Final day at Samkhok School, 10-10-10

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I walked down the driveway bordering Samkhok School’s soccer field on one side and the hectic marketplace, located at the temple’s front parking lot, on the other.

Proceeding along the sidewalk contiguous with the temple grounds, then through the back building courtyard, I joined my fellow teachers in the auditorium, behind the EP classroom building, for the Sunday celebration that concluded the school semester. The room was packed with monks from the temple, other local dignitaries, the students and their family members, and the Thai teachers and staff.

We took our seats to the right of the stage, directly in front of the booming loudspeakers. The ceremony began with a blessing from the temple's head monk and included a parade of speakers -- including the Mayor-Lord, the School Director, and the Activities Director.

Interspersed with the speakers, students provided several musical numbers and short skits.

On the wall to our left, next to the stage, loomed a large picture of the King, this time showing him as a young monarch in all his finery (he is currently in his mid-80's).

After awhile my body could no longer survive the jarring vibrations of the loudspeakers and I escaped to relative silence in the courtyard areas, where many tables were situated -- some filled with food and drink, others with information about the school and its activities. People milled about, indulging in table fare and socializing under the shade trees.

Gradually working my way past the construction site adjacent to the teachers' lounge -- a part of which also served as one of our English classrooms -- I decided to pay a final visit to the dreary second-floor classroom that we had spent so much time in (Hodge and I split our classes into two sections and traded off between the second-floor and teachers' lounge classrooms).

The construction had begun in earnest shortly after our arrival in May. Often during the school day loud piledrivers would compete with teachers' voices for the attention of students. Not surprisingly, the piledrivers frequently won the battle. At times I found myself shouting simply to be heard at all – not a helpful scenario when trying to teach the nuances of the English language.


(-- An opinion about noise: A big surprise to me is that Thailand generally seems to have no understanding or interest in the subject of noise pollution control. Classrooms can be very loud and students are inevitably conditioned from a young age that talking over each other is a “normal” part of the school experience. Some Thai teachers use microphones with attached PA speakers in their classrooms in order to be heard above the noisy students.
Away from school, street vendors in pickup trucks wind their way down avenues and side roads with speakers on top of their cabs that loudly proclaim the latest bargain awaiting some lucky customer. In addition to the expected nightclub and bar noise, restaurants also serve up jarringly loud background music and/or karaoke, which seizes control over the natural ambience of the venue.
Personally, I find continuous shouting as the required method of communication to be exhausting after a time and consequently I'll seek a quick escape route; fortunately, it is usually possible to do so; at other times, it’s “grin and bear it.”)


After the ceremony we mingled with the crowd, took pictures and said our goodbyes. A few weeks later I started working at my new school in Nonthaburi, happy to engage in a new set of experiences.

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Photos

(l to r) Joy, Gary, Whitney and Amanda
sitting in the auditorium amongst the dignitaries