Riding shotgun

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Shorter entry today. Last night we got shown around Aran a bit by the wonderful E, rapidly becoming a favourite member of staff. We ate Korean-style, where you cook the food for yourself over a huge vat of hot coals in the middle of the table; great stuff. The morning started weirdly; we were waiting on the road for our usual lift when a truck pulls up and who should roll down the window but a policeman, enthusiastically saying ‘Klong Nam Sai’? We assumed that somebody somewhere along the line had asked this officer of the law to take us to school today, so we jumped in happily, and he drove us to the right place (stopping briefly to go into a shop and leaving his gun on the front seat next to me - I kid you not) - we thought no more of it until an hour later when Pi Tuy, the wife of our host teacher, turned up at the Soundlab (our home from home in school) looking a bit out of sorts. She had come to pick us up in the morning and was shocked that we were nowhere to be seen - an amusing case of crossed wires which didn’t seem to offend anyone, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before our flawed grasp of Thai forces us into some sort of grievous cultural boob.

We just taught a really good class, the pupils seemed (mostly)to enjoy and understand it, and some of them even seemed enthusiastic about our idea of an after school English club - would you believe it! It was a bit tricky today because Pi Nik had to leave the classroom early on so it was down to us; luckily there were a few boffins in the class who were able to translate some words they were having difficulty with. We are just about to go to lunch with the director of all the schools in the district; last night the teachers were racing around frantically cleaning the school in preparation for his visit, and E told Wiz ‘wear your skirt for him’. (She also described transvestites as ‘bisexual buffalo’, in a memorable turn of phrase.)

For now, that’s all folks.

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