Getting Back into the Hilltribe Country

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Well, here I am back up in the far north of Thailand, back "on duty" for a couple of weeks for the Dr Sem Foundation, my first visit here since August last year (see blog#1 below). For those who subscribed to our travel blogs late last year, and expected to see something more exciting, please hit the exit button straight away. But I had a number of requests to document my travels and experiences up here in Thailand, so this is for those lucky viewers.

Basically, I have been asked to help out at two different summer camps this time round, one in Chiang Mai and one further north in Chiang Rai, this being summer vacation in Thailand, at which time many children attend these camps (seems the surf doesn't run so hot up here!). I arrived in Chiang Mai last weekend, having booked myself into Banilah guesthouse, strongly recommended in an article in the SMH and it certainly has not disappointed. It is situated on the outskirts of Chiang Rai, which appeals to me as it is surrounded by day to day middle-class Thai people going about their normal business, rather than the throngs of 'farang' visitors that tend to stay in the centre of town. Indeed, I have hardly seen a westerner all week, so this gives a much better insight into the daily functions of normal Thai families. Furthermore, the room, while basic, has aircon, TV, broadband etc, and comes at a very modest AUD20/night, and you know I can't resist a bargain.

In hindsight, I probably should have checked my job description more thoroughly before I arrived. I was advised I would be helping out at English summer camps, so I had this vision of wide open spaces, hugging trees, kicking balls, and helping the kids clean their teeth while chatting to them in English. Clearly I have seen too many summer camps in America in various teen movies! However, on my first day here, I was escorted by my host into a classroom, rented out at one of the large temples here where the buddhist monks undergo their training, to be greeted by 16 smiling faces (11 girls & 5 boys) of Thai high school age kids. Five minutes later, I asked my host when the English teacher was due to arrive, and she advised that he did 5 minutes ago - I was to be the English teacher for the week!

After a very quick recoil to gather my thoughts, and trying to work out where even to start, I then asked each child to stand up and introduce him or herself to the group. This had three benefits - it told me who they were and where they came from, it gave me some idea of their current level of English, and most importantly, it bought me time to think what the hell I was going to do with these kids for the next 5 days x 6 hours! Fortunately things moved forwards rather than backwards, the week has basically progressed without mishap, the kids seem to be enjoying themselves (as now am I), and I feel I can now add 'English as a second language' teacher to my somewhat obsolete CV. Mind you, I must confess that I have cheated a little, and raced down after Monday's session to the local bookshop and bought a couple of English-Thai textbooks!

So what are some of my observations of my week in class:

1. I guess it's a security thing, but while most of the kids in the class had never met each other before, they very quickly paired off into (same sex) buddies, and stayed very close to their 'buddy' all week. Maybe this also happens in our culture, but never having taught in Oz, I really have no point of comparison. As I have observed in the past in other parts of Asia, the girls tend to stick in a group, as do the boys, and there have been no attempts to 'chat up' anyone, as I'm sure would happen with similar age kids back home.

2. The Thai children are relatively unsophisticated by Western standards - no doubt a function of their environment - but that gives them special appeal. They have no hesitation in saying and doing things that would be seen as 'uncool' by Aussie kids of the same age. They unashamedly declare how much they love their king and queen, how they love their families (even though in most cases they have lost their parents), and even don't mind sucking up to the teacher in a quite unsubtle way. Given I haven't had anyone suck up to me for about 50 years now, I was not going to discourage that little bit of attention!

3. In common with Aussie kids (I think), the girls are pretty conscientious in class, but the boys tend to show off a bit. This reflects on the standard of output from the girls in general far outpacing that of the boys at the same stage, as we have noted at home with the final year exam results.

4. They can't seem to cope with the concept of 'retirement' in their culture, and I guess that's not surprising given most of their grandparents have to work in the fields etc to generate income till they are too sick or they die. Despite advising several times that I'm no longer employed, they still ask "What work do you do, Mr Neil?" or "How do you get to work, Mr Neil?". Don't you just love that respect!

5. Each kid registers under a nickname, due to the complexity of their real names. I guess you too would call yourself Waw (or similar) if your name was Pinpaporn Loeswittayaskul! Other kids names were Nok, Ying, May, Atom, Palm, Film, Pai, Ole, Champ & Toi.

Today I did a 'double shift' and after my English class attended the Agricultural summer school for about 50 primary grade kids. This was held at the Army centre, and apart from the kids there were around 20 adults there, two of whom seemed to be working, and the remainder had an unknown function. Those that travel regularly in Asia get used to people just "sitting around" as all these adults seemed to do all day - obviously boredom does not hit home here! Anyway, in my brief time there, I learnt how to propagate and nourish a new bougainvillea shoot, which I reckon puts me ahead of most of you ignorant sods. Fortunately I wasn't on the teaching staff for this camp!

All in all, its been a pretty rewarding week. At nights, I have strolled around the back streets to get further insights into Thai family life (and felt safer than I would in Sydney!) and have taken in a number of local eating establishments, with a range of success in the quality of the food, but fortutitously no Chiang Mai belly thus far.

Tomorrow, I am taking off for the weekend in Laos (as you do with a spare weekend), flying to Luang Prabang in the north and gradually drifting back to Thailand along the Mekong. If you haven't seen a Laos blog by mid next week, you'll know that my drifting hasn't been too effective!

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