My first day of school

ready for our first day of school

Today was my official first day of school. The teachers had devotions at 7, then the students lined up for the morning assembly at 7:45. They sang the national anthem, and recited some bible verses and the Lords prayer and sang a song. After that they all filed into the meeting hall where they had a chapel service. They sang for about half an hour, mostly in Thai, but a song or two in English. Then, the chaplain gave a message. At the end of the service, I was called up to the front to introduce myself and they told me to only speak Thai. After that one of my friends took me to my first class (4/3) and left me there. Not knowing if this would be the case or not, I had kind of prepared an introduction lesson which went like this, introduce myself, give them a chance to ask me questions. Go over my name is________. My nickname is _________. I am _____ years old. Then, have them each go around and introduce themselves to me. I also checked to see if they knew the abc’s and could count to 100. For homework, they were to figure out how to spell their names in English, and if not I would help them the next class. For the final few minutes I played a game and had them follow directions like stand up, sit down, touch your eye, ear, nose, etc… Then after they understood, I had someone who messed up come up, and tell everyone what to do until someone else messed up. It seemed to go over well so far.

the boys side of chapel

After the first class I went and found my next class (5/2) on my own. I did the same basic lesson and it went about the same. Then, it was time for lunch. I walked towards the lunch area, not sure really what to do, but made sure I walked past some teachers rooms that I knew, and they in good Thai fashion took over and showed me where to go to get my lunch and how to get it, etc… After lunch they read for 15 minutes, then it was time for my third and final class of the day. I showed myself to 4/2 and taught the same get to know you lesson. After that class was over I went to the office and one of my friends and another girl were sorting shirts for sports day by class according to what color and size each child needed. So, I spent the next hour or so helping them sort out shirts. A lady came and got me and took me to buy a bicycle. I looked at them and asked her if anyone had an old one that I could use, or if the school had one I could use. The only time I’ll need it is to go to the market if someone doesn’t take me on their motorcycle, so it would be a waste of money to buy a brand new one when I might only use it a time or two a week. She asked the school, and I guess they had one and are going to fix it up for me. I’m not sure what that means, so we’ll see…

the girls side of chapel

I was exhausted by this point and was ready to go home at 4 when they said it was ok for me to leave. I hadn’t slept well last night because I was so excited about my first day of school, and then on top of that I was surrounded by new situation in my second language which I haven’t really heard for 7 months for the entire day. That’s enough to make one exhausted I’m sure.

The biggest surprise of the day was the age gap between the students in each class. For example, in one of my fifth grade classes I have a ten year old and a fifteen year old. I discreetly asked a teacher why there was such a big age gap and she said it is because some of the Karen students start school late. So, it’s not that they were held back, or are special ed, it is because they just started school late. That’s going to take some getting used to, but for them it’s normal. They’ve probably been together since first grade if not kindergarten with the older ones mixed in with the younger ones. It will take some more time for me to figure out how this works better, but for now that is a decent explanation and it makes sense to me. You can’t just put an older student who is just starting in their age grade because they don’t have the learning up until that point. Especially if they are Karen and don’t really know Thai because they have been taught the Karen language at home until they come to school.  I’ve also heard that there is at least one, maybe two orphanages nearby that some of our students live in, so that might have something to do with it too. I have so much to learn about this new school, and community. How wonderful it is to be living in a Christian community that reaches out and helps the least of these. I can’t wait to see what part I’ll be able to play while I’m here the next two years J