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Published: July 21st 2006
Three weeks have amazingly flown by since my last entry. I moved from Nong Khai to Ho Kham village on the first of July and have been here since. Ho Kham village is about 110 kilometers from Nong Khai and is a medium size village. I have been Staying with the Pee family at their home only 5 minutes walk from the school.
LIVING in Ho Kham for three weeks I feel like I understand Thai culture and life style more than Korea’s, despite the fact I spent 5 months living there.
Village life was simple to me at first. I met the smiling faces of the children at class and joined them in games of volleyball when we finished. I tutored children and toured the countryside with my host family. I met kind hearted families and teachers willing to do anything to make my stay here comfortable.
The more I talk to with the people here the more complex I find village life to be. The poverty is harsh, but the family situations are even more devastating. You won’t see it in the eyes of the students or the people in the street; it is not Thai
Meokung Rever and Laos
Looking out from the main Road in front of the Village templeculture. Here I have learned that asking questions is the only way to really know how life is. In Korea I observed. Here I have to ask.
I ask because I came here to KNOW what the village is like. I want to know and be involved in the lives of the people. I did not come have a conceptual experience and a nice pat on my back for doing service work. That I could have done in the United States.
Never have I felt so powerless in all of my efforts and resources to help these people. There aren’t the “poor, rich and average” children. They are all poor.
Working as a teacher bothered me drastically at first. Many students do not pay attention in class. The teachers do not punish for lack of participation. No one takes notes and they never do home work. The teachers never even assign homework. It was different than what I was use to and the lack of organization drove me crazy.
It was later that I found out the children worked at night. After school they go home to eat and take a shower. After that they go
Film and I
Film is my younger host sister. to the Rubber Tree farm where they sleep until 1am and then work until it is time for school. They do this for less than 100 baht a night (Less than $2.50). Most of the time, the children are the only source of income. The parents may have died, separated, or left and they now live with their grandparents.
I have so much respect for the family I am staying with. They never turn someone in need away and have done do many good things for the community. It is a struggle for them to live face to face with the lifestyle in the village, but they have such an impact on the community it is amazing. Thes is why there is not a disconnect between those who have what they need and the poor.
I have come to love so many of the people here and in my last week i know it will be hard to say good bye.
To get more of a feel for my job as a teacher and place in the school, i will tell you how my first day started over Three weeks ago:
For some
Assembly
Raising of the flag and national anythem reason, in Nong Khai, it seems that the dawn rises constantly throughout the day. When I say constantly I mean at least 3 times every minute—well, according to the rooster that is. I woke up Tuesday morning for the first time to an alarm Clock rather than a cockcrow. It was 6:35 a.m.; the earliest I had been up in quite some time. We left for school at 7:30. The school is only right down the road from Poh and Pok’s house so we took a Motor bike. In Thai culture is a woman is wearing a skirt she has to sit “side-saddle” as we call it in the west. I never was the type of girl who wore skirts, much less heals, so it was a double hit for me. When I saw the bike at first I even doubted that we could both keep the weight balanced, but now that we were to have the weight off-center, I felt a little more uneasy.
As we traveled down a road that ran parallel to the Meokyung River, the eyes of the people followed us. These were the parents and grandparents of the children I would be teaching,
Grading papers
(they really just want my signature) so I tried to be friendly and smile until one woman gasped in shock to unexpectedly see me coming. This made me a little more uncomfortable, as for a moment I though I could just be the new teacher. But no matter where I go, a "Farang" or foreigner is always what I will be.
When we arrived at school, the students all waved and were eagerly waiting to greet me on my first full day. When I stepped off of the Bicycle, I was swarmed with “Hello, Teacher” ’s on all sides. We went into the Teacher's Room where I signed in for the day and then practiced the introduction I was suppose to give at assembly to the entire student body which is made up of 280 students and 14 teachers.
I had written out my “speech” the night before. It included my name, age, where I was from, where I was living and why I had decided to come to Thailand. I decided to also take advantage of the Thai lessons we had during orientation and repeat everything I said in Thai. It was only that morning that I was informed that I should
The Store
ALL of the places to buy food and basic items in the village are small convinient stores set up in the bottom floor of people's houses. talk about why I was in Thailand. I tried to come up with 3 good, but simple sentences that got the point across. The first was “I wanted to see a different part of the world.” The second was, “I wanted to work as a volunteer.” And the Third was, “Because I heard that Thailand was very beautiful.”
You can only imagine my fear of having to say something in such a complex language to a group of hundreds of people who are curiously watching me with undivided attention. I was the pop star, the exotic animal, the “new girl.” It wasn’t like college where you give a 10 minute presentation that you spilled your life into and luckily 3 people will really be paying attention. Here, every pair of eyes and every set of ears fell upon me for those 5 minutes.
You may think I am exaggerating, but I will tell you were my real fear laid. I have a tendency to get nervous when I speak and not remember what I had practiced for hours the night before, IN ENGLISH. But here there is a little complication with the Thai language, especially for a
native English speaker. The Thai language uses inflection to express meaning. For example, the word pronounced “cow” in thai has up to four meanings depending on the way you use the inflection in your voice.
So, the last sentence, “Because I heard that Thailand was very beautiful,” gave me a little trouble. It turns out that the word for beautiful, “su-way,” means “really terrible” if not inflected correctly. So you can only imagine my fear of accidentally telling the entire school that I will be working for in the next month that I think their country is “really terrible.” I don’t think I ever put so much effort into staying conscious during a speech. Luckily all was fine despite children giggling at my awkward use of their language.
I visited at least one class every pereiod and they even had me teach, rather than observe. We stayed at the school until 6pm and when i came home ready to relax, i found three students waiting for me to tutor them. They did not leave till 9pm. The next day I got up at 6:30am to start all over again, exausted.
Each day since has been a replay
"Hello!"
My favorite elderly woman's house. Everymorning as i ride my bike to school she sits on the outdoor table and yells at me! of the same unexpected bussiness.
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Sarah
non-member comment
You are F-ing amazing!
Rebekah, This is absolutely amazing. I am pretty much speechless, but then again, you know I always have something to say. Mostly, I am just so proud to be your friend. I am sure this is chaning your life like it did mine...I just wish we could be together to sit up all night and talk...I miss you so much. Love. srh