Our Homestay

We live in the middle of Mae Sot a busy border city. Everyone rides bikes or drives motor bikes. Ben and I bought brand new shiny red (and pink) bikes a couple days ago. We've been dodging cars, motorbikes, and the random street dog all around town trying to remember to ride on the left side of the street. It is very exhilarating. Ben keeps worrying that he'll have a repeat of his African motorbike accident, so I guess he would call it terrifying.
We have a night market that serves the best padthai in town for only 20 baht (about 75 cents). We haven't been brave enough (yet!) to try the ground up shrimp (eyes and all) that they use as a topping. I got a chance to eat Karen Burmese food. I was excited about the sauce and poured a bunch of (what I thought to be) mixed chillies on my rice. I took one bite and realized it was this thing called fish paste. You can just imagine the smell and the taste.
Ben got us a great hammock at the market the other day. He has spent hours trying to rig it just right so it is the perfect comfortability. Earlier today the poor guy adjusted it yet again, and must have forgot to secure it properly and had a nice hard 3 foot meeting with the concrete. He may be the only one using the hammock after this.
We've started our days with barking/howling dogs, laughing kids, old snot hawking men in the alleys, roosters, weekly radio Thai broadcast over the neighborhood loudspeakers, and the occasional chanting monk all outside our bedroom window :) The other day I ran up to the market to get some fruit for the training at the clinic. I ran back to the house ran inside quickly to grab my keys (i did not shut the gate), when I ran back outside there was a random lady outside picking our vegetables and a stray dog poking his head in the gate). Then, today a different woman with a butcher knife came right in the gate with a couple of volunteers hanging around and chopped down our bananas. We said Sawatdee and she said sawadtee back and she was on her merry way.
I've been going to this yoga class that a physical therapist puts on for the volunteers every evening. It has been fantastic and a great stress reliever. I think I am probably the first person ever to bleed during a yoga class however. I got really into the swinging of the leg from dog down position and well pretty soon I had slammed my heel into a old rusty window sill and now I am now famous as the most clumsy "yogaer" in Thailand hehe.
We're hoping to get out into the country this weekend. Just a few miles outside of Mae Sot there are rice patties, bamboo huts, and the jungle.