Back in Tak — again

 In the spring of 1974, we moved to Tak, Thailand and lived there until early spring 1976. We returned for the first time just a few days ago, 40 or so years later, unfortunately having lost contact during the intervening years. Consequently our return was unexpected and we did not know quite what to expect. Or who we would see.  

Whatever expectations we may have had they were blown away. They were exceeded beyond any expectation that I had. So much so that we were once again made aware of how richly blessed and how highly favored we must be.  

Within an hour of being on Patt's old campus, and meeting the teacher who lives next to the house we used to live in, I was on the phone talking to this man, Pirrom, our former neighbor and my best Thai friend.  

The neighbor was looking at some old photos I brought and the neighbor, said "teacher Pirrom"  ….  Patt and I were amazed, and lo and behold he had his phone number and soon we had a dinner date.

The reunion with Pirrom later that day was joyous as is obvious from the photo below.  There was sadness too as we learned that his wife, Mutchalin, whom Patt and I both liked a lot too, had died 9 years ago.

At Padung Panya, the girls still wear blue skirts and white sailor tops. One difference though is they are larger.  That is true for Thais in general. They have gotten larger, taller and heavier, as a population in 40 years. I used to be noticeably taller than most any given group of Thais. Not even close now.

Downtown looked similar, but different, road paved sidewalk to sidewalk, more concrete buildings and of course different ones.  Also few restaurants on the main downtown streets remain. The entertainment, evening activity area has moved to the river front that has developed.

One thing for sure has not changed - I still can not read this. The sign was in front of my school so we are assuming that somewhere it says among other things this is Tak Pittayakhom School.

We brought a few photos from 40 years ago and they proved to be a hit. The man to my right was a first year teacher my second year at Tak Pittayakhom. He taught 32 years retired 8 years and came back this year. The woman to his right was married to a man who was in one of the photos of a group of us who had been playing basketball. He died some years ago.

Patt and I did enjoy walking past some of the buildings that were there when we were.

Patt taught in this building. It has since had windows added, air-conditioning. been painted several times, and the trees have grown. The bamboo and thatch huts she taught in just up the road are long gone. The school now has over twice the number of students and is co-ed.

The Foreign Languages Department Head "Teacher Bonnit" taught by some of Patt's predecessors in the Peace Corps at Padung Panya, now heads a department that teaches, English, Chinese, Burmese, Japanese, French and seems like something else. They also have an accelerated program of English immersion of all courses in English. Yes, a lot at the school has changed.

Bonnit helped us make connections that helped us make more connections that lead us to meeting people that we wanted to see. She was one of the wonderful people of Tak who helped us have such an exceptional time there.

Sadly it appears that maintaining faculty housing is not a priority. This is where we lived and it looks like it is getting a little old. We were the first tenants of this brand new house in 1974. There were no trees or grass. Just a new construction site. Two bedrooms upstairs and one large room downstairs with a small bathroom in the downstairs room.

A single faucet brought water into the house most of the time. A single light bulb was in each room.  that made three as I recall, but I could be off by one or two. There were no windows Just wooden shutters. We had screens in the bedroom.    

No surprise here. This is we are pretty sure is a great grandson of our dog Spot— well actually the janitor / rice cooker's dog too. But she stayed with us — Patt—most of the time. Patt fed her chicken parts, like heads, feet, lungs, hearts, all the insides that come when you buy a chicken but you don't eat the whole chicken. We gave her high quality left overs and she got real good looking — and had at least one litter of strong puppies while we were there so we had two dogs - mother Spot and daughter Speck (weren't we clever?). The dogs reverted to the janitor when we left.

Could be Specks's grandson in the background. We were all about fancy pants dog names.

Patt and Laura coming out of the market.  Yep, same place, much of the same stuff.

More of the market place— most is inside the building.

And the pork satay is still very very good, bought one, came back and bought more. The chef enjoyed my compliment and I enjoyed her food. I hope I have mentioned how much we enjoy Thai food.