Happy Valentine's Day (2-16)

Life has been pretty quiet recently. A few highlights.

Monday morning Kru Tang was very excited to tell me that the school is a champion in Hero Mission. I had a vague memory of hearing about this project before and Kate confirmed it: Hero Mission is a Facebook contest. Kru Tang had asked me to vote, but I was not able to do it. Nine teachers at the school won and will go to Bangkok next week for some special recognition. At the school, each of the nine teachers was given a framed certificate and an artificial bouquet during the morning assembly.

Tuesday was a big day: Valentine’s Day. It was also Lovely’s birthday. Students had been making cards for the occasion all last week. Tuesday morning three of my 7^th grade students came to the office and gave Lovely candy and an artificial bouquet for Valentine’s Day and her birthday. I jokingly asked why my students were giving her gifts and not me, their teacher. When the students left, Lovely explained that they try to talk to her when she is tutoring in the garden after school, and she had told them it would be her birthday. She is also much younger than I. A few minutes later the students returned with a rose for me. I felt a little bad for having shamed them into giving me something, but it was very sweet of them to do that.

During the day I was given small candies by several of the 7^th grade students. On Monday I had told them that in America people give chocolate on Valentine’s Day and I wanted chocolate. One girl who often gives me little candies gave me a Hershey’s nugget bar. It was really sweet of her to listened and acted on what I said. A few of the other students gave me little flowers in an envelope with a couple candies. The 8^th grade girls gave me a bunch of sunflower seeds in the shells. That may have been because they were eating them when I walked to check on them; so they gave me some.

Since it was Lovely’s birthday, she invited us to their house for dinner. When I arrived at 7:30, she was cooking and there was a lot more cooking to be done. We snacked on the fried chicken bits she was cooking while she and a few friends cooked more chicken, pork, fish, and hot dogs. While they cooked, we listened to Carpenter’s music, which all of them grew up with because their mothers and grandmothers love it. It was fun to hear it again. We sat down to eat at 9:00. Lovely had also made chicken in a Filipino sauce. It was quite tasty. One of her friends brought two big pans of brownies. She sent some home with Tony and me. It was a pleasant evening.

It’s officially hot. Temperatures have been around 35 degrees C, which is close to 100 degrees F. Hot.

One of the 7^th grade boys has been helping me after class, carrying my bag to the office for me. On the way, he chats a bit to use questions he has learned from an English book he studies when he finishes his work. And probably other times, too. It’s nice that he now feels comfortable trying out his new English questions and tries to respond when I ask him the question.