Respect...

We are in the heart of monsoon season now, where it rains almost everyday and quite heavily sometimes. We quickly found out that our roof leaked and this was our set up to save our upstairs from becoming a swimming pool!

My new favorite fruit here is something that is very similar to a grapefruit, but much larger and not quite as tart. I'm sorry I don't even know the name of it! Here is a picture of the fruit.

 

This is the package I buy it in. The little package on the top is the mixture of a pinch of salt, sugar and crushed red pepper, to dip your fruit in.

James and Pat asked to meet with me so I could look at 3 resumes for potential hires. It felt weird being in that position. From what they said, they were almost solely going off my thoughts and opinion. There were 2 middle aged men and another girl my age. (I still don't understand the huge population of middle aged foreign men that move to Thailand). I suggested that the best thing we could do is have these potentials come in and see how they interact with the kids because they can say anything on paper, but you want someone that the kids can get along with and have a connection with. They had this girl, Eve, from Uganda, come and do a little test run for a few days. She seemed a bit quiet and I felt she talked too fast for the kids to understand. At one point she was trying to explain a game and the kids were not understanding, so I jumped in and explained the best I could and then the kids said they understood. It was a good feeling! Again, I feel like I am making progress in communication with the students. I have enjoyed talking to and getting to know Eve a bit. I was quite embarrassed though when I asked her what her first language was, or what she spoke back home in Uganda, and she looked at me and said, English! She said that alot of countries in Africa speak English. Maybe I should brush up on the facts of Africa!

It never ceases to amaze me how revered the King is here. His picture is absolutely everywhere! On almost every road there are structures like this with pictures of him.

Every day after the lunch, the kids come into the classroom with white powder on their faces. It is supposed to keep them cool. It surprises me that the kids wouldn't be self-conscious about that. I have found that they enjoy it and think it's funny how they look! I haven't worked with elementary kids in a school system back home (and I'm too old to remember too much about my own elementary school years!), but I find it interesting that the kids here have toothbrushes at school and brush their teeth everyday after lunch. I'm not sure if the school provides the toothbrushes and toothpaste. I guess it's good that they seem to push the kids to brush their teeth, when, as I've mentioned before, the kids' teeth here are terrible.

At 8am every morning the kids gather for an assembly outside where there is a bit of chanting, sometimes the band plays, sometimes students are honored, etc. There is a song played every morning and I finally asked what it was and it is the Thailand national anthem. One morning I was out on the street when this played and I observed that when the national anthem plays, the traffic stops, people walking on the street stop, everyone stops and faces the flag until the song is over.

Every now and then they have these different Thai days at school and there is always alot of food! After scoping things out I was happy that I got to have a little of both my top favorites here: Papaya salad and Pad Thai!! In Thailand they serve and make alot of things in banana leaves, like seen here. From what I have observed, the Thais use as many parts of a good as possible. It's quite impressive.

Ann started having our students do a short meditation at the beginning or end of class to get them calmed down. I liked this alot and found that it does help get the kids centered a bit and get in touch with their more calm side....if even for a few minutes! After all of these months of teaching here, it is still weird to me or catches me off guard how after every single period, the students thank the teacher. When I walk through the school, especially at lunch time when there are hundreds of students everywhere, I am constantly greeted with a wai, which is when you put your hands together and bow. It's a sign of respect. Again it's something I'm still getting used to beings signs of respect like this didn't flow like milk and honey back home in the schools I taught at! I feel we need to show more respect for each other in our culture. Even adults, at school and anywhere out in public greet each other with a wai.

My friend Steve, who I met on my travels, is from Australia and after talking one day I found out that in Australia the government pays for your college and then when you start working, depending on how much you make (after $25,000), a certain percent is taken out of your paycheck to go towards paying back your college. I think that sounds like a pretty good system and it wouldn't seem so overwhelming to pay back your loans that way. So his thoughts are he will just never go back to Australia and then he will never have to pay them off!

This picture was during one of these Thai days, when all the kids take turns making offerings to Buddha.

Ever since I have moved to Thailand I have felt bad about the mass quantities of bottled water that I buy. Back home I have maybe bought 2 bottles of water in my life! I don't like doing it and I have read many articles about how many water bottles are thrown away every year and not recycled. People need to start using reusable water bottles. Sorry for my rant! Anyway, after talking with my friend Steve I discovered that there is a place close to my house where you can fill up big 6 liter jugs of filtered water for only 5 baht! (which is like 15 cents!).  I feel alot better about my consumption of water now!