Short Version:

Our next stop was a village called Ban Nong Hoi Yai, one hour south of the town of Nakhon Phanom in Isan, the northeastern part of Thailand. Isan is a rural region with an agrarian economy based primarily on rice. The region is the largest producer of sticky rice in the world.

Few western tourists regularly visit Nakhon Phanom, as it is a bit off the typical tourist track. As most of the residents do not travel far from home, getting there was a bit of a challenge. We took an hour-long plane ride, then a five-hour bus ride, and then a one-hour van ride to the village where we stayed for the week. We lived with a family, woke up to roosters and cowbells, ate our meals outside on mats with the family, and taught English to 5th, 6th, and 7th graders at the village's primary school.

Our week was wonderful—the community welcomed us with open arms, we learned a whole lot, and we hopefully left the kids with a little more knowledge than when we arrived.

Long Version:

We had arranged to teach English in a rural village for one week. While we had no idea what to expect, we had an amazing time. It was by far the most rewarding part of the trip so far!

We left Chiang Mai on Sunday, February 4th, to catch a flight to northeastern Thailand, to the region called Isan. Isan is much more rural than the other areas of the country we visited. It is also the poorest region of Thailand.

Most of the world's sticky rice is grown here, and almost every child in the region has worked in a rice field at one point or another. Rice is the foundation of the economy here, and almost every meal includes rice one way or another—in fact, the term for mealtime, kin khao, literally means "eat rice."

After leaving Chiang Mai by plane, we arrived in Udon Thani, a quick stopover before our morning bus ride. We watched Singapore tie Thailand in the third game of the ASEAN "football" (soccer to us Americans) championship—no matter where we went, every TV in town was tuned to the game.

We then spent some time trying to find a place that would be showing the Super Bowl at 6:30AM on Monday, but no dice. So, the Super Bowl came and went without much ado. Although we missed the Super Bowl, we do have some good news. Beverly is no longer an NFL widow.

The next day we took a five-hour bus ride to Nakhon Phanom. It probably should have been around 3.5 or 4 hours, but the bus stopped absolutely anywhere along the way whenever and wherever a potential passenger flagged it down or needed to get off. At one point two women operating a food cart on the street got onto the bus to sell their goods, which consisted of whole chickens on a stick (with a separate stick for the gizzards), hard boiled eggs on a stick, and some Thai baked goods. We passed on the offer of chicken and eggs, but we tried some of the baked goods, which ended up tasting like dunkin donuts munchkins stuffed with yellow soybean paste. The entire trip, we were the only westerners in the bus, or on the road, for that matter.

We arrived at the bus station, and the staff from North by Northeast - Puey (ops), Sayan (driver), and Andy (guide) - met us. We went to their office to get settled, and while we finished some paperwork, we stared out over the Mekong River into Laos. The view was fantastic.

After a quick meal of what we found out later was Fak soup (pronounced like a certain 4-letter word that our younger readers should never, never say) with solidified duck blood and fried duck intestines. Here's how the pre-lunch conversation went:

Bev, "Should we get the fried rice?"

Sean, "We should try something new."

Bev, "Okay, you choose."

Sean, "Let's try the fried duck. We haven't had that yet. It sounds fairly safe."

Bev, "Are you sure?"

Sean, "Yeah, let's do it."

Here's the post-lunch conversation:

Sean, "Um, what the hell was that?"

Bev, "I don't know, but after the first bite, I just ate the rice."

After the meal, we drove by van to the town of That Phanom, where our guide, Andy, walked us around a very sacred wat that dates back to the 13th century. We participated in the fortune telling ritual, asked tons of questions about the history of the wat and Buddhism, and then walked around a local market erected specifically for a ten-day festival.

In the market, a local English teacher at another nearby school asked Andy about us, and when she found out we were going to be teaching English, she wanted us to teach there, too. Thinking that would be that, we said, "sure, if there's time," and we then continued around the market some more to see the Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai, and Chinese merchants work their stalls at the impromptu market. Long story short…she stopped at our house the next day to take us to her school. Andy explained that we had previous commitments, but later in the week, we ended up teaching a late English class at her school.

Right around sundown, the van dropped us off at the village. Andy told us to put our things upstairs in our room, and he pointed out the bathroom. The house was basic but nice. After quickly getting settled, we met our host family:

Auntie Dhum ("Doom") - She is a relative of the ex-wife of the man Beverly met in DC at a voluntourism conference.

Auntie Tie ("Tee-uh") - Another woman in the village.

Auntie Dhum's kids - First (5), Beer (7), and Art (8)

Auntie Tie's kids - Jep (6), Joy (10), and Jue (13)

The family was awesome. The moms really didn't know English, and Andy spent a lot of time translating as we got to know each other. The kids were so wonderfully friendly, and a few of them took to us right away, while others warmed up later. We were closest with First, who is a gregarious dramatic little spitfire that we just loved from the outset. Art warmed up to us later, and he had the kindest eyes and warmest smile. He's going to break some hearts someday.

We were immersed in the community right from the start—each day we woke up, ate Thai breakfast with our host family in the village, walked to school with the local children, taught two classes, had lunch with the teachers, taught a third class, played with the kids and talked to the teachers, walked home, ate dinner, and hung out with our host family. We took a bike ride around the village, and by the end of the ride, we had a posse of around ten kids. We stopped at a small local market, joined a badminton game, and bought barbecued coconuts for the kids and Andy (and we shared one, too).

Andy was awesome. His English was excellent, and he gave us a lot of great information that we found invaluable. We became fast friends with him. On our first morning at school, in the middle of the school's morning announcements, Andy turned to us and said "please say a few words to the school at the end of announcements." This was to be the first of 3 last-minute requests to address the school.

The teachers were fabulous. They were so excited to have us there and to test their English out. They also taught us plenty of Thai. Kru Tat was especially excited to teach Thai and learn English. Kru means "teacher", so on day one, we were officially knighted "Kru Bev" and "Kru Sean" by Andy.

There is so much to say about the experience…and it is difficult to put it into words. We'll provide more details in a new photo album that will show you more of the kids and the experience.