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Interesting facts and happenings                                                                                                                                        

As I walk down the street people really stop and stare. Some actually come and rub my skin as I am the first white person they have seen.  Kids will follow me around to see the foreigner.  Batty, Brian and I just went for a walk and made a "circus" sideshow.  We stopped at several of her mother's friends and introduced them to Brian and of course me the mother in law.

We have cow at most every meal.  No not beef but rice.  If you want pork you ask for moo.  That is about all I know in Thai at this point.

The people across the street were harvesting their onions today.  When all were hung in the drying place they fed the workers.  I was invited over to have some noodle soup with them.  Instead of cooked green beans they put them in raw along with raw bean sprouts when they serve it.  It had a very good flavor.

Had chicken foot soup for lunch.  It was very good.  I ate all besides the 2 feet in mine.  I put them in my napkin.  Pan was not so discreet, he just left his in the dish.

Now for napkins.  Most of them are toilet paper.  If it is a napkin it is half sized really half a tissue.  The toilet paper is put into  a round plastic container.  You take out the cardboard roll and pull the paper out from the center.  It feels like ours so that is OK.

The dogs and roosters sound like the ones at home.  The dog where I sleep whines most of the night and the roosters start crowing about 4 AM.

There are also musical lizards in the trees.  I have never seen one but hear they look like a gecko but much larger.  I hope I never see one.

No matter what language a laugh or cry sounds the same.

People here seem very happy.  Wish Americans could learn that you do not have to have everything to be happy.  These people with very little seem so happy.  Two little old neighbor ladies think my old denim skirts are so pretty.  Their skirts are a cotton print.  If Batty thinks they could make them fit, I might leave them here when I go back home.

Most of the older ladies wear long cotton skirts all the time, even out working with the onions.

Yesterday when in Sisaket I saw a man riding an elephant down a busy street. I was too far away and had an almost sleeping baby in my arms to go and get a picture.  Hope I have another chance at that picture.

The fattest dog I have seen here was one in an outdoor cafe.  He was walking around under the tables.  It looked like he got a lot of handouts.  A rooster also walked in but did not stay long.

I was using Batty's cousin's car for a few days.  There was a Playboy sign on the gas tank door.  If most could read it and saw this old, fat, white haired lady driving it they would really wonder.

The Buddhist people have their religous days according to the moon.  As this was full moon it was Monk's Day.  They bring food and money to the temples.  There were piles of large bags of rice at each temple we went by.  The people dress up in their best clothes and go to pray.  I saw more in the onion fields than in the temple areas.  There was no school today but everything else was open.  They actually brought the rice the day before Monk's Day and in the evening some old ladies come to dance in the lighted yard.  We went to see it but got their too late.