Day Na Po



cutting the banana tree on the cutting board

Today at my school they had a fundraiser they call Day-Na-Po (or at least that’s what it sounds like spelled out phonetically for you in English). They told me that Day-Na-Po is a traditional Karen instrument. I asked if someone was going to play the instrument at the fundraiser and they said no. I think it’s pretty silly to name something after an instrument and then not to play it at the festival but that’s the way it is I guess…

They had had a meeting several weeks ago about who was in charge of what. From the first time they told me about this day they said it was my job to sell balloons. I think they figured that was something I could do without messing up. They had been preparing and talking about this day for weeks, and I had spent time helping package coupons, sorting things, and just listening as they talked about the preparations.



How they had initially set me up to cut the banana tree

This morning right after teacher’s devotions I was taken to the kitchen where I helped cut up tomatoes, then moved on to heads of lettuce and finally they set me to cutting up the trunk of a banana tree for a soup they were making. You had to make sure the slices were very fine and how they set me up it was very awkward to cut and my hands were already tired from the tomatoes and lettuce. However, not wanting to disappoint I just kept on cutting. After about half an hour someone noticed that the lady who had set up my chair and the banana tree had done it backwards to how you should be sitting. No wonder I was getting so sore. Then, someone had the idea of using a cutting board instead of sitting next to the whole banana trunk on a bench. It became much easier and faster and I can now say I have finely sliced and entire banana tree. I don’t know when that will be helpful to say, but it’s an interesting fun fact… maybe.



this teacher was using the squat method

We finished preparing the food around 12, and so they told me I could come home and rest. My plan was to eat and then take a nap for an hour, however, a student showed up at my house so I talked to him for about half an hour. I always try to remind myself that even when I’m tired and have other plans I need to make spending time with people a priority. You never know when God will give you a divine appointment with someone and need to make the most of each opportunity. After he left I ate, and then still went upstairs and took my hour nap before taking a shower and heading to the school at 4 to start blowing up balloons.



blowing up balloons

When I got to the school one of the teachers asked if I was sick. Apparently between helping in the kitchen and coming home to take a nap one of the teachers hadn’t seen me and got worried about me. The story is that he sent students over to check on me and they came back and told him I had a headache. He was about to come get me and take me to the hospital when one of the other teachers heard and told him that I was just taking a nap because I’d had many late nights in a row between the field trip and the two nights of the opera and that tonight was going to be another late night. So, I narrowly avoided my first trip to the hospital.



good thing they weren't helium, I would have
floated away

We blew up balloons from 4-6:30. Luckily, as the teacher I just had to tie the balloons and put them on sticks. The boys kept rotating through whoever was available would come in and blow up balloons until they were too tired and they would make an excuse and leave and others would come in. We ended up blowing up over 650 balloons the first time around. Then, it was about to start, so I went out to the stand and started selling them for 10 baht each. I couldn’t believe how quickly they sold and that some people bought ten at a time to give to their children or relatives.



When the balloons were sold out a student had me help sell ribbon necklaces that were made like paper chains. I looked at the pole and saw that there were only about ten left so I agreed to help. However, it turns out that the 5 baht fee for buying a necklace is really just like a rental fee. They buy it, give it to the students after they finish dancing, and then when the student comes off the stage the necklaces are collected and given back. So, we had to keep selling the same necklaces over and over the whole night.



Oops, I forgot to explain what else was going on outside of my world of selling balloons. Each class had prepared and act or two to perform on the stage, and while that was going on teachers were selling things, drinks, a noodle dish, fried pumpkin, papaya salad, etc… there were also games going on in the back that some teachers and students were running. Plus of course there were balloons and necklaces for sale J



The goal of the night as far as I can understand was a fundraiser for the school, to get the parents and community involved with the school, and to encourage the students by having parents involved. I would say it’s similar to our PTO carnivals back home.

the only pic of performing I got that was semi good

Overall, it was a lot of fun, but you always have to have one person that tries to ruin your night. After everything was done and they had had the students that stayed behind pick up all of the trash, people were just standing around. It was almost 11 and I was tired after not having full nights of sleep the last 4 nights. I started to leave and was saying goodbye when one of the teachers who lives about half an hour away asked me what we call it in English when the people who live nearby leave before the ones who come from far away. I said we don’t say anything, if the activities are over and your job is done you are free to go whenever you want. She told me some word in Thai that they use when someone who lives close leaves before the people that are from far away. She was definitely trying to make a cultural jab at me that I was doing something wrong by leaving before she did. Her daughter who also works at the school and is my friend was trying to tell the lady to stop and that it was fine if I went home. The daughter could see that I was picking up on the underlying message and didn’t want me to feel like I was wrong for going home. However, the message was already sent so I stayed and waited around until they had left and then chatted with teachers some more until quarter to twelve before coming home. I was sad to end such a great day on a sad cultural note. However, such is life when working in another culture.