Teaching

Hello friends!

Today was my first official day teaching. I have a lot to learn. In the morning I get to work with K1, K2 and K3 (the three levels of kindergarten). We are working on colors (in English) and numbers and animals. I have a lot to learn with entertaining and teaching and keeping them engaged.

You would fall in love with the children. You can hear their laughter and yelling all over the school. I love their happy voices. They give you so much love too. I'm getting mauled and loving it! They sit on my lap, hug me, grab my hand... ask me to sit with them... they are very sweet.

This school is really an alternative to an orphanage. Many of these children come from the poorest of the poor and have no other options or family. I'm going to put in a plug here, you can sponsor one for $30 a month. There aren't huge admin costs etc to take the funds away from the kids. You can also get info on the child you sponsor and send them things that would go to them specifically. They need school supplies too. We recycle paper and write on the backside of pages that aren't used. Basic reader books would be extremely helpful for the little ones. I bought a box at thrift stores and 2nd hand stores and had them shipped here.

Tonight I'm sitting in the dining hall (yes... there's a restaurant and hotel... please visit)!! It would be fun to see you and you will love it here! I'm plugged into my laptop and using the wireless internet. It's harder for me to break away during the day as that's when we're teaching and I can be learning things to help. I may get a chance to work with a highschool class nearby or help with things in the village. Not sure yet what I can help with but as I get my routine down I'll keep you posted.

The weather is generally hot and muggy with at least 1-2 good rain storms during the day. Usually involving a torrential downpour and thunder at some point! I love falling asleep listening to the rain!

I had a wonderful birthday today! The kindergarten kids sang me "Happy Birthday" repeatedly and each made a picture card for me that said "Happy Birthday kur Joyann"
"kur" is teacher. It was very sweet. One of the things they are taught is that when someone asks you how you are, you answer "I am happy."

I am happy and I hope that you are happy too.


Have a great week.
Cheers!
Joyann

Bus ride and Yaowawit School

Hi all,

This is one of the most beautiful places on the planet and I think it's even more so because of the children here. I wish you could see them and meet them. They have a zest and excitement about them that you don't see as much in the kids in the US.

Just to backtrack, here's a pic of the bus station from last night.











The bus ride was about 11 hours and although air conditioned I was fairly uncomfortable because I had my huge back pack on my lap or under my feet and couldn't get comfy. I also couldn't seem to get my A/C vent to work so I was still hot! Ugh. :-) The woman next to me was extremely helpful and patient and kind as no one spoke English so she helped communicate with me with gestures. Finally got some sleep. What's cool with the Thai buses is that if you are on an overnight one, they make a "dinner" stop at a place that provides hot meals as well as snacks and bathrooms. Yay!!! Although toilet paper has to be bought (3 baht). :-) When I got to my destination it was basically a quick - get off - grab your stuff and a drop you at the curb of what is called a bus station (where vendors were stirring and beginning their day and the morning sky was just beginning to get light). I of course was "harassed" (mildly) by a couple taxi drivers. :-)

Fiona, a fabulous Australian woman, one of Yaowawit's former first volunteers generously picked me up at 5:30 am!! I was able to shower and clean up at her place and she made me coffee and a wonderful banana smoothie. A VERY nice welcome to Takua Pa. She then took me on a little tour and we drove by the Andaman Sea. Her house is in an area that was hit hard by the tsunami. The buildings there today were rebuilt - nothing in that village withstood the wave. We drove to the beach where the memorial is. I took a couple pictures - we didn't stay long so I'll come back sometime to visit the memorial itself. The sea was beautiful. The boat is a fishing boat coming back in from a night out. Normally at this time of year it's monsoon season and the sea is too rough for good fishing. It's been a bit dry though this year. The other pic is looking north.










From there we drove the 30-40 km to Yaowawit School. The roads are actually great and well maintained (I'll probably be buying a bike). The valleys and small rivers are gorgeous. We drove by rubber trees which may be replaced soon by palm oil trees. The school is right across the road from a hospital. Turning into the gravel drive, you go up a couple hundred meters to where the laundry house is and my building and the buildings that house some of the teachers and others who work/live here. The dorms and classes and theatre are further up the hill.

Yaowawit School:
This is a view looking down the walkway from near the theatre and dinner building/library. The top floors are dorms for the children and the bottom floors are classrooms. For those that would like to visit, Yaowawit has a hotel onsite. If you are interested, we would love to have you!

The greenery is a picture I took near the office looking out over the valley.













My room: I'm in the top floor of one of the red buildings (not pictured). These are 2 stories. The bathroom and shower are two separate rooms on the first floor. My room is really nice. The first pic is a flag over my door. I think it's a prayer flag like the ones from Nepal but I'm not sure.

I have a large bed, desk, fan, lamp and armoire.























Today I just pretty much observed and participated a little with the kids. I will be teaching with the kindergarten age group. Tomorrow I'll get to do more and begin to see what other opportunities there are in the nearby community.

For those of you e-mailing or IM'ing me, the internet access is good here with the exception of when it's raining and thundering. Then we shut down the computers so they don't fry. The torrential downpour and storms are daily and as we get into monsoon season, it may become more difficult to be online at a regular time. Also, depending on my schedule I may not be able to access it as frequently although we do have wireless here so I'm on my laptop above the dinner hall blogging tonight.

(Dinner by the way was yummy! Rice with greens and a red and hot shrimp dish).

Best wishes from Yaowawit.
jaz

Map to Takua Pa

I'm not sure if this will work or not, but here's a link to a map of Takua Pa...

http://europe.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&country=TH&addtohistory=&city=phuket

Takua Pa is north of Phuket.

Okay so that didn't work. If you want to know where I'm headed, go to international maps on mapquest, type in Phuket for the city for Thailand and then go north on hwy 4 until you hit Takua Pa. The bus is taking Hwy 4 south from Bangkok.

Trip to Takuapa

Sa-wa-dee ka!!
"Sa-wa-dee" is hello. You add "ka" at the end if you're a woman and "krap" if you're a man.

So... Greetings from Bangkok! Yes... I'm still here.

How are things for you? Thank you for the e-mails. I am really enjoying them and appreciate the thoughts.

Today I was suppose to fly to Phuket where Kellie's friend Fiona would pick me up to take me to Yaowawit. (Kellie is my contact at the school). Small problem though... the Phuket airport is closed due to the protests and they don't know when it will re-open. I had to go to the Bangkok Airport to confirm the closure though because I couldn't get accurate information and I wasn't sure if I could refund my ticket. Definitely closed and there is no way to know when it will reopen. Options:

- Stay in Bangkok for several days in hopes that the Phuket airport will reopen or
- Take a train (these are canceled as well though!) or
- Take an 11-12 hour bus trip to Takuapa.

After talking to Kellie though, I decided to catch a bus and meet Fiona in Takuapa. There are 3 bus stations in Bangkok and the one I needed was about 45 minutes by taxi ride to southern Bangkok. (Unless of course the taxi driver ripped me off). He did try to charge me 100 baht at the toll station which is actually 25 baht. Nice try. By the time we got to the 40 baht toll station he only asked for the 40 baht. Looking at the map though, I think he took me the long way but I didn't feel like arguing as I wasn't entirely sure of where I was at and I'm a bit over trying to smile and argue with someone pretending to not understand. :-)

The train to Takuapa is about 11.5+ hours. I'm on a local bus (I think) so I imagine it will take longer. It took me until about 1:00 pm to get to the bus station and the next bus out is at 6:50 pm. SIGH. I have another 5 hours of waiting.

For the curious, the bus is 632 baht, has A/C and a toilet. There are ones that are VIP and potentially nicer as well as ones with no A/C or toilet. I didn't really care - just wanted the next one out and had trouble understanding what the options were anyways. Express? Local? I have no idea which ticket booth offered which and I had to go to about 5 different booths to figure it out.

I will arrive about 7:00 - 7:30 am Monday morning. Fiona will pick me up at the bus station which is very sweet of her. She was even willing to pick me up at 1:00 am so I'm very grateful! I'm not sure what the plan is from there - if we will go directly to the school or if we will be in Takuapa for a bit (?). I'll have to google Takuapa to find out where it is. [Okay... I have since TRIED googling it and it's in Thai!! You get English until you zoom in and then it all turns to Thai words and characters]!! Ah well.

I'm finding that much of this trip requires an ability to adapt and go with the flow. I'm actually not bothered by the five hour wait as I can update this blog (at an internet cafe called "The Next Internet" for 30 baht for an hour) and eat at any or several!! of the numerous food kiosks or just journal or write. There are of course touristy gidgets and stuff here as well.

The bus station is actually pretty nice. In addition to th shops and food, the place is pretty large and has A/C, quite the contrast from the Greyhound stations in the US! I was able to purchase an international calling card and minutes for my Thai cell phone at the 7-11 here. They are everywhere!

For those interested, e-mail me if you want my Thai phone number. I still haven't figured out how to access voice mail (the challenge of buying a used phone) but I do have text messaging. It's a pretty basic Nokia phone so I'm sure I'll figure it our or google for the instructions.

Happy Labor Day weekend!
jaz

Pics

View of the city from the platform for the sky train:










Jim Thompson House












New haircut:


















Video from the other day... the video didn't pick up the sound of the thunder over the rain. This is before it got really heavy. The sign in the picture is still upright. A few minutes later it blew over. The lightning and thunder looked and sounded like they were directly overhead. I was tucked under the awning in front of the entry door for employees that kept coming and going.

30 August, 2008

Last night I took my sheet thin blanket and laid it on the tile floor and slept with nothing but the pillow. Hard floor or not it was still more comfortable than the heat. The bed was too hot. There is plastic underneath the sheet on the bed which just holds heat and makes it rather unbearable to sleep. Even with the windows and ceiling fan it was too hot. I woke up early and moved back to the bed. It’s tolerable about 2 am until about 7 am. Then it's back to humid heat and sweat.

There’s off and on thunder and rain. I love the sound. I can’t hear it as well with the fan but I can still hear the thunder over everything.

I hopped downstairs for the internet and met a couple (Z and John) who have been traveling for about 19 months. They are from the US but looking for a country to live in elsewhere. The woman, Z, has been to over 90 countries (she stopped counting after 90). GREAT to talk to. I enjoyed her stories and information. In some ways we are a bit alike and have shared some similar experiences. They are fun and very easy to talk to.

Breakfast was banana pancake again and a cheese omelet and coffee and water. Sorry no pics this time.

After checking the web and paper for Phuket airport information (all of which is saying the airport is closed) I opted to spend the day lounging, going through my pictures and journaling, reading, writing and napping. I realize that there are things to see in Bangkok but this trip is also about self discovery and doing things I enjoy. And today I wanted to relax and read and do whatever I felt like. Temples and weekend markets… another time. Turned out to be a good decision as I needed the bathroom quite frequently today! Hmm… strange food must be catching up to me!

Later I came down for lunch and the internet of soup with noodles and chicken and met up with Z and John again. Another couple was there too, Robyn and Leor from Canada. We chatted and laughed for a couple hours. They are all a hoot and a wealth of information. And… they got me thinking about the Peace Corp. Hmm… let’s see… expenses paid and they pay for graduate school… but a two year commitment… SIGH. Ah well.

I checked online and there is still no information about the airport. According to the front desk it wasn’t the whole airport and Phuket airport is open. I’ll call the airlines in the morning when I check out to make sure. Good news.

I bought more water and my new favorite soda and am sitting in my room typing for this blog. I’ve had a wonderful day and really enjoyed the people I met. I also saw the couple from Ireland I met at the Grand Palace, the ones who recommended I check out this guesthouse. They are trying to get to Malaysia but can’t get a train so they are looking at buses.

This may turn out to be an interesting time to be visiting Thailand. If any of you are interested, I’m going to refer you to the BBC website for the updates to the why and what for the protests.

Well, I need to pack my bags and get to bed. I have to be up by 6:00 to have enough time to get ready and get to the airport.

I hope this post finds you well and having a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!

Much love,

jaz

30 August, 2008

I’m posting this a day late…

Yesterday, the 29^th was spent running errands. I intended to visit a temple or two but decided to visit the US Consulate first. I should have called first. Apparently they are closed on the last Friday of every month and as Monday is a US holiday (Labor Day – which I forgot about … you know … being in a foreign country and all), the Consulate is not available until Tuesday. I fly out of Phuket Sunday. Ah well. I’ll just register online.

The day starts off with getting up, showering in the shared bathroom. Then I took an hour to play with my new hair cut. :-)

Breakfast consisted of a yummy banana pancake, a cup of coffee and a small water purchased from the bar (pancakes were 50 baht, coffee 20 baht, water 10 baht). Internet café (free) is a must stop on the way out and then it’s off to the sky train which is about a 10-15 minute walk past the vendors and a mall called C or C Square. Day pass for the sky train is 120 baht ($4). I would need it for about 4-6 rides depending on whether I went to the temples and MBK and consulate).

It was incredibly hot and muggy again and I was soaked in sweat before I even left the guesthouse. Tip – get something to dab the face so I don’t constantly look like a sweaty nasty mess! :-)

The walk and sky train to the Consulate was a bit of a detour and no where near any of the touristy stuff I wanted to see so I decided to stop back in at the MBK mall to find a phone and a few other things. I purchased a used Nokia phone and SIM card for 650 bhat. (AIS and “1 2 Call” capable for those interested). This equates to about $20. I can purchase local Thailand minutes at any 7-11 for about 5 baht a minute (300 baht per hour ~ $9). I can purchase an international calling card at 7-11 as well. Apparently I can use the calling card from my cell phone and not get charged minutes by calling the calling card number and hanging up. That number then calls you back and you can select the options as you would had you not hung up. The benefit – incoming calls are free, outgoing calls are not. Cool trick! Learned it from a Canadian traveler staying here at the hotel.

That all took me until about noon so I tried the mall food – purchased at a food court. NOT a smart choice. Food was gross and not worth the effort. Bought three tourist shirts for 400 baht, hit the local donut shop (“Mister Donut” – although they do have Dunkin Donuts) and then walked the 1/3 mile to Jim Thompson’s museum/house/store. Jim Thompson was influential in helping to sustain/revive (?) the thai silk industry. He was born in Delaware, USA and was living in Bangkok. His house is a combination of several other houses brought in from elsewhere in Thailand. It is beautiful and was opened to the public. Jim disappeared a number of years ago and his house is still maintained as a museum. Entry cost is 100 baht. I took some pics but my camera didn’t seem to work well with the lighting and the colors aren’t quite right.

I walked back to MBK and caught the sky train back towards my guesthouse. (Requires a transfer and I got on the wrong direction the first time – I can’t get this left/right thing straight and keep getting it wrong). Not that hard, but when you’re tired it’s hard to keep track.

I stopped at the C-Mall on the way back and purchased some art supplies for drawing. There is also – my favorite – a store at the top floor similar to a Fred Meyers. Yay!! No bartering and I can find things! I bought two polo shirts for volunteering and an umbrella and cheap rain coat (similar to a big plastic bag with snaps) and slippers. FINALLY!!

One of the vendors on the way back to the guesthouse had those yummy taco looking things with the coconut and marshmallow treats so I bought one (2 baht). YUM.

Back at the guesthouse I promptly showered and went downstairs for a bite. I had green curry pork for dinner. Yummy but spicy. My standard Schweppes Manao Soda (lime?) and water. The staff here is very nice and helpful. The other guests are easy to talk to and enjoyable.

There are some protests occurring so the train station appears to have cancelled several trips to Phuket from Bangkok. There was question as to whether the airport in Phuket was closed as well. Worst case I just wait a few days until the airport opens or catch a bus.

After dinner I sketched and wrote and looked at pics from the temples.