Third Village Homestay: Phra Koe Village September 15, 20120 to September 16, 2012

Phra Koe Village Homestay: Host mom and dad with Rachel and I

During the previous homestays, we stayed with either a fellow Public Health study abroad student or by ourselves. This is meant to help us practice our Thai and help assimilate into a new culture. However, during this homestay, we were given a task to find out information about the village and thus speaking Thai was essential to communicate with our host parents and the individuals in the community. Thus, a peer tutor and Thai roommate came with us overnight to help with translation. 

This was our room where all four of us stayed and slept on sleeping bags

Panoramic view from our room

The outside of our house

The living room and kitchen of our house. 

This was such a beautiful home. Everything was completely new-- the television still had the plastic wrapping on it, the wooden chair and benches were gleaming from the polish and the floor looked like a mirror because of how clean it was. The four rooms upstairs were really comfortable and quite sizable. The bathroom  had a western toilet and a shower curtain to separate the shower area from the rest of the bathroom which is difficult to find in Thailand. In general, this homestay has been the most comfortable I have ever felt and it was completely beautiful.

Also, our host brother had a set of drums in his room and played them right after coming back from school (which by the way students have class on Saturdays) and as soon as he woke up the next morning. I would think that the family that we stayed with were well off because of how nice the home was and because of all of the materialist things that they had inside of their house.

Also, we were told that our host parent's son is actually working in the US, which might explain why they are able to buy some of the goods that they have and own such a beautiful home. It is a big desire, in fact, for children to leave Thailand and work in a high-income country. For this reason, learning English is promoted by the family, even though it might not be as much by the Thai government in order to avoid the loss of skilled human resources.

Soon after settling into our host house, we were off to find some information about the village. We learned about the villager's education levels, occupation and income levels. We asked about the village's health problems, environmental problems and crime rates.We also found out information about the future of the village and any programs that they are currently working on.

 

After the interview with the head of the village, we went to the market to get fresh vegetables, fruit and meat to cook my second home-made meal in Thailand

We had an ultimate cook-off between the farangs (foreigners) and Thai natives. Rachel and I were in charge of the left pot and the Thai's were in charge of the right pot. We made a white curry with chicken, vegetables and coconut milk. Not to come as a surprise, the farangs unfortunately lost because I did not add as much fish sauce because I did not think that it would add so much more flavor. I was wrong. 

Even though our dish was not as good as the Thai's it was still very delicious and I was proud of our cooking skills!

Us sitting together for our homemade dinner! We ate the white curry and pag pad (fried vegetables) with pork.

We have missed carrots so much! Apparently, it is really weird to eat raw carrots, so our Thai friends were making fun of us and taking billions of pictures to show their friends how weird we are. They have no idea how delicious carrots are and they have never heard of baby carrots! Can you imagine life without carrots?!

Every morning Buddhist monks walk through villages at 6am in order to get food from the villagers and to provide a prayer. In the morning, we woke up at 5:30am and had a chance to give the monks food! We all equally split up our sticky rice that was inside in  each of our containers and we all gave the sticky rice to the five monks that passed by. Afterwards, we kneeled down while the monks chanted and blessed us. 

This was my second time doing this and I think I finally got it right! The first time was at the first rural village (Prae Pan), where I unproportionally gave the food to the monks and then afterwards I bowed instead of simply kneeling. I felt so embarrassed and bad that I did it incorrectly, but there was no way for me to know except through experience. Thus, I was glad to have this second opportunity to redeem myself.

Our Thai friends made some delicious breakfast! There were some boiled vegetables with pork, kai jeow (fried egg), and doughnuts. The head of the village brought us the doughnuts with hot cocoa! It was such a great and hearty breakfast!

After breakfast, we got right back to business and talked to our host mom, who was actually the head of the health village volunteers, and asked her more questions about the health conditions of the village and her responsibilities as a health village volunteer.

Soon after, we waited for the song-tow and left back to Khon Kaen University around noon on a Sunday.

Thoughts: This was a really amazing homestay. After the Theparak homestay, I was a little uneasy about staying in a new village, but I learned that there was nothing for  me to worry about. The conditions were perfect and I was able to easily communicate with my host parents since we had a translator and I felt really comfortable to be there. I learned so much and I loved every second of being there.

Also, I truly enjoy this "alternative education" learning style. Not only do we learn about public health through lectures, but we also have the opportunity to visit villages and apply all of the knowledge that we learned in class, but then also have the chance to interact with the individuals that are affected by the health issues and see whether public health policies are truly helping them.

For instance, the Thailand health system focuses primarily on prevention instead of treatment of diseases. Of course, this makes sense: stop the problem before it occurs. But is it always possible to prevent health problems? An anecdote: my host dad was both diabetic and had back pains. Previous students from Khon Kaen University provided him with the health information about fruits and vegetables which explained all of the nutrients that they contained and the benefits that follow when they are consumed. However, his cooking and eating style did not change. Further, he had access to back pain medications and a back brace that could help manage his back pain, but he did not use these resources because he said, "I am too lazy." Of course, it is understandable. He is old and he might have other things to worry about. However then, the public health policies are ineffective and they need to be addressed. Without having visited this homestay, I would have thought how amazingly organized and well-put Thailand's healthcare system is. Yet, I soon found out that lifestyles are difficult to control and preventative measures are not sufficient. 

However, I do hope that people will begin to take responsibility of their own health behaviors and recognize the risks associated with eating an unhealthy diet, being inactive, taking drugs, drinking excessive alcohol, etc. Simply prevention can lessen a large number of burdens posed on the country as a whole and the individuals within the country.