The Working Side of the Trip

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Today I was pretty excited. New things were on the horizon. I was happy to head back to the pre-school that I had been to earlier in the week. This time I was going there by myself. I knew this was going to be challenging because the teachers didn’t speak a lot of English, but the kiddos are just so cute! The teachers picked me up and we exchanged hellos. It’s a fairly short drive to the school and when we arrived all the kids were out in the grass playing in their playground area. So many smiling, happy, screaming faces. Once inside the big room, all the kids started to gather. Many of them remembered me from earlier in the week and were running up to say hi. All of them with these massive smiles on their faces. There was one little girl crying and clinging to a teacher. Turns out today was the day she received her booster like shots. Poor little thing. She got a little extra hug from me.

We circled up and started the lessons. This is a group of roughly 60 kids. So it’s hard to capture their attention and keep it. They are between 2 and 4 years old and there are about 5 teachers in the room. However, they aren’t teaching too many lessons. The idea here seems to be just the core basics. We start with practicing our hello and wave. I’ve at this point mastered saying hello in Thai and frequently use the term “same same” which is something they use to explain to the kids that the word in Thai means the same as the word I say in English. The kids respond really well and are excited to say the words. The best part is the screaming. They all love to be louder than the child next to them and so the volume in the room is hilarious. I giggle for an hour straight. After hello, we move on to numbers and practice counting to 10. At time point, the teachers start to giggle at me. I’m trying to say zero through 10 in Thai. I’m not good at it at all. I mean, I’m laughing at myself. The teachers help me through and I’m impressed that a few of the kids know the number in English before I even say it. From here we move on to the alphabet. It’s funny…I haven’t sung the ABC’s in years but yet it’s so easy to fall back into it and sing. Thank you Sesame Street! Then we go onto colors. If the teachers thought me saying numbers in Thai was funny, it was even better when I tried to say the colors. Oh well! If you can’t laugh at yourself, you can you laugh at. We finished all of this stuff with and still had some time. So, I found a cube that had animals on it and went with it. Then one of the teachers brought me over a huge bucket of smaller plastic animals. This got really comical. The kids were so into it. I held up an animal and they would scream the name of it in Thai. Then I’d say “English” and it was blank stares. I’d say the name in English and then there’d be more screaming to repeat the name. This went on for at least 20 animals. The best past was, I would pull an animal out of the bin and have to figure out what it was. Wolf or Fox? The creatures the teachers had were not the most clear. And this created even more giggles. We learned the animal names and sounds. The kids were having fun. The teachers were giggling, I was giggling. I mean, what more do you need in life! After I was done with this, the teachers give the kids a break and they sit and watch a video. The video is essentially cartoons with songs in English. I sat with some of the kids and my shadow for the day. One little girl had been attached to my leg since I had walked in that morning. She really is the cutest thing. Little bowl haircut. Huge smile. I can’t lie, I wanted to take her home! As I sat with the kids, a few of the teachers came over and gathered around. They had their phones and were speaking in Thai. I quickly realized they were trying to figure out how to ask me questions and they were using Google Translate to put them into English. This is one of my favorite moments. It’s this type of mutual interest that makes traveling like this so worthwhile. People are so intrigued in one another. I learned about them as they learned about me. We pulled up a map and I showed them where Florida is and explain how far I had to fly. Again, I’m in an area where many of the locals have never left. This volunteer group is also very new so they haven’t had many volunteers to interact with yet. The great part is, volunteering like this is not just for the kids, it’s for the adults as well. The social interaction and learning on both sides (for them and me) has a huge impact on one’s life.

I was at the school about an hour and then Allen from Tree Top came and picked me up. I hugged the kids good-bye and knew I’d get to see them the following week.

With Allen we stopped off at a shop in town to buy some snacks for the kids. I was going with him to another pre-school where the other volunteers, Kate and Amber, were for the morning. When we arrived there, the kids were finishing up lunch. It’s so cute how this works. They have a few woman who make a home cooked meal and then serve it to the kids. As this is going on, the other teachers are laying out blankets and pillows for nap time. This school is in a lot on the grounds of a temple. We find out from Kate and Amber that they were invited into the Buddhist school and worked with the student monks for a little bit. They taught them how to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Talk about a fun experience! We handed out the goodies to the kids and again, I ended up with a little buddy. This one little girl was not shy at all and inside her treat was a small coin. She came over to show it to me and didn’t seem to leave. She would say something and giggle and show me the coin and hid the coin. I had to just giggle along with her!

From here, Alan treated us all to lunch at a local place. Of course, it was Thai. I didn’t mind. The food is so incredibly amazing in the northern part of the country. Part of me wants to live here forever just to eat the food!

Once back at Tree Top, I changed clothes to get ready for the working part of the trip. Today was the first day for me in the rice fields. This area of Thailand is a valley with lots of agriculture. And much of it is rice. Many of the people here are working in farms that have been in their families for generations. Today, I was going with Ma’Dong to the fields to work and learn about their way of life. Ma’Dong is Stassi’s sister. Stassi and Allen are the owners of Tree Top. Ma’Dong is an amazing women and I really liked her already. She was the one that pulled me onto the dance floor at the party when I first arrived at the camp. She was up early every morning working around the camp keeping the grounds clean. I had already planted and worked in their garden with her. She was always up and moving. She even cooked for us at times. So, to head into the fields and learn about rice farming was going to be a treat. Amber was with me for this adventure. I put on one of my old t-shirts and a pair of the work out capris I had packed and my water proof hiking shoes. We hopped on bikes and headed over to the fields. It was a short ride. Once there, we made our way off the road and into one of the fields. They are going into the rainy seasons so right now they are turning over most of the fields. We were working on re-defining the edge of one of the paddies. All of the rice had been pulled out of it and we needed to define the edge. I was handed a hoe. It was a long piece of bamboo with a metal plate at the end. This was the tool. And what I came to realize in week 2, this was the only tool. She showed us how to place our hands and how to swing the hoe down and off we went. We were ankle deep in mud and water and slinging our hoes. It was a great workout. I was thankful for the cloud cover seeing as how it was 98 degrees and full humidity. The only way I can explain the work is to compare it to when you do a boot camp class and you slam a sledge hammer onto the huge tire…only far harder. Here, you’re slamming the hoe all the way down into the ground and then pulling the earth towards you. It was intense. I was quickly out of breath. Clearly, I needed to be in the field every day. It was beautiful to be out in the fields though. The mountains are in the distance. There are little heads scattered throughout (other farmers out working). Here and there you seem a water buffalo grazing. So much happening yet it’s so peaceful and quiet. I wanted to stay out here and soak it up for hours. Once we finished the edge of this field, she took us across the street to a different field. There were a few other people working in this one and we hopped into one field to learn how to pull rice. One of the things that happens is that the rice over grows too close together and they have to pull it out of one field, break it apart, and replant it in another field. Oh, and they do all this by hand. Pulling the rice is far harder than one would think. I was not very good at it. Once you pull it, you have to take the root area and rinse off all the mud and whatnot. So you are running your hands over it again and again and squeezing the mud out. Have I mentioned yet that I’m in ankle deep muddy water and, there are all sorts of critters living in this water. Yep, good to know. And by critters I mean worms, crabs, fish, all sorts of things. As I’m squeezing out the mud I’m hopeful I don’t fun across something that freaks me out and makes me scream. No need to embarrass myself that much on my first day out in the field! From this field, we make our way into the replanting field. This field has even deeper water and thick mud that sucks your feet into it. We step in and Ma’Dong shows us how to pull apart the chunks of rice plant and replant them. You have to reach down into the much with your head and push the roots a few inches into the much. Um…remember the critters…I have to push this from my head. I start planting and quickly get the hang of it and I’m off and moving very quickly. Ma’Dong is giving me the thumbs up as I go. I get into a rhythm and before I know it, I’ve moved through a huge portion of the field. The one other lady helping is giggling and speaking in Thai. Turns out she’s thanking me for saving her 2 hours of work. It was hilarious! Ma’Dong joins in on the replanting and just when I think I’m moving at a fast pace, she shows me what a pro looks like. I was still at an amateur pace. Haha! All in all, I love my time in the fields and as we make our way out, the only downfall I see is that I’ve ruined my shoes. My shoes that have been with me since my first big trip to New Zealand. My shoes that have endured many a raining days setting up festivals and events and have seen several countries…they have finally given up. The mud was too much for the glue that holds the show to the sole. This “Sole” was losing her soles. Ha! I carefully make my way back to the bike with the one sole holding on only by the toe. I’m hoping I can fix them since I have two days’ worth of hiking to do when my siblings arrive later in the month. I’m covered in mud and smiling as we bike back to the camp. Rice farming was an experience I enjoyed more than I ever expected.

Back at the camp, the day was coming to a close. We showered up and dressed for dinner. Dinner was another fabulous one and afterwards, we decided to watch Frozen. Kate and Amber picked it out and they both couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen it. Seeing as though I’m 37 and don’t have kids, I thought it was perfectly reasonable that I hadn’t seen it. So the young ladies educated me in the modern day Disney movie and humor. I have to say, I laughed out loud and enjoyed the story. Well done Disney! And, now I know what that snowman character thing is all about that little kids love.



After the moving, it was bed time for me. It was a full day filled with a lot of fun! <a name="_GoBack"></a>

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