Conversations with Dta Geeo

My clothes won’t dry. It’s still raining, and I’m going through the DVDs I bought at Thanksgiving very quickly. Most of my things either smell like mildew or actually have mildew, my dogs being in the former category. If I decide to leave the house I need to time my bike travel to fall between the downpours. If it lets up then I know I have about 5-10 minutes to get where I need to go. Unfortunately this limits my travel to a 3 km circumference around my house.
But the school will probably be flooded again, so that’s fun.
Along with that, I’ve been seeing more snakes lately. They’re usually crushed in the roads.
So Dta Geeo, my 91 year-old next door neighbor came by this morning. He speaks mostly southern Thai and I speak central Thai so our conversations have a lot of limitations. Today I gave him a candy cane because he had never had one before. I love giving Thais American candy because their reactions to flavors are so great. Hot Tamales have been the best reaction so far. Cinnamon candy just doesn’t happen in Thai and most people end up spitting them out. It’s good entertainment.

So Dta Geeo tried the candy cane, declared it "delicious", and then told me it was hard. I took the box back inside and when I came back out, the wrapper was gone.
"Where’s the wrapper?"
"Eh?"
"Dta Geeo, what did you do with the plastic?"
"I ate it."
"What? You ate it? Where is it?"
"Delicious."

Now, I looked around for the wrapper and couldn’t find it, so I’m not sure if he actually ate it, or it just flew away in the storm. This ambiguity is usually the basis of most of our conversations. Usually I can understand one or two words in his sentences and I end up guessing the rest.
The two areas of discussion we thrive on are food (the subject of 80% of my conversations in Thailand) and family relationships. When I found out Dta Geeo had 9 children I gave him a thumbs up. He laughed. When I told him that I wanted kids in the future he responded with, "You’re not old yet." He then told me that if I wanted a husband, I needed to get out of Nakhon Si Thammarat; my Thai isn’t good enough to find a husband here. I wasn’t really looking for one anyway, but I didn’t tell him that…he would’ve thought I was crazier than he already does.
I also asked him if he thought I was an idiot because my Thai was so bad. He nodded his head and changed the subject. I’m hoping this was an instance where he just didn’t understand the question.

This is the same thing I do when I don’t understand something he has said – change the subject:

Him: "(Something I don’t’ understand in Thai)"
Me: "Did you do homework in school?"
Him: "Yes. I did it."
Me: "Most students don’t. The boys don’t. What would you do?"
Him: (Something I don’t understand in Thai.)
Me: "What did you have for breakfast today?"
Him: "Coffee. Bread. Rice."
Me: "Did you eat an egg?"
Him: "Yes. (Something in Thai I don’t understand)."
Me: "How old were you when you married?"
Him: "16. 17."
Me: "Really? Not old!" Because I don’t know the word for "young".
Him: (Something in Thai I don’t understand).
Me: "When is your birthday?" I’ve been trying to figure this out for months.
Him: "Friday."

In Thailand (and other countries around here), the day of the week that you were born on is more important that the date. Each day has its own qualities. You give your alms to the Buddha statue at the temple of the day that you were born. Dta Geeo and I were both born on a Friday, so that gives us something to bond over. I will probably never find out the actual date that he was born on.
Also, your favorite color depends on the day of the week you were born on. If you ask a child what their favorite color is, and they say orange, then you know they were born on a Thursday. If your favorite color in America is blue, but you were born on a Monday and you come to Thailand, your new favorite color is yellow – which is really good because the king was born on a Monday and his favorite color is yellow, too.

Here’s how the colors break down:
Monday = yellow
Tuesday = pink
Wednesday = green
Thursday = orange
Friday = blue
Saturday = purple
Sunday = red

Whosits and Whatsits:
-Found pop-tarts and pudding in Bangkok
-My youth group is starting a book drive
-Found another American who lives about 10 km away. He has a Thai wife. Naturally.
-Bought a copy of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with Thai subtitles. Classic.
-I’m used to seeing the geckos on the walls or ceilings. Still not used to walking through doors and having them fall down on top of me. That still creeps me out.