The "Family" Outing

10/07/09 5:16pm

Last Wednesday one of the staff members came up to me with a few other staff members giggling and hesitating to talk to me. One of the KWO staff then said “we want to ask you something, be we are embarrassed to”. I told her she could feel comfortable asking me anything and eventually she asked me if I would like to join them for a “how do you call it”-eventually we figured out-barbeque. I was a bit confused with where it would be happening but it sounded like it was down the road somewhere. She was worried they wouldn’t have vegetarian dishes for me, very sweet of her, but I told her that if it was a restaurant to not worry I’m sure I could find something.

Friday rolls around and just before 5pm everyone starts quickly gathering their things to leave, so I did as well. I walked out the front door and there was a truck sitting there JAM PACKED with people sitting all over in the back, people I had never seen before but I learned people that all lived within the same living quarters next to the office. I wasn’t quite sure where to put myself so one of the staff said in the back seat. She opened the door and all you could see was about 6-8 people crammed in the front and back, not remotely room for one more person, not to mention a large girl like myself (especially when compared to most of the people here). I instead crawled in the bed of the truck with about 10 others, squatted and about 15-20 of us were on our way.

The drive wasn’t so bad but it felt much longer in a squatting position. We arrived and I noticed it was one of the restaurants I pass daily when I bike back to town. The restaurant was mostly empty even though it seats about 100 or so, but we sat near the back anyways. When we were seated some of the restaurant staff started to come out with plates and plates of “goodies”. I will just say, the BBQs here are just a tad different than back at home! On the plates were fresh squid, pig livers, pork, some unidentifiable meats and, the international meat, chicken. The barbecue’s themselves were things I’ve never seen before. They were large ceramic pot like things with holes on the sides that were placed sporadically along the table. They had hot charcoal in them and on top there was a metal piece that was shaped like a..hmmm..almost reminds me of an angel food cake mold, where it has a protruding top part-to give the cake its hole- but a circular base with a lip to hold liquid. Ok, that didn’t make much sense but if you could picture that upside down and placed on top of the barbeque then the protruding part is the part where the meats were put on to cook and the circular base with a lip is where the water is poured so it can boil and be used as a soup after putting meats and veggies in it. (I forgot my camera, very disappointing).

For HOURS we all sat there, heating up the meat, adding new water, boiling vegetables and rice noodles in the water and chatting with husbands, wives, cousins, friends, staff, neighbors, babies and all. I learned from the staff that they only go to this barbeque about once every 3-6 months because it is too expensive for them to go frequently, and the only reason why they were able to go this time was because a donor was treating them to the outing. The cost of the meal per person is 99 baht or $3 each. From the time we showed up to the time we left the place had completely filled up, there were at least 100 people there if not more. Also the restaurant staff made a buffet of extra vegetables and items to grill as well as dessert jelly pieces that you combine with ice and sugar flavored syrup, very tasty stuff!

Leaving was almost as adventurous as the meal. Since I can’t understand what’s happening half the time, due to the fact everyone speaks Karen, I didn’t realize that a bunch of people were leaving in groups because it had begun to rain and people were trying to prevent being in the back of the truck on the way back (at least I think that’s what was happening). So the first batch decides to take off and I was getting anxious to leave after a while since it had start to rain and also was getting very dark, something I didn’t consider before, yet I still needed to bike back. So the truck had already begun to leave when I asked if I could catch a ride. It was no problem because others decided at the last minute as well, so a big group of us began to run outside to reach the truck, then I realized we needed to run much farther than expected, across the median onto the other side of the road. I think we needed to get in the truck farther away because it needed to turn around before anyone could get into it due to security since there was a police checkpoint at the same location where the truck needed to circle around. Once the truck was ready for us, we all started to run in a group and scramble to get into the truck as quickly as possible to avoid the rain/security and quickly be on our way. We were just fine then upon arrival back to the office, the staff quickly said good bye and ran inside to not get wet. Pretty funny, here I was standing at my bike alone, in the rain, and the dark, in the country 3 kilometers way from town. All I could think was, how did I exactly get to this point? No matter, I biked like a fiend back to town and hoped upon hope I wouldn’t be attacked by the lovely dogs that run in packs in the night. I was just fine, but definitely out of breath when I arrived back home.