Tuesday, September 9th

Today's plan was to teach K3, K2, K1 from 9-10 and then 11-11:30 and then to "tutor" about 5 kids from 12:30 to 1:00. One of the big things to learn here in Thailand is that plans change without notice good or otherwise. In addition to Thai time being extremely flexible everything about the day and the time off for schools is as well.

For example, a month ago I tried to find out when the school will be "closed" for the holiday. As I understood, the students have a break for about 3 weeks in October. I found out today that this break is from September 26 to November 3... that's 5 weeks AND they just decided within the last couple of weeks (I think).

So today's plans started off as normal, I taught K3 from 9:00 to 9:30 and at 9:30, thinking I was going to Kapong which is 3 km away, my friend and fellow teacher Kru Noi and Kru Gai (means chicken) and Pee Uum (Pee means older) and I drove to Takua Pa which is about 20 km / 40 minutes away! So I didn't teach the rest of today. Instead I purchased the valuable minutes on my thai phone so that I can make international calls and bought some other stuff that cannot be purchased in Kapong. I also hit the post office which is a real treat! A letter home or card runs anywhere from 19 - 29 baht. About $0.60 to $0.95. This is probably a treat I will only be able to do every couple of weeks as the post office is only open during the week and the hours are 8:30 to 4:30 pm. No Saturdays which is my time off. So unless someone is driving somewhere... I'm S.O.L. :-P

I'll post pictures later but this was quite a fun trip. Noi and Uum and Gai (pronounced "Guy") are very sweet. Noi (pronounced "Noy") helps me understand what everyone is saying and she interprets to English very well. She also seems to be looking after me. They are all incredibly helpful and sweet.

My afternoon and evening are free today so I will probably get some rest this afternoon so I can feel up to staying up at the school (about a 3-5 minute walk to my room) and do meditation with the children tonight. I would like to learn. The whole school (children that is) stops at 8:30 pm and meditates for 20 minutes. How the kids sit still that long is amazing! We're talking 3 - 17 years old! They also meditate in the morning too but I think that's not quite as long.

Dinner tonight. Rice, spicy chicken dish, sweet shrimp and cucumber (?) and egg dish. The shrimp have to be peeled and de-legged as you eat them but they are very good.









This truck is carrying what will become palm oil...









View from the truck for the next two... Thailand is beautiful.



















I have been DYING for orange juice and this is as close as I've gotten. The other side is English but I thought you might enjoy the Thai writing. :-)









Kru Gai holding the sour mango. I thought I was biting into something sweet which was rather funny for them because I squealed and hollered "Oye!" It was definitely not sweet. It's very sour and there is sugar (brown crystals) to dip it in. It's very good. There are also grapes in this bag with a sauce that is spicy so... yet another yelp from me!












This is Pee Uum. He's our driver and great fun. I really enjoyed these guys today!









On the left is Kru Noi, Kru Gai and me. We're riding in a little Mazda truck.









Kru Noi with fried banana. YUMMY. We also had fried potatoe/banana/corn ball that is very good as well.