In very, very sad news, the son of the nayoke (sort of like the mayor) died tragically in a car accident on Thursday night. He was 29 years old and worked in a city about 4 hours away as a salesman. I stayed with the nayoke and his wife before my rental house was ready and frequently go to their house for dinner. They are my like my second family here and they call me their daughter. They have 2 sons and I had just met both of them my first week at site for the big holiday/festival. It's very, very sad. I only met the son once, but since I'm close with this family, it actually really affected me.
As a result, my weekend involved participating and learning about Thai funerals. The casket is brought into the house and for 3, 5, or 7 days (always an odd number). Monks come every night to chant and pray and neighbors and family come and have huge dinners each night. Then on the final day, the body is taken to the temple and it is cremated. The night before the cremation is a big night. Since this is the nayoke's family, all of the important government officials came last night. I met all of the provincial VIPs - a pretty big deal. The nayoke and his wife really wanted me to help set up and serve for this huge dinner, which is acutally really nice because this means they view me as family. All of the family help serve the guests, so I'm happy that they don't see me as a guest, but instead a part of the family. This afternoon is the cremation ceremony at the temple.
Anyway, the nayoke's other son is fluent in English - he actually is an English professor. The nayoke's neice, Jenni, is in her early 20s and studied in Louisiana for a couple of months, so her English is pretty good as well. I had met her a few weeks ago for the big holiday. I was able to speak English this weekend, which was really nice. I went over to the nayoke's house early to hang out with her and brought some magaiznes like Cosmo to read together. The she said "I have a surprise for you in the car" and she came back with a pizza! Just like the Australian woman, Jenni bought me a pizza from the big city nearby.
On my bike ride home, all I could think about was that pizza. Let me describe this pizza because it was that fabulous - thick crust, extra cheese (there is no cheese in Thailand so this was incredible), pineapple, pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, and onions. Basically the best pizza ever. Now it would have been really fun to save some of it, but let's be honest. I stood in my kitchen in my funeral clothes and ate the whole thing. I was absurdly full after, but it didn't matter. It was one of those indescribable moments where the entire pizza just had to be consumed. There was clearly no other option.
So that was my second pizza delivery and this time I got it at a funeral. This gives me hope for the next 2 years that maybe my love of pizza will be periodically satisfied.
No comments:
Post a Comment