Living without Planning

The rainy season has begun.

The rains have come steady and persistent, but so far, I welcome them. They are heavy, occur at predictable intervals at times not too inconvenient and do not last all day. Last year our road was washed out during rainy season, but they have built it up again (mostly complete) with a new design. The sloping ravine is now supported by nearly vertical walls built mostly by hand without the use of heavy equipment. I can see already, however, how much water will eventually pour down my soi (street). I am watching that ravine.

2 weeks ago there was no water here. It fills quickly after a few minutes of rain.

Despite having a 10″ gecko in my bedroom for 2 nights, I am happy to be living in the jungle. The only thing better, would be the beach and I am certain my bungalow would be home to more than an occasional gecko there given what I would be willing and able to pay. So here I stay, quite happily and solitary. Sometimes while walking, as I near my home, I realize that I have nothing in the way of supplies if I were to get stranded due to flooding, so I stop at our neighborhood store to stock up on 6 Baht packages of cookies which I pretty much eat immediately. In the event of a real emergency, I would try to walk to school (it is downhill and then uphill of me) and hope that the owner is looking out for the Thai staff living there. If we lose power, I have candles (from my students) but no means of even heating water. Many people have suggested a propane tank with burner, but I have not invested in one yet. I have been waiting for my work permit (which I now have after a trip to the mainland for a Thai culture course) and I don’t want to buy too many things that will inevitably get left behind. I did purchase some new curtains in honor of Nadene’s visit. She is coming for a couple months in December. The new curtains look good and have an austerity the others did not despite their attempted curtsy. I plan to buy a Thai cushion next paycheck. I live minimally in sparse, yet cozy style. I feel a little bad for chucking the gecko out, but I cant have him deciding now this is where he is staying through the rainy season, which is said to last for 6 weeks at least, even if he promises to eat all the mosquitoes. I feel too weird about him hunting over my head and I find his expression somewhat creepy. I’m just not ready to share my space with him. It would be nice to have a human visitor now and then, which is a rarity. If people start showing up I might not eat all the cookies so quickly.

However simply I live, I am by no means practicing sustainability or learning to survive on my own. I am, without a doubt, dependent on others for my survival. I don’t cook for myself and I am fairly certain that most of what is eaten here is brought in by boat. I have not seen a single farm. I see chickens roaming about and yesterday I saw, for the first time, a truck with at least 20 fat, pink, and very dead, hogs in the midday sun. I could smell their decay as the truck blew past me. What I knew only to call a cow, is actually a water buffalo and I see those daily. I eat meat here. Its cheap and abundant and in almost everything. I haven’t yet managed to eat all parts of the animal like the Thai. But I believe in this practice and there is a certain satisfaction I enjoy from living on what is just necessary and not beyond.  There is another aspect to living simply that appeals to me and it is a result of living without much for-thought or planning.  I like taking each moment as it comes. Maybe I am planning for an eventual future where there is less to do and to have. It wont matter so much if things take longer; we will have more time to do less. A lack of planning, however, is not conducive to teaching year 7 (we would say grade 7) but I hold the practice of my job in a category all its own and I would like to share how much I am still enjoying it (immensely) in a future post.

Actually, any ability to plan ahead on my part is usually undermined by my own lack, well, of planning.  I sometimes feel a sense of panic about being stranded in the jungle because it gets dark early (around 6:30 PM). If I have not returned with dinner by this time, I am often busy or do not feel like going out despite the fact that I am without dinner. I try to plan ahead by having small snacks on hand that will not spoil like biscuits or nuts and having these items comforts me, but the more abundant the stash, the more frequently I do not go out to find dinner. I am always a little bit hungry here (except the few hours immediately following school lunch which is delicious and filling) and having some little treat with coffee does a peckish state just right. The more I plan to be stranded, the more I stay in. So planning doesn’t really work for me. A lack of planning forces me to venture out and to find healthy things to eat. One of my favorite dishes in Goong Tawd Kra Tiem (garlic pepper prawns) and a guy just up the road will make these for me for 60 Baht ($2). Even my very favorite restaurant only charges double that. Also, every walk is an adventure lasting generally about 3 hours. My routes are regular and the rides I am offered, less regular, but accepting rides has a way of bending the path and sending me on tangent. I will usually accept a ride to the most peripheral point of my radius even if i had not intended to go there initially. On the periphery lies coffee and cream for my coffee which I only need on occasion. I often turn rides down because I haven’t walked enough to work up the appetite that will direct my next move. Others observe a certain madness to my method, but most people don’t have the time to live in a way that no planning requires. It works only as a regular mode of living, it is only when practiced on occasion that it becomes time consuming. If you always take a motorbike, you don’t have time to walk to the store. If you walk every day, it become your way of life. I like when my life is occupied with the tasks of mundane survival (visits to the laundry, the market, the coffee shop and the beach). It’s relaxing and pleasant to walk and meet and greet those I see regularly and I still have plenty of time to read, paint, practice yoga and connect with my computer.