The Scent of Beauty….

Jungle Girl — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:44:00 +0000

What a glorious day today was. I awoke to the smell of warm air and the glow of sunlight for the first time in days.

Since we arrived back the sky has done nothing but glower and menace at us and the rains have continued to chuck it down every few hours making sure that everything from our clothes to the kitchen floor is permanently damp and maintains its rainy season fustiness and moldiness.

What a difference the sun makes! I have been valiantly washing everything we own since we got back due to above mentioned smells, today for the first time things felt clean and crispy dry – the smell of clean laundry and sun-baked linen was everywhere around me, and what a welcome relief.

Even the kitchen floor, permanently wet at this time of year and covered in mud two seconds after its mopping, due to wet mucky feet traipsing through was sparkly clean for at least an hour – small miracles, small miracles.

The front of Luna restaurant during monsoon

The plants seemed to unfurl their leaves and bask in the warm rays and we started to feel as if we lived in a beautiful place again, rather than a mud bath. And what a beautiful place it is, there really is nowhere to beat it, when the sun smiles down it is the most beautiful place in the world.

We spent the day as usual, madly trying to catch up on all the damage and refurbishment after the monsoon. But despite all the cement piled around, the buzz of saws, wood dust and hard slog, today the world is a beautiful place to be.

Despite all the doubt, whether we could make a go of this, whether it was reckless or foolish or mad, I feel this is the best choice for our little family – Clear Sky is literally being raised by a village with no end of visitors arriving to BpaI tiow – or go on a little holiday – this is brought home to me when I go to investigate where she’s got to on one of her jaunts, and find her ensconced in a restaurant down the road holding court with about six adults and three kids all of whom are performing a thai dance and singing for her benefit.

She is literally bopping her little socks off along with the highly dubious tune – and all this without the aid of a TV. Priceless. At the end of the day we have very little money, every week is a struggle to keep our heads above water in the most basic of ways, but we are raising our daughter in beauty and nature and with the love and adoration of both her fully present parents and the help, care and support of an entire village. When it is tough, and other aspects make me weep with exhaustion or worry, I can hold on to this strength.

Nong mail also arrived back from her holidays today, and what a sight for sore eyes is this little angel. No longer a baby, she is fast becoming a wondrous girl-child, quieter, a little more cautious perhaps than in her boisterous, romping babyhood, but with the same gorgeous humour and character present in her eyes.

What great hugs we had, and how she and Clear Sky love to be with each other again, rejoicing in each others’ presence. Family, love, strength what could be more beautiful than that? And to top it all I don’t think anything has broken down today.

Kids’ Day

Fishy beginnings….

Jungle Girl — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 10:00:00 +0000

My partner’s name is shrimp. His brothers and sisters are variously named for two kinds of crab and a crayfish. My shrimp insists that he is a tiger shrimp, the biggest variety, and I won’t beg to differ.

In fact the only sibling not named for a crustacean is simply called sister and she married a man called fish, so I guess the saltwater is just destined to flow through the family tree. We live on a small tropical island in the gulf of Thailand, where we have made our home, with our baby girl, Clear Sky and most of my partner’s extended family.

When I first came to Thailand backpacking at the ripe old age of nineteen, I fell in love immediately, with the sparkling ocean, the majestic palms and the spotless white beach and most of all with the spectacularly beautiful people. I had found my idyll, my personal paradise.

Now that the years have rolled by and I have made this place my permanent home the love affair with this beautiful land has continued to bloom, but like any relationship has ripened with age and experience, so my love for it is a little more battle-scarred and my understanding is much deeper, although I will never comprehend the full complexities of this vibrant culture.

I will always be grateful that we start our day with a walk on the beach and a swim in the sparkling ocean, that we have mangoes and rambutans, and mangosteens piled up around us according to season, that my daughter will be raised by a village full of people and learn respect for elders, to share all that she has, and the principles of jai yen (calm heart) as an intrinsic part of her upbringing.

I am less enamoured with the lack of decent healthcare, the chronic pollution problems and widespread use of chemicals that afflict the country, and I will never learn to reconcile the beautiful face of Thailand with the diabolical treatment of Burmese people which is endemic in this culture.

Thailand is a land of many complexities, with two sides: one so beautiful it can take your breath away and the other with a quiet, darkly violent pulse barely visible under the mask of jai yen.

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My Jungle Life » parenting

The Scent of Beauty….

Fishy beginnings….