National Head Cold Week

In Thailand, the week after New Year may as well be designated "National Head Cold Week." Effectively, every man, woman, child (and massage student) gets hit. We've all taken our turn, despite habitual hand washing and (hopelessly ineffective) attempts to keep perfect strangers and passersby from reaching for Little's hands.

My Thai family are convinced that dew falling on your head is the cause of all this trouble. I've tried to explain that there is no dew here, but I'm making no headway.

I was feeling quite robust having been skipped over by the National Head Cold, when I made a tactical error at dinner on Thursday. I ordered a squeeze of fresh lime for my soda water. It came to the table looking lovely, and then the cook turned away and sneezed into her hands. (Dew, my ass.)


So, while we spent last week wandering around feeling pretty much like this..., we did find an up side to the whole thing. An opportunity to increase our Thai vocabulary!

Did you know that in Thai "runny nose" is "naam mook" or "nose water"? And, what we might colloquially call "boogies" our Thai friends call "kee mook" or "nose poop." In this same vein, my mother's "sleep seeds" are "kee taa" or "eye poop," and ear wax is (you begin to see the pattern) "kee whoo" or "ear poop."

Well, having significantly elevated the level of conversation in our household of late, I'll leave you with one additional thought. In Thai, the word for "stinky" is "men." (no comment)