by Dr. Iain
Corness
The treasurer of the Pattaya International Ladies’
Club is Jan Kershaw, a vivacious, auburn haired, blue-eyed English lady.
She is living proof that ex-pat women in Pattaya should not just be
thought of as overindulged bored females that spend their days in ‘cat
and coffee’ sessions.
Jan was born in Cheshire, moving to Essex at age three
years when her surveyor father was transferred. She was a good student who
harboured the desire to become a nurse; however, poor advice on her choice
of subjects taken at the A Level exams meant that she was qualified for
university entrance, but not for nursing training.
Accepting the situation was one where fate was taking a
hand, she took on a three year course to become a botanist. While
university training is always beneficial, when she graduated, the world
was not indicating much of a need for career botanists, so she took
anything that came along that required a degree. She became an ‘Abstractor’
for the Textile Research Institute. This is a librarian style of position,
scouring technical journals for items relating to, in this case, textiles.
However, she very quickly became bored with this and
was then offered a position as a microbiologist with the institute. This
was more suited to her inquiring mind and she spent four years, in her
words, "Making mud pies with micro-organisms" which was in fact
researching such varied projects as trying to improve textiles by using
micro-organisms or manufacturing non-woven textiles using fungi. A sort of
grow your own T-shirt!
Research does not financially reward its workers and
after four years Jan felt it was time to make decent money. The
pharmaceutical industry was looking for representatives to visit country
general practitioners and was prepared to remunerate their reps quite
handsomely. That was the upside of a career that she held for the next
eight years. The downside was that as a country rep she had to look after
450 GP’s in an area of 3,000 square miles. The rigours of 50,000 miles a
year of travelling were eventually exchanged for the rigours of changing
50,000 diapers. Jan, by this stage married to a Foster Wheeler engineer,
was pregnant!
Her two daughters came three years apart, which was
enough time to allow this active woman to become part of the society at
large again. She became involved in voluntary work ("I just seemed to
get roped in") and took courses in book-keeping, the French language
and business computing. Jan described this as, "I was trying to
combat the ‘moose-head’ syndrome that mothers with small children can
get."
One of her ‘anti-moose-head’ devices was travel,
and when her husband was transferred to Japan for a year in 1997, she
grabbed the opportunity with both hands. "I always wanted to travel -
and not have to pay for it," she said with a grin.
After Japan, it was back to jolly old England for a
short spell and then came the offer for her husband to come to Thailand.
They jumped at it, though Jan did admit, "Thailand takes a bit of
getting your head around!"
Jan knew from previous experience that she had to
become involved with something here in this latest chapter of her life,
and initial contact with the Pattaya International Ladies’ Club (PILC)
was made. This pointed her towards charity work with the Fountain of Life.
"This helped me as much as it helped them," she said with
conviction. When the English teacher left the Fountain of Life, Jan
stepped into the breach. Again she saw the advantages that this was giving
her too, "I learned a lot, by trying to teach (the children)
English."
She feels that relating to the children was beneficial
in that she could then compare these underprivileged children with her own
two daughters (now 9 and 6). She has come to the conclusion, "Kids
are basically just kids at the end of the day. It’s good for my own kids
to be exposed to the (Fountain of Life) kids too, and my children just
love to go there."
As far as being an expat wife with too much time on her
hands, Jan is finding it is quite the opposite. "I can understand the
image of expat women, but I have so much to do I have no time left."
Now the treasurer of the PILC means that she is today a lot more involved,
and a lot less time to spare for hobbies. One of these is singing, and
this has ranged from amateur opera in her 20’s to even being in a choir
to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London. A newer hobby is
snorkelling, which she finds she really enjoys and is looking forward to
exploring the Australian Barrier Reef next year during Songkran. (If you
are going to get wet, looking at the wonders of the coral reefs is more
pleasant than looking at the wonders of Pattaya and talcum powder.)
She is sympathetic to those women who find themselves
‘dumped’ here in an alien culture. "Most expat wives have come
from busy lives back home, but here they suddenly find there is no
structure to their life. This is where the PILC is good as it can give
some structure to daily living, as well as helping women to meet other
women."
Her advice to the ‘newbies’ is not to be afraid to
join in. Only after joining should they then decide what it is they want
to do while they are here.
In her concepts for her future life is more snorkelling,
but going to more places to do this, combining both travel and sport.
Another item is to work on is her future career when she eventually goes
back to the UK. However, this is obviously something that she will choose,
when the time comes.
Jan Kershaw is a talented and intelligent woman, who has already worked
out how to enjoy the expat life - and keep sane as well!
