Since moving in with my host family my Thai Father has been somewhat of a mystery. He is rarely home and when he is he is extremely quiet – it’s like living with a shadow, you know it’s there but you don’t address it, you simply live within its shade. I have been grappling with the feeling that he was unhappy to have an American taking over half of his house, eating his food, and consuming the attention of not only his family, but the whole street.
He taught me a powerful lesson this week – silence and observation are not to be mistaken for distaste. There are people in the world who take their time, warm up to things, and study in order to create a relationship that skips the steps of having to muddle through the surface level dialogue. My host father knows me better than anyone around me right now, and it is simply because he took the time to sit and observe before he approached me – he knows when I am tired, when I am hungry, when I am overwhelmed by my lack of ability to communicate, when I am homesick, and when I feel especially lucky to be swinging in his hammock, loving his family.
I have had a lot of trouble with the street dogs here as of late. They like the smell of my sweet foreign blood and chase me in the mornings when I ride to my language classes. This is a particularly unpleasant way to begin and end a day. Lou Young discovered this struggle one morning and since has taken to giving me slingshot lessons when I return home from my day of training, and accompanies me in the mornings. He bought me my very own, brand new sling shot on Wednesday and we run around shooting them together for hours now. There is a feeling of safety here that has nothing to do with actually being safe from the elements, but from being deeply loved.
I was also lucky enough to have been taken on another weekend excursion. On Sunday my family took me on a train to see a huge dam, sunflower field, and Waat. Lou Young NEVER goes anywhere with us, and this time he did. It was so nice to have him there – I never knew how devoutly Buddhist he was until this trip, it pealed yet another layer from the package I am so enjoying unwrapping. We walked around, fed these huge fish, and then looked at the dam. 
It was hot and humid so it was a quick trip, but Satang came and she makes everything fun; I was proud to have been reason enough for an otherwise absent man to get involved in the life of his family. There are very few days here when I don’t go to bed feeling some form of success.
He taught me a powerful lesson this week – silence and observation are not to be mistaken for distaste. There are people in the world who take their time, warm up to things, and study in order to create a relationship that skips the steps of having to muddle through the surface level dialogue. My host father knows me better than anyone around me right now, and it is simply because he took the time to sit and observe before he approached me – he knows when I am tired, when I am hungry, when I am overwhelmed by my lack of ability to communicate, when I am homesick, and when I feel especially lucky to be swinging in his hammock, loving his family.
I have had a lot of trouble with the street dogs here as of late. They like the smell of my sweet foreign blood and chase me in the mornings when I ride to my language classes. This is a particularly unpleasant way to begin and end a day. Lou Young discovered this struggle one morning and since has taken to giving me slingshot lessons when I return home from my day of training, and accompanies me in the mornings. He bought me my very own, brand new sling shot on Wednesday and we run around shooting them together for hours now. There is a feeling of safety here that has nothing to do with actually being safe from the elements, but from being deeply loved.
I was also lucky enough to have been taken on another weekend excursion. On Sunday my family took me on a train to see a huge dam, sunflower field, and Waat. Lou Young NEVER goes anywhere with us, and this time he did. It was so nice to have him there – I never knew how devoutly Buddhist he was until this trip, it pealed yet another layer from the package I am so enjoying unwrapping. We walked around, fed these huge fish, and then looked at the dam. 
It was hot and humid so it was a quick trip, but Satang came and she makes everything fun; I was proud to have been reason enough for an otherwise absent man to get involved in the life of his family. There are very few days here when I don’t go to bed feeling some form of success.
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