the rose

Just thought I'd fill you you in on a little of my Friday night. I was going to head to the market, because for whatever reason I wanted some grilled chicken, grilled sweet corn, and some fresh pineapple.  Usually when I go to the market I don't know if I will even buy anything. Most of the time, I just find it fun. Moving on, I set in to the market, meandered around.  I heard several 'hellos,' without looking I knew they were for me.  I looked up and there were several smiling faces aimed my way.

It was my market friends that I say hello to nearly every time I am there.  This time it was a mother, her "son" and her son's friend.  The mother sells fruit, the friend sells CDs, and the "son" helps out where needed. The mother motioned me to sit down with her in the center of the stall, so I did. We talked some. Not long after another friend of theirs stopped in.  She spoke English fairly well, good enough for basic conversation.  Soon the English speaking friends left and I sat there as the mother kept handing me pieces of jackfruit.  I offered to buy a bag of pineapple, but the mother refused to let me pay for it, "I give for free," with a lovely Thai smile on her face. Let me tell you, it, was delicious pineapple, so delicious.  From then on her "son," was weaving in and out of interaction with me, as he speaks little English.  "He" mostly just smiles at me and says a few lines here and there. I have met "him" several times, always a friendly and welcoming person. "He" always wants me to try new Thai foods.

I'll just cut to the chase, the "son" is clearly transgender, but pulls it off handsomely, well. That evening he shared his sweet corn with me, broke the cob in two right before my eyes. This should be a big clue as to where I am going with this written nonsense, as we all know this is how Iowan's propose to one another in the states.  He left for a while and came back with a flower for me, red rose. Everyone around us giggled. Yes, more than a friendly gesture perhaps.  I have told them several times about my fiance in the US, but I think he doesn't quite understand that with the language barrier, I don't know for sure. I could make out what he was saying to the Thai's walking by, people he knew, 'she's my friend. She's my friend and then would giggle.' He said other words that I didn't catch.  It actually wasn't awkward for me at all.  It's just weird. I think what it comes down to is.. these Thai's spend their entire day in a market. It's their life. So when something new comes along, such as a white person that wants to be a friend, it is exciting.  Most of my market conversations revolve around me telling them about myself and where I am from, me learning about Thai food and language, and me teaching them a few words of English.  About a half hour later, I said goodbye to my friends and they sent me home with a bag of rambutans and said to come say hello again when I am back at the market. I agreed and head for home.

On the way home I nearly made it to my house, when my neighbors called my name.  I could see a few of their heads in the darkness down the small driveway. When I got there I realized that none of these neighbors spoke much of any English, beyond hello. All of them were men, some of their wives made appearances and said hello. Whatever, I thought to myself. So I sat down.  They offered me whiskey, of course. I told them in Thai that I didn't care for whiskey.  They asked a few more times.  I knew that this would continue as 'everyone' needs to have a drink in their hand to enjoy the evening in Thailand, so it seems.  Soon enough a man pulled up on his bike with a bottle of Leo beer. "Oh dear, ok," I thought to myself. I did my best with a few sips, everyone wanting to cheers me, "chun," "chun," "chun..."  It ended up being an enjoyable evening. I learned some Thai and they learned some English. We were able to communicate with each other. I had to explain to them where I got my rose, as they all my Nick is back home. Several of them have told me they want to meet Nick, can't blame them :) I didn't know how to explain transgender and such, so I ended up changing my story without them knowing it, telling them it was from a Thai woman selling fruit in the market.

I really like these situations, I am forced to use and build from the Thai I know.  The interesting moments of the night, I learned most of my new Thai vocabulary from a partially mute man. The fascinating thing was that I didn't know he was mute until about a half hour in.  Let's just say if he was on my team during a game of charades, we would dominate. I now laugh at this because the whole time I was talking with him, as we were trying to kill the language barrier, he was using so many gestures.. and I just thought he was just really trying to be patient and expressive with me.

It was a nice evening, I'll take it. Oh ya, and I was apparently sipping my beer in the presence of an undercover monk..