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Published: October 17th 2007
Day 2 English camp
Grades 4-6 at the Ao nang Beach!! We were the only two volunteers left at our school and were assigned a fun duty as English teachers for a 2 day summer camp. One day at the school, and one day at the beach. Who could say no to that? It only included grades 4-6, which was a breath of fresh air. Gotta love the little ones, but oh my!! We played a lot of team building games, and sport games. The kids love competition and are very athletic. Our English lessons focused on tourism in town, since that is the largest means of economy and jobs in the area. A lot of the school kiddos' parents are involved with the travel and tourism industry here. Day 2 included 4 hours at the beach! YEAH! A surprising start to the day-as we were following the "school bus" (a pickup truck with about 15 students in the back) on our motor bike through town, we were caught by the traffic police since we weren't wearing our helmets (who knew that it was a law here-99% of Thai people don't wear helmets, yes, we should have been, but we were saying prayers the whole time) . So, the kids saw us
get waved over to the side of the street by the policeman. He questioned Rob about where he rented the motor bike and if they told us to wear a helmet. Asked to see identification. Asked what he does back in America for a job. This is where I quickly interrupted and told the officer that we were teachers. "TEACHERS? Oh, good morning teachers, " said the officer, smiling!! WHEW!! A different tone now, thank goodness!! So, he graciously gave us a warning, on one condition-drive back to the school and return to him wearing our helmets. "YES OFFICER! Thank you, thank you, " said the appreciative teachers (us). Now we could breathe and be on our merry way!! Yes, another advantage of being a teacher and not just a tourist-no ticket for us!!! YIPPEE!! So, we enjoyed the rest of our beach camp day, officer free, engaging in fun in the sand with the kids, building sand castles, teaching English vocab, sent them on a team scavenger hunt throughout the town for English words, in which they had to draw a picture of the item and identify the name of the store in which they found the item! They
seemed to really enjoy this! Also played many water games which were hilarious to watch, such as lining up on the stairs leading the beach, one by one, in which one team member ran to the sea, filled a plastic cup of water, then ran back passing it to the next team mate, passing one by one to the top of the stairs, and emptying the water into a large bucket. One large bucket per team, four teams in all, what a funny game!! Lots of cheering, laughter, and water flying everywhere!! We even had an audience of numerous tourist watching this fine sporting event! It was a perfect beach day-sunny, blue skies, white puffy clouds, with a gentle sea breeze!! The day even included a packed Thai lunch, included white rice with a spicy pork side and vegetable side. We must say that was the best school cafeteria we have had since being here. That night we enjoyed a stroll along the beach, then stopped at a beachfront restaurant for a delicious Thai dinner, including fresh fish, the catch of the day, a fish I've never heard of-King Mankrew (sp?) which Rob had, and I enjoyed a scrumptious yellow
Fun in the sand and sun
A student captured this shot of Rob and the kids building a sandcastle. curry fish dish. We did share our food, which is customary here in Thailand, which is wonderful! As we ate our dinner, we had a beautiful view of the sunset over the sea. AHHHHH!! Very nice! So, we are headed to Ko Phi Phi for a 5 day vacation, or should I say holiday as they call it here, which should be a fun, relaxing, beautiful time! More when we return! Hope all is well with everyone! Love to all! We miss you!
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Cheryl
non-member comment
Yay for teachers!! Haha - it does pay off to be a teacher, doesn't it? What a funny story and a great memory! :) Love you guys!