Last year, when I came to Kaengsanamnang to visit before moving here permanently, my co-teacher took me to the opening ceremony of the Ya Mo Festival in Bua Yai, one district over from mine and where she grew up with her family.
I remember being really intrigued by it all: wanting to watch the reenactment show, visit all of the stalls, taking pictures of all of the dancers and parade floats. I was a little confused by it all and my senses were overloaded. We ate som dtam and I had kanom jin (a kind of rice noodles) for the first time, and discovered that I like som dtam but not kanom jin.
I read as much as I could find about the heroine that was being celebrated, Ya Mo, and what she did, and discovered that her tale may just be folklore and her very existence is questionable. But that does not make her, her spirit, her memory or her protections any less real to the people of Korat. There is a statue of her at the turn off to my co-teacher’s parents’ house. She will unfailingly wai to each time she drives past, which is often.
This year, Ning, my co-teacher, decided to take part in the opening ceremony dance. I was unsure of how I was going to get there, though she had agreed to take me back home. I had thought that she was going to take me, but when she told me she was going to be leaving at 10:30 in the morning and I could tell that she did not want to take me with her, I wasn’t sure if I was going to try to make it there on the bus.
After thinking about it, and the logistics, for a couple hours, I decided to go. I knew that there was a bus from my village to the district center at 2, and I had some things to drop off at the post office. I knew that there was a bus from my district center to Bua Yai, trouble was, I didn’t know when. So I went, and hoped that I wouldn’t be waiting very long for the bus to Bua Yai. Turns out, I didn’t and I got to chat with some people in town who recognized me (though I did not recognize them), and I got a smile when the postman recognized me and explained to the other people there who I was when they were staring at me.
When I got to Bua Yai, I found a shady place to sit and called Ning. I told her I was there, waiting for her, her squeals of delight and excitement that I made it brought a smile to my face. When I found her, I happily became the photographer for her with her friends in their gorgeous outfits while they waited for it to be time for them to perform the dance they had spent just one week practicing. After the dance, we went back to her family’s house so she could shower and change and then went and got some late night som dtam once again and she did not order me kanom jin. On the ride home, she said to me, “I’m so happy that you came!” And I am too, because next year I’m going to be out there dancing, too.
Between the people in town who recognized me and Ning’s reaction to my attendance, it really goes to show how important relationships are here. It’s not always easy, but it is definitely rewarding.