Our First Social Outing

Tonight we had dinner with a tax collection agent.  Well, he is retired from his work with the police in the tax department.  He also showed Keith a wad of impressive ID cards, so we aren’t exactly sure what all he did or does in life.  We met him in the process of renting our apartment; I guess you could call him our landlord.  He is only a month younger than Keith (“How old are you?” is the third question people ask us here, after “What is your name?” and “Where are you from?”), so it seems strange that he is retired.  At least, that is what we understood….His English is better than many here, and he really tries to communicate clearly, but he still has to stop and search for words.  We, of course, are no help whatsoever.  Our Thai vocabulary is growing; we have added phrases like, “Turn right,” “Sweet dreams,” and  “Thank You,” but that still doesn’t take you very far in a real conversation.

We weren’t expecting to have a Thai friend so soon.  We figured we’d have to be in language school for a few months and then work hard at gaining a friendship entry point, perhaps with a neighbor or someone else with whom we have regular contact.  We thought we would have at least a basic understanding of how friendship works in this culture before we actually have a friend.  Not so!  We have no idea what it means when someone declares, “You are my older brother.”  And if someone shows you a kindness, like takes you all around town, and then two days later invites your family out to eat, what should happen next?  What kind of reciprocation is expected?

He drove us to a restaurant in our neighborhood with indoor/outdoor seating.  It was full of Thai families eating out on a pleasant Sunday evening.  I was thankful that even though our friend does not have children, he took us to a family-friendly place.  There was even a large fish pond for the kids to watch.  He ordered about 7 traditional Thai dishes for us all to share—shrimp cakes, shrimp pad thai, fried rice, prawn soup, vegetables, omelet, and fried chicken.  We had plenty to eat, especially since two of our kids are sick (we didn’t realize the extent of it until we were home, thank God!) and didn’t eat much.

As our meal drew to a close, he invited us to his home for a “barbecue” next weekend.  We invited him to go along bowling for Luke’s birthday. That was a little awkward, because we weren’t sure if we should invite just him, or his “little girlfriend,” or the wife he alluded to this evening.  I have a feeling that we are making all kinds of completely unintentional mistakes that we will either groan or laugh about later, but for better or worse, here we go J

So we had dinner with a tax collector…and it turns out he is from Ubon Ratchathani and speaks Isaan.