Return to the Concrete Jungle

I have survived my test in the ways of “native” living in Thailand and am now returned to my rightful place in civilization, the concrete jungle of Chiang Mai. It is SO incredibly good to be home. As I write this post, I can feel the cool breeze of the air conditioning (funny fact: they call it “Air-Con” here rather than “A/C”) blowing on my bed, no bugs surround me, and I am overjoyed by the thought that there will be no roosters to awaken me in the morning. I am returned to my preferred way of living. Thank goodness!

We awoke as usual this morning, ready to water the garden, but with an idea in our minds that we would be largely left alone on our last half day at Wildflower. The meeting with the women (breakfast was completely inedible and not worth discussing) quickly disabused us of this erroneous notion. As soon as the women were seated we heard the word “farong” (foreigner) and saw fingers pointing to the garden and the day care center. Before the horrifying possibility that they wanted us to work on our last morning had truly sunk in, we were told Vanessa and Ross would watch the babies again and Bobby and I would help Panong “replant” the circular drive area we had weeded two days ago. Our shock was indescribable. We were only at Wildflower for a few more hours, we had worked extremely hard during our week there and felt entitled to a small “break,” during which time we had planned to go around fixing small things here and there (pruning trees blocking paths, mending some fences that were falling, etc.). Instead, we were forced to continue our old jobs, no glimmer of reprieve visible until the red truck would arrive to take us away.

In a slight show of defiance (well…it felt that way at the time, but I suppose it wasn’t really defiant as it was a helpful act) Ross and I went around and fixed those few small things that had been bothering us specifically (Ross trimmed the branches as he is very tall and was constantly ducking or hitting his head or both, and I fixed the fence, which irritated me as it looked disorderly, something that could not be allowed to continue). We then quickly got down to our respective tasks, which proved to be particularly onerous this morning as if all the ridiculousness of our stay was combining together for a proper sendoff so that we would be especially happy to leave. In the nursery, the children peed, pooped, screamed, yelled, and caused extreme mayhem that was almost impossible to contain. For us poor souls gardening, we were given the task of ripping out the idiotic Pink Fir we had previously worked so hard to conserve, breaking it into two inch pieces, and then sticking the pieces back into the ground. We were told this was “replanting.” I’m not sure who told them this was a good way to garden, but it seems idiotic to me to take a perfectly healthy plant with a good root system, yank it up, rip it into small pieces, and then stab those pieces (without any root systems or leaves on most) back into the ground. At least when it all dies we will not be around for the women to point towards and blame. Bobby and I worked quickly on this project and then went back to our greenhouse to finish repotting a few plants we hadn’t been able to finish yesterday. We managed to complete our work early and as Panong was not around to give us another job (she was in a weekly women’s complaint meeting) we went over to the nursery to commiserate with our compatriots trapped with the children.

The hours passed slowly, but eventually it was 11 am and we were able to go take showers and pack our belongings for our trip home. We then returned to the nursery to watch the kids until our red truck arrived at noon. Unfortunately, we forgot to calculate using “Thai time,” so we were left waiting, carefully watching the road until the truck arrived at 1 pm (evidently the Thai “noon”). The task of watching the children during this time was not too bad as some of the moms took pity on us and took the younger kids out of the day care, leaving us with the elder children who were able to amuse themselves. When our truck finally arrived we were more than happy to leave and after some quick photos with our new friends, hugs for Panong and Katrina, we were off.

It felt incredibly odd to drive back to civilization after our days at Wildflower (aka “the commune”). We passed through the gates of Wildflower, made it onto a truly paved road and watched the landscape change from a settled rural area to a cityscape. Traditionally, I prefer a drive that leads in the opposite direction. I usually find cities confining and prefer to drive out the rural countryside as an escape from the dreaded concrete jungle. But in this case, I was more than happy to watch the landscape change into a bustling city, 7/11s appear on every corner, and the city to be congested with traffic. After a week at Wildflower, the city was a gorgeous sight.

We arrived at the BABSEA house first to drop Ross off and met up with the kids from King’s Project, who returned at the same time. The group of us from the apartments congregated into a single red truck and set off for home. A quick comparison of their adventures and ours proved that we had the worst end of the deal. Everyone had similar expectations for the various projects before Immersion Week: the assumption was that King’s Project would be the worst, Wildflower the best, and Mae Rim somewhere in the middle. While Mae Rim often met these expectations, Wildflower’s and King’s Project’s positions were most definitely reversed; the individuals at King’s Project had harder physical work, but had free time after 2 pm, whereas we essentially worked all day, every day, no breaks or free time allowed.

As soon as we got to the apartments, we dumped our bags and the Wildflowerians set off. Vanessa left for a doctor’s appointment and Bobby and I went to meet Ross for lunch at a Mexican food place near the apartments. I cannot begin to describe how amazing the food tasted. After eating the horror at Wildflower for three meals a day for a week, the food was heaven and every bite a gift from above. I drank two glasses of lemonade in about 10 minutes and we annihilated two plates of chips and salsa almost before the waitress had set the plate on the table. The food tasted incredible and I ate as much as a could hold (which was noticeably less than before my Wildflower excursion). After we all felt repleat with real food, we separated, Ross off to get a Thai traditional tattoo (this involves stabbing the skin with bamboo to insert the ink – ouch!), Bobby and me to drop off laundry and go swimming. We managed to get a good, cheap recommendation from Vanessa for laundry, got rid of the extraordinarily dirty Wildflower clothes and went to the pool where I spent an ecstatic hour in the water. It felt wonderful, completely refreshing to have the cool water wash over my skin, the first time I’ve felt clean in over a week. It’s amazing, but even after showering at Wildflower I was left feeling dirty in some way (it could have something to do with the ants that continuously crawled on me, even in sleep), but after my swim I felt as clean as could be and content with life.

The return to the apartments led to a quick shower and then some downtime before everyone was ready to head off to dinner. It turns out every other group made similar plans to eat Western food upon our return to Chiang Mai and we decided to combine the groups into one large gathering at The Riverside in the Old City. The Wildflower group ordered our long desired steaks (which were definitely of the Thai variety – any Western food here must be ordered with the knowledge that it will actual be Thai-Western food and will carry a definite Thai twist), which proved to be good although was a little hard to get down for Vanessa and myself. I think my week long period without any meat (or really almost any food besides plain white rice) has left me with a lower tolerance for the richer foods. I will have to work my way up to it a bit (lunch was mostly chips and salsa, rice and beans, with some very small tacos, probably a better way to re-acclimate than with a slab of red meat, but the steak was still worth it).

The food was good and it was fun to hear about everyone’s experiences, thoughts, and impressions. The one great consensus between the groups was that we were glad to be back and out of Immersion Week. I felt exhausted after eating and decided to forego going out with the rest of the group. A small bunch of us came back to the apartments (the Wildflower group sans Ross and a couple others) and I am now beyond ready to go to sleep as it is 11:40 pm, hours after my bedtime. :) So, goodnight from a very sleepy, repotted City-flower.