Journal entry by Al Negstad — 1 minute ago
Eating food while it's hot has always been important to me. Frequently in our entertaining days I'd warm plates so that cold plates wouldn't prematurely cool the food. This value is not shared by people in Thailand. Thursday, as we were leaving the hospital, the principal went to the cafeteria to buy food for her dinner which was several hours later she would eat without reheating. At the farewell lunch yesterday cold, boiled corn on the cob was served. It's eaten with no salt or spices. No thank you! "Don't you like corn?" they ask me. "Yes" I reply, "hot, with salt and butter."
For lunch today I went to a food stall that's in a line of stalls under a tin roof lean-to of a large building. It was extremely hot inside, 92 outside, with all the cooking fires and the sun shining on the roof. Chicken fried rice was prepared for me while I waited, served hot, and it cost $1.00. (See picture)
The school at Wat Klang is small, approximately two hundred students in all. It seems all the teachers know every student by name. If there is bullying it's not apparent to me and I think the small size would be helpful in avoiding it. Boys and girls seem to relate well and any religious division is not noticable. Every Friday after lunch at school the Buddhist students go to the temple for a half hour and the Muslim students to a mosque. It reminds me of what was called "released time" when I was in high school. We were let out of school for an hour to go to church for instruction, if we chose.
Most of my life has been spent in the frozen tundra of North and South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. The only exception was the time in the Marines in California and Asia. The reports of cold and snow in Minnesota have made me glad I'm in the tropics. The older I get the less I like cold. There are memories of being cold as a child; going out to do the milking after dinner, walking a mile to school and a minimally heated bedroom. But it feels different now. Fully aware that having escaped six weeks of winter I'll get no sympathy when I return, I'm bracing myself for the reality. Time to be an adult.
Blessings,
Al
Pictures: Rainbow sign in Bkk, with 4th graders, my lunch spot, two scarves I was given.
For lunch today I went to a food stall that's in a line of stalls under a tin roof lean-to of a large building. It was extremely hot inside, 92 outside, with all the cooking fires and the sun shining on the roof. Chicken fried rice was prepared for me while I waited, served hot, and it cost $1.00. (See picture)
The school at Wat Klang is small, approximately two hundred students in all. It seems all the teachers know every student by name. If there is bullying it's not apparent to me and I think the small size would be helpful in avoiding it. Boys and girls seem to relate well and any religious division is not noticable. Every Friday after lunch at school the Buddhist students go to the temple for a half hour and the Muslim students to a mosque. It reminds me of what was called "released time" when I was in high school. We were let out of school for an hour to go to church for instruction, if we chose.
Most of my life has been spent in the frozen tundra of North and South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. The only exception was the time in the Marines in California and Asia. The reports of cold and snow in Minnesota have made me glad I'm in the tropics. The older I get the less I like cold. There are memories of being cold as a child; going out to do the milking after dinner, walking a mile to school and a minimally heated bedroom. But it feels different now. Fully aware that having escaped six weeks of winter I'll get no sympathy when I return, I'm bracing myself for the reality. Time to be an adult.
Blessings,
Al
Pictures: Rainbow sign in Bkk, with 4th graders, my lunch spot, two scarves I was given.
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