Ira and I are doing fine. We are now in Khon Kaen in the northeast of Thailand where Ira is located as part of the International Neurosurgery volunteer program we told you about. After the first month in Bangkok at our same language school and a week-long trip to Myanmar, we came up here on October 21st in a mini van that barely held the driver, our Thai host, Ira and me and all our stuff: over the years that we have been coming to Thailand, we have accumulated various books, pots and pans, household linens, a printer, a DVD player and other life necessities.
Upon arrival, we moved into a very nice, furnished, 3 bedroom house on the campus. The medical school is providing the house, along with a maid who also does laundry and ironing. What a deal!! (We do pay the maid — about $100 for the month and a half.) The campus is very large — 2,000 acres — with many homes for faculty situated right on site in little villages, as is ours.
Living in Khon Kaen is a different view of Thailand than we have been able to see in the past as we are now truly among Thai people who are going about their daily lives. We also have much more of an opportunity to speak some Thai, as there are few other westerners here on campus. And the maid doesn’t speak English.
Living on campus has one downside and that is that we are about 10 kilometers or more out of town. Also, the campus itself is so large that you can’t walk everywhere. Since Ira and I don’t have a car or a motorbike, we initially had some transportation issues, but these are now solved. We have more or less learned the Khon Kaen system which is a network of songthaews and tuk-tuks. Tuk-tuks are little three wheeled, two passenger vehicles that are almost triangular in shape (the driver is in front) and have open rails on the sides and backs. The Thais call them tuk-tuks after the sound of the engines. Songthaews are essentially pickup trucks that have been modified so that the back is a covered bed, open with rails on the sides, with two benches and standing room in between. Each bench comfortably holds 6 Thais (I say it this way since the size of a Thai behind is significantly smaller than that of most “well-fed” Westerners.) There is also “hanging on” room at the very back for two or three people. Ira rode in this position one trip and I worried the whole way that he would be thrown off into the street when we hit bumps. Fortunately, he had the same thought and held on tight!
Anyhow, there are 20 songthaews lines in Khon Kaen and these lines collectively cover the campus and the city and are very convenient. Although the various routes are fixed, there are no fixed stops on the actual route. If you want to get on a songthaew, you just signal and they will stop as close as they can to wherever you are. Similarly, when you want to get off a songthaew, you just push a button and the driver will stop as soon as he can. The charge is a fixed 6 baht (roughly 15 cents) no matter how far you go intra-campus and 8 baht (around 20 cents) no matter how far otherwise. The nearest songthaew route to our house is an easy 5 minute walk — so these work great for us. EXCEPT — the songthaews stop running at 8:00 pm. So, if we’re in town after 8:00 pm, we have to take a tuk-tuk home (they run almost 24 hours) which is OK except that the tuk-tuk from town costs 100 baht ($2.60 or so). Of course, the tuk-tuk will deliver us to our front door so it’s not all bad!!
Ira has settled in a bit at the hospital. He leads, and I usually assist, an English class on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for 4 folks in the Neurosurgery Division. Two are doctors, one the department admin head, and the fourth is another admin person who heads up records and AV stuff. Ira is also assisting in surgery, teaching the two young neurosurgeons about a couple of neurosurgery procedures in which he is an expert expert, and taking the med students on neurosurgery teaching rounds 3 times a week. He really enjoys the students and is considering adding another day to their time together. As you can imagine, the students love Ira and have been an enormous help to us in learning our way around. This Sunday is a special Thai holiday and 3 of the medical students are taking Ira and me on an outing that should be lots of fun.
I have had success in lining up something for me to do but it turned out differently than I had anticipated. I learned about the “American Corner” that is located in the main university library and is supported by the American Embassy with periodicals, newspapers, books, computers, etc. When I went over there to see if they would like a volunteer to help out, I was warmly welcomed. I asked them what they wanted and the result is that I am going to lead an American conversation/interest group at the University Library 3 afternoons a week. Their big interest and need is to have a chance to listen and respond to a native speaker in a unstructured situation. And to engage in ongoing conversations. I have now met three times with the Director and three of the student volunteers to brainstorm a bit and we are having a lot of fun. They have titled the sessions “Easygoing conversation with Dr. Judy” and are doing promotions for them in the library newsletter. These Thai student volunteers are English majors and are absolutely charming. One of them, Cherd, is also going to help me with my ongoing attempt to get good in the Thai language.
We go into town once or twice a week to meet the expat community. One bar that is fun is called Leo’s and is owned by a very nice Brit named Duncan. We went to “quiz night” last Thursday which was a lot of fun – quiz night is apparently a tradition in British bars and features some really tough trivia questions. As in Bangkok, the expats (at least those that “hang out”) are almost totally male and evenings with them always involve a fair amount of beer. Although toned down a bit, Khon Kaen is no exception. I am usually the only Western female in a group of 10 males — lucky I like guys and beer.
Dr. Chaiwit, our Thai host, has been asked to be the Assistant Dean of the Medical School and the Acting Assistant Director of the Hospital. These are great honors for him but we do not see him as much as we would otherwise.
Ira is going to attend three medical meetings — one for a long weekend in Chiang Mai, one in Nong Chai with a two day trip to Laos tacked on, and one in Vietnam for 4 days with an extra 3 days tacked on — and I am going along on all of them as spouse. Ira will probably present a paper in Vietnam. We are really looking forward to these trips as the locations are splendid.
Tags: Thailand