Tag Archives: friends

An African Wedding 03/09/2017

My dear Grandmother’s friend had a friend who lived with her in the US when he came to America for college many years ago. He is originally from Tanzania and actually invited me to his nephews wedding! He is the gentleman I talked about in my very first post.

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Please meet Mr. Tony!

I got the chance to go to the wedding and it was WONDERFUL! Everyone was so welcoming and it was such a neat experience to be apart of. Imagine going to a wedding where you can’t understand anything anyone is saying! Of course some spoke English and I understood a few phrases but I couldn’t even try to fit in. I stood out like a zebra in a room painted entirely of pink.  It was so fascinating to see the different traditions compared to a wedding back home. The evening began with Mr. Tony sending a taxi to pick us up and one of his son’s took us home after the wedding. Their kindness was unbelievable.

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Mr. Tony’s daughter who is currently at Uni in Germany but came home for the wedding.

My good friend Simone was my plus 1 since my boyfriend wasn’t in Africa. She killed the dance floor! IMG_6192At the beginning of the reception the husband’s family makes a big line with family members on each side and the brides family walks in between them. Everyone is dancing in the big celebration line and they hug each of their new family members (the members of the brides family) into their family. Simone and I got to be apart of the husband’s side of the family and dance in the line and cheer everyone into the family. We all were seated and then the wedding party comes through and then the bride and groom came dancing in to their song. There was a spokes person at the wedding and TV’s set up everywhere so you could see everything going on.

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The two family’s coming together and the bride and groom in the center!

Weddings are VERY BIG in Africa! Everyone in the community pitches in money for the wedding. If I wrote everything out from the night it would take you a year to read so I am just going to write out the main high lights! Before the bride and groom popped the champagne it went around the entire reception hall and everyone touched it. It was then given to the bride and groom to pop open. There was A LOT of dancing, singing, and ceremonial things that went on.

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This was right before the husband was given the spear.

One of those things was the husband receiving a large spear. It is a tradition in their tribe to get this upon marriage. It shows that he is the man of the house. It is meant to stand up right in his and his wife’s bedroom. However, when he passes away it is supposed to be turned upside down. The wedding began around 5PM and we didn’t start to eat until 10PM. A lot of the foods were from the husbands tribe. I tried a bit of everything (which was A LOT). It was all delicious! We ended up leaving around midnight; however, the wedding was still going on!

It was truly an unforgettable night! They accepted us as family and were so loving.

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Such bright colors everywhere! We were right by the ocean!

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Goodbye Koh Tao!

This morning as I look around my room, all traces of my existence in this space are packed away tidily into airtight and compact bags. Even the Bukowski quote that I put on my mirror is now gone and placed into my personal diary. That quote kept me persevering despite the many challenges of Koh Tao School.

“dismiss perfection as an ache of the
greedy
but do not give in to the mass modesty of
easy imperfection.

and remember
the belly of the whale is laden with
great men.”

-“Advice for some young man in the year 2064 A.D.” by Charles Bukowski

I have made a long list of all the people and students I will miss from Koh Tao. I have either had dinner with or said goodbye to each person. Also, I have never lived on an island before, but the ocean and the stars at night will be sorely missed as well. Last night, I just laid on the beach looking at the moon and clouds wishing there was a way to take that form of grandeur back to Nashville with me.

Looking forward, I have some visa business to settle on the big island, Koh Samui today and tomorrow. I am staying with a friend who is a teacher as well. Her name is Lynn and she has taught in Thailand for over 3 years now. On Saturday, I will fly to Bangkok and take a bus to my next teaching location- Sing Buri. In a total contrast to Koh Tao, Sing Buri is a mountainous region that hardly any Westerners visit.

Despite the excitement of new adventures, I am sad to leave the connections and way of life that I began here. These children and their sweetness will always be remembered before any of the challenges that arose. To all my new found friends, do stay in touch.  I have had some great conversations with many Thai people despite our language barrier. In fact, I was thinking yesterday- I have more Thai friends than other farang (foreigner) volunteer friends. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that I was wondering how to adapt? Here’s to Koh Tao and all that it gave me- friends, family, sea, and stars. All various forms of vast beauty in this crazy thing we call life. I am forever grateful.

The Sunset on Sairee Beach

Penpals and Friendship Bracelets

This week, I feel like I have grown to love Koh Tao for what it is. Despite all the crazy tourists and weird positions I have found myself in, it has become a kind of home. Having taught here for nearly 2 months now, the children and their parents like to hang out with me. I have built friendships with shop keepers and know their stories. Then again, just when I feel like I’m adapting and really getting to understand, I know that I am leaving in about 11 days for Sing Buri.

This week school was a little strange. I learned that the kids do have an English exam along with the rest of their finals. The problem is that because the volunteers are teaching the classes, the Thai teachers who make the exam do not know what to put on it. The classes have changed hands with volunteers probably about 4 to 5 times in one semester alone. While teaching a lesson on meal vocabulary and consonants, a Thai teacher handed me freshly copied “Test 2” which was an activity asking the kids to match the days of the week, color, and write English words. The instructions were in Thai and I was confused about two things 1)where we had a copier and 2) how we could afford to have whole sheets of paper for a worksheet. I’m hoping that I can review the basics of English- alphabet, basic vocabulary, and greetings for the exam. Hopefully, the Thai teachers will consult me or Nikki about what to put on the test.

In addition to our meal vocabulary and consonants this week, Nikki has arranged a penpal class in the US for the kids.  We put up a letter template and asked the kids to fill in the blanks. The template is as follows:

“Dear Penpal,

Hello! My name is ________. I am _____ years old.  I am in the 2nd/3rd grade. I live in Koh Tao, Thailand. My favorite color is _____. What is your favorite color? My favorite animal is a _____. My favorite food is _____. Where do you live? Write me soon!

Your Friend,

___________”

The issue becomes that if the kids are rowdy, we can’t get to do anything cool like letters to their penpals. In one class, only half finished their rough draft. We took pictures of the kids who finished and saved their drafts for the next class. I give Nikki complete credit for thinking of the idea, and I’m hoping we can make it work. It work be really cool for both classes to begin an exploration into another culture via letters.

After school tutoring is working well, with the exception of Saturday. The tutoring pupils I have are beginning to sound out words when reading. It’s really amazing to watch them remember and trying to work out the phonetics of a word. The entire time they are trying to remember I feel all excited and nervous waiting for that *click* in their brain. On Saturdays, the kids or the parents generally forget about their lessons. It makes me sad that they are not taking advantage of the opportunity, but at least I have the ability to offer. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. The kids who are drinking are really making progress. though.

Other than teaching, I realized this week that I only have 30 pictures from the past month and a half. I started taking a lot more because I don’t have much time left here. Saturday was a great day to take pictures. I went to the island’s Buddhist temple with P’Lake (my guesthouse owner’s wife), met a teacher from Koh Samui on the beach randomly, and had dinner with P’Jin and her family.

Temple was really incredible. It was such a gift to get to share in the meditation and rituals of the temple. All the ladies brought savory curries, sweets, and flowers for Buddha. All of these items were shared on the altar. The monks performed chants and we all were supposed to repeat in Thai. I didn’t want to offend anyone with my mispronunciation, so I chose to not attempt. After the service, the monks ate and then shared the rest with the community present. I met P’Lake’s mother-in-law and many other ladies in the community. They were all so kind to me. We all sat in a few large circles with dozens of small bowls filled with spicy, homemade curries. A large bowl of rice was passed around. Then, you were free to pick your favorite curries to top it. After the meal, we shared fruit and sweets. I tried a coconut jelly sweet, jackfruit, and a sticky, egg-flavored sweet. The ladies of Koh Tao are very talented cooks.

From left to right: P’Na (a local massage therapist), Me, and P’Lake.

“P” added to the beginning of someone’s name is a form of respect for your elders.

If they are a grandmother/grandfather, “Boo” is used instead.

 

In the evening, I went out for dinner with the Lofts (P’Jin, her husband Kevin, and their two daughters, Tara and Charlie). Kevin is from Australia and P’Jin is from mainland Thailand. They met here years ago when Kevin was a dive instructor. Their eldest daughter, Tara, is in my 2nd grade class. When I first came to the island, I went to their technology shop looking for a case for my camera and came away with a friend. I noticed Tara’s picture on the wall and started chatting with Kevin. P’Jin has been instrumental in helping me arrange my tutoring lessons. She’s also become a really great friend. Whenever I have a question about anything- school, snorkeling, life, or where to go to eat- I ask her and she helps me out. I feel so lucky to have them in my life, and they will be missed terribly when I leave. I bought the girls bright pink bracelets and P’Jin a blue bracelet to remember me by.

In the pink, holding the heart- Tara

In the blue, making a face- Charlie

Front to back: Tara, Charlie, and Fasai (another 2nd grader whose mother works at the dive shop across from Kevin’s shop)

P’Jin and Me after dinner. Charlie was running around with my camera taking pictures of random people. Haha!

Friendship bracelets, the eternal sign of friendship. I’m pretty sure I made my first one in 3rd grade, yet they are still so relevant.