walks, practise my Thai, or do yoga. There is really no excuse to feel bored when you are in a country and can’t speak the language. I lived out of my mini Thai dictionary. By the end of the stay I could communicate at the level of a four year old. I knew some sentences and lots of random words thanks to the gentle patience of nurse P. Kay.
The coolest part of living with a Thai family was seeing how they display affection inside the home. In public Thais are very reserved and shy. At home I watched the kids gradually warm up to us. By the end of the stay Panaan would sing and dance around the house. She let me braid her hair and twirl her around. The little boy went from hiding his face to saying hello and goodbye and answering our questions and giving us high fives. Most of all I enjoyed seeing P. Kay pester her children with kisses. I felt really welcomed into her house because she was not too embarrassed to be a mom in front of us.
I highly recommend a home-stay. But it is important to have a good match with your family. Some of the other girls had home-stay parents that didn’t do a good job communicating their plans with them and some of the girls didn’t do well communicating their issues with their host parents. If you have a good match with your host family, if you are interested in seeing the things that they want to show you, this communication is a lot easier. If your family doesn’t understand your requests for certain types of food, or things that interest you the home-stay can be really awkward. My experience was very positive and I believe that if it had been heading in a negative direction the host family and school would have been more than happy to relocate me or accommodate my requests. Like with all things while travelling, you need to keep an open mind and stay positive to get the most out of your experience.
