So Much Laughter

Pun Pun Thailand en route to Bangkok and Kathmandu.

Its late and the Pun Pun Truck leaves at 6.30 to take us away in the morning. I wanted to capture my thoughts on Pun Pun  from the sanctuary of my mosquito net whilst the cicadas still chirrup  around the house and the friendly ants quietly meander across us in the dark.

We arrived 5 weeks ago  fresh into traveling, nervous of slithers in the grass, refusing ice for fear of tummy bugs and counting each mosquito bite fearfully calculating compounding risk of tropical diseases.

I didn't really have any expectations of what Pun Pun would be like and what unfolded was a fascinating insight into the workngs of a thriving  community :successes ,challenges, financial structure. I have been inspired by gardening, composting, planting,  singing and seed saving and learned about making soap , shampoo, tofu, banana vinegar. But what fascinates me is watching a community thrive on preparing and eating great food, working hard together with so much laughter. Everything is funny from eating passion fruit with fish sauce to putting the 500th bag of chicken poop on top of the stack. Its not about efficiency, but about companionship.

I guess if I did have an expectation it was to find a home from home to start our journey that was safe ( emotionally) for our children and Pun Pun has surpassed this.  I once asked Sheena  what she felt that Pun Pun did really well and she  said that Pun Pun gave folk the opportunity to experiment. For us the relaxed nature of life here has given us the freedom to explore parenting whilst traveling and volunteering.

:-)

Preparing green tapioca noodles I don't know what was being said but it was soooo funny!