Year of Volunteering: More...

Okay, let me start of with the bugs. If I was able to get the video to load then you got to meet my happy little friend. I am completely grossed out right now.

I'm sitting in the restaurant portion of Yaowawit so that I can be in a quiet area with lights... and what do the lights draw? Bugs. Big, small, ugly - not pretty. Bugs.

So back to the huge bug. I'm sitting here checking e-mail and this monster flies in and gets stuck. The windows have plastic rolled down to keep the rain out and this bug got through and can't get back out. He flapped around hitting walls and fans and making the most awful noise. The thing chirps and makes a noise like a locust. YUCK! Then he flew onto me! I screamed, brushed him off and got up and stomped around to find that he landed on my computer chord for my camera. GREAT. I went off to get help and everyone is either busy or off meditating with the children. UGH. So I'm stuck here with this lovely bug! If the video actually worked… you got the story twice. :-)

There are frogs and snakes and bugs. I saw a squished spider earlier that had a leg span of about 4 inches (body was only 1 inch but it had nasty long little legs)! There are also millipedes/centipedes here that can cause a nasty bite and leave your arm or leg numb for a day.

There are tiny ants and every other tiny bug imaginable. I have no idea what they are but they are everywhere.

During my break yesterday afternoon when I wasn’t teaching or online finding tools on how to teach little kids, I took a walk down below the school. This is where a plantation is, a small playground and a pond (or two?) and a creek. It’s beautiful. Definitely jungle here. There are palm trees, coconut trees, mango trees (by the way – green mangos are YUMMY) and a ton of other plants I don’t know the names of. If I’m able to post them, you will see a few pics from that walk.

Today I planned to teach K1, K2, and K3 however I was told that at 9:30 (after teaching K3) I would be taken to the primary and secondary school nearby to teach there. We drove about 3 miles (?) in a truck to the primary school where I met the teacher. We were told that I could come back later today for two hours, beginning at 12:30 and teach 5^th and 6^th grade). We also found out that the secondary school is on break for a week so I won’t be teaching there today.

We drove to the village of Kapong to drop off a couple letters and then to the hospital which is across the road from the entrance to Yaowawit School. I was very excited to see the hospital. Some of the children from our school were getting dental work done and the dentist was blowing up balloons for them. I took a couple pics of this. We then took this group of children back in the truck.

It was fun to get out and to see what else is nearby. The village of Kapong is probably 3-5 miles from us? And in this heat that would be a crummy walk. I’m still thinking of getting a bicycle as the roads are fairly smooth and the traffic isn’t bad (and it’s not too fast). There is a telephone about 1 mile from the school at a stand/vendor and definitely another one about 1-2 miles away.

Once back I rejoined my kindergarten class of K1 and K2. My goal today was not so much to teach them as to have them put their names on cards and take pictures of them because I am having a terrible time with their names! There are a large number of students anyways, but I’m also not familiar with how to say Thai names which makes it even more difficult. Each student put their name on a card (as best they could) and then I asked them what color they drew with. (Again… the lesson is on colors in English… so why not learn a little more, eh)?

After that it was time to have lunch at 11:30 so that I could leave the school by 12:15 to get to the primary school by 12:30.

Lunch was cabbage and chicken soup with rice and pork (both sliced as well as a type of sausage… YUM) with green mango for dessert. Green mango is wonderful. I sat with the teachers, Kru Noi and Kru Tan and really enjoyed their company. Kru Noi is helping me so much both with understanding the class as well with translating!

At 12:15 I road to the school – a driver comes and picks me up (one of the workers at Yaowawit) and we take a truck (Nissan or similar) and he drops me off. They keep asking me if I drive… at least I think that’s what they are asking. They are hilarious! I say I can drive in America with a steering wheel on the left but in Thailand… no way! The steering wheel is on the right and you drive on the left side of the road. I’ll pass for now! Thanks! My driver is funny though and we both exchanged words. He tried teaching me to count and I bombed. Some teacher! I can’t even learn to count in Thai and I expect the students to learn English?

OMG… big bug is moving now… he’s been hanging on my computer chord for an hour and a half. YUCK. It has huge red eyes and it’s UGLY. It’s repositioned itself from it’s back to upright and looking at me. I may freak out shortly but I’m not moving it until I leave!

Once we got to the school I started in the fifth grade class. They had a chance to ask me questions. These included:

- How old are you?

- Where are you from?

- What is your favorite animal?

- What is your favorite color?

- What is your favorite food? (ALL food! J )

- Do you have brothers and sisters?

- What is your religion? Try answering that you don’t have one! Hmm… I just said I was raised Christian. Keep in mind many in this area practice Buddhism.

I asked the teacher what she wanted me to teach and she said to teach anything. And then handed me a workbook with English words in it. I opened it to a page with animals and sea life and after asking them to tell me the words and pointing to the pictures, I remembered the Hang-Man game. We played hangman with animal names and then I had them draw them on the chalkboard. They laugh at my drawings. Can’t imagine why! These kids are good little artists!

After 5^th grade I was introduced to the 6^th grade class. I teach each for an hour. The 6^th graders asked a number of the same questions. I also went around the room for both classes and made each child tell me their name. I try to repeat them and they laugh at me! I get them really wrong! Some of the kids are shy and I have to ask them to repeat…and repeat… and repeat which then has the class rolling because I screw it up repeatedly! We played hangman in the 6^th grade class as well but I gave them harder words. They know some of the countries in Europe so I picked Germany. They had to guess almost half the alphabet to get it and it’s hysterical because I’ll fake that they got a letter or pretend I don’t understand what letter they’re telling me so the get louder and louder! For example they will say “P” and I will say, “What? D?” … “no, P” … “Oh… C” … “NO, P!!” … “Oh… G!” “NOOOOOO… P” … “Oh, I got it! P!” and then they scream “YESSSS!”

After class the teacher poured water over my hands to wash off the chalk and she gave me a glass from bottled water and gave me snacks as a gift. She is very kind. Her grammar is excellent. I may not know where an apostrophe goes for the name of a holiday but I can speak which somehow translates into qualified to teach. These kids deserve so much more than what I can give. I’m going to do my best.

The driver (same one I had on the way to the school) picked me up and we played the word game coming back. We were both laughing! My cheeks hurt from smiling so much with the children and my face muscles are sore!

Once back at the school I forgot that I was going with Kru Ish to learn how to dance! At 3:00 we danced for over an hour before I finally quit! Here’s a picture of me dancing with Kru James, the long term volunteer. They keep putting the foreigners together, although when I dance with the Thai women, they have me be the boy because I’m about 6 inches taller! This was SO much fun but I was exhausted.

After dancing I was able to break away and go shower (about 5:00 pm). I got back up to the dinner area around 5:45. Normally dinner is at 6:00 pm but tonight the children were suppose to provide honorary guests with dinner in the restaurant at 6:30 as practice for working in a restaurant. Unfortunately when I got to the restaurant for dinner at 6:30, the children told me that the restaurant was closed and that they had set aside dinner for me in the kitchen.

I’m getting used to this Thai time thing. Sometimes things happen and sometimes they don’t and sometimes they aren’t at the time we thought and sometimes we’ll do something completely different! Love it!

Anyways, I was able to eat with a couple of the teachers and I enjoyed chatting with them. We had what I’m going to call “Spicy fish” (this is called “keng som” if I got the spelling and translation right), which includes the WHOLE fish (multiple small 4-6 inch fish) and veggies such as green beans, cabbage, onion… mmm, rice and an egg omelet type of dish. Yum!! Although tonight’s spice was finally too hot! By the time I finished the dish my mouth was on fire!

Then it was off to find a quiet spot to answer e-mails and blog… It’s almost 9:00 pm and I need to go to bed soon. I struggle to get up at 6:00 and end up turning off the phone every half hour until 7:30! I don’t have to teach until 9:00 but want to get some things done in the morning.

And on that note… my friend the bug is still here.. 2.5 hours later! Ugh. That means I have to get him off my chord to go to sleep. Ugh. And now I’ve been joined by some giant bee! Sigh…

Lah gorn ka!! Good bye!

Be “hawpee”!!

jaz

As for the pics... they aren't in order so good luck and I'm too tired to figure it out right now. And ... perfect timing... the thunder is rolling in! Better jet before it kills everything!

Dinner