coming home.

Oh my goodness. Where to start?! The past week has been a blur of laundry, dealing with jet lag, eating all the foods I’ve missed while being out of the country, meeting my newest nephew, lots of hugs and mini re-caps of the past six months and otherwise avoiding any semblance of reality. There are a lot of emotions coursing through my head and heart at the moment that I don’t know how to deal with, a lot of choices that need to be made that overwhelm me to the point of paralyzation…and I’m sure you’ll hear more about all of that later (lucky you!) For now though, I’m going to regale you with tales of all the adventures of the last couple of weeks and continue to avoid the reality staring me in the face.

The last few days in Thailand were spent packing and prepping for the kids’ Pride Day program and trying to squeeze in enough food, fun and memories to last me who knows how long until I get to have another adventure. It was hard to say goodbye to so many amazing people, the teachers I had the chance to work with, the kids I’d become attached to, and the girls who started out as strangers and quickly became my friends and lifeline.

Pride Day was the culmination of a year of hard work and all the quirks and foibles and cultural gaps all rolled into a couple of hours. The exact date was undetermined until about two weeks before, as were our exact roles and duties for the day. Once those were figured out there were hours spent planning dances and plays, arranging parts, and decorations, most of which were changed at least twice. The day came and the festivities were supposed to start at 9 and by 9:30 we were just beginning to get underway. The kids did their stuff, each class performing a short skit or dance while the ones who weren’t performing ran wild in the audience among the parents who talked the entire time. There were countless photos taken and hugs given and I admit there were even a few tears shed.

That night there were hugs and tears and laughter on the roof of our apartment building, and then a few more early the next morning before I said goodbye and made my way to the airport. It was with very mixed emotions that I watched Thailand shrink below me through the airplane window. I was surprised at how attached I’d become in such a short amount of time. And with so much unknown facing me on the other end of the runway it made it all even more bittersweet. But in between the takeoff and that runway at home was a two-week vacation in Australia and New Zealand. More to come!

the fabulous English teachers

a couple of the hooligans

program's finally underway

a few more hooligans!

the duck in the park (oh, and us teachers)

the end of a long journey.

I’m down to the last stretch here. It’s crazy to think that six months is nearly over. The time has flown by. We’ve finished up the last of the assessments at school and are working on our dance for the big Pride Day program on the last day. I’ve started packing things up and cleaning things out. We’ve got one more road trip planned and I’ve got a list of people I still need to buy gifts for. I’m officially out of here on March 22 but I won’t be back in the States til April as I’m heading home by way of Australia and New Zealand. I don’t know that I’ll get a chance to post again until after I’m home but I’ll have a lot to share once I do. Thanks for sticking around with me on this crazy adventure. I’ll see you on the other side!

a school sleepover.

All the kids here in Thailand starting in first grade are mandatorily involved in scouts. Every Thursday up through high school they wear their uniforms and do all sorts of scouty things. Last weekend all of the teachers were enlisted to help out with scout camp at the elementary school. Like everything else in the country it was more than a little unorganized and more than a little over the top. But it was also really fun.

We all met at the school at about 7 Saturday morning and divided into groups to venture out into the jungle (ie the fields and trees surrounding the school) to play games. Each class took turns rotating through our wilderness adventure games and fighting off the heat and the bugs for a couple of hours before snack time and a crowded van ride back to the school grounds. Next was lunch and some more games like a balance beam, a log roll, an army crawl with water and face painting at the end and an intense obstacle course where the kids climbed over a wall, ziplined over a river, slid down a muddy bank back into said river and then crossed over the river again on a tightrope of sorts before making their way back over the wall. They were all tired, wet, and filthy muddy by the time they were done. And they loved it!

After some showers and much-needed clean up everyone gathered back in the cafeteria to make dinner. The teachers supervised but the kids did a lot of the grunt work cutting veggies, cooking eggs and meat, and getting everything all ready for our massive meal. Clean up took a bit of work and then we had performances, singing and skits around the campfire followed by a run through a crazy maze of cardboard boxes before settling into bed.

The kids bedded down on the mats used for naptime but the teachers were stuck with the tile floor which meant I ended up getting about half an hour of sleep that night and the 7am wake-up call Sunday morning came way too early. Some of the more coherent risers joined in group aerobics before breakfast and then we had to clean everything up and get ready for parent pick-up. All told it was only a little over 24 hours and felt like three days. But the kids all had a blast and it was fun to interact with everyone in a more casual setting. You get to know people on a different level when you see them covered in mud and sleep deprived!

Just one more great set of memories to take with me back to ‘real life’ in a couple of months.

a random cultural gap.

The Thai’s have interesting levels of modesty. In the few swimming experiences I’ve had they all wear shorts and shirts. When working out they rarely go sleeveless or wear short shorts. And even tourists aren’t allowed into a Buddhist temple if they aren’t covered properly. Yet, like most other places in Asia (I’m basing this on the more authentic Asian experiences I’ve had in the US so maybe I’m off) they are also very free and open with their naked bodies. At local baths and spas and things there are no clothes worn at all.

At school after lunch the kids have nap time. They come back upstairs from the lunchroom, have a drink of milk and then strip down to their nothingness to brush their teeth and wash up before putting on pajamas and lying down. This in itself wouldn’t be all too terrible except that they’re four. Therefore they run around wrestling, touching themselves (and each other…and then me!), hugging me, engaging in ‘sword fights’ and the like before they eventually get their clothes on.

Not being warned of this in advance and coming upstairs after the process was well underway that first day I was greeted by dozens of naked babies running everywhere. It was quite the sight! Just another day in Thailand. Mai pen lai. :)

And just one more thing, in a list of so many that seemed strange at the beginning of my time here that I've gotten used to since then. 

(and in an effort to not promote child pornography I will show you this random picture of a Thai orchid instead of naked children at nap time!)

taking a field trip.

Every couple of weeks we take the kids on a field trip. We load all 28 of them (plus 6-8 adults) into a 16 passenger van (yep, Thai road safety at its best!) and head off to some fun locale around town. We’ve been to the planetarium, the aquarium, the local cable station, and this past week we ventured to the mall for a kid’s fair where we got to watch 4 short performances of fairy tale stories. I wasn’t sure what to expect (I never am!) but ended up being quite impressed by the productions. Each one had a different stage/set and we moved from place to place for each story. There was music and dancing and elaborate costuming.

First we saw Snow White (though I’m not quite sure what all of the story was told as no witch made an appearance and I never saw a prince, there was a lot of narration and ‘telling’ rather than actual acting out for this one.) Then we moved on to Red Riding Hood which was all done with black lights. It was pretty cool. Next was Hansel and Gretel, though again I had trouble following the story a bit so I’m not quite sure what it was all about. There were three witches here and a candy making machine and a few other details not found in the original story to add to my confusion. And last was Jack and the Beanstalk with a guy on stilts for the giant and a huge play set disguised as the beanstalk.

The kids had a great time and the people in the mall got a kick out of watching all of us troop back and forth in a train, each kid with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. We made quite the spectacle! Next up is the train station in a couple of weeks. Good thing we’ve had some practice. :)

a happy holiday.

It’s strange to celebrate a Christian holiday in a Buddhist country. There are enough expats here and I think western culture has crept in everywhere generally that they’ve made some concessions but it’s really just in name only. The mall has some decorations up; a tree, some lights, even some snow. And Santa’s face is recognized by many of the kids but there is no mention of Christ or the true meaning of Christmas at all. And none of the goings-on that you get in the US happen here. There aren’t concerts and endless holiday parties, no goodie exchanges or tv specials or 24-7 Christmas carols on the radio to remind you at every turn.

I’ve got my 1000+ songs on itunes that I’ve been listening to non-stop for a couple of weeks which has been awesome but without all the other trappings it sort of feels like I’m cheating and listening to it all in September. Instead it’s just a few days away.

We did have a party at school and they went all out. Each class performed a song/dance, the older kids put on a short play, and there were the ubiquitous carnival games and costumes. There was also a church Christmas program which was very low-key compared to what I’m used to. And after many delays and headaches my sister will be in town this week to do some traveling with me so we’ll spend the holiday together, which will be great, but we’ll be at the beach. (Also great, but nothing resembling a typical Christmas.) I’m missing the snow and hot chocolate, the lights, the gift exchanges, the concerts and performances, the cheesy holiday movies, and am homesick in a way I never have been before. I’ve been away from home for the holidays before but never been away from the holiday for the holidays.

So, drink some eggnog, go caroling and think of me. And I promise I’ll think of you while I’m snorkeling and drinking my fresh coconut juice! Happy Holidays from Thailand and I'll see you in 2014!

decor at the mall

getting ready to dance

Santa comes to the school party

my co-teachers and a mischievous elf

going to a festival.

This last week was a busy one. We had a lot going on both at school and in town. First up we had a rive harvest celebration at the school. We loaded the preschool kids up into vans and ventured a couple of miles over to the elementary school. The kids were dressed up in native costumes and the parents turned out in droves. We had a local man give a harvest demonstration and then the kids were handed sickles and turned lose in the field to do some harvesting of their own. They cut the stalks, pulled the seeds off the stalks and then removed the grains from the husks. It was quite the process.

They followed it all up with a little carnival complete with food, games, karaoke and more. Pretty much we’re just always looking for an excuse to not do real school work.

In conjunction with this (sort of) was a national festival Loi Krathong on Sunday. This harvest festival takes place on the full moon of the 12th Thai month (which happened to be November this year). It gives thanks to the river and sky deities for the rain/water/abundant harvest and sends wishes for more success to come.

Elaborate floating candles are made of banana leaves, flowers and even food then are lit and sent out onto the water (the biggest celebration happens a little farther north along the Mekong River but we had a pretty decent showing in the lake in our park). There are also paper lanterns that are lit, filling with hot air and then rising into the sky. (Think of the movie Tangled- same, same!) If you can forget about all the pollution it’s really magical. Like stars you can touch or really big fireflies. (Apparently some even make it as far as the west coast of the USA and more ufo sightings are reported that day than any other as people see lights in the sky that then suddenly disappear.)

There were a few in the sky the first night I got here, leftover from Buddhist lent and they greeted me like tiny beacons of hope and wishes for the best in my new adventure so to see the sky full of them was truly an amazing sight.

How was your weekend?

a package in the mail!

We got our first boxes of books this week!! Anyone who is friends with me on facebook will know the set up to this but let me give you just a bit of backstory here.

One of my all time favorite (and I truly believe most important) things to do with kids is to read with them. There are countless studies about what a good read aloud can do for a child’s developing language skills so imagine my dismay when I got here and discovered that my classroom had a total of 4 books in English! The principal had asked for suggestions on books to order but we’ve got limited access since many places won’t deliver this far. So, I put a plea out to the webosphere and I was thrilled by the response. Many offered to send books that their kids had outgrown or to gather books in their church, school, and scouting groups to send our way. I know the shipping costs are horrendous so I expected small boxes of maybe 4 or 5 books. Imagine my delight when the first two came weighing in at 20 pounds a piece and holding dozens of books each (including some activity books and flash cards)! It was better than Christmas. I opened them right up and did a bit of sorting to see which ones I would hold back as teacher-use only to fit with our teaching themes and then set the rest aside for kid use and daily story time.

The kids were as excited as I was! Instantly they were clumped in groups talking about the princesses or superheroes, listening intently to the antics of Arthur, Angelina Ballerina and Thomas as read by our intern and asking me if these were really all for us. It was awesome!

Thanks to Roger and Janeil for your amazing generosity. You’ve made a huge difference in the lives of these kids and saved my sanity! Whenever there is a spare few minutes where chaos is reigning or one of the other teachers fails to show (which, happens every day!) I know have something worthwhile to fall back on. You're the best!!

So I was all prepared to miss the Halloween festivities this year, I even watched Ichabod Crane before I left cuz I knew I’d get nothing of the sort here. How silly of me! Halloween is a big deal in some parts of Thailand. But it’s different than our American holiday. For one thing, ghosts are very real. Buddhists believe that the spirits of those who have gone on and not been reincarnated yet dwell near their families or the places they died. There are spirit houses on nearly every piece of property, small buildings like elaborate bird houses where the spirits can live without bothering the inhabitants of the houses that now stand on the land. The families present offerings daily and even have to add additions when the real houses undergo renovations so that the spirits will be appeased rather than jealously move into the nicer, human homes. So, when they celebrate Halloween it’s with a sort of ghoulish realism that involves a bit of the Day of the Dead and old fashioned All Hallows Eve type full of superstitions and beliefs. People dress up but it’s almost always something dreadful and gory. There is no trick-or-treating but there are plenty of parties.

At school, the kids all dressed up and we ventured over to the elementary school for some games and celebrations. They had coffins and blood and mayhem strewn all along the grounds. There were typical games but they were tweaked just a bit to make them more gruesome; like trying to eat the donuts dangling by a string (and dipped in jelly to look bloody), or sticking your hands in a box of cold spaghetti and being told they were brains (there was also a box filled with real live snakes and one with giant frogs). There was a short story that I couldn’t understand because it was all in Thai but it involved the gardener dressed up as some sort of freaky mud demon jumping out and banging cymbals together and then chasing the kids around the grounds. It scared me! And there were all kinds of kids in tears and having hysterics. This, it seems, was the goal. The more tears the better! It was definitely more intense than any school party we ever had in the States (ie, if we’d tried half of those things there would have been lawsuits galore!) All in a day’s adventures here in Thailand. Happy Halloween!

These are two of the other teachers. The one on the right has her head down but she pretty much looks like the chick from The Ring--creepy!

an example of a spirit house

going back to school

It’s been about two weeks and I’m finally starting to get the hang of things. I’m teaching at a private pre-school working with four and five-year olds which I’ve done before so there’s not a huge challenge there. Kids are kids no matter where they are from or what language they speak. The challenge comes in the differences between the American and the Thai education systems and ways of doing things. And those differences are vast.

The building itself is rather lovely. It’s open with long halls, doors and windows to the outside (though there is no a/c so all that openness also translates into HOT!) and the grounds are filled with a pool, playground equipment, gardens and trees. There’s a separate campus on the outskirts of town where the elementary is housed. My kids are the oldest in our building with another pre-school class (ages 3 and 4) and a couple of day cares (itty bitty 2s) rounding us out. Each class has a head Thai teacher, an assistant Thai teacher and then an English teacher (that’s me). We’ve also got a few specialists who go back and forth between the schools for art, Chinese and swimming. Between all of us and then lunch and naptime I teach about 1 ½-2 hours a day on average.

We’ve already mentioned the lax timetables and schedules that go on with the transportation here. Those bleed into the daily schedules as well. I’ve been given several different versions of the daily schedule and the school calendar, gone about doing some rough planning and laying out the targets and goals for my time here only to have to scrap it and start over when I’ve been handed a ‘revised’ version. This happens on the spot as well. I’ll be getting up to do my chunk of the teaching for the day only to have the other teachers move in and take the kids to something not on the schedule or have them sit down and give me the floor when I have nothing planned. This is a daily (and sometimes multiple times a day) occurrence.

Next is the discipline. On the whole the kids are great, though as I mentioned earlier, they are kids. When the actual teaching is going on they’re relatively attentive (well, as attentive as 4 year olds ever are) but when the teaching is over there is mass chaos. I’m talking screaming, running in and out of the classroom and down the hall, jumping on each other, you name it. And this goes on for 15-20 minutes at a time with the teachers just sitting at their desk doing whatever it is they do until they call things back to order and teach the next segment. It’s madness at an earsplitting level. At first, I tried to quell things. I’d wander from fight to fight pulling kids away from each other and trying to make my ‘shhh’ heard over the din. But as I realized the other teachers were in no way concerned or going to back me up on any of it I decided I’d just let it be. Obviously this is the MO here and I, my little old self, was not going to be able to change that. So, the chaos reigns.

And then there’s nap time! But we’ll leave that for another day. Trust me. It’ll be worth the wait. Suffice it to say, there are some definite adjustments to be made here as there are in all areas of my life at the moment. Hopefully in the midst of all the chaos they’re actually learning a bit from me. That is why I’m here after all!