Today a mixture of Korean and Thai Facts:
1. I just can't get over this one, so I have to share it. Koreans believe that if you are in a room with no windows or sealed windows and a fan is on, you will die. Funny huh? They have warnings on the tags of fans that you can die from Fan Death. Jackie even showed me a video of an English teacher in Korea trying to prove that it was impossible to die from a fan, no matter what the case. They think that it will suck all the oxygen out of the room and then create enough carbon dioxide to kill you. The other way you can die of Fan Death is the fan apparently creates enough coolness to get your body temperature down to a state where you can die of hypothermia. haha...I am sorry, but it was so funny. They even have timers on their fans to prevent either case from happening. Look it up on Wikipedia or You Tube if you want to know more.
2. Koreans don't steal things...at least not like in Thailand. Jackie and I could leave our purses at the table and go and get our food, that isn't a possibility in Thailand. In fact today, I sat in a bus seat with a stab mark in it. No joke. Sarah said that one time, on the bus, she felt someone tug at her bag. Once she got off she realized that someone had tried to cut it open. There was a gash in the back. I mean, seriously people! It was so odd to be able to leave my things around in Korea. In Thailand I have to hug my bag tight to my body. It is a necessity!
3. I have no idea how to explain this, and I may have said something like it before, but it is a daily problem, so I will state it again. Thais and Koreans...maybe other Asian cultures as well, they just have no concept of thinking about anyone but themselves. It is so odd. I go up to pay for something at the cashier, and no joke, I am 2 feet behind the person in front of me, and two people jump right in front of me. Not like slide in front of you smoothly or anything, they literally push me out of the way, so they can pay first. What the heck people!? I was struggling to not get frustrated to say the least. They also frequently stop in front of you while you are walking in a mall and such and look over in the window and start doing their hair and makeup and stuff. Men too! It is the craziest thing. You have to be on full alert all the time or you run into them. It is psychotic!
Although I was a zombie I managed to make it through the week. I didn't end up going to the bars this week, Sarah took my place, but she said that it went very well and a lot of the girls are starting to remember us and relationships are really being built! Yay! Yay for that. It is such a neat experience when you see one of them on their way to work and you can say hi and ask how they are doing and they remember you! It is amazing to see the impact that Rahab is able to make in the area of Patpong.
We had another Thai Craft fair on Saturday. It felt like the longest day ever, but I managed to make it through. We sold a lot of jewelry and the girls I went with are really growing in their confidence. They were able to help the customers and talk with them without my help. I was impressed with them. I sat back and watched for a lot of it. That is a good thing, you see, because they need to be able to do it on their own. If I chime in, they immediately give the whole conversation to me and they won't try, so I am learning to just answer questions and be there, only when necessary.
After the fair we went and dropped off all the jewelry back at Rahab. It was pouring so hard. There was 5 inches of water on the streets. It was the heaviest rain I had seen so far. We decided to brave it and walked out onto the sidewalk. It was almost covered in water as well.
I had always heard stories of the things that crawl up out of the drains when it rains, but this was my first experience. I looked down at one point and there were hundreds of cockroaches. Everywhere!!! Ahhh....I hate those things. Maybe it is the fact that they are so hard to kill, I dunno, but they totally make me freak out. When I was in Uganda I used to wake up with them laying on me, sitting on my pillow, or crawling across me. It was horrifying, to say the least. Now I just have an inability to cope with the creatures, so I started running. The girls thought I was hysterical until one of them realized that one had crawled up her pant leg. She freaked out worse than I did. It was good times. We just laughed at each other after that.
I enjoy every moment I get to spend with the girls. Even though there is such a language barrier, I just can't get over how unique and special each and every one of them are. They all care for me in different ways and know how to show it in a way that I totally understand. I have even gotten to the point where they can speak Thai to me the whole time and motion with their hands and I can speak English and it is like we are on the same page. This mutual understanding of each other has developed. I love it. It is such a special thing. I even sat with a 3 yr old tonight and we talked about superman for 30 min. Him in Thai, I in English. It was so cute. I honestly have no idea what he was really saying, but he uses sound effects and motions and occasionally says my name just to make sure I am listening. It is so amazing. He recently got a spiderman outfit, so he is all about the super heros. We have daily fights we he runs at us and stabs us with plastic swords and such. It is so funny. I have finally gotten down how to really act like I am dying when he stabs me. He takes his fights very seriously!
I ended up having one of the girls teach hair this week. It was an idea that stemmed from the fact that my shoulder was hurting me one day and that she is very talented and I felt they need to see that they can learn from each other to. I am not going to be "the foreigner that is the only one that can teach hair," nope, not having it. So, I asked her to teach, and although she hesitated for a bit, she finally caved.
The girls did better than ever with it. She could talk to them in thai and help them really understand how to twist the hair and make it work the way they needed it to. That is something that I can only show, I can't describe it well enough because the translator doesn't do hair...she has no clue what my terminology means. I loved watching her teach, she did a wonderful job. She hopes to own her own salon one day and I think that she would be really good at it.
Well, another week. I have 4 left...geez time flies. I am learning to live each day in the moment. Not think too far ahead. Enjoy the time that I have with them and not think too much about the future. Until next week.....
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