Mobile Museum

In Thailand, you never know what is going to interrupt your teaching schedule. Today was one of those days where you just have to smile and go with the flow and enjoy what the mobile museum bus has brought to you. They had many artifacts and things that they shared with the students as they were sitting. Then, once the presentation was over, there were stands with information, several exhibits outside the bus, and you could walk through the bus and see different displays and artifacts. Definitely a cool experience. I enjoyed watching even though I didn't understand everything, it was still very cool.

Did I mention the dentists from the hospital in town have been here checking
the first and sixth graders teeth? You really never know what to expect on
any given day, which is part of what I love and hate at the same time.

Pancakes

What do you do when you've been fighting head lice for almost a month and want someone to check if you got it all, but don't want the teachers and students to know you have lice?

Invite another foreigner over who lives nearby and is about your age for pancakes on a Sunday afternoon with the catch that she has to check your hair for lice before going home.

Thanks Ann for the help, and enjoying pancakes together!!!!!!

Cleaning the Fish Pond

This was definitely one of my most frustrating moments as a teacher. Imagine my surprise when we are a few weeks from taking exams and I show up to teach my sixth grade class to find around six or seven students in the class. I asked where everyone was, and they said the director of the school had them out cleaning the fish pond. So, I went out to have a  look. Notice the boys on the right in their boxers, or school shorts rolled up wading in muck, while the girls in their white Karen dresses have scoop buckets emptying the other side one bucketful at a time.
I have to be honest, its been a long week, with scouts, and then the choir competition, and I had just got an e-mail that my great aunt had died. So, I went home, laid on the mat on the floor and cried for half an hour before returning to school for lunch and to teach my afternoon classes.

Choir Competition

Can you find me? It's definitely easier than a Where's Waldo as
I'm the tallest one around where I'm standing... Oops.

Here's a picture of the teachers with the students of the choir after they finished singing at the national competition. This year they had all of the teachers come to cheer on the students and see what the competition was like. I had a fever since Sunday, so slept the whole way to Bangkok, went shopping for a few hours with some teachers, then went to the school we were staying at and went back to sleep. I slept so hard I didn't even notice all of the mosquitos biting my face and legs. The students were a little horrified when they saw me in the morning. However, I'm glad I was there to cheer them on. They sang so well, and while they didn't win, they took first place in this teacher's heart.

Scout Hike

Day two of scout camp found me getting up at 5 to watch them exercise, then coming home to get ready at my house, then going back to where my group was. I met with my group of girls and made sure that things were going well as they had to cook breakfast on a fire by themselves. Then I went and ate where they were providing meals for the teachers. After breakfast we got ready to go on a 8-10 kilometer hike. They broke into 8 groups, and let them go out 5 minutes apart. There were several stations along the way that we had to stop at to learn about something one of the guest leaders had prepared. The students had to walk in a straight line holding their bamboo pole in a certain way, if one wanted to stop they all had to stop, they were also to pick up trash along the way. So, you can imagine what it was like when the leader found a piece of trash and they all had to stop and look for things to pick up.

I walked with my group for most of the way, then the last few kilometers ended up switching to a group of boys we were passing as they ate lunch and I was chatting with them. I must say walking with the boys was a lot easier, for some reason they didn’t pick on each little thing as much and they just enjoyed the hike and chatting with me. with both of the groups I talked with several students and got to know them a little better, which was fun to hear about their lives and compare things.

When we got back to the school they then had to go through a series of over ten stations set up with different outdoorsy type skills. I started at one station, then went in the opposite direction the students were rotating with so I would get to all of the stations and see most of the groups. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves J

In the evening they had a campfire in which it was opened by 8 of the 6^th grade boys dressing like jungle people with banana leaf skirts, and black paint on their chests. They did a sort of dance with torches to light the fire, however, they had poured a lot of gasoline on the wood, and one boys torch dropped a spark and when it hit the gasoline the whole thing ignited and the boys had to jump back. Definitely scary to watch as a teacher…Then the girls did a dance to bring in a pot with the group numbers on it for their skits. Most of the skits ended up to be about drugs, or loving your parents. After every two or three skits they would have some students play a game or sing songs. The one game they had a bigger student and a small student come out from each group. The bigger student had to hold the younger student like a baby, and then when the guy said the smaller student had to then be transferred onto the bigger students back like a piggy back without touching the ground. They went back and forth between these two positions several times until there were only three groups remaining. The guy then asked them if they would continue to do this for a week to earn something, some said that they would, then he asked if they would do it for a month for an even bigger prize, eventually he got asked if they would carry that younger child for 9 months for an even bigger prize. Then he said that that is what their mothers did for them, carried them for 9 months in the womb, and then took care of them once they were born. Having spent the morning walking and talking with several students who didn’t have parents, or whose parents had given them to someone else to raise, I felt bad for them, and wondered what it would be like to not have parents and then hear stories like this. Would I cry? Would I become calloused to it? Would I feel hurt? These are questions that I can’t answer and I hope that I never have to, but it does help me try to be sensitive towards the students and each of their individual home situations.

As the campfire was nearing the end I felt like I was getting a fever so I came home to go to bed and trusted someone else with my group.

Valentine's Day at Scout Camp

ready to be a scout for the weekend

The past few days I’ve been slowly getting together all of the pieces for a scout uniform. One teacher gave me her uniform that she can’t wear after having a baby, others let me borrow a hat, the pin, the bandana for around the neck, the piece that holds the bandana, the belt, shoes, and I had to find my own socks at the market yesterday which turned out to be quite the task.

the opening ceremony

I got up this morning and put on my now complete uniform and headed to the school. The school had asked a group to come and lead the camp, so the teachers’ job was basically to watch the students while the other people led the camp. At first they had assigned me to a group of boys, but then switched me to a group of girls, then a different group of girls. A teacher let me borrow a tent, but then when I went to set it up there weren’t any poles, just the tent, so I ended up tentless and ended up staying at the camp until bedtime then coming home and staying in my own bed J

with some teachers in front of the tiger the students all had
to go through

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves as you know I have more than is really necessary but want to share them with you.

students preparing to go through the Tiger head

going through

with my good friend and teacher who watches out for me
Kru Wan Pen
 

preparing the campsites at the school

they took a break to pose with me :)

boys cutting bamboo for something at their campsite. I was
very impressed by how much the 4th-6th graders could do

making a rack to dry dishes on, each group was required to have one

this group of boys used the soccer goal to make a shelter to sleep in

the teacher who gave me her uniform

the first meal was prepared by teachers, then they were on their own

I got to help dish out the rice using a bowl to scoop with

the only Valentine I got today, other than some stickers

my groups rack to dry dishes

a boy got hurt and had a cut under his eye and they wanted
cotton buds to clean it, so I went to my house and got some I
had brought from America. When I came back the boy was
gone, but when the teachers found out the cotton buds were
from America they immediately all took one and stuck it in
their ears...

they had to practice tying knots on their poles

then they had to work together to make
something copying the leaders and using the
different knots they had learned.

working together

the teachers split up the food for the weekend for each group

it was then my turn to go through the tiger, apparently you can't be a scout without doing it



coming out the other side

the girls working on copying the leaders creation

 

boys practicing their map making and following skills

after the rice was cooked they had to drain off
some excess water

the evening games and activities

the choirs impromptu performance without the director