Around Mahasarakham
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A Tribute to Buildings 1&2, Rajabhat Maha Sarakham University
They are knocking down our “Little House on the Prairie” schoolhouses and will soon replace them with new facilities. They were probably the oldest buildings on campus with solid wood construction, and were a lot cooler than the concrete buildings that have come to represent typical SE Asian construction… In recent years, some of the rooms had been upgraded with whiteboards and sound systems, but there was nothing like going into class every morning and asking students to clean the blackboard erasers. They would knock the erasers on the outside wall below the window sills, which is how students coming in late could hear that class was starting. These classrooms…
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One ThaiPad Per Child
I took this photo a couple months ago out toward the local ostrich farm. The political party that put tons of these signs up on all the roads won Sunday’s elections, so I guess Max and Mina will be getting their ThaiPads soon…
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Essentially Isan
This was taken last week at Rajabhat Maha Sarakham, my university, at a welcoming ceremony for freshmen (aka “freshies” in Thailand). In the foreground, English program students are praying during a traditional bai sri ceremony around a Christmas tree-shaped arrangement of folded banana leaves, as other students play takraew on the courts in the background and molam blasts from the unseen stage to the left.
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Spraying insecticide, again
When I ventured out this morning to buy the kid’s breakfast, sticky rice and barbecued pork skewers (which have gone up in price universally to 5 baht per skewer — they were still 3 baht at some places up until a couple months ago), I drove though a fog hovering in the neighborhood behind ours. Even with the windows closed, I got a whiff of Raid and realized they were fumigating the area again. I hurriedly went to buy the food — in an yet unsprayed area — and rushed back home. Nam said she’d just heard a pickup driving around blasting a message from the local government, so that meant they…
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Insecticide Spraying in Rural Thailand
UPDATE: I’ve added a video to the bottom of this post. The first time I saw government spraying (fogging, really) in our neighborhood was last year. There was the sound of a lawnmower engine from a block away, and then a man with a backpack sprayer walked by on the street, spraying a dense, white fog over our front yard, which promptly blew through our open windows ala a 1940’s public service announcement/DDT promotion. The cloying stench of RAID remained on the house for a couple hours, and I had to wipe everything down before the kids got back. Today, we got a twenty minute warning by a pickup truck…
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Top Charoen Optical, Thailand (Commercial)
I need new glasses; I’m definitely going to one of the branches (3 or 4?) in town this week.
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Paddle Boat @ MSU
This photo is from a couple months ago, but Max insisted we do the same thing today in the afternoon heat… Can you tell how off-balance the keel is? (and yes, the water really is that green) Note: This is a big man made pond in front of a newly-built conference hall at the new campus of Maha Sarakham University, where Nam teaches.
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Feeding Time
@ animal area next to ancient Isan house exhibit, Maha Sarakham University (new campus side of town)
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Hak Na Sarakham
Maha Sarakham University, where my wife works, paid off the right people to make a sappy love story movie (the kind that makes the most money here) about the university and our town in general called “Hak Na Sarakham” (Laotian for “Love Sarakham”). It opens today at SermThai Plaza in downtown Sarakham, and we saw a steady stream of motorcycles heading that way from the university. It was fun trying to guess all of the locations shown in the trailer; our favorite bar, Play Bar, is shown towards the end.
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Wat Ban Donnad
A couple months ago, when it was still “cold,” we visited a temple that we’d been hearing of for a while, Wat Ban Donnad (Wat Ban Don Nad?). At the end of a long, broken dirt road that runs through several villages, we ended up here: You can see our destination out on the island: We honked our horn, and a young monk on a small outboard came putt-putting out. Max saw the boat and it was on. Max was wearing his inflatable life jacket all day in anticipation of riding on a boat. The monk was shy, so I spared him the embarrassment of a face shot. There’s no…
