BUSARA’S DIGEST #12

Be it resolved that our Rotary Exchange year is one that we will never forget! Well, it’s a fact that my time is almost up as an exchange student. Only about two more months and then….

Since my last report what have I been up to?? After I recovered from my bustrip, the summer went on and on some more. We got two new exchange students from Japan to our district. As for daliy living… I guess we are all just travelling around and taking in the last of this culture filled country and of course Bangkok’s air!! I went paintballing for the first time with some friends, actually we went twice and might I add that it hurts. I must admit that I injured one YE from Canada, actually she was a fellow teammate, but now they all know not to sneak up on me because I panic. Besides paintballing, we’ve been travelling a whole bunch. I spent a few days in Angthong and I also went to a province called Kanchanburi for a weekend. This was my second trip there and once again I got to see the Bridge over River Kwai a.k.a. Death Railway. This time I walked across the bridge and my heart was in my foot the entire time. I still can not explain why I was so afraid but maybe it’s just the thought of how many people died building the bridge and all of the history that goes along with it. In my opinion Kanchanaburi is one of the most beautiful provinces and best-kept in Thailand (out of those I have seen) and there are mountains everywhere…it’s just so…GREEN!!

Well, the question now-a-days that all Thai people seem to be asking is “Lian Tee Nai??” Which means “learn where?” Summer is over for the Thai students and so all those who graduated in February are now moving onto University and I guess which university you go to says a lot about you.

From May 31st to June 3rd, I went to a ROTEX Outbound Orientation at Kao Yai Province. 10 Inbounds were selected to travel with the 50+ outbounds and share the week with them talking about what they should expect and teaching them the secrets to having a happy exchange life. Honestly I can say that those 4 days will be ones that I will never forget. Very little of it had to do with orientation but more about bonding with each other I guess. After arriving in Kao Yai at this amazing resort, we settled in and then had to go into the meeting room. For the rest of the day we played games and sang and danced A LOT! I can not remember the songs exactly but they were pretty funny though humiliating and a little bit dirty. The second day we did a short presentation about out countries and the Thai kids also had to do a presentation in English about Thailand. This took forever but eventually we got finished. Next was the Walk Rally, where we had to complete about 12 checkpoints of different games and other stuff like that. This took about 6 hours for all the groups to
finish. That night we had a camp fire with some sticks, red and yellow lights under it and a fan to blow some red paper. From afar it actually looked like a fire…believe it or not. We sang and danced some more and some more and then some more. We played games and didn’t finish all of this until midnight. The last day was the worst or you could say the best. It rained to begin with so everywhere was full of mud. Then they blindfolded each participant and the Rotex got the chance to humiliate all of us for their own pleasure I guess because they were the only people there. They led us on a rather long walk, then we had to crawl on the floor through a mesh tube, then roll over in the mud and find a pen cover. The next stop was to stand with your arms out and on one foot, while they put worms, powder and makeup on us. Next was to dig in the leftover food and find a marble and then we had to eat this mixture of pretzels, noodles and strawberry milk. This was the worst and some people got sick….it was reallllllly horrible. They took us on another walk leading us through the snaked infested bamboo and then we had to lick plastic wrap with sweet milk at the same time as another person…that was gross and then eat break off a string as the same times with another person. By this time, the humor was long gone and they were just overdoing it. Simply put, it wasn’t even funny anymore and all Inbounds were thinking of ways to get revenge on the Rotex. The last thing was trying to get a stick of lit incense into a bottle blindfolded and holding it between your legs. After each pair got finished with their obstacle course or whatever you call it, you could help with those that were not finished as yet. At the end, we were dirty….really dirty and it took forever to get all the mud and makeup and everything else off our skin. By dinner time we were furious with the Rotex and out plan was to totally teepee their bungalow with toilet paper and shaving cream…inside and out.

BUT…Rotex did something that almost reversed all that they had did earlier that day. Once again we got to particiapte in a Bai Sri Su Kwan ceremony just like on the first nights of RYLA and our 2nd Bus Trip. This was where they tied the strings around our wrists. We all walked inside the meeting room and on the floor there was a candle for each person in a big circle and the Rotex were seated in a smaller cirle and they were singing this song. The most beautiful song I had ever heard that we all requested a copy afrewards. While they
let the song play in the background, each Rotex went around and put a string on our wrist. They wished us good luck and hoped that we would have a good life and come back to Thailand again. They even said sorry for the things they did that we could not understand and just told us to take every bad thought out of our mind and only focus on the good. Most of this was done in Thai and because we could understand it, it was even more meaningful. By the time it was over we had about 16 strings on our wrists from each Rotex member present and some people were crying. This is one ceremony that can be done with any culture and mean the same the world over. So… Rotex got out of a wrecked house but we still did sneak out and toilet paper the outside of their house and left a thank you note.

The final day, each of us got some paper on our backs and we a train and signed everybodys back. I can honestly say that these are one group of people I will never forget. We headed back to Bangkok, everyone asleep on the bus and in an instant it was all over. We said our final farewell to Anton from Russia and to some Thai kids that we may never see again, wishing them all good luck and a successful YE year. You never know, maybe our paths will cross again. But until that time all we have are memories and photos and good thoughts of one another. It’s almost over, everything is almost finished and everybody is almost gone. Where will we be without one another? Who will we share our thoughts and questions with? Because we alwaysssssss have questions. Who will answer them now? Who will we play silly games and sing and dance with? Because teens in other parts of the world aren’t like Thai teens…they don’t dance. My Aussie friend Kate always says, “Sing like no one’s listening, Dance like no one’s watching and Love like you’ve never been hurt”…that’s the truth. That is what will get us through life. Shannon always tells is to, “Live the life you Love. Love the life you live.” Where will we ever find such a nice nation of people. You know, the world is really a harsh place and often times we wonder if the Thai kids will make it in another country. But we look at Rotex and see that they’ve come back alright. And we begin to say maybe the Thai kids will teach the world their ways. And now that we have also experienced and become like Thais we can teach too. Probably the scariest thing about going home especially from a country like Thailand (The Land of Smile) is that we know that the ‘real world’ is a scary place and people can be crewl at times. Can’t we just stay here? Can’t we be Y.E.’s forever? Here, nobody snickers and laughs and makes fun of you. Everything thing is just what it is and we can not change it so we say Mai pehn lai (which means nevermind). We have learnt that it’s ok to feel sad and to cry because there’s a time and place for everything. But….”It’s over now, It’s over now for I am out of Rotary’s care. It’s alright now, it’s alright now my friends will read and answer mail. We will not see, we will not see each other and we can not share. Our time in Thailand’s over now!”