Physical and Mental Issues...

I had a great experience that made me feel that I am actually making some progress with communication with my students. I was going to try to give some diections about the students homework and wasn't even going to try and just tell Ann to have her tell the kids in Thai. Well, I just went for it any way and after I was finished (and I talked slowly and used as many hand gestures as I could!), Ann asked the students if they understood what I said. Two kids raised their hands and explained to Ann what they thought I said and they were right on! I almost got goosebumps. I think the kids are really getting used to be and we are starting to click. As most of my family and friends would say, I am a fast talker...but this experience has taught me to really slow down.

The power goes out every now and then at the school. James said it is because we use too much power and the breaker blows. It usually takes a few hours to fix...which means no AC in the classrooms, which is quite unbearable. I am very thankful for the AC in our classrooms because my friend who teaches at the high school doesn't have AC.

Ann's (my thai translator) husband plays on the Singburi Football Club team so I went to a couple games with her. It was loud and crazy and alot of fun!

I will never get over how people in southeast Asia make every trip worth it...when they haul something, they don't mess around!

Unfortunately I still found myself in this rut and was not my normal perky, smiley self. I didn't like the person I was, but I felt I couldn't do anything about it. Usually after a few hours of a mood like this I just tell myself it's not worth it so I move on and am happy again...but not this time. It felt out of my hands. I was working so much to try to keep from being lonely but it just made me more depressed. On top of all of this, I started feeling a problem in my ear. The feeling was one like you needed to pop your ears, either from water or like being on a plane....except I couldn't pop them. Over 2 weeks it continued to get worse. I wasn't in pain, but I couldn't hear hardly anything from the "outside," everything was just loud on the inside of my head. It was extremely frustrating to teach like this because my voice was very loud inside my head even though I wasn't actually talking that loud. All of the students noise just bounced around inside my head and made me dizzy. I wasn't too worried because I wasn't in pain, but after 3 weeks I started getting worried that there would be permanent damage. So I talked to nurse Polly, who made me feel better, but also worried me about the possibilities of what it could be. I was not excited to go to the hospital where I knew communication would be minimal.

The organiztion and structure of the hospital was quite something. This is the door for the ear, nose and throat problems. At one point I was inside the room where patients were getting looked at by the doctor. Also, you take your blood pressure and weight.

It was a scary, sureal experience. I got taken into this room, where I was put into this sound proof box where they did numerous hearing tests. After it was all said and done I was told I had conductive hearing loss in my right ear (as if I knew what that meant!) and I was given 4 prescriptions. I did not feel better when I left the hospital. It took almost a whole week before I felt any better from the drugs. I went back for a checkup and the doctor said I was better and gave me a few more drugs. I am still not 100%, but I feel I'm on the way to recovery. I am still very frustrated by the fact that I have no idea what caused it or why it happened. I have never really had any medical issues, even small ones, and let me tell you it is not fun to deal with those on your own in a place far away from the home you love. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the emails and thoughts of concern I received from my home community. I felt blessed to feel that so many people care about me and my well-being.

I did some more motorbike riding into the country to find some more interesting Buddhist statues.  I knew that umbrellas were important to the Thais (to stay out of the sun), but I didn't know they were also important to the Buddhas!

It wasn't until after I got home and put this next picture on my computer that I saw the swastika on this Buddhas chest. After doing some research I learned that this symbol dates from the Neolithic Era and means good luck or good well-being. It is used in many religions such as Buddhism and means dharma, universal harmony and the balance of opposites....so a bit different from the negative connotations that Hitler gave it!

This guy was the "guard" of the temple I visited.

This next picture is of the fattest Buddha I have ever seen! I seriously think that I could have fit my head inside his belly button! I was going to try but I didn't want to get kicked out by the monks!

There are two things in life that I have no tolerance for and could do without...(and this is before I moved to Thailand!)....mosquitos and spiders! I get probably about 3-6 bites a day. I always thought I would be safe in our AC classrooms, but the mosquitos thrive in there. I have to put on bugspray every morning! As I was teaching one morning, writing on the white board, I all of a sudden noticed, about 6 inches from my hand, a spider about 3 inches in diameter! I might have let out a squeal which got a response of laughter from my students! My first reaction was to grab my shoe outside the door and smash it and right as I was going to suggest this to Tuk, my translator, I realized that Buddhists don't believe in killing even small creatures like that (unless it's to eat I think!). So she just made it move out of sight, behind the board. I was not pleased and kept my distance from the board! This happened about 3 weeks ago and the kids still come up to me and say spider, spider! I had another encounter in the other classroom with an even bigger spider and again it was not met with the hostility I felt! I should have remembered the picture I saw when learning about Buddhism....a person was about to step on an ant and then an elephant was about to step on the person!