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Published: January 9th 2009
Kids!!
This is on the first night when they all came round to say hi! They love the camera!My last night up in Khun Yuam was pretty fabtastic! I went with Jess, Christian and Padatoo (who works for the charity as well) for a meal just outside of the town. I went on the back of Padatoo's motorbike, which was fab......yes I know everyone told me not to get on one in Thailand but it is entirely impossible not to if I want to get anywhere (as I write this the event has occurred 3 times!) The food was delicious and I spent the rest of the evening chilling out for hours with the girls and had a massive gossip (very unlike me I know.......)
Monday morning I headed to the market to buy some t-shirts for teaching. Nootsabar (who works for the Karen Hilltribes Trust as well) took us there and I had spring rolls for breakfast (easing my way into the whole eating real food for breakfast thing). We then popped back to the centre, grabbed our stuff and headed to Salahae's (another employee) to be taken to our villages. I'm still getting used to the whole riding in the back of pick-up trucks thing, not comfortable in the slightest but it's so much
fun and made the hour long journey much more exciting. We stopped for food and I was really proud of myself being able to eat noodle soup with chopsticks (obviously a spoon for the soup bit). I'm normally so cack-handed that I have to give up, but I somehow did it! Then Jon, Christian and I had to go and meet the governor of Mae la luang, because that is the area of Thailand we are working in. I'm not really sure what happened next....... I had to walk into a meeting with important people in it, sit down for a minute, listen to lots of Thai, then when my name was said stand up and bow my head. Then I listened to some more discussions in Thai and then was allowed to leave. I think the idea was that we were justifying why we had volunteer VISA'a and what it was we were doing. Whatever it was, it was highly irritating, but I guess we passed the test as I'm still here.
Then it got much more exciting as we went to my village.................... we stopped 2km outside to look at the children's dormitory that KHT
Bernard and Peeky Owl get in on the action
They were found and consequently brought into future photographs. No naked chicks for poor Bernard to be photographed with.....just clothed children (and sometimes me!) built in 2002. It's a nice building but quite sad that the children have just a peg for coats etc., some coat hangers on a rail and a small basket for their belongings. They all sleep on mats on the floor around the edge of the room and it's quite small for the number that fit in there! Anyway, I can go to the dormitory some weekends to see the children and play with them if i am in the village, which is lovely. I then went to my house and met my Karen Mum. Her name is Sam-See and she lives with her husband, but he is away in Phuket at the minute. Her children are in school in Chiang Mai so at the minute it is just me and her, but her family are all around and her nieces and nephews are always in and out of the house. I quickly went to my school to find out when I'd be teaching and stuff and in the usual Thai way they weren't really sure and I had to wait to find out properly on Tuesday. Also in the usual Thai way, one of my lessons was already cancelled
for the next day because not many children would be there because of a wedding in the village; Thai teaching is so funny, it is literally what you want, when you want in this school!
Back at the house I was abandoned by the others and basically left with a group of about 8 people, none of whom could speak English and found me completely fascinating because my skin is so white!! Normally I'd have freaked out but they're all sooooo lovely. We basically laughed ourselves through a very disjointed conversation, aided by my photos from home and my Thai dictionary (thankyou Sarah). After unpacking I had my first Karen meal. No idea what it was (apart from the rice) but there was definitely some meat involved somewhere...... I kind of think I'd rather not know at times. I am gradually feeling the addiction to rice getting stronger as the days go on, a personal favourite is definitely omelette and rice which tastes fab! I then braved the bathroom........or what I like to call the wooden hut of doom. A nice bit of squatting to go to the toilet and a shower consisting of throwing cold (and
How cute!
They're all so gorgeous :-) pretty dirty) water over myself using a bowl, is not my idea of a bathroom usually. Getting used to it now though, as long as I remember to take the toilet paper down with me (niiiiiiiiice!!) I was looking forward to a fairly chilled evening with my book and sudoko (thankyou Pete and Emma) but suddenly the house was bombarded with the local children. I'm such an attraction they stayed for about 2 and a half hours! We had a laugh with the toys I had bought and played with the camera, which they found fascinating. Also the house is an attraction anyway because my Mum has a TV; one of the only ones in the village. Thai soaps are AMAZING!! I am already very addicted to the one that comes on at 8pm - an evil woman is murdering alot of people but I think tonight she may get found out! I literally cannot wait to see! The storylines involve so much death, fighting and betrayal, and the over-acting and well placed music make the storylines so easy to follow!! I particularly like the sound effects, e.g. if someone gets hit on the head they play a "boing" sound
Ripapan
This is Ripapan, who is lovely! She walks me to school every morning and she's one of the best English speakers (this isn't saying much really but she tries so hard). - fantastic! All of the kids, as little as 4 years old, are getting into it and I'm there giggling at the terrible acting and hilarious music. So much fun! When I went to bed my Mum made me laugh so much because she climbed into my little bed, made sure I got into my sleeping bad OK and literally tucked me in by adding more blankets, checking that I was warm enough without my hat as well. She's so cute!!
That brings me to my first day at school............ hilarious! It started off badly as the cockerels in this village are complete retards! They cock-a-doodle-doo ALL night, which would be fine except one of them lives about 5 metres away from my bed. I actually hate him (see the evilness of him in the photo). I also had an infected foot (yum!) and a swollen leg from a mosquito bite (damn attractive I know!) So all in all, bad times! When I got to school they just went "go teach" pretty much and gave me a timetable of who I was teaching when, with the knowledge that "they know very little English" ha! They were
More kids.....
They stayed at the house a looooooong time! right! My lessons have all been OK but I actually just don't understand the school. Nothing runs on time, the teachers don't actually seem to ever be teaching, and the kids just wander around alot. I never know which class I'm actually teaching! I've also had a small child sit next to me on a computer singing along to a song on the computer for about half an hour, when she then wandered off because she was obviously bored.....but I have NO idea why she was here and what the purpose was. It's so confusing. The only time I know everyone is where they are meant to be is when it's lunchtime! Anyway, I survived the day and then the teachers said they were going to a "marry party", meaning a wedding reception, and asked if I wanted to go. So I jumped onto the back of the headmasters motorbike and went to a really nice house just out of the village with a huge garden where the party was. Being a "Fa-rang" meant I was the attention of all of the men in the place (who'd had too much whisky and dragged me all around the garden showing me
The Evil Cockerel
He cock-a doodle-soo's ALL the time. 10pm, 2am, 5am....... he doesn't care. He's so noisy!! And you can hear all of them all over the village. Once one starts, they all do, as if they don't want to be left out. I hate them. I'm glad we have cockerel for Christmas dinner and not turkey! off and making me drink beer). It was really funny because they are never horrible with it, they are genuinely just interested in me (and my whiteness!!) I also LOVED the fact that they had karaoke in the middle of the garden and they kept getting the newlyweds to sing together. I didn't stay too long and I stole a ride with the headmaster again to go home. I went for a walk around the village, which is absolutely beautiful. There is a river I can go swimming in and such nice views , which look gorgeous when the sun is out as well. More rice for tea, but egg fried this time with vegetables and also a cabbage soup with squid and tofu - I think my favourite meal yet! Kids invaded again that night, I kept them quiet with stickers, crayons and paper whilst I wrote my diary! They're really cute and sweet but I'm so tired after trying to communicate with people who don't speak English all day. I can't believe how exhausting it is!
Wednesday was a normal school day...... nothing to really report except that it was scouts and guides day as
The kids in school
I'm pretty sure this was lesson time but are they in class? No, no , no..... that would be crazy talk! they were all in their unifroms and instead of lessons in the afternoon they were doing guiding stuff. Their uniforms are really old fashioned. They look cute! Oh and the teachers are all really sweet. One of them bought me a bag of goodies. There was banana cake, which was really nice and these strange looking sandwiches (some of which my Karen Mum has also bought me). I have no idea what it is as I haven't dared to try them yet, but it looks like runny egg inbetween the bread. I will brave them as I can't be rude, but Jesus, they look bad! Everyone is so so welcoming but I swear I can't even fit anymore food in after 3 rice meals a day, especially when it looks as foul as that! The kids also came round and played Twister that night which was quite amusing. Kept me entertained until it was time for the wow TV soap at least!
Which brings me to the school trip...... Thursday was children's day! Basically we went to Mae la luang, the local town, and had a sort of garden fete type thing! I had to get up
extra early and walk to the bridge on the way to the town where we met the headmaster with his pick-up truck. In true Thai style, all the kids piled into the back of the truck (English health and safety would love to get their teeth into that!) and we went off to Mae la luang. I was slightly concerned for the kids safety when the window was so steamed up that the headmaster couldn't see where he was going at all, and he moved the seat back to account for my 'long legs', it being a seat where the passenger and drivers bit were attached so it meant he could barely reach the pedals! Legend! But anyway we got there alive and no kids fell out as far as I'm aware (not that anybody would have really noticed anyway). We went to one of the teachers houses where the kids had to get ready for their dancing show they were going to perform. I was completely confused by why they try and whiten up their skin when they all look beautiful, but I helped them to do it anyway..... followed by disgusting amounts of bright blue eyeshadow, blusher and
bright red lipstick! We then went to the big field where I basically sat all day whilst kids brought me food and I watched some dancing and basically did nothing. Two of the other volunteers also turned up later and so I had a gossip with them about the craziness of Thai schools and then that was the day finished - delightful! My infected foot decided to get worse throughout the day so I chilled out when I got home.....or at least tried! I managed all of 5 minutes and then I heard "Hello, how are you?", which is what all of the kids say to me ALL THE TIME! So I ended up teaching them some ballet dancing and doing some stretches - I may as well work out whilst I entertain them! My mum came home soon after and we had the Thai version of takeaway......noodle soup in a bag! Then she took me to the fridge and showed me that she had brought me a bread loaf and some condensed milk. I obviously seemed very keen as she then proceeded to make me a condensed milk sandwich! I watched in horror, knowing I was going to have
Me in my teacher outfit
Ripapan wanted to take a photo of me...... the t-shirt I have is a 'King' t-shirt. People wear them all the time to work (you're meant to wear yellow on a Monday) and it's all about respecting the King or something like that. Some of them say "Long live the King" on them. to eat it (I have no idea where she got the idea that the English eat condensed milk sandwiches). So I braved it, and it was actually quite nice! And of course, because I ate one, she made me a second! We also managed a conversation about how I'm going to get fat and my Mum and Dad will say I am an elephant when I get home! She then gave me a massive hug, I think because we actually managed to understand each other and share a joke! She's so sweet :-) She's also worried about my foot and is now trying lots of different Thailand creams on it........ I'll be honest, I don't like touching it it's so foul, yet she seems to like looking after me (I expect such treatment on my return oh lovely mother of mine! :-p)
So I thought I would have some lessons to teach today (Friday). My timetable says I have one class from 9am to 10am and another from 11am to 12noon. Guess how many I taught?? NONE!! So yes, out of a potential 11 lessons this week, I have taught 5! And I won't deny that the
My house
This is where I shall live for the next few weeks. I love it and I want one! reasons I missed them today are just not good ones. I got to school and was immediately turned around again to go to church to see yet another wedding! It was really interesting and the lovely but I just don't understand how the teachers can all turn up to school just to go "actually, lets go to the wedding instead" leaving just the headmaster and kids at school. It gets better.......11am comes and I'm ready to teach but no! Ming tells me that we are going to the wedding part for lunch. So they have fed the kids an hour early so we can all just leave and go to the party. Every single teacher left, leaving the kids to just do what they wanted. Why we couldn't go at lunchtime I don't know but the decision was made and off I went....... So now I'm back at school doing this, the headteacher just fell asleep in the chair and the other 2 teachers who are still here are just chatting. I'm learning to relax and go with the flow a bit more otherwise I'd just go mad!
I'm going to plan some lessons for next week
The dining area
This is on the ground floor. I love the table and stools! And we drink from cups made from bamboo :-) now, although not too much because I'll probably only teach about 4.................... Farewell :-)
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Vikki
non-member comment
Risk
I presume that there was a thorough risk assessment in place for each of these activities ? For example was the make-up hypo-allergenic?