Life becomes simpler

What does it mean to be clean?
How do you defeat bamboo dust?
How healthy is rice for breakfast, really?
How long would it take the ants to build a nest in my computer?
How many mosquito bites do I have and will my skin ever look normal again?
What kind of exotic things are out there in the civilized world?

—-As life simplifies here in Thailand, the big life questions have changed—

A change in perspective can be a good thing. What I have often taken for granted as the expected things in life are no longer available. This creates a great result - gratefulness for the simplest of things.
The best part of the day by far is the 20 minutes after “showering”. Although some days it may in fact be only 5 minutes before I start sweating again, there is less sweat built up on my body. So what is clean? Clean is not having yesterday’s sweat on you, only today’s sweat.

The bamboo poles that make up our roof have termites in them, so there is an almost constant layer of dust falling down onto everything. I have learned to cover as many things as I can, so that they may be easily dusted off a couple times a day. It’s amazing how quickly you can get used to these types of things.

I have no idea if rice is healthy for breakfast lunch and dinner, but many people eat it so I figure it won’t kill me. I no longer think it is strange to see rice for breakfast, it seems normal. At least I am never really wondering “what are we having for dinner”?

Sometimes when I turn on my computer, dozens of ants come running out. I really don’t want them to get cozy in there, so I turn on my computer and let it get really hot every day or so. That seems to discourage them - who would want to live in hell?

I think I can appreciate the bites I have if I start to think of them as a permanent type of design that is ever changing. Like, when this one heals there will be another, so I do not need to get bored looking at my own skin. They say that the mosquitos are really only bad until the end of the rainy season, which would be in like October. I am leaving in November, so somehow that was not the best encouragement for me to hear.

Civilization. The word has changed meaning for me. Mae Sot is exciting. There are approximately 4 places to eat western food. I have been to them all multiple times. The benefit of only having four choices is that it will never take really long to choose where to go. The change of food does create some interesting reactions in my body (I will leave that to your imagination) but I will simply say that some things are just worth it!
There are other things like Thai massages that cost only a couple of dollars and get all the kinks out of my body.
There are western style toilets and many of them even have paper. Beds–real beds with legs under them! There are walls and stores and many other exciting things.
I haven’t even mentioned what it is like to travel to the big city - Chiang Mai. I am not sure I can get into that now. Suffice to say that there you can find important things like bug spray that actually works and real Tupperware containers that seal properly and therefore the ants cannot get into.

So, if you are living in the “civilized” world and reading this,
try to change your perspective and realize that you are blessed because:
-When you put on your underwear today, there were no ants in them.
-You do not need to put baby powder onto your body many times a day to remove the clammy feeling.
-You can get whatever food you want and have no worry of keeping the ants out of it.
-You do not need to ignore the ants in your rice today for lunch.
-Your roof does not sprinkle dust on you
-You do not live with bugs and geckos and lizards and beetles or have to go to the bathroom while they look at you.

Now, before you feel bad for me just remember - I have a perspective now that makes me grateful for the smallest of things. I am privileged to be reminded.