Year of Volunteering: Sunday: a funeral, an aquarium and the shooting range!

Sunday Pi Jew woke me up at 6:40 telling me they were going to another province. The father of one of the staff had died and they forgot to tell me they were going to the funeral on Sunday and I was invited. I had 20 minutes to shower and be ready. I hadn't slept well because I was sporting a headache and a sore throat but thought I'd like to go with.

There were about 12 or so kids and about 15 adults. All of us wore black (or brown or white if we didn't have black). The kids rode in the back of the little Mazda truck and the cab had about 5 people in it. I rode in a big van that had video. I figured out a little later that this is actually a tour van that we hired for this trip.

We drove 4.5 hours to the city of Trang which is south along the Andaman Sea. We made an appearance. The family provided a lunch for friends and relatives (they invite a lot of people). The family members wear black with a white sash and have one or two pieces of white clothed pinned on their black shirt. I didn't take any pictures as I didn't think it would be appropriate. The coffin was under another tent with candles lit. The lunch area was in the street in front of the house under huge tents. We only stayed for lunch. The ceremony would be late that evening when a monk would perform a service. I'm not sure what the service entails.

We dropped off one of the little kids at their home on a rubber plantation and then headed to an aquarium. The aquarium is at a fisheries university. Pi Wit (headmaster) informed me that many of the universities in southern Thailand are no longer popular.

The aquarium cost 20 baht each and was about 500 meters worth of fish tanks and information. We are spoiled with the huge aquarium in Seattle. At the beginning of the aquarium is a "stuffed" shark. Although it doesn't look like a shark. The preservation techniques don't seem to have preserved the shape of the shark. It's also no sectioned off so I almost walked into the tail which I'm sure would have damaged it! We stayed for about 30 - 60 minutes.

On the drive north we stopped at a shooting range. YES... I came all the way to Thailand... to shoot a hand gun! Thui has a friend that owns the shooting range so they chatted while the children had target practice. Purdy fun!

From there we went to Tesco... this is the big excitement here... a small shopping mall with a big grocery store somewhat like Fred Meyers but smaller. I have been craving chips and salt so YAY! I bought some Pringles and other chips and sweets too of course!

Dinner was at a local restaurant (same as the others... side of the road with a lot of tables.

We got back to Yaowawit by about 9:00 pm. I was trying not to puke the last two hours in the car. I felt like I was fighting a sinus cold and my throat hurt and I was nauseous. Yippee... go figure... and then last night I had the stomach problems kick in every few hours so today was a very low key day.

Dinner... fish, squid, clams, pork, boiled eggs, rice, cucumber and some kind of edible leaves... and rice.