February 10, 2010

Some of my brightest students (4th graders)Can't help but favor these cuties (1st graders)

These past three weeks I have been working with Tammy, which has been really good for me. I will be sad to see her leave on Friday because we get along really well and she's a great teaching partner. Being older than me (28), and having lots of work and life experience, Tammy has given me lots of confidence in the way I see myself and some good advice about working with different types of personalities. We've had lots of fun this week in the classroom teaching clothing--having boys dress up in skirts and pink shirts has been our biggest hit so far. We've had to resort to lots of games and fun lately because it's nearing the end of the school year and the kids (and teachers) are quickly getting out of school mode. It's frustrating because even if the teachers are in the classroom, which is rare, they don't make a very big effort to keep the students' behavior under control so that we can actually teach. This morning, nearly half the first grade students we were trying to teach were playing with paper fortune tellers and airplanes, and the teacher sat in the back of the room grading papers while I attempted to put the class in line. It's exhausting! I do have hope that they are learning though, because they seem to remember most of what we've taught in the past few weeks.

Two of the teachers at the Primary School, Pi Nui and Pi Rai (Pi is what you say before a person's name if they are older than you, to show respect), are so sweet to us. They love to hang out with us and are always inviting us to do things outside of class time. The teachers here are much more casual than the teachers in America. Veryyyy laid back, which seems to be both a good and a bad thing. Nothing is very organized, and everyone seems to just go with the flow. If a teacher wants to leave school early on a Friday to go shopping, it's no big deal. They make and cancel plans constantly, and it doesn't seem like they spend much time out of school working. One day last week, I joined Pi Nui and Pi Rai for their daily ritual of swimming in the creek behind the school and playing badmitten and ping pong. The two of them are so silly and down to earth, it's good fun to be around them. Pi Rai's English is pretty good but Pi Nui just laughs a lot. Thais love to give foreigners Thai nicknames, so the two of them have named me Num Won, which means sweet water. It's an extremely sweet red syrup mixed with water...tastes like candy.
Last Wednesday, Pi Nui, Pi Rai, and Pi Tung (the assistant director of the school), took Tammy, Mim (one of the volunteers who has been out here 6 times), and I out to dinner at Lomsoc. Lomsoc is the really nice seafood restaurant on the water that I was taken to once before. The Thais love having us try all of the different shellfish and Thai dishes. "Can you try? Can you try?"

Pi Tung, me, Tammy, Pi Rai, Pi Nui, Mim (I fit right in with the short little Thai women!)

Me eating some sort of sea creature in a shell

On Friday we had an "end of term" party at GVI for all of the people getting their TEFL certificates and all of the adult students at the community center who finished their course. We also invited the teachers from the school, so there were dozens of guests who brought lots and lots of homemade Thai food to share. It was nice to hang out with members of the community in a very laid back atmosphere. Lots of photos taken, beer drank, and karaoke sung. The Thais LOVE LOVE LOVE their karaoke, it's hilarious. So when the GVI manager called us teaching children volunteers up to give us some recognition, she made us sing "Build Me Up, Buttercup" in front of the whole party...so embarassing! But the Thais got up there with no hesitation, singing all of the popular slow Thai songs in their amazing voices....nothing like American karaoke where we basically just shout the words. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that most Thais can actually sing well because their language is based on tones.

The morning after the party, Tammy and I headed off to Railey Beach. It was absolutely gorgeous...nothing like Ao Nang the weekened before. It was still touristy, but the people there were much more chilled out, and the place itself is smaller and more remote. It had been recommended to us to cross over to a different beach called Ton Sai, where all of the rockclimbing happens. So we took a 2 minute boat ride over to Ton Sai to check it out, and we fell in love. It's slightly less perfect than Railey...the beach smaller and the sand not quite as soft, but the vibe was much more our style. We walked up to ChillOut Bar, and asked if they had accommodation available. They showed us these adorable little bamboo huts just behind the bar that you can stay in for 250 baht a night...about $8. I jumped for joy and made myself at home in my cute little hut with a pink mosquito net. After chatting with the guys who worked the bar (Thais with dredlocks down to their butts), I found out that it just so happened to be Bob Marley's birthday, and they were having a party with Reggae djs and fire shows. I couldn't believe we were staying at this Reggaed out bar on Bob Marley's birthday...what a coincidence. So I hung out on the beach all day, wondering how I ended up in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We stayed up late (didn't have much of a choice since my hut was like 10 feet away from the DJ), watching Thai guys swing fire around their heads and chatting to some English teachers who work in Korea.

Ton Sai Beach

Sunday morning we slowly made our way back to Railey. We decided to be brave and trek back over instead of taking the longtail for 50 baht. A local guy who works at one of the bars showed us the way. It took about 20 minutes, but it was quite the experience. You have to scramble around and climb big, sharp rocks, with your legs half in the water (the tide was high). I had my backpack on and was struggling not to fall in the water the whole time. I cut my finger on one of the rocks, but did eventually make it over, feeling very accomplished.

All of the newly qualified TEFLers are in Ko Lanta for the week teaching at an English camp. That leaves Tammy, Mim, Ella, Olivia (new 18 year old volunteer who just arrived), Kerry, and I all by ourselves. It's nice to have some peace and quiet around here though. Last night we went to a party at the Primary school (mostly just so that we didn't have to cook ourselves dinner..haha). I'm still not really sure if there was a reason for the party, but it was just a gathering of all of the teachers and staff. There was food, alcohol, karaoke, and plastic chairs, which seem to be standard for Thai gatherings. The young music teacher (in his twenties) drank an entire bottle of rum to himself, and the older music teacher was downing his drinks and then serenading me, singing me love songs in English (one of them was Black Magic Woman), and telling me he's been waiting a "looooooong time" for me. All of the teachers thought it was hysterical, and I just sat there crying of laughter and hoping he wasn't being serious.