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Published: February 13th 2009
Mum and 3 kids!
One of the Karen families in my village :-) Adorable!Last week was hectic!! At school when I wasn't teaching, I was sat at a computer planning for the teacher conference, and at home, when I wasn't eating or sleeping, I was sat on the floor planning for the teacher conference!! Stressful times!! My head felt like it was going to explode from looking at powerpoint all the time, and I think Sum-see thought I was absolutely crazy working all evening. I kind of wish my effort had been less after how the weekend went, but more on that later.............
The food at home also took a bit of a turn last week. Sum-see gave me something spicy on Monday night (and made omelette as well, in case I couldn't handle it) and when she realised that I liked it she actually applauded me and said "good girl" and had a huge smile on her face! So now she has taken to making more spicy foods, and generally going more "Karen". We had rat on the Wednesday, which was interesting....... I was going to try to pretend it wasn't rat, but this plan was foiled whenever I looked over at the bowl, as it's head was sticking out
FUNKY CHICKEN!!
We'd been doing some ballet and I got bored so got them all doing the funky chicken! They were truly hilarious! staring at me (I felt much better about it all after Sum-see had eaten this part!). It tasted like barbecue and was served with potatoes in a runny spicy sauce. I'd eat it again if she made it, but I'm not going to encourage it!! :-D We're also eating alot more leaves! I'm not sure whether the change in food is a money thing. Sum-see gets paid for having me, so we do have nicer (as in, not completely typical Karen) food, but maybe she has spent it all, or wants to spend it on something else! I don't mind really, the Karen food is much more of an adventure :-) (and if it's healthier it may help me to remove the 2kg I managed to put on in 3 weeks!!) I also noticed how, if we don't finish something she gives it to some of the other villagers as my village is quite poor and she obviously has this extra spending money for food. Makes me feel a little guilty........... :-s
So school last week......as well as conference planning I taught almost all of my lessons!! I was told on Tuesday afternoon that there was no
My hammock!
Well not my hammock..... but I love it :-) school on Wednesday, but that's not too bad for my school really :-) So instead of school I dossed about all day. I started writing postcards before being invaded by children. We did some ballet (they're so ungraceful it's unreal) then I got bored and made them do the funky chicken instead, cruel I know, but so very funny for me.... check out the photo! Notalie then invited me to go fishing in the jungle so I put my little basket on my back and off we went. We got to use nets this time, which is a little more useful thanjust hands, but I'm still rubbish. All was going well, until I realised that Notalie no longer had my camera in her pocket (she had been really sweet and offered to carry it because I'm an idiot and didn't have any pockets!) and she had no idea where it was. It was then spotted at the bottom of the river and had been there for a good 5 minutes. Notalie was horrified so I spent the next hour or so saying "Mai ben rai" meaning"No problem" actually thinking "I wonder how much mum and dad will love the job
of sending me out a new camera......" But as the day went on, and it dried out somewhat, more and more buttons started to work again, and by the end of the day it was a fully working camera, but taking very blurred photos as there was condensation on the lens. So the next day I laid it in a spot in the house that gets alot of sun (I knew there was a reason for the holes in the walls of their houses) and it dried out and now works perfectly, somehow...... The evening after the camera incident I had another funny moment as I went to church and when I got there I realised I was in my pyjamas! Of course, it didn't actually matter at all to the Karen and I've decided England should be more like that, we should wear pyjamas all the time - saves getting ready for bed!
And that pretty much sums up the weekdays last week, bringing me to the weekend and the teacher conference! I arrived in Maelanoi on Friday afternoon, after getting a lift to Maelaluang and hitching. I don't like hitching on my own in the
Heading into the jungle
Not sure who the old lady is, apart from that she's from my village and I followed her into the jungle! back of an empty truck as you slide around all over the place, and I have a few bruises from that particular journey. Anyway, I was staying with Hannah's (another volunteer) host family, as was Helen, who has organised the conference. I arrived, spent a few hours sorting out powerpoints and finding out what changes had been made to the schedule (last minute as always in Thailand), and then went to the printer shop to get resources made. We were there for 2 hours, and had masses of paper, yet it still only came to 5 pounds!! I love Thailand sometimes :-) We were greeted by the lovely cat when we got back to Hannah's - the most darling, sweetest cat in the world, but she catches ALOT of mice, and we went to bed as soon as we could!!
Saturday, first day of the conference. We arrived at 7:30am to set up, as the teachers were due at 8am. However......... turns out that people who work for the charity are completely incompetent, and not only did they not send an agenda out with the invitation, they also forgot the start time. So we stood around with
Notalie :-)
Fishing in the river!! So much fun (taken just before the camera went for a little swim!!) the promise that "oh well, they'll be here at 9 because thats when they'll presume it starts", only to then be told that we would have no electricity between 9am and 3pm - goodbye powerpoints!! Helen and I were not in the best of moods at this stage and Helen had to go for a cigarette, and I got some fresh air in order to not hit somebody! Miraculously, some men produced a generator from somewhere to give us electricity, and the conference finally kicked of at 9:45am (1 3/4 hours late!) Then, it turns out, Thai teachers are incredibly rude! They talked through the sessions, listened to ipods and made the breaks twice as long as they should have been by just not coming back on time! Also, our translator, who was getting paid (bearing in mind that Helen and I are volunteering!!) just gave up and disappeared halfway through the day, which was just great when about half the people could speak hardly any English!! Me and Helen were fuming on Saturday night and had no motivation to plan properly for the next day, so we didn't! My bad mood was only helped by the consumption of gorgeous
The broken-ness
The camera after it's little incident. Modern art perhaps?? :-p Pad Thai (lovely noodley goodness, and always best when homemade!!) and the kids, who are constantly full of energy and made me smile by constantly calling me a cheeky monkey! And we went to bed feeling a little downhearted and not really wanting to go to the conference of Sunday......
.......but of course, we did, as we are British and stubborn! We turned up 5 minutes late; not actually intentional, but it made a bit of a point all the same! :-) And weirdly, it was like someone had kicked them up the bum as they were actually interested!! I did a session on behaviour management, because quite frankly, the kids just run around all over the place in alot of schools, and they were intrigued by what I had to say! I later found out that this was because every school has received a letter saying they are no longer allowed to hit the children, so they were all interested in how to discipline them without physical violence!! The translator was still lazy as anything, but you can't have everything hey! But anyway, it was a much better day, and Helen and I treated ourselves to
Sum-see :-)
My Mum washing up :-D crepe to celebrate once it was over. I had a chocolate one and it cost 20p!! The same as from those stalls in York that are about 2 pounds 50p!! Fabulous! And then when we got home I was even happier as I had my parcel from home. So I shared some of my English chocolate with the family, and I checked myself for nits with the nit comb (miraculously I don't have any......yet!) and had a lovely, lovely evening. All made better by the fact that Monday was another national holiday so no school!! :-D
So on Monday morning I got up, walked Helen to the bus stop with her masses of conference stuff, and then started on the 5km walk to where some of the others had camped the previous night. I got about 1 1/2km before a pick-up pulled over and asked where I was going. So I explained in very broken Thai and they offered me a lift. I was sweating profusely so I thought 'yay' and got in the back. Hannah had come to the main road to meet me and walk the extra 4km to the camping spot, but the guys
The view from my bed
I tried to capture what I see when I'm going to sleep but the camera just can't get it right....... but you get the idea! refused to let us walk and drove us all the way down to the camping area. Good times! The others had camped in a really secluded spot next to a beautiful river and so I spent the rest of the day swimming, sunbathing and just having a massive chill out session, which I needed after the weekend! I used loads of the suncream my dear mother had sent me in the parcel, yet I was still burnt, along with the rest of the group! We were like a group of lobsters. The pain has just about gone now, and I'm a beautiful (ish) tanned being! :-D
So a good ending to a weekend, and this week at school has been fine. The older ones have got tests, so the teachers of course gave the kids the test beforehand and have taught them everything on it! I've been given the English one to do the same, but I actually have no chance!! The tests are national, so the kids at the good schools in Bangkok and Chiang Mai have the same ones, and it is way, way, way above the heads of my lot! But I'll try and
Malee
The teacher from my school receving her certificate teach them some of it....... it's a 4-way multiple choice, so they should at least get 25%!! lol. Also, a little nursery kid knocked herself unconscious yesterday. The teachers were worried for all of 10 seconds, then left the kid sat on her own as they realised it was lunch time and so we should be eating instead! A pat on the head for the little 'un and all was fine!! I've been a little bit homesick this week and blame Bekki entirely. The arrival of little Harry has made me want to go home and see him, and that made me start missing everybody else as well!!
I must also mention something that Sum-see said this week, which was really sweet. I realised I didn't know much about her family, and whenever she comes to pick me up from Maelaluang she is always on the phone to someone, so I asked her about them. Turns out that her husband is a taxi driver in Phuket, and he very rarely comes back to the village, she has a 21 year old son at university in Chiang Mai, and an 11 year old daughter at school in Mae
Teachers at the conference
They still wanted photos with the "fat fa-rang" despite having talked throughout our lectures! Sariang. She said she phones them whenever she has signal and she really misses her daughter. It's hard, because she obviously wants to give her kids the best education, but I'm not sure it's worth it when I saw how much she missed them. The Karen are all about having your family around you, and it was so sad as she had tears in her eyes when she was telling me. I'm not sure why she stays in the village if all her immediate family are away.....so many questions that I can't get the answer to - damn language barrier!! Anyway, she said to me....... "Claire my baby, mai bpai Angrit" meaning that I'm her daughter now and I'm not allowed to leave and go back to England! She said that she misses me even when I just go away at the weekend. I think it's just because I eat her spicy food (!!)......... but I thought it was so sweet! And this weekend she has her daughter to visit anyway so she won't miss me too much (I'm going to Maelanoi again). She was really, really excited this morning about seeing her!!
Anyway, hoping Friday 13th
isn't too painful for anyone!! Ta-ra xxxx
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