The U.S. has been experiencing quite a bit of extreme weather lately. The Polar Vortex is encapsulating swaths of the country and plunging it into sub-zero temperatures. It was even the lead story on a lunchtime news show here in Thailand, with the video showing piles of white powder that my community has never seen in real life and cannot even fathom what such an environment is like. The lady that I always buy pineapple from in the market asked me if it was cold in America, to which I replied, “Ka! Naao mak mak! He-ma dtok leao, loei, ka!” (Yes, very cold, the snow has fallen a lot already!)
However knowing that all of this is happening on the other side of the world does stop them from asking me if I am cold here and now. Nearly everyday, in even the briefest of interactions, I field the question “Naao mai?” (“Are you cold?”) from people who are bundled up in sweatshirts, scarves, hats and gloves. I almost always reply, “Mai naao. Yen sabai!” (“I’m not cold. It’s comfortably cool.”) When I return the question to them, they invariably laugh and say “Naao mak mak!” (“I’m very cold!”)
In the past couple of months, in my village, it has certainly gotten cold at night. I wear a sweatshirt to bed, along with long yoga pants and wool socks. But, I also only have a thin fleece blanket and my living space is not entirely sealed off from outside. My front wall, a good 15 feet high, has a screened off opening about two feet between the ceiling and the wall. My bedroom windows are slats of glass that I can crank to tilt open or closed, but even closed, there is still openings to the outside. The walls that separate me and my neighbors have a couple inches between them and the ceiling and in the main room there are holes in the walls.
My house, a concrete block, was not designed nor built with the idea of keeping warm in mind. Nor were the vast majority of Thai dwellings.
I told my co-teacher about how cold it was in the States. Her jaw dropped. I laughed as I told her, “That’s why I don’t believe you when you say that you are cold.” But I think that another teacher at my school had the best perception of it all. The exchange went like this when I walked in for lunch:
“Christine, naao mai?” (Christine, are you cold?)
“Naao nit noi. Pii, naao mai?” (I’m a little cold. Are you cold?)
“Naao mak mak. Don ti Christine naao nit noi, kon Thai naao mak mak. Don ti kon Thai ron nit noi, Christine ron mak mak!” (I am very cold. When you are a little cold, Thai people are very cold. When Thai people think it’s a little hot, you think it is very hot!)
It’s slowly been getting warmer here. This last weekend I spent most of the mornings in my house with a sweatshirt on. But when I stepped out to go for a bike ride to school, I found that it was pretty warm out. I’ve started to sweat a little bit on my daily rides to school, again. And the cold bucket baths aren’t seeming as daunting anymore. And I know I’ll be dreaming of this time when the hot season in April rolls around again and just breathing works up a sweat.