Reflections, Thailand 2018

     This is my last day in Bangkok and Thailand.  After numerous trips to SE Asia, and ten years of teaching in Ayutthaya routines are well established.  Much of what once seemed exotic is now ordinary and sometimes annoying.  Somethings which were a challenge are now simple, e.g., getting around.  Having a smattering of the Thai language is helpful in many situations, particularly knowing how to say 'no thank you'.  However, sometimes it leads to the mistaken notion that I really speak Thai as the person to whom I've said 'no' starts conversing with me in Thai.  Saying no in Thai is much more effective than saying no in English.  The school routine is now embed in my mind.  I remember on one of my earlier trips to SE Asia going by an elementary school at dismissal and wondering what school was like.  Now I know.
     The weekend in Chiang Rai was a high point.  It's a beautiful area and we did just enough tourist things.  Spending time with Pear's family was delightful...such great people.  It was fascinating to get a sense of the graduation experience even though I didn't get to see the Princess hand out 2000 diplomas.  Chiang Rai is a small city with a delightful climate...cool nights and warm days.  It has grown much since I visited 13? years ago.
     School was a bit more challenging in a positive way.  The Total Physical Response method of teaching I use must be working.  The 5th and 6th grades have mastered what I've taught previously forcing me to expand my repertoire. Now I also use my English/Thai guidebook from which I'll say  a phrase in Thai and they say it in English. Relationships with the teachers continue to deepen the new, younger teachers are both more interested in connecting with me and in using English.  The change in my status is reflected in the informal seating chart at the lunch table; gradually I've moved from eating alone, to the foot of the teacher's table, to the middle and, this year, to next to the head.  The teachers most interested in English cluster around me and the others move to the periphery.   Small changes instituted by the principal are evident as she struggles against inertia for improvement.
     Life with the family is more complicated with the presence of Nice (In a previous blog I wrote about transliteration.  Nice' mother Poo, pronounced Poe, named him that hoping he would be nice.  Thai typically drop the last syllable or sound of a word when speaking so when the family refers to Nice that call him Nii.) who is now 20 months old,  He's a shrieker; happy, sad or in between and it's an extremely loud, high ear splitting sound.  He also cries at the drop of a hat.  In spite of that my relationship with the family continues to deepen.
   Charitable work in which I engaged will be reported in separate blog post.

Pictured below is one of the improvement at the school since I began nine years ago.  Between the two buildings concrete was poured, painted with games and roofed.  It provides additional entertainment for students and a place to gather in wet weather.  There was heavy dew on the grass where the students normally sit for opening exercises so they were moved under cover.  The acoustical difference a concrete floor and steel roof make is amazing.

A kindergarten teacher arranges her students.

I'm sorry I lost the ability to sit cross legged.  Even a very old Thai person can do this.