Aaah, Gold Bond

Up North towards the mountains...

We're now staying with my old host family about 45 minutes outside of the city. The family calls me Tong Dee and Julia was given the nickname Nam (like the lady from J's Liquor Store...) Still the same, except with a new member of the fam now, an extremely cute little 1 year old girl named Pop (pronounced Bop), which means popular, and that's pretty damn close to what she is around the Village Luang Nguah. Her feet never touch the real floor, and I saw her with shoes on for the first time today. Someone's always holding her. There's 13-15 people working for the wood shop now and her grandparents work/live at the house and her parents are there too. Basically she gets all the attention she wants. It's chill though.

Left, Paw Thai, Pop, Pi Pui, and next door neighbor Pi Nui. Pop's on the way to get her chicken pox shot

Oh, my family runs a wood shop that my host bro started a few years ago. They make small wooden animal toys, completely hand made. Picture "A Christmas Story" or whatever that animated movie was called, and instead of elves, insert SE Asians of all different ethnicities ages 20 - 75, and instead of Santa, there's my less chubby host brother with a half goatee. They churn out multiple sets of 50, three inch tall rabbits or 5 inch tall chickens in a week. We're fond of the hedge hogs. Also it's hotter than a Georgia hog auction, so I've gained a new respect for Gold Bond. I'd bathe in it if I could.

They built a room on the ground level for the baby, the only room on the ground. Everything else is on stilts. I used to stay in the side tree house part, but now I got my host brother's old room in the main house. We've been taking bike rides past the village to the mountains and helping do chores around the house. Gotta pay my dues this time since there isn't an American program paying the family to let me stay with them. Julia and I cleaned their bathrooms yesterday, including the worker bathrooms. I assume their immune systems are super badass because they still don't own rubber gloves. I cleared and leveled dirt this morning under a new roof for a separate North Pole-esque work place. I guess their company is doing well despite the economy!

Last night we learned a traditional Chinese-based dance called Yan I think. The village center was full of about 30 Thai women and girls, the male teacher from Chiang Mai University, and two white people. Being one of the two white people (Julia was the other), and the only male actually dancing, it was quite an experience. Hard to explain, but it involves a lot of raising your arms and flicking your hands different ways. I never did find out if I was even supposed to be doing that, being a dude and all.

We're in the city for the night because we are helping a school in the morning with a field trip to the Botanical gardens. It's kind of a practical interview to see how good we are at dealing with kids, but we're also kind of interviewing this school because their program looked pretty rinkydink. Could be cool though if we teach part time and volunteer part time, switch it up a little and get two things on the resume at the same time. More interviews next week! Sabai sabai...