Sawadii Khop,
Su-baai dii mai (how are you)? Phom mii-khwaam-sook (I am happy). My Thai is slowly coming along “keep...keep on truckin, alright good stuff“ -quote from Old School. If anyone remembers me in French class, you would know that my foreign language skills are not my strong point… Now that I am thinking about it, the English language isn’t even my strong point. Just ask Coach Arnold how I did in his class. If I had told him back then that I was going to be an English teacher, he would have just laughed. As a matter of fact, the week before I left I did tell him that I was going to be an English teacher in Thailand and of course, as I predicted, he just laughed.
My last blog was at the end of orientation just before I was about to move out on my own. The last night of orientation, our host school had a going away dinner party for us. We all wore our new traditional Thai shirts from Mr. Narong and Pla Plak’s Director. In my last blog, I mentioned that Mr. Narong told us that he was going to get us all a shirt like his because we said we liked his. Sure enough, Mr. Narong and the Director of our host school showed up on Wednesday with a shirt for each of us.
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| Volunteers, faculty, and students at host school, Pla Plak High |
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| Last nigh of orientation in our matching Thai shirts |
Anyways, it was a very nice dinner and a pleasant night, but what would Thai party be with out karaoke. Yes there was a, there always is a, karaoke system with someone singing. Right when we first arrived, a Thai person immediately jumped into action and began singing and the singing did not stop the entire night. Many of the volunteers took their turns and some were really good. And yes, I too was forced to sing a song. Of all songs, they picked “my humps” by the black eyed peas, for me to sing. It was a disaster. I had no idea what the words were and they were moving so fast on the screen that I eventually had to give up hahah. Mai pen rai. Maybe I will choose the song next time and it will most likely be a simple song like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”
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| Rambo, the police chief, breaking it down to Shakira's "Waka Waka" |
The next day, Thursday, we were off to NKP(Nakhon Phanom City) to get our work permits and then back our host school where our Directors would pick us up to take us to our own schools. I was excited to finally meet my director because I was the only volunteer who hadn’t met his director. But sure enough, there was a last minute plan change, so stereotypical of Thai people/culture. Director Vhit Nai ( really nice guy, we will get along just fine) and Mr. Cho Chan showed up in the morning to pick me up before we left for NKP instead of afterwards. He decided that he was going to take me himself and then afterward go straight back to their/my school instead of going back to the host school. Luckily, I was already packed up and so we loaded my stuff into the back of a truck. I had to quickly say my goodbyes to everyone disheveled because I was not expecting to have to say them so soon. Then I hopped in the truck and I was off.
After getting my work permit in NKP, we headed back to my new school Wang Gra Sae. The semester had actually already started so all the students were there going to their classes. Mr. Cho Chan gave me a tour of the school and took me to every class to introduce me to all the students.
So this is what it feels like to be a celebrity! All the students were so excited to meet me and the girls were all giddy. Mr. Cho Chan would introduce me and would always ask the students: “isn’t he handsome?” And all the girls would say “lhaw” (handsome). Then the girls would ask if I had a girlfriend and they would say “oooowwwwoooo!” when I said no. Haha it was a good self confidence booster. Living in Asia is a good self confidence booster in general. They think our pale skin is attractive so when ever you meet someone they always say “oh so handsome” or “oh so beautiful.”
My first day of class… “Back to school! Back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool! I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight” –Billy Madison. Man was I nervous. I had my lesson plan in hand, but no idea how effective it would be. My first three classes were all M1, our equivalent of 7th grade. Elementary school is labeled P1-P6 (1st-6th grade) while high school is labeled M1-M6 (7th-12th grade). As I anxiously stood in the front of my classroom, over thirty hyper little he/she devil M1 students filed into the classroom ready to tear me apart. OK, so it wasn’t that bad, they were actually pretty good. I think they were just very excited to be in my class for the first time. My lesson went decently and with a few minor changes it actually worked really well. I ended up using it for every grade’s first lesson.
The first day was over, and I survived with no major casualties. I was feeling pretty good about the day and was excited to go play some footbon with the students. But wait, what do you, another famous Thai stereotypical event, no heads up about a mandatory meeting/event. Haha mai pen rai. It was the beginning of the semester faculty meeting. It began at four and it consisted of our director talking into a microphone (Thai’s love their microphones) for over three straight hours! There was very minimal input by anyone else and it was all in Thai so I did not understand a word of it. Meetings like these are very typical and I think that Thai’s must pride themselves in being able to talk on and on about the same thing for hours and hours, hahah. I mean teachers do the same speeches to the students every morning regardless of any students listening, and often times making the students 10-15 minutes late to class.
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| The court |
Dak cawl is an awesome game. I am hooked on it. It is incredible some of the things that these kids can do. The net is about eye level and the players can get their legs so high that they are able to spike the ball down with their feet on the other team’s side. They are able to do a full bicycle kick, on pavement, completely upside down vertically, then put their hand down and complete the rotation with their body. Basically they are doing a complete back flip while they spike the ball with their feet. I can not do it yet, my version is not very graceful, but hopefully by the end of the year I will have it down.
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| The Serve |
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| The finish |
The faculty members at the school maybe around 25 of them) are all so friendly and eager to practice their English with me. It is a fairly young staff with most teachers being in their 20’s or early 30’s. I have made friends with a lot of them and most of them live on the school campus, like me, during the week. It is a fun atmosphere and a lot of the teachers are very active. There are 4 or 5 of us who start out coaching/ playing everyday with the students in different sports. When the students go home, we all meet at the dak cawl court or the puh dtong (Thai version of bocce ball) court, both of which are right in front of our houses. Our houses are in a row back behind the school. There are a total of 4 ½ houses, haha one is literally just a shack on stilts and I am not sure if anyone actually lives there even though there are always cloths hanging on the cloths line. Many of the teachers have families else where but instead of a long commute everyday; they will stay on campus most nights during the week.
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| Some teachers play puh dtong |
My roommates are Pii Don and Pii Yu who are married and Pii Awn who keeps to herself (Thai’s use Pii in front of names to show respect to someone who is older, kind of like how we use Mr./ Mrs.). Pii Don is 28 years old, a physics teacher, and he is a genuine guy. He really cares about the students and teaching. He is very patient with me and is always happy to show me how to do something if I don’t know how. Pii Yu cracks me up. She is a chatty Kathy but she does not speak very good English. She doesn’t let that stop her though, and she won’t give up until I understand what she is trying to say, this often takes 20 minutes to get her point across. Hahah and then she will go on to the next thing she wants to say and just does not stop. She will try to talk all night. It can get a bit frustrating sometimes for both of us when we try to talk, so we end up just laughing at ourselves. I think Pii Yu expects me to be able to understand her like Kate, the volunteer last year, was able to after being here for a year. Pii Yu forgets that communicating with me now was probably the same same as communicating with Kate when she first arrived (in Thai language they use a lot of double words ie; they would say “alloy mok mok” or “delicious very very”). But I really enjoy talking to her and it is good practice for me and my Thai. Everyone else just wants to speak English with me so I don’t get to practice as much as I would like.
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| An unbelievably beautiful building that is all hand carved |
My first week was over and it was time for the weekend. But of coarse, the Director asked/ told me on Thursday afternoon that I would be going to the temple with some students for the weekend. I was actually impressed that he told me a whole two days in advance, haha that’s him being courteous of my culture knowing that we like to have things planned out more. So, Saturday morning we headed to a temple that was about an hour away up in some small mountains. It was a beautiful temple and I got to see a Buddhist ceremony. Other than that the teachers literally just sat around all weekend and hung out. Mai pen rai. I got some good reading in. On our way home on Sunday about 45 of us packed into one seung tao (truck/bus). About half way through the ride home some of the students decided to climb up to the roof while we were on the highway. Of course, I decided to join them because I was tired of being cramped in so I climbed up top with the student. They thought that it was great that I was up there with them. One of the students played some music thru his cell phone and we cruised on home… good way to end a weekend.
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| Monks always sleep out in the woods |
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| Monks at a Buddhist ceremony |
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| Buddha is getting a fresh coat of paint |
The second week has been good and I am starting to settle into a routine. I am busy all day long which is good because I like to always be doing something. Teaching is going to be a little bit difficult the first couple of weeks while I try to assess how much the students know in each grade. Lesson planning is hard because I have no idea if the material is too hard or too easy/ already learned the material. But I am really enjoying teaching and working with the kids. The kids are very cute and sweet, but the young ones have a lot of energy so they can be hard to control. Where ever I go, the students are excited to see me, again I feel like a celebrity. They are always greeting me or yelling “Hello Teacher Ben” from across the court and then will giggle when I say hello back.
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| Students going home after school on the school bus |
I am truly happy here teaching and experiencing a new culture. This is exactly what I wanted to do and I am blessed that God has allowed me to be here and to find something that makes me so happy. I know he has a plan for me, even though I do not know exactly what it is yet. This is where he wants me to be for now and I know this experience will prepare me for what he has in store for me next, what ever that is/ where ever that is. I would not be here though with out all the love and support that I have had through out my life from my family and friends. You have formed me to who I am today and I thank you for that.Mai pen rai,
Ben
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