Today's lunch conversation

Me: what's so funny
Kasame: we laugh at Kru Nuu
Me: why
Kasame: today Kru Nuu forget teach
              he walk around school
              he look at uhhh... what is het in english?
Me: mushroom?
Kasame: ahh yes mushroom haha
Kru Nuu: haha yes i nong (confused)
Everyone: hahahah

haha for some reason i feel like in the states a certain someone would be getting fired after this converstation but its thailand so mai pen rai

Cambodia!

A month ago I was fortunate enough to make a trip to Cambodia. I had originally planned a 5 day trip but due to some luck in the calander, it turned out to be a 10 day trip. Though my time in Cambodia doubled, I would soon realize that 10 days couldn’t even scratch the surface.

There were 7 of us WorldTeach volunteers on this trip, all first timers to Cambodia. I was a bit hesitant to travel with this many people but it was a laid back group so in the end I had no regrets. One of the high lights of the trip for me was the first 3 hours in Cambodia on the  taxi ride from the border to Siem Riep. I sat in the front seat with our Cambodian driver, Choy, while midway thru the trip the 3 other volunteers passed out in the back. I stayed awake the entire trip determined not to miss a sight and was rewarded with many. One of the top sites had to be a moped driving by with 3 huge dead pigs strapped to the back seat on their backs with their legs dangling up in the air. (Haha, oh the things you see on mopeds have yet ceased to amaze me).

Anyways back to the ride. Choy hardly spoke a word of English, but we soon realized that he did speak some Thai! So we chatted with him for a little bit using our limited knowledge of thai. Our vocabulary quickly diminished and the conversation slowed. But before this trip I had promised myself that I would always learn a few basic phases before traveling to another country. So I tried a few out on Choy, and though he was not very impressed with my pronunciation, he was excited that I was trying.  So for the rest of the ride while the others slept, he taught me some basic Khmer phrases using the only common language we had… Thai! I was so impressed with myself for not only learning some Khmer, but learning it through only speaking Thai!

As much as I enjoyed learning Khmer with Choy, im not ready to say that a taxi ride was the highlight of my trip to Cambodia. But I will say the highlight of the trip, and one of the sole reasons for the trip, was our time spent at Ankor Wat and all the other ruins. My fourth grade vocabulary can’t begin to describe with words how amazing it was. The scale, the detail, the physics, the age, the beauty… all mind blowing. So enough words, here are just a few pictures of the highlights from our trip.

still missing a few pictures from the last few days but ill put them up when i get to it

5 o’clock traffic!

for the past two months, this has been the seen on the road behind my school.

 Prior to this semester, this road was rarely used but now it is the rice planting season and so everyone and their mother heads out to the fields to help out. So on my evening jogs, these are some of the friendly faces that I pass during the 5 o’clock traffic in my village.

the traffic is a far cry from… just about everywhere else. maybe one of the only places where i look forward to the 5o'clock traffic

Don't Blink

Shit i just did! there goes july! wow i can't believe how quick this semester is melting away. and i mean literally melting. it has been upper 90's and into the 100's for most of the semester. the only saving grace is that it is also the rainy season. most days get cooled off by a storm and so i am only dipping sweat onto my students papers while i am trying to help them, for only half the day. Anyways i know its been almost a month since my last blog (largely due to lack of internet) and too much has happened this month to go back and explain it all but here are a few pictures to show what i have been up too (more pictures will be posted on photobucket this weekend)


my students dressed up as fictional characters from stories written by one of the most
revered Thai poets




students putting their candles in the big center piece thingy



my students lined up in the candle vigle during a three day meditation retreat




an entrance to one of the temples at Angkor Wat





this was my favorite temples Ta Prohm, aka the jungle wat



look familiar?
this spot was in one of the scenes from "Tomb Raider" with Angelina Jolie



Embarrassing moment 1,872…

So today in class I was trying to explain the difference between driving a bus and riding in a bus. so I used the typical hand gesture of turning a steering wheel saying “drive” and then translated it to Thai “khap”. The students got it right away so I moved on to ride. The problem is that the Thai word for ride is “kee” but if you use the wrong tone “kee” also means shit. I was trying to gesture “ride” so I decided to squat down like I was “riding” on a bus seat. As I was doing this squatting motion I was saying “kee” but in the wrong tone so I was really saying “shit.” haha the students cracked up as I repeated these motions trying to demonstrate the difference.

“Drive”

“Shit”

“Drive“

“Shit”

Hahaha luckily I caught on soon enough. Then I embarrassingly avoided that word for the rest of class but the damage was already done. The image of Teacher Ben acting out how to take a shit in English class will be forever in my students’ heads. Haha mai pen rai.

"Chang" Quote of the Week: V

“Chang is the essence of life.Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.”

-Unknown

My week of teaching is about over! Tomorrow morning I am going to Wat Phra That Panhom, a temple, with some students for a 3 day meditation retreat. It is a very famous temple in Thailand and so I am looking forward to spending some time there. I am very excited to learn about their religion and hopefully one of the monks will speak English so we can have some conversations about what Buddhism is and how it compares with Christianity. One of my majors in college was Religion so I take every opportunity to discuss religion with anyone who is interested. I have talked about Buddhism with some local people around me but it is hard to have in depth discussions about religion when you can only speak a little bit of the same language. So I am hoping that since this is a famous temple that one of the monks will speak fluently in English.

After the meditation retreat, its off to celebrate the Fourth of July with the other volunteers!

Dtaam Naa

before

It's the rainy season here in NE Thailand and that means one thing for all the local rice farmers, time to dtaam naa or translated as "plant field." With all the rain everything has turned green again and the rice patties have filled up with water. Every morning and evening there is a rush hour of farmers riding out to the fields. Everyone helps out each other and it is a whole family affair. My students are even often taken out of school to help in the fields.

after

All this activity had prodded my curiosity until I finally asked if  I could go help dtaam naa. My good buddy Pi Kiow (the same guy from the water buffalo slaughtering) said that I was more than welcome to come out and give it go(haha thats not exactly what he said b/c he doesnt speak English but that's what I got out of his gestures).

So on Saturday Zach and I headed out to to the fields to give dtaam naa a shot. As we walked down a narrow dirt road to the middle of a rice field, I had a euphoric feeling that we were walking back through time 100's of years ago where there were no tractors, electricity, cell phones, or internet. We came around a corner, walked thru a time portal (a bamboo hut)...


 to see nothing but beautiful green rice fields being tended to by local farmers with their conical Asian bamboo hats. No roads in sight, no power lines, and no concrete. Only rice patties, trees, bamboo huts, water buffalo, and smiles from the local farmers. 

Pii Chai led Zack and I thru a maze of levies to the patch that was owned by my buddy Pii Kiow. All the farmers work together rotating whose farm they are working until everyone's farm was fully planted. We helped pull up the rice sprouts from the dense green carpeted area and then transplanted them into a cleared field where they are evenly spread out to give them more space. 

Pii Chai leading us 

separating the rice sprouts

transporting the rice sprouts

Zack and I planting the rice sprouts

 Zack and I put together covered less area than just one of the other guys and they were constantly correcting our form. It was hard work and I couldn't imagining doing this my whole life like these guys do. It's a simply life but I respect them for having the stamina to do this everyday.

 The amazing part about all this is that there are no big tractors to till the soil, plant the crops, or harvest the crops. It is all done by hand and it is a hard life and hard on the body. You see many old men and women who are permanently hunched over. Luckily we were only out there for an hour so I don't think I'll get to much of a hunch. It was an experience that I will never forget; the day went back in time.

Pii Kiow (center), Lae, and I at the end of the day

the week of crying babies

yes i did again. add another one to the list. this time i had made a 15 month old baby nearly jump off a table bc she was so scared of me haha


on a positive note i was not told but i..."saw your luggage. Then when I noticed the airline ticket, I put two and two together" ... figured out that i dont have to teach tomorrow so my weekend has already begun!!

"Chang" Quote of the Week IV

“Growth means Chang and Chang involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown.”
-George Shinn


Don' go through life scared to take that first step. It may be the hardest but it could change your life forever!


Posted 2 new albums on photobucket: Dtaam Naa and Wai Kru Day
http://s1112.photobucket.com/home/marchettib11/index


On a side note, I made another baby cry this past weekend ); I was at the local fresh market and one of the food vendors had an infant with her. They were looking at me(everyone is always staring at the falong) and so I smiled and waved. The baby stared out of confusion at first and then began to cry because he had never seen a foreigner before. Haha I guess you can't make everyone happy

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find out what it means to me!

Ok  so I know the title is cheesy but deal with it. I was brought up by my parents to respect everyone, especially your parents, elders, and superiors. What they have taught me has stuck with me and I feel like I am very respectful to everyone. But… the Thai’s are on a whole other level. I don’t bow my head when I walk in front of an elder. I don’t wai (put your hands in the pray position with fingertips at your nose and slightly bow your head) the teacher every time I am handed something… especially homework. I don’t stop in the hallway to wai a passing teacher. I always correct the teacher when they make a mistake. And I have never bowed my head to a teacher’s feet out of sincere respect for that teacher.

But these are some of the things that all my students do for me. It is truly amazing how much respect they are instilled with. They are brought up to respect their elders but it doesn’t seem like it is forced upon them. It is something that seems to be accepted by all with out having to cram it into their brains like when you see old school nuns in the movies walking around with a yardstick saying “You will respect your elders! You will obey what they say! You will not question them!” It is just different here; everyone respects each other and especially their elders.

Last week was Wan Wai Kru, Teacher Respect Day. Morning classes were canceled, nothing out of the norm, and there was a ceremony for all the teachers. Every grade made two decorative offerings that were hand made, one for the boys and one for the girls.Students presented these offerings in front of a Buddha statue.

Then walked on their knees to the principle and vice principle, gave the offerings to them, bowed their head to the ground, the principle would then touch the students head (the head is a sacred part, you never touch an elders head), and then the students crawled away. 

After all the offerings were made, the teachers lined up in the front. The students brought some time of flower arrangement to give to a teacher and so they came up one by one duplicating the same ceremony as with the principle but presenting the flowers to a teacher.

It was a very impressive sight and it was then that I realized just how much respect is instilled in this culture. Thailand is known as the land of smiles and it truly is, but why? I have been here for nearly 9 months now and I have yet to seeing any bullying or picking on each other! I have never seen students fighting or arguing. And I have never seen any of them crying. How is the so? How are they so friendly respectful to each other? I asked a co-teacher the other day about whether bullying was a problem here in Thailand. He didn’t understand the question and so I explained that bullying is when on student picks on another or is not nice to that student. And still… he did not understand the concept of purposely not being nice to others. Is being friendly and respectful that engrained in the people of this culture that they don’t even know of the other? On the other hand, this isn’t a utopian society and so I know it probably still goes on a little bit but it hasn’t been anything serious enough for me to pick up on yet.

My students here are all very beautiful. They know how to be kids! They are always laughing, giggling and playing. They still have their child like innocence and respect is engrained in them. I don’t want to  get a head of myself here because as with all people, Thai people and culture are not perfect. There are many problems, just as in any society, that need to be addressed. Again I will not get into this right now but one of the things that this culture has gotten correct is the respect. I still consider myself to a very respectful person but what respects means to me is no the same as it means them.