Another Health Briefing

We receive much information regarding health, safety, water, food, diseases, etc. Here is our beloved physician telling us about avian flu. The delivery of this information is done in such a way that we all retain it really well. Our doc is the greatest! Can you tell he was talking at this point about avian flu (bird flu)?


We have been receiving required immunizations. The approach is wonderful! Rather than line us up and give us ALL of the required shots at once - we receive no more than two on any one day. Then we are given several days to recover before receiving others. The PC has been diligent to track what shots we have in our records and do not give us any we do not really need.

We love our coffee breaks!

More Class and a Coffee Break!

The red house behind Jeannie is called a Spirit House. They are seen at just about every dwelling be it business or a home. We have not yet learned the significance of the Spirit House (but we will).
:-)


Some people in the TCCO training.


This is the leader/trainer for the CBOD project (John's).


These two ladies have the responsibility of supporting us in the TCCO project. We are learning more about our responsibilities and jobs each day.


We can always find time to call someone when we really need to - and hope they will be at home and not asleep. We are 12 hours out of phase from the U.S. East Coast.

The Early Risers

Wonder what we have for breakfast? Lots of choices. And all of them are beautifully presented.


We always have fresh fruit on the table. The pineapple is sweet and does not have the sharp acidic taste we are used to having at home. Watermelon and others are always delicious.


Here are some members of the early risers club. It is a great time of day for a jog along the river or to get on the WEB or even to call home if your loved ones or family are on East Coast time. Of course that is if you can get up!






Is this a sleepwalker? No, just managed to catch him when he was blinking. He was really wide awake.

The key to our hotel room sits in this holder. It is a clever idea to save energy. Whenever we leave our room and take the key the circuit for electricity to our room is disconnected. So nothing electrical can be accidentally left on when you leave e.g. the TV or lights, etc.


John and several other volunteers took a walk and found a local wat. Although they explored the grounds they did not go inside (this time). It is our understanding that we will be visiting wats around the area with our group or on our own in learning more about the culture and customs.


There is a river near our town and a number of our group enjoy either walking or jogging along the river in the morning. We walked to the river this afternoon in search of somewhere to eat lunch.


We found this neat restaurant. Two other "seniors" were with us. We asked the prices in Thai as best we could. The people in the restaurant were delightful. They smiled and helped us with our pronunciation. There was a school reunion in our hotel today and we had the chance to meet a Thai lady who came from Ohio to attend. She has her PhD from USC in California. She helped us with out Thai too. Of course all help came with big smiles and some giggles at our attempts to speak Thai. It is so much fun!!!


Here we are enjoying our lunch and the good old American staple - CocaCola! We had such a good time with the people in the restaurant that they gave us the drinks on the house. Four CocaColas! Unfortunately we have not been able to find Diet Coke. Then again all of the Thai ladies seem to be so darn slim!

And the Training Moves On

This is our pre-service training director. She is one neat lady. She has a great sense of humor which helps us all be not quite so stressed out. (We all want to do really well.)


We have another session with the PC physician. We are being briefed and trained how to stay our healthiest during our time of service. These medical sessions are also down right delightful. We laugh as we learn.


This is our security guru. Personal responsibility, common sense approaches to being safe, statistics, and he too is great fun to work with. This is the best training staff I have had the chance to work with!


Our training session this day was held at a local school. I could not help but take a photo of one of the beautiful flowers that seem to abound here.


In the evening we sat outside for a while under a large plumeria tree. One blossom fell and John put it on just for me!


And at the end of the day there always seems to be time for a little computer use. I think these two were busy searching for someone on the infamous website "Facebook".

In The Land of Smiles

This is our PC physician. It is difficult to grasp the depth of concern our physician and PC staff have in regard to our health and safety. Beyond being of service to our host country I believe the PC overriding mission is to keep us safe and healthy. I know many loved ones back home are concerned for us - put those concerns to rest. We are so well cared for it puts me to shame as a mother!


Do you know how to wai? Here are some PC staffers helping us learn the proper etiquette for greeting peers, seniors and VIPs. Sure am happy I am a "senior".
:-)


Here is a wai in progress. The younger of the two initiates the greeting. The hands of the younger go higher to the face while the "senior" responds with a wai at about chest level.


Here we are happily anticipating our dinner out. The food was great!


On the way to the restaurant. It was a little too far to walk so we all rode in bright red busses. As you can probably tell from the expression on these people -- we were having a good time.


The restaurant we visited is located in the middle of rice fields. They grow their own fish in a pond and have nets to contain them and make them easier to spear for dinner. We all ate outside.


The young people in our group are so very nice to us "seniors". Here is a big smile from the handsome fellow who offered to take our photo (the one in this posting).


Ever hear of karaoke? Here is a photo of a song in progress. This is a very popular pass time and it is our understanding that sooner or later EVERYONE WILL participate. So I am trying to brush up on Happy Birthday.


This is some of the PC staff relaxing before our meal. Can you see the two ladies taking a photo of each other. Cameras and the taking of photos seems to be everywhere!


Some more of our group on the bus happily anticipating our dinner. Yum yum!


You can see John on the right. On the left is our senior most volunteer and she is delightful. She can (and does) run rings around me!

Welcome to Thailand

This photo says it all. Every person we have met or worked with has greeted us with a welcoming smile and a "wai" with their hands. Yesterday we learned some of the etiquette associated with offering a proper wai to be polite and proper. But the emphasis is always on the "smile."

Hello Volunteers and Welcome!

The PC staff made a greeting card for each and every one of us. They read what we call our "aspiration statement" which is basically what we hope to accomplish while serving. Based upon what we wrote the staff member created a welcome card for each one of us. So each one is very different and personalized. What a great idea to make us feel welcome! This is mine, needless to say. I think it is pretty darn clever!


Had to show you the inside of the card. Whoever made it has a future maybe with Hallmark or American Greetings.

To The Hotel!

Our necklaces are so beautiful I just had to take another photo of them. In the shot you can also see the new dictionary each of us received upon arrival and getting our welcome kits.


This is our room. It is comfortable, roomy and even came with a in-residence husband!


Here is one of my fellow volunteers before she fell asleep. Glad I managed to take a couple of photos before the sandman arrived.


Another fellow traveller before she closed her eyes for a little nap. Although she looks fresh and wide awake we had just travelled half way around the world and most of us did it with no or little sleep during the interim.


The buses we were provided for the ride to the hotel were really neat. AND more importantly, very comfortable. They had an upper as well as lower passenger seating. This photo is of the bottom area. I sat at the table and it was comfortable. Although it was the middle of the night, I could not sleep because even with the darkness there was soo very much to see. Out of Bangkok there were not lots of lights so the stars were very clear and the moon shone down on us giving us its blessings.

Arrival At Last

Hello Tokyo and Hello Kitty! Ever seen a Hello Kitty Jet? Ok. Here is your chance. We spotted this plane as we landed in Tokyo for a 3 hour layover. (Can you tell it was raining?)


This is Dr. John. Upon first seeing him I thought he must be a diplomat or maybe an Ambassador. He has the presence of someone you would see in the movies. Dr. John is our CD. (Peace Corps loves acronyms - it means country director) What a neat guy. He came to the airport at half past midnight just to say welcome to us.


Each of us was presented with one of these wonderful orchid necklaces by our program director. Aren't they beautiful?


Here is John asking a question. Can you see the person to the right of him holding up a sign? It says CBOD. That is the acronym for the program he will participate in.


Getting ready to claim our baggage. Get out your claim checks everybody!


Here are some members getting ready to fill out their special baggage tags. The operation went so smoothly it was unreal. Our bags traveled on a truck. By the time we got to the hotel (maybe 2:30 am), checked in and collapsed we could hear the bags being set down outside of our door. Hope I will be able to work on my project as efficiently!


The camera situation was kind of crazy. We wanted to take photos of the PC greeters and they wanted to take photos of us. There were cameras everywhere. Although this photo is a little dark you should be able to see a PC staffer on the left diligently trying to get a crowd of volunteers to hold still long enough for a photo. If you want to see it more clearly just click on the photo and it will enlarge.


And here are two happy Harts in the Bangkok airport wearing their orchid necklaces. Home at last in the "Land of Smiles!"


We heard lots of whooping and hollering. "What could that be" we asked each other. Well it was our PC staff members saying Welcome!


Is this a photo of enthusiasm or what