The Haircut

Nov 28

You ever have one of those moments when you’re sitting in class, or a meeting, minding your own business, zoning out, until someone says something that quickly snaps you back into attention? I had one of those moments the other day. I was sitting in a meeting with the director of CCD, Koon Wasan, and the other volunteers, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I hear Koon Wasan say “…and they asked me to play Santa Clause for them, but I said, why not have Jeff be Santa Clause instead? So Jeff, you’re Santa Clause on Dec. 6!” A sentence like that captures my attention pretty quickly. The other day he told me that they really wanted him to be Santa Clause instead, but I’ll be able to be Santa on the other day. I have no idea what is going to happen that day, but I’ll be wearing a big red suit and saying Ho Ho Ho (only probably in Thai, I still have to learn that).
I went to get a haircut last Saturday too. That was an experience. The only word I know that has anything to do with getting a haircut is “pom”, which means hair. I didn’t think that word was going to help me too much when trying to explain to him how to cut it. I didn’t even know how I wanted my hair to be cut in the first place, so I knew right away this would be fun. I walked into the barber shop and one of the guys waiting for his friend handed me a newspaper. I gave him a funny look since I don’t read Thai and he just laughed and then handed me the women’s underwear ads instead. I thought that was funny. One of the hair cutting guru’s told me to sit down, and as I was walking towards the chair we exchanged that familiar look. It’s the look I often get when I approach someone and they can tell by the expression on my face that I don’t speak Thai, and I can tell from the expression on their face that I’m probably going to be lucky to get what I came for. Fortunately, when I started to mumble something in Thai to break the silence he simply pointed to the wall where there was about four pictures to choose from. I quickly pointed to the one in front of me and sat down. I’m not sure why I pointed to that one, I think I knew deep down that it didn’t matter what picture I chose, in the end my head wouldn’t look like either of those four pictures. I was right, but it’s still a pretty good haircut.