My Rediscovery

Surprises have become less and less common for all the people of Nan. The falangs come and go and everyone gets used to that. We are learning to speak more Thai and blending in better with the general populous. Our students high five us less frequently, though still pretty regularly. And the first black person to come to Nan is now part of the community. People still say hello and smile at us, but our celeb status has dropped significantly. Until now… I took out my braids and now I’m rockin my afro. And boy is the town in an uproar, the good kind of course, but an uproar nonetheless. My students, who surprisingly knew the word afro, were shocked when they first saw it. They smiled and giggled, but they called my hair beautiful in both English and Thai. The other teachers stared and pointed, then smiled. I let my students touch it and they really enjoyed that. When I went to the market to get my breakfast, people were really taken aback. Lots of women stared and then touched their own hair, as though it could have happened to them as well. One woman, holding a small child, walks up to me, and stares at my hair, gently grabs my arm, and moves my arm to touch her child. It was really weird. About a week later a man walks up to me and asks to take a picture with me because I am the first colored person he’s seen in Nan (that’s a direct quote). He spoke decent English because he had spent some time in the U.S. and apparently still retained some dated vernacular. Of course I gladly took the photo. People in the market make strange sounds when they see my hair and one woman sounded like she screamed. It’s really quite funny to see/hear. We are concerned that I might cause a motorbike accident.

I think the best part about the hair change is that people still seem to genuinely appreciate it, even though it’s not long and straight. Some of the students have been saying to me “Ajarn Karen beautiful,” unable to complete the full sentence. It’s kind of become a last name for me. This week my hair is in Bantu knots, I’m excited to see what happens.

Current hair , I think the kids will like it

A few other updates…

I’m really good at Muay Thai. We have been going regularly for the last few weeks and I’m pretty sure I’ll be a master by the end:). The language barrier still makes learning some things hard but it is getting better everyday.

Me on my first day of Muay Thai training

I'm good at kicking!

I have been recording some of the wonderful things my 6^th graders do. I am uploading a video of one of my best students Tor imitating a monkey. The song they are singing goes:

“Don’t wake a sleeping monkey, it will get up. It will stretch its legs. 1.2.3.4. It will open its mouth, it will yawn. And then it will chase, chase, chase, chase YOU!”

Tor is the sleeping monkey and Name is the student being chased.

Here is another video of one of the other people that trains with us at Muay Thai, my goal is to be like him!