Teacher's Dilemma

      Now in my final week of teaching I face the teacher's dilemma of having to say goodbye to students knowing that I will not see them again.  This is the 4th year that I've taught the 6th graders so I feel I know them quite well.  My final day is Friday and it is theirs too, because it is the end of the term.  They will move on to middle school at a different site in next term which begins mid-May.

    Anxious as I am to get home and see my peeps it is still hard for me to say goodbye here.  Besides a final goodbye to the 6th graders, having to say goodbye to all the others both at school and in the community is hard knowing that it will be at least year before I see them again. These relationships have become deep and meaningful

The younger students seek me out on the play ground, by 5th grade they're too cool to do it.

With Rick Nelson at brunch

A large flock of goats that live unfenced near the house

On The Beach

      Cha-Am, about a three hour mini-bus ride south of Bangkok on the the Gulf Of Thailand, is   popular with two groups of people: Thai on holiday and European retirees...even heard Norwegian on the street.  Very few young foreigners were  to be seen.
     The Thai way is to rent chairs, terribly uncomfortable for me, under huge umbrellas and spend the day in view of the water. Vendors, dressed as if it were really cold to avoid any touch of sun, wander about selling food, trinkets, toys, water inflatables, etc.
     All over SE Asia there is terrible prejudice against  dark skin.  Many of  my students come to school with faces covered  with white stuff that is supposed to lighten their skin. Because of   this feeling about dark skin Thai do anything they can to avoid sun exposure lest they get any darker.  So, at the beach they remain under umbrellas and rarely touch the water.
    For the younger set banana  boats are the rage.  These are long. inflated, boats on which up to sever people sit while being pulled at high speed through the surf.  Often they capsize which is part of the fun.  One is pictured below.

Portable kitchen

The beach at Cha-Am

Sea food live, make your choice and they do the cooking

Banana boat

Under the umbrellas

"All will be revealed"

    Thunder and lightening awakened me this morning...the first signal that the rainy season is approaching.  Grass went from dull brown to green almost instantly.  It's also cooler, however, the humidity must 99%.   The usual 20 min. 4 mile trip to school took and hour and fifteen minutes today.  A bit like the first snow in Minneapolis.  Here cars replaced motorcycles and that jammed up the roads.  Motorcycles just weave through traffic while cars stack up.
    Buddha's birthday is Wednesday so a big holiday.  Alcohol sales are illegal that day so they just serve beer in a plastic cup;  the Thai way, honor the day while not losing a sale.  Speaking of that,it reminds me of Thai capitalism.  If a hotel has low occupancy so is losing money it raises it's rates to make up the difference.  Logic of a different sort.
   With the big holiday coming up, no school, offices closed, etc. the family has decided to take a trip and have invited me along.  As usual details are murky but I know that after school tomorrow (Tues.) we're going to Cha-Am.  It's a beach on the Gulf of Thailand south of Bangkok popular with Thai people.  I've been there once at the suggestion of my cousin Steve.  It's a laid back place where the Thai sit under huge umbrellas on the beach lest they get one speck darker.
  Many of the trip details are fuzzy but that's much of the fun.  Surprises abound and because they are not threatening or dangerous, they add to the fun.  I have no clue about internet access and because I'm not smart noun to have a smart phone I don't know if I can blog. Return time is also a mystery...I've warned the school I may not show up Thursday or Friday.  They said they'd just deduct it from my pay.

6th grade lined up before school

Gai and Ploy

3yr olds lined up for school

Ann, 3rd grade teacher on buffalo

6th graders with three year olds

Pictures

Filling the mini-bus with propane...it wouldn't take so much if the drivers didn't constantly pump the accelerator

 

The English word for the day

The twins combing Bell's hair

Reed, grade 4

The cook with 6th grader Pet

6th grader, Boem, cooking

Hawa preparing food

4th graders at their desks

The egg store, eggs sorted by size

Poe with a bag full of eggs

Don't DrinkThe Water

    Each classroom is furnished with a water container for drinking and each student has his/her own cup for drinking.  The container holds about 4 gals. with a spigot at the bottom.  It reminds me of the Red Wing Pottery water container in my one room school.
   These containers are a new addition this year.  Last year students just dipped their cup in the old container. Also new this year is a water filtration system.  However, systems are only as good as the people who use them.
   Prae, a 3rd grader, was sent to the lunch room to refill the water container for her room.  After she emptied the remaining water she noticed something stuck to the inside, bottom of the container.  Wanting to dislodge the thing in the bottom she picked up a Popsicle stick  from the side walk and scraped the bottom with it.  Then she rinsed it with water and refilled it.

Water filtration system

Prae filling cleaned?  container

This n. that

   Bumper sticker:  "If you can read this you was to close."   Road sign "City Limits Produce Speed."
   Thai school calendar:   The current school term will end mid-March and the next term will begin mid-May.  That term will end in October followed by a 20 day vacation with the next term beginning in November.
   At the beginning of the school year (May) each teacher will make a home visit on every student in her grade. After lunch the teachers bag up left over food and send it home with poor students.  After lunch students stack the chairs and sweep the floor.  Then they use the broom with which they swept the floor to sweep the table.  Today the 3rd grade took a day-long,standardized test supervised by two teachers from another school.  Two teachers from our school were at another school supervising a test, therefore, two of our grades had no teacher today.
   Thai manners and customs:meals  At a meal the first person present begins eating without waiting for others.  When a person is finished he/she just walks away. There is no custom of thanking for the food. There are no serving utensils,  Using a fork in the left hand and a table spoon in the right the eater ladles food on to his/her plate with the spoon with which he/she is eating.  Entree dishes are not passed, anyone wanting something just stretches for it.  Diners will often take a choice piece of food, e.g., fat pork, and put on another person's plate.  Rice is served at every meal unless the entree is a noodle dish. Breakfast meals are the same food as other meals.  This morning my breakfast was fried pork on rice.  Thai seldom us chop sticks but use them enough so they are very adept.  Foreigners often ask for chop sticks for food that Thais would eat with fork and spoon.  Thais are more likely to eat sitting cross legged on the floor than at a table.  Meal times are very flexible...Thai people are more likely to eat when they are hungry than at designated time.  Food stands are everywhere in Thailand and Thai are as likely to buy food there (take out) as they are to cook at home.  There is little concern about keeping food hot until eaten.  They love extremely spicy food and eat much sea food.
   Customs at home:  People come and go without saying "hello" or "goodbye".  If a person is hungry he/she finds food and eats.  At bedtime people just disappear without saying good night.  When one is asked "you shower?"  It means "Please take your shower now."

4th grade working on the floor

6ht grade doing dishes

Gai's & Mai's tuk tuk.

Chinese New Year

   A couple of years ago a student from my alma mater, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, called to thank me for a gift.  Her English was good but not American so I engaged her in conversation.  She told me that she was sophomore from Ghana.  So I asked her what she thought of South Dakota winters.  She replied "There are no words for it!"
   That's how I was feeling about describing the Chinese New Year's celebration in Ayutthaya but I've been challenged to try so here goes.  Main street is shut down for about 8 blocks, except of course for the motor bikes that weave through the pedestrians.  There are two performing stages with constant performances, Chinese dancing, singing, acrobatics, magic shows, etc.  Then there are endless booths demonstrating, selling. giving massages, serving food...you name it...selling clothes, toys, jewelry, household goods, cars, trucks, motor bikes...about anything you can imagine.
   The streets are filled people elbow to elbow or closer...it's nice to be tall.  Every food imaginable is for sale cooked on site with  food court tables and chairs.  Red is the predominant color, clothing, lanterns, stage decorations. lights, dance troops weaving through the crowd as dragons.
   Take the state fair, a huge block party, market and the world's largest church bazaar and stir them in a pot....I hope you get the idea.

Unfinished school...3yrs?  something about counting the cost before you begin to build.  I'm happy, I like the funky, old wood school.

I like the lotus flower water towers.

After the 2011 flood this elevated walkway (see red roof) was built between to chapels of the temple.  There's been no flood since and this construction is perhaps why there wasn't money to finish the new school.  No one supervises how the abbot spends money.

My school seen from the temple.

3rd grade.

3rd grade.