Kutchum

This week just gone I took a trip to Kutchum, to see my friends Tara and Phoebe, other PT volunteers, at their project.

My school (Uthaiwittayakhom) was off for three days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) because so many staff and students were going off to a big competition in Phrae, a northern province, to compete against other schools in areas like English, Maths, and knowledge of ASEAN. My host sister was competing in the storytelling category, after having progressed from the previous stage in a nearby competition in March. Tonicha decided to go along with the competition, while I thought I’d go somewhere seen as I now had five days off…

So I decided to go to Kutchum! Isaan (the northeastern province where Kutchum is) is quite far away from here (I travelled 17 hours), and I wanted to see what their life is like there for a while – I’m so glad I went! Tara and Phoebe live in a house on the grounds of a small primary school, and they put me up on a spare mattress in their room.

I ended up spending 5 days in Kutchum rather than 4 (due to reasons I will explain later). It is such a lovely place! I really like it there. For a small town it has three schools, a 7/11 and a Tesco, so it's pretty high up in the ranking (another volunteer, Martin, apparently has a scoring system for how many 7/11s and Tescos you have where you live).

The bus times were pretty naff so I ended up arriving at around 6am on Wednesday morning, after having taken a bus north to Nakhon Sawan, to go back south on a bus all the way to Bangkok, and then to catch my Kutchum bus at 21:30.

The café

Phoebe and Tara were waiting outside 7/11 for me when I arrived. It was like a different world when I stepped outside -- it was starting to get light ever so slightly and the nearby food market was in full swing (crazy people). It was so cold though! We cycled back to their house (they have two bikes -- I rode on the back) and pretty much went straight to bed for a nap. We woke up to the alarm about an hour later, but then they decided that they weren't going to go to school that day, which was fine with me. On Wednesday they usually teach Nursery together, but they say they feel pretty helpless; the kids are so young they can't even speak Thai properly, let alone English! They only teach in the afternoon one day a week (as well as every morning), so they have a lot of time for exploring and chilling when it's still light, which is great. It always seems like it's dark outside when I’m in my house in Uthai Thani. We spent quite a bit of our down time in a small coffeeshop/café in town (the Bar-Nana café), where they serve a delicious green tea milkshake thing, which I ordered each time I went there.

On Thursday we taught at the primary school where they live (they live on the end of a group of six apartment/flats); it's quite a small school. We taught how to tell the time to a P3 class (primary school third year) for the whole morning -- it was a really long morning. Everything was ok to begin with; the kids were all generally quiet and listening, but by the end it seemed like they were constantly running aroundand I just couldn't get them to behave. It was a bit of a nightmare, I'm glad I don't have to do that every day. Hats off to Tara and Phoebe!

That evening one of their friends, Pe Nan, who lives at the other end of the apartments, took us out to a restaurant and karaoke with a couple of his friends, a man and a woman. Finally I got to sing karaoke!!! It was so much fun, they had so many songs, I loved it.

At the footy: Tara, Phoebe and I

On Friday there was a drugs talk at the school so we were whisked away by another teacher to a sports day nearby -- and basically left to have lunch and watch the sports. That evening Tara cooked a pork red curry -- which was absolutely delicious, I must cook more -- and went out to see a football match as part of an 18-year-old’s football tournament. We are affiliated with a particular team, Sou Kornsorn, and they won! They have excellent backing from parents and supporters; whenever someone shouts “Sou Kornsorn!”, everyone has to shout back “Sou, sou!”.

A small, banana-leaf decoration

On Saturday we went to help Pe Nan with making some decorations for a wedding the following day, which involved ripping banana leaves into strips and folding them in a certain way. It was a bit like origami so I enjoyed it. In the afternoon we sat in the café and bought my bus ticket. That evening I'd got all my stuff packed up and went to an older teacher's house for dinner -- that was delicious too, there was a lot of barbecued white fish going around, which was lovely. Then it was the next round of the football! I had to leave before our team came on to catch my bus at 21:45, but unfortunately as I went to find my ticket in my purse, I discovered it was missing from my bag. We looked everywhere but didn’t find it.

So I stayed another night, and on Sunday morning we went out to do some more searching for the purse, but we didn't find it. I don't know if it'll turn up. Anyway, they've told the police now so if they find it Tara and Phoebe will get it. Sunday was really chill, like Sunday’s supposed to be :P I managed to get my bus this time, and I had a good journey back to Bangkok (I slept really well this time!) and managed to get back to Uthai Thani pretty quickly from there.

I really loved my trip to Kutchum, I'd like to go back at some point!