block party

After class last night I stayed an extra half hour while some of my students drilled me on the Thai alphabet: spoken and written. It was pretty fun, I wonder if they’d be up for making that a regular thing, I might learn a lot faster that way.

Then leaving the site on my bike, there seemed to be a block party, maybe 1/4 kilometer away from school. I had to get through, and so without using my acceleration, I footed my way through the crowd, flinstones style. There was jovial traditional Thai music, colorful lights, a tent, food and a crowd of smiling faces, staring at me as I passed by. I feigned a slight smile, wondering what this celebration was all about. A wedding maybe? I got through the end of the crowd after maybe 2 minutes and at the end I saw a wreath of roses on an easel and large pink structure that looked like it might have been in a parade. I passed by it and looked up from the side: There was a casket and a portrait of a young looking woman with the dates 2517-2549 written on it. I had just crashed a Thai funeral with my motorbike.

Today I had to go back to the site and as I pulled around the corner, I saw that block party was still going on. I decided this time I’d just park my bike and walk through the funeral shindig. Maybe I could be a little more subtle without a motorkbike. Again, all of these faces were smiling at me, and I felt so awkward. One man said to me in Thai, “hey whitey, eat with us.” And I just turned back to him and gave him a slight bow, “Thank you so much, but I can’t” It was all I knew how to say…and I honestly don’t know what was ruder…crashing the funeral party TWICE, or turning down someone’s offer for food…or maybe it would have been worse if I had accepted his offer, and he was just playin with me. But it was strange. It’s a ritual that’s done in the tradition of saving face. No tears, just smiles.