I am a bit behind with events here - for a quick update...
The weekend before last was the school festival. The theme was environment, clean, green teens - or something along that line. As the piles ofplastic cups and styrofoam food trays mounted I pondered on what a fine example it was of rhetoric exceeding substance.
We were issued with a staff uniform of clean luminous green polo shirts for the occassion. I was very happy to see a notice from the Rotary club of Bangkok that they are collecting clothes for a school in Chiang Mai. There were so many complaints about the colour I am wondering if we could supply the staff at the school there with a uniform... Thai people seem to have no aversion to bright colours.
A notable exception to bright colours occured the weekend just passed with the ceremonies for the King's older sister's funeral. She died some time last year, but they need time to prepare - building funeral paraphenalia etc. Buddhists take quite a lot of time for mourning. In Japan, not sure if the same is true in Thailand, I think it's 14 years after a person dies, that the last official mourning ceremony is held.
But Friday and the weekend were designated days of mourning. At school we were given instructions to wear either black, or white to school on Friday. After deliberation I opted for a combination, which was also acceptable. The city looked and felt quite somber. I took a klong boat into town (see above) but unfortunately wasn't positioned well enough to get a good sense of the blackness. (Actually it isn't so different to a train at peak hour in at Tokyo winter with all the dark suits making their way to work.)
Loy Krathong (pronounced Kratong) was the other event from last week. It is a Thai Buddhist festival that takes its name from the Thai words float and boat, which is exactly what it is... an evening where you go to a river or lake and float a boat. Loy Krathong is supposed to be for giving thanks to the river / water goddess. People take their banana leaf boats, in theory people make their own krathong, but there are lots for sale too - for about 20-30 baht (60c-$1). Noc and I went to a lake near her new school to buy a krathong to loy. (she quit working at school for understandable reasons that would be imprudent to expand on in a public forum). The kratong have flowers, or a kind of coloured bread on them, candles and incense sticks. You float them into the water and the following day the Thai local govt. spend a busy day retrieving them - undoubtedly the River Goddess breathes a sigh of relief to see them gone. Apparently there used to be a problem with styrofoam krathong, but I only saw ones made of biodegradable materials this year.
These are krathong making instructions. For some reason they hyperlink function isn't working... or rather I can't get it to work...
www.thaipulse.com/thai-culture/thai-culture-loy-krathong.htm
not sure if that link is working.
http://www.greenhousebusiness.com/makingkrathong.html
Just as an aside Noc is now teaching computers / programming in English at a Thai high school - she has a Masters in Computers so she's quite happy with it.
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