The Benefits of Social Media

I had been looking forward to catching up with my old students in Ubon as much as anything.  But my second day in Ubon was the last day of the school year, so apart from my brief classroom stops and some encounters with students in the school grounds over the two days, that was all I would see of them.  It was a bit upsetting, actually, and in no small part frustrating: I had asked friends and teachers when the school year would finish before leaving Australia (before booking my flights, even), but as the school's decision wasn't made until last-minute, it was too late for me to plan accordingly.  Despite how far I'd flown, the barrier standing between me and a proper reunion with my students was the school's disorganisation.

Jai yen.  Cool heart, I reminded myself.  Mai bpen rai.  Don't worry about it.  In Thailand, people ask: why get worked up over things out of your control?  I've always admired that thought process, and now that I was back in Thailand, surrounded by like-minded people, I found it much easier to attune myself to that kind of thinking.

And not all hope was lost.  I was relaxing in my favourite cafe in Ubon, scrolling through Facebook, when Hope - the mother of one of my students - messaged me.  I've been lucky enough to keep in touch with some of my old students on Facebook (and a handful of parents, too).  Hope is a teacher at a nearby school, and when she learned that I wasn't far away, she invited me to drop in to visit her and her daughter, Kanokporn.

So I did.

A relative, Kanokporn, me, Kanokporn's little sister, Hope

Kanokporn was really shy and she didn't say much.  But I could tell she was really happy, too.  And so was I.

This wasn't the only time social media generated adventure.  Over the last year, I have gotten to know Daw - the mother of my student Bow - on Facebook.  When I previously announced that I was going to visit Thailand in March, Daw promised she would take me out on a day trip to celebrate my birthday.  On the 14th, that's exactly what happened.

Daw and her two children - Bow and Ball - picked me up in their family ute.  Bow handed me my birthday gifts:

Soft toy and plastic rose

We picked up a few extra family members before leaving the city.  In economical Thai fashion, we fit eight people in the ute (including a couple in the tray).  I think I put my seat belt on at the start, but no one else was wearing one.  I smiled inwardly - not because I approved, but because it felt so nostalgic.  It was one of those tough cultural differences I had to force myself to accept when I lived there, and feeling that now-alien acceptance return felt somehow poignant.

Daw insisted on buying me a birthday cake and some chaayen (Thai iced milk tea), which she remembered I liked from my Facebook posts.  Then, loaded up with sweets and snacks, we drove to Haa Sri Pilom.  People from Ubon call this a beach, though it's more accurately described as a row of floating restaurants on the Mun River.

The kids leapt straight in the water, and although Daw and her friends didn't want to swim, I was expected to jump in too.  There were two problems with that.  Firstly, I didn't have any bathers on me.  Secondly, Mun River doesn't exactly have the cleanest water around - especially where all those restaurants are.  One of the girls even fished out the broken neck of a glass bottle.  I don't know how she found it, but she simply rested it on our floating platform and kept swimming.  I stared at it in horror.  That thing could have done some serious damage...

Mai bpen rai.  In retrospect, I should have just jumped in anyway.  The kids had a couple of inflatable donuts and were having a lot of fun.  Bow kept calling to me to join, and her disappointment that I didn't made me feel guilty.  But Bow is a really special kid: excels in her work, always energetic, and simply adorable.  She didn't let my refusal to join upset her at all.

Bow

Kids playing

Daw (right) and her two friends

As is customary, there was waaay too much food.

In typical generous Thai fashion, Daw was determined to look after me.  At her request, Bow served out most of my food - and without a flicker of complaint.

There was lots of cake...

...and although the language barrier threatened to stand between us, there was a lot of laughter.  My Thai was pushed beyond its limits, as was Daw's English.  But, as she later posted on Facebook, sometimes you don't need to understand every word to get along really well with someone.  And if it weren't for our connecting on Facebook, we would never have gotten the chance.