Back to the Old School (7-24)

Last week was a fairly quiet week. It went quickly, since Monday was a holiday. I like these four-day weeks. Tuesday morning Khun Toom greeted me with a big smile and a copy of the schedule of events for the term. Finally. It’s really nice to be able to look ahead and see things like Environment Camp and turn in lesson plans and record books on Friday this week. If I know these things, I can then ask her questions a few days in advance to remind her to keep us informed. Life is good again.

The big event this week was going back to the village for the party for Khun Toy’s new granddaughter. It was so good to be with the teachers there again. They greeted me like I am a celebrity. I got to sit with Khun Yindee and we had a good catch-up chat, which we both enjoyed. I do miss working with her and seeing her. She asked if I have good friends at the school, and I told her “not like you,” which is true.

Khun Kumtom presented the baby with a gold chain. I took a photo for Khun Toy. Then I was told to join the group. I thought that meant I would stand with the teachers behind Khun Kumtom, but they had me sit in the chair he had been in and hold the baby for a photo. I was a celebrity. 

The blanket the baby was on was wrapped around something stiff. She was covered from head to foot and slept through the whole thing.

Three people from OBEC, the government office for education, were at the party. They were visiting the school for two days to evaluate it, and one of the things they evaluate is how well teachers get along. So the party, which was originally planned for next week, was moved up so they could have it while the officials were there. Usually at these new baby parties, there is dinner, Khun Kumtom makes his presentation, and then everyone goes home. But because of the special guests, the party had karaoke and dancing and whiskey was flowing and people didn’t start leaving until 7:30. I had a good time.

Thursday morning there was a special performance by blind singers during the homeroom hour. Of course, it took half of the first class, too. They were good, and students had a good time. During the last few songs, the younger students stood up and danced. Older students were too shy to do that.

No club on Friday at school because the school is being used on Sunday as a site where people can take the test to become government employees. So teachers and students had to clean the rooms, and teachers were putting up new bulletin boards so they would look beautiful.

My after school group at Bitoy’s house has changed. There were three girls for two weeks and then one stopped coming. Last week Khun Tang’s daughter stopped coming and a new friend of Bitoy’s joined her. Khun Tang had told me that Fah wanted to stop coming, but she had said she couldn’t. Then Friday I guess she changed her mind, as the change was made. I knew Fah wasn’t interested by her behavior; so this wasn’t a big surprise. Bitoy enjoys the class and it seems to give her confidence. I think she has a slight learning disability related to speed of processing. She often knows answers but she needs to think a bit. In class, she is often one of the last to finish a worksheet, but her answers are good. Khun Dakom told me recently that she was very outgoing when she was young, but now she is quiet. In our group, she is outgoing. I think she is quiet in class because she thinks more slowly than most of the good students; so they answer questions and move on before she’s thought of the answer. She probably thinks she’s not as smart as the others.

Khun Toom was talking about the Intensive English Program last week and mentioned that this is only its second year. And last year it was only for 1^st and 4^th grades. This year it’s for all grades. There are two tracks in elementary grades—one that is IE and one that isn’t. But all students in 7^th-9^th grades are in IE. We all thought it had been going longer; so this was interesting news that helped explain some things about the program. Like why it’s so poorly organized. And why students lack the skills we thought they had from previous years. Like so many things here, the program was started because it seemed like a good idea, but there wasn’t any planning for how it will work other than that we will teach the same content students are learning in Thai. But they don’t have the background English knowledge to do that. Of course, even in future years many won’t have the necessary skills because the good students leave and go to better schools. So the middle students become the good students, which is good for them, and the rest don’t know enough English to be successful it this program.

Learning that they were thrown into the IE program for the first time this year was useful. It explains a bit why even the good students didn’t understand anything for the first month or so. They weren’t just getting used to having a native speaker; they were getting used to having classes in English. It would have been helpful if we had been told that this is their first year. Then I could have started a bit slower instead of starting with the idea that they were used to studying in English. The other problem is that half of the students don’t know enough English to be in an IE program. Many of them can’t answer or read simple questions and don’t even try to learn. I have suggested that they continue the two-track system in middle school so the lower students can take less in English and more in Thai where maybe some of them can learn. But this probably won’t happen.

Students are finally getting used to me. The 8^th grade has settled down pretty much. At least they now quietly so I don’t have to yell to be heard by those who are trying to listen. The girls who talk all the time in class have decided to be friendly outside class and always greet me and sometimes tell me I’m beautiful, which means they like the skirt or blouse I’m wearing.  I find this interesting. Most of them don’t know enough English to learn much, but they don’t even pretend to try. They are writing what I put on the board in their notebooks without my yelling at them now, though. I guess this is  progress.

Since they are quiet enough that I can talk and those who want to learn can listen and try to learn, I’ve decided that, since they don’t want to learn and don’t try, I don’t care if they learn or  not as long as they’re reasonably quiet. This attitude helps. I can’t teach them if they won’t try to learn. And there are enough who are learning and trying to keep me satisfied. One boy wais and thanks me personally after almost every class. Others are really happy when they do well. Some are liking to volunteer to write answers on the board and becoming confident enough to do that. More actually read a word so I could hear them.

I started working with Bank, a 7^th grader, on a story for the upcoming contests. We don’t know when the contests will be, but we’ll be ready. His English is very good, as he came from a very good school in Khon Kaen where he had American teachers every year. He also studies English at a special class on weekends. He’s very outgoing and likes to speak English. He translates for the other students. I’m always amazed by the way he—and the students I worked with at the other schools—can memorize something like this in a language they don’t know very well. He knows more than the others; so this isn’t as much of a challenge for him, but it’s still challenging. I’m glad we’re doing story-telling instead of speeches because he only has to learn one story and students should prepare at least three speech topics.

Sunday we all (Khun Toy, Khun Teamjan, Khun Dakom and I) went to the hospital for our bimonthly cholesterol check and to get a new supply of meds. This is the third month in a row I’ve had the blood work done, as I have gone to a new place each month. The trip to the hospital took all morning. Khun Toy left after having her blood drawn because she had to go to a seminar. Khun Teamjan and I were finished after three hours, but it took almost another hour for Khun Dakom’s meds to be ready. We don’t know why. Fortunately, I had a book with me. Afterwards, we had lunch at Khun Somlan’s house. Then Khun Teamjan and I came to my house to wait for the termite-killing man to come back for the second treatment. I haven’t seen any sign of them since I sprayed heavily after the big disaster last month and he treated the house three weeks ago.

Trip to Korat (7-18)

We’re back from our trip to Korat for the holiday. I went with Kru Oy and Khun Kwan and Bitoy to visit his mother in Korat. We left town at 10:30 Friday morning, after stopping for breakfast. At 5:00, we arrived in downtown Korat and went to see the Candle Festival sculptures parked around the square. This was interesting because the style was a little different from those in Ubon. 

Many sculptures featured the king in some capacity. 

There were none with the intricate, lace-like overlays. Some were red wax, which is not found in Ubon. 

We saw a few people putting finishing touches on the sculptures. Being there in the early evening was nice, as it was cool but still light. Later they would have flood lights on in area so the crowds could see the sculptures.  

The inner part of the square has the old city wall. 

We also stopped at the city pillar where there are wax sculptures of the nine Rama kings.

After walking around for an hour Thai-style—quickly looking and taking quick photos; no stopping to carefully study the sculptures, we purchased food for dinner and went to Kru Oy’s family home in a village close to the city. His brother and his family live there with their mother. His sister, who lives and works in the city, has a house there, which is where we stayed. We didn’t spend a lot of time there, but Kru Oy visited with his mother, age 80, each morning before the rest of us got going. And they took a lot of food for the family there.

Saturday morning after breakfast, we set off to visit a wat. I thought we were going to a wat in the city, but it was in the province about an hour and a half from the city. Wat Ban Rai was interesting in that its surface was covered with ceramic tiles. 

We also visited Luang Por Koon Museum next to the wat, which is in the family home of the well-known monk at the wat. He is now in the hospital in Korat.

Then Khun Kwan told us that Kru Oy was surprising us with a trip to see the blooming flowers—dok krajieaw—in Chaiyaphum province. We arrived in the area in an hour, and, not surprisingly, we weren’t the only ones going to see the blooming flowers. We joined the bumper-to-bumper line of vehicles going to the park. After half an hour, we stopped for lunch. Then we joined the line again for another hour till we reached Pa Hin Ngam National Park at 4:00 and joined the thousands (This is not an exaggeration.) of people there for the annual blooming festival.

From the parking lot, it was still two more kilometers uphill to our destination; so we took a songtaew up the mountain, as did most people. The first stop was to see the view over the cliff and juggle among the hoards to take photos of ourselves with the view, which, of course, everyone was doing. 

Then we walked the 350 meters to see the flowers. They are found only in this area and bloom for three months. There is a path through the fields, and, when someone stepped off the path to have a photo taken next to a flower or to photograph a flower closer up, an attendant blew a whistle. Since we were at the tail end of the blooming time, the field was not completely covered with blooming flowers, as in some photographs, but it was fun to see them. 

Since the masses were quickly walking down the path, there was no stopping to study the flowers, only stopping to take a quick photo, which I did a number of times so I could observe them in depth later in photographs. 

There were two places where people could sit and have a photo taken with flowers in the background. Then we proceeded down the path to where the songtaews picked us up for the trip back to the parking lot. From there, it was a three-hour trip back to Kru Oy’s family home.

Sunday morning we headed home. The first stop was at the Korat City Mall to purchase a gift for Khun Adin’s new daughter, as the party for her in the village is on Wednesday. It’s quite a modern mall and is full of everything that most American malls are full of. I’ve not seen so many toys for children in this country before. We enjoyed walking around for about an hour, and they selected a stroller for the baby.

On the way back, we stopped at Phnom Rung Historical Park in Buriam province. This is a Khmer monument from the 10^th-13^th centuries. The sculptures feature Hindu divinities and stories. 

One lintel was stolen in the 1950’s and later turned up on loan to the Chicago Art Museum. It was returned to Thailand and the Phnom Rung Historical Park in 1988. We were lucky to arrive when we did, as it had very recently rained heavily in the area and the paths were covered with water in many places when we walked up; they were mostly dry by the time we went down. Since Kru Oy has been there several times before, he stayed at the bottom and had a foot massage while we walked up to see the monument. After all the driving he had done and the long bumper-to-bumper line at the park, I’m sure he needed it.

We arrived back in Ubon at 8:00 Sunday night. We were all ready to be home and out of the car.

 It was good to have Monday at home to relax and do the weekend chores before returning to work on Tuesday. In the afternoon, after the rain stopped, I went to get a haircut at a place on the way to school. The young woman was quite hesitant to cut it as short as I told her to. I had to tell her to cut it shorter after she thought she was finished. Another woman came in and watched while she waited for her turn, and the two of them laughed as she cut my hair the second time. She didn’t cut it too short, as they always did in the village. Cost: 150 bahts (about $5) compared to 30 bahts in the village. I was a little surprised it was so much. She did dry and style it; so that may have been extra. Khun Kwan said 100 bahts is the normal price.

Buddhist Lent Begins (7-14)

The beginning of Buddhist Lent and the rainy season is on Friday. Since that is an official holiday, as is Monday, we have a four-day weekend. Thursday at school there was a special ceremony with the monks for the occasion. So there were no classes for the first two hours.

One of the first things I noticed was that the cross on the altar had been replaced with a Buddha, which is, of course, what is typically on the altars. All of the 1000 students (Catholics may have stayed home, as there were a lot of absences in my class that day. Or they may have been students whose families left early for the long weekend.) gathered in the large meeting area, and then the nine monks arrived. 

Each student had a bag with snacks to give to the monks, as giving food to the monks is what is done on these occasions. There was chanting/praying for a while, and then the head monk spoke to the students. 

Then the head monk walked around and sprinkled water on everyone. It was fun to see the students’ faces light up in anticipation. After this, a woman gave envelopes with money to each monk and some teachers presented food to the monks. What  I found interesting about this is that it was a woman, not a man, who gave the envelopes to the monks, putting them on the platform, and the female teachers who gave the food. Other ceremonies I’ve been at always had a man do these jobs.

Another interesting difference is that the girls sat at the front and the boys at the back. Other schools and the wats always have the boys and men at the front.

The students all got up by class and gave their food to the monks. This was very well coordinated. Students made a line parallel to the monks and then made a u-turn to give them the food and then returned to their places. When their bowls were full, the monks emptied them into tubs on the floor. When these were full, male teachers and men who came with monks took the tubs to the vehicles and emptied them. I figure that with 1000 students giving a food item to each of the nine monks, that was about 9000 items, which is a lot. I wondered what would be done with all of it, as it’s more than the monks can use.

When the monks left, the nuns came out. They had disappeared while the monks were there. Sister Viphaporn came out while students were giving food and spoke a bit.

Sister Viphaporn had told us to wear Thai clothes; so I wore one of my silk skirts. All the teachers were dressed up, which was fun.

There was only one class Thursday morning, and it was my free hour. And I have only one class in the afternoon on Thursday; so it was a light teaching day for me. The one class I had is the one 8^th grade class that hardly ever listens. They listened very well that day. I gave them their exam results, and then wrote some questions and answers on the board for them to copy into their notebooks. I think some were surprised at their  absent; I realized later that a third of the students were gone, which would also account for the good behavior of the group.

This class is after lunch, and the other special event of the day was happening in the meeting area, which is just below the classroom. The ice cream company had a special program for 4^th-6^th grade students. Of course, we could hear it all. I had told the three highest-scoring students that they didn’t have to take notes that day. After a few minutes, they asked if they could go downstairs, and I let them do that. They deserved the special treat. When they returned at the end of class, they had ice cream cones. So I headed down to get one, as I, too, deserved one. I got there just in time, and the ice cream was free, which was a nice treat.

Crisis of the week: On Monday after lunch, Lovely mentioned that Kate was in the library working on her midterm exams. When I asked about that, she said they were Tuesday and Wednesday and that they had been told last Wednesday. Tony and I had not heard anything about this. I knew they were coming up soon but thought it would be next week, since I hadn’t heard anything and the half-way point was this week. I was furious. This was the third or fourth time we had not been told something recently, and effect was accumulating. This was the most important of the lacks of communication. If Lovely hadn’t mentioned it, we would not have had exams prepared for Tuesday. I looked for Kru Toom, who is the department head and who had told Lovely and Kate, and couldn’t find her before or after my classes. Then I found Sister Viphaporn and told her how irritated I was. She passed me on to another nun, who was told to take care of me. Sister Toom gave me the schedule and told me what to do. After I left the office, I noticed that Kru Toom was returning; so I went back and told her how upset I was, partly because I’d been asking her for a term schedule for a month so I’d know things like when exams are.

Tuesday morning when I went to print the three exams I’d prepared, Kru Toom came in and we greeted pleasantly. When I chatted with her, I smiled and laughed about something. Sister Toom was using a computer and heard me and commented that I was happy again. It is good to have this noticed, as showing emotions, especially negative ones, is not a good Thai thing to do. Being—or appearing—happy is important. I know this, but I’d reached my limit and couldn’t help it on Monday. Kru Toom is working on translating the schedule and may make it a higher priority now. I told her we need only the first term now and that, if I have a schedule and know when things are happening, I can go to her with questions a few days in advance and remind her that I/we need the information, thus helping her do her job. I know she has way too many things to do and she has a daughter and husband to take care of and if often stressed; so I really don’t want to be an added burden. I just want to know what’s happening that affects me at the school. As an offshoot of the crisis, five people told me about the special ceremony on Thursday.

The rainy season has begun. It has rained every day this week, with a lot of hard rain on two days. I hope it stops or slows down for the Candle Festival, as that is an outdoor event. Maybe it won’t be so hot this year.

Becoming a Monk (7-10)

Saturday was another busy day this week. It began at 6:00 AM when the family (minus Khun Kwan, who had to go to a seminar for work) picked me up to go to Wat Hua Don for Khun Dakom’s  nephew’s becoming a monk ceremony. He was one of four young men beginning their service as a monk at the wat. He will stay there for the three months of the rainy season. I don’t know how long the others will stay. Families of all four monks-to-be were at the wat, which was a lot more people than are usually there. They all brought a lot of food; so there was also more food than usual—and a better selection. Khun Dakom’s sister gave everyone in her family group a fabric bag from her shop with a pen holder, book of sayings by a famous monk, and a couple amulets.

After breakfast, there was a short ceremony to begin the ordination process. Each mother gave her son a bamboo leaf arrangement. 

Then three monks began the process of cutting their hair. After the monks each clipped a small amount, members of the family cut a small amount. The mothers of each of the young men cut hair from all of them. Then the young men went with the monks to have their heads and eyebrows shaved.

While that was happening, we headed into Ubon to Wat Satun for the ordination. Khun Dakom explained that Phra Tong could not do it, as only monks who have been monks for about twenty years can conduct an ordination. While we waited for everyone to arrive, we went down to the Mun River and fed the fish. I found myself really enjoying it because there were three kinds of fish, and it was fun to watch the different kinds of fish respond to the arrival of the food. Usually when I’ve done this, there has been only the one kind of fish. It is fun to watch them greedily go after the food.

Then we went into the wat where the young man was sitting and took family photos before the other families arrived. When everyone was gathered, the families presented the arrangements and robes and bowls to the young men. 

Then they carried the arrangements and other people carried their robes and bowls and we walked around the wat. I was surprised that we went around only one time, as we usually walk around a wat three times. Back in the wat, they prepared for the ordination.

We left at noon to go to the hospital for the other exciting event of the day—the birth of Adin’s daughter, the second granddaughter for Khun Toy and Khun Dakom. She was born at about 4:00 AM. The maternity room has twenty beds with about two feet between them. There are rotating fans at the end of every other bed. All of the beds  were filled, most with new mothers and babies. A few of the women looked like they were waiting for their babies. Other than Khun Adin, there were six other men who came and went. Many of the women had other women sitting or standing with them. Companions were often fanning the women and babies, as it was hot and there were fans at the ends of every other bed. Most of the babies were lying on the bed with their mother. A few had a bassinette at the end of the bed.

I was getting ready to ask about taking a photo, since recording family events is what I do, when Khun Toy told me to take one. Khun Toy had brought a new flannel top and a piece to wrap around the baby’s bottom. She also presented the granddaughter with her first gold necklace and then gave it to Khun Adin to keep for her.

After we left the hospital, we ate lunch at the duck noodle soup place we all like. Then we changed cars at the hotel where Khun Kwan’s seminar was, and Khun Oy took me home. Khun Toy and Khun Dakom went back to the wat to return to wat Hua Don with the newly ordained monks and the family. Since it was 2:00, I guess it was a long ceremony, and I wasn’t disappointed to not have been there for two hours. And I was ready to be home.

The big project at school was completing the grade/attendance record books. I have ten of these, one for each class. I learned that the 7^th grade class is really two classes combined; so I have to have two books for that class. I had kept grades for worksheets and tests, but I had kept them the American way: recording the scores with the idea of adding them and getting a percent of the total for the grade. However, that is not the way it is done here. Each unit is assigned a number of points, with a total of 70 for the semester. Then there are 10 points for the midterm exam and 20 for the final exam. So all the scores have to be converted to an appropriate number so they add up to 30 for the first unit. (For example, a 55 point exam becomes 10 points). And the worksheets have to correlate with the objectives. And then we have to record how many hours were spent on each objective. These are not actual hours, as I was told that the 40 hours of class will be recorded as 60 hours. Because I had started recording grades in my books but had not done it the right way, I had to redo several books. I spent about twenty hours on this project and am glad it is finished. Now I can get back to my real work planning lessons, which I enjoy doing.

When doing the attendance line, which includes the days when the class meets and gives a number to each class, I realized that midterms are probably coming up soon, as we have had 20 of the 40 classes for the semester. But we haven’t been told about that. Communication trickles down to us foreign teachers slowly, often at the last minute.  We each have someone who is supposed to be our partner teacher, but they think we know what they know and just don’t think to tell us.  

Monday the students went to the speech competition. At the morning assembly, they had to give their speech to the whole school. Then Sister Viphaporn took them to the statue of Mary and prayed and they each rubbed the foot of baby Jesus. Kate’s 6^th grade girl won her level and will go to the next level of the competition. My boy took third place, which was good, since we only practiced one day and a little on Monday morning because he was gone for the weekend, and he was not really prepared.

Friday during the last hour the school had sports activities. This consisted of two teams of 9^th grade students playing volleyball and football against two teams of teachers. The rest of us watched from a shaded area. Tony was recruited to play football, and Lovely played volleyball. I was happy to watch from the shade in the building.

Weather was extremely hot this week. It was sweating weather every day. Fans were on constantly—day and night. Finally, on Saturday, it rained and things cooled down.

I’m enjoying my new water pressure. It took only one and a half minutes, instead of fifteen minutes, to fill each laundry tub. This cut down on laundry time considerably. Also, with the new flow, I can usually use the hose in the bathroom to hose my body like a shower. It’s refreshing. I think the hose is actually a shower hose without a shower head. I gave some thought to getting a new shower now that water actually flows well, but this is more convenient for washing dishes, washing hands, and filling a cup or bowl. It’s more like a faucet.

The Rest of the House (7-3)

Here are photos of the rest of my city house.

 The second bedroom. Used for storage and ironing. This is the room where the termites ate my books.










The living room, looking toward the front door. Mat on the floor is where I sit to read and relax.

Kitchen and dining table in the living room. The pink thing is the stove. Refrigerator is the gray thing on the right. Back door goes out to the laundry area.










The laundry area at the back of the house. Notice the drainage/mosquito nursery on the left. Water drains into the trench and collects.











The front of the house. Bedroom windows on the left.












Plants in the front "yard." There are also plants on both sides.












The spirit house.