First Semester Moments

While most schools in America are still getting into the swing of a new school year, most schools in Thailand have already wrapped up the first semester and are gearing up for the second. It seems like it wasn't that long ago, I was standing in a meeting room with all of the school directors from the sub-district, nervously introducing myself and presenting the Peace Corps framework with proposed activities for the year. I anticipated that maybe one or two may not have interest in me and my proposal or may not be able to accommodate me, but it was a flood of a relief to receive their unanimous approval, enthusiasm, and willingness to have me and to incorporate me into the schools and their various schedules. 

Moving forward, I was nervous about meeting the students, wondering how they would respond to me, and whether or not they would like me. I don't think I've ever been so anxious about the approval of others or how much they liked me, or if they liked me at all, especially not about the opinion of children. In my previous experiences, I typically dealt with children in serious and even messy situations and being in my presence did not necessarily translate into a fun or smiley event. I'd gotten used to that role, but this time around, I'm playing a different role, which is quite the opposite, and I wasn't sure if or how I could pull it off. 

So, it's been several months since this anxious lady showed up in the schools, riding a bike, lessons in hand, claiming not to be a teacher, and speaking broken Thai. If anything, the students seemed intrigued, and it wasn't long before I realized that my anxieties were all in vain. They asked their questions, I taught my lessons, we had our fun, we certainly had our moments, and we all made it through a pretty non-catastrophic first semester. The first quarter of my service, in the books, and I have a really good feeling about what is to come. Without repeating anything that has been mentioned in previous posts, here are ten very random, yet very memorable moments of my first semester.

Teachable moments... Out of the mouths of babes...

1. Are you really from America? Americans are pretty and have pretty white skin. You have black skin, but you're pretty. (So, everyone knows that Americans have white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. And I obviously have none of that, so I understand their confusion. Students have some familiarity with black race since there are Cameroonian teachers in the villages, but until now, children have been lost on the concept of African-Americans or Blacks in America. Adults, however, are at least familiar with Barack and Michelle Obama, and to a lesser extent, Beyoncé and Michael Jackson. Cultural Note: Thais in general have an obsession and fascination with white skin. Every skin product, from body wash to deodorant, has whitening agents because apparently white skin is pretty skin. Darker skin is symbolic of lower socioeconomic status, specifically of farm worker, even though some Thais are naturally darker than others.)
    
2. You and Mr. C should get married. You both speak English, and you're both black. (Mr. C is a Cameroonian man, the foreign English teacher for my village. He's also very nice. As if speaking English and being black aren't reasons enough for marriage.)
    
3. Please teach us to do our hair like yours. (This said while playing with and sniffing at my braided hair during a break. The thing with homogeneity is that "my hair is different" only leads to more bafflement and questions.) 
    
4. Teacher, do you have Ebola? (This said quite innocently while holding my hand walking to lunch. My guess is that she made the association after watching some news coverage.)
5. Why are you so tall? You're tall like a man. (Simple answer, because my father is tall. Yes, I'm taller than all of the female teachers in the school. Probably taller than every female in the village, daresay country (just kidding, I know I'm not). So they don't realize that 170cm or 5'7" isn't necessarily tall-like-a-man standards in most non-Asian countries.)

 

Teachable moments don't always happen in the classroom

Moments that make me wonder why I let these kiddos have any breaks... But really, sometimes the breaks are more for me than for them...

6. After spending ten minutes of their five minute break running to the vendor to purchase then eat salty and spicy treats, I finally get the students somewhat settled down. Three students immediately request a water break because their mouths are supposedly burning from the spicy snacks. I try to offer them my unopened bottle of 'teacher water' but they decline and try to sneak out of the classroom door. I decide to continue the lesson from the doorway, then out of the blue, a student frantically points to the back of the room "Teacher look, look..." I turn my head "...elephant!" I turn my head back in time to see two rascals jumping out the window...
   
   
   
7. Students have a five minute water/bathroom break. Three minutes in, a student returns to the class crying, "What's wrong?" he shows me a patch in his head that wasn't there before the break. "Who did that?" Cue in two students following behind, one with scissors in hand and the other explaining that the boy's hair was too long and needed to be cut. Ummm... How is this okay? I turn to the victim "Do you want us to go to the principal/director?" as expected, he refuses. Okay. I turn to the other students and ask "Are you a barber? Is this a barber shop? Yes, you're in school, yes, you're a student. What did you come to school to do? Yes, you came here to learn, not to cut hair. Very good." They wrote in Thai ten times, then in English five times, 'I am a student, I am not a barber. I will learn, I will not cut hair." The next week's lesson was about occupations. Interestingly, the victim, who was sporting a new haircut, was the only one who wants to be a barber when he grows up.

Little Rascals

 

Water Break

 Awkward Moments

8. The question is frequently asked "Why don't you eat pork or seafood?" and when I say that it's because of my religion, I usually get a nod in response, or a chuckle and a joke along the lines of not being able to eat anything delicious because of my religion. The custodian at one of my schools took the conversation even further. "Why? What is your religion? Are you Muslim?" I explained to him that I am a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, and that some aspects of my religion are similar to Islam. He proceeded to debate me, "But the other foreign teacher is a Christian and he eats everything." I explained that there are different groups of Christians, and that all Christians don't do all the same things, but we study the Bible which instructs us not to eat certain foods. At this point I remember that my Bible app has Thai translations, so I showed him the chapter (Leviticus 11) that lists unclean foods. I smile as he reads on and nods his head in understanding/acceptance, then he smiles at me and says "Well, here it says you can eat insects." Really? He returned my phone and I changed the language back to English. Sure enough. Well... Americans don't eat insects.
    
9. During a community meeting, I noticed that one of my school directors had some documents in a book, upon second glance, I realized that the book was Black Beauty. He is quite literate in English and often insists that we speak in English, our conversations usually include him spelling out words when he is unsure of the pronunciation. That being the case, I wasn't too surprised to see him with an English book. I commented to him that it was a good book, a classic which used to be very popular in America.  I asked him where I can find English books around here. He told me that they are not very common, but he recently found this one at a little store in the neighboring province. He asked me if I wanted to read it, and without thinking, I told him that I've read it a few times before. He said "Oh, okay" and the expression on his face before he walked away made me wonder if he brought (or bought?) the book specifically for me. 
   

   

   Literary School Director

Moments away from school

10.  My host cousin invited me to participate in an English camp at his school in a nearby village. It was great to be in a different environment, meeting and working with new teachers and students, I even got to work with Miss E (Cameroonian teacher in my district who does my hair). We taught some fun English songs to the whole group of about fifty students, and when the students separated into smaller groups, I co-facilitated the Question Words station. I had a really great time and got some lesson ideas that I was able to take back to my schools.

Ms. E and I teaching Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Teaching question words to a small group with my host cousin and one of his coteachers.

There are a few more away from school moments, but since I'm already at ten, I'll just share pictures...

Sometimes I get to visit other volunteers on long weekends. And sometimes we get to pig out at non-Thai restaurants.

Once in awhile, I get to be the shortest person in the group.

 

Amanda's site is famous for dinosaurs



Love in a hopeless place?

Andrew's site is famous for it's historical ruins

 

Beautiful park

Goofing around

Just having a goofy good time.



Burritos and Burgers in Bangkok with Amanda.

 

Pineapple Fried Rice in Bangkok with Katherine.
I made an exception to my "No Thai food in Bangkok" rule

  

This was actually the dish I ate at my Going-to-Thailand dinner at a Thai restaurant in Miami

My whole break has been spent hub
doing desk work, preparing for the upcoming semester, and hanging out with coworkers.
It's gotten pretty comfortable, but I am ready to get back out there!

This is actually the last week of my break, I've regrouped, and I'm ready to return. The break is three weeks long, quite similar to the Christmas/Winter/Holiday break in America (then the summer equivalent takes place from March to May). Semester 2.0 is right ahead, and I anticipate many more memorable moments to come! 

First Success Story

Here we are, the very last day of September, and I realize that it's been over a month since my last blog post.... I've been doing a pretty good job at blogging at least once a month, but somehow September seemed to fly by so quickly! Really, where did the time go?? I can hardly believe it!! This past month, in addition to my regular work routine, I spent a couple weeks working on my first six-month report for Peace Corps, then I spent about a week in Bangkok following up on a brief illness, and it seems like the rest of the month just got lost somewhere in between there.

Did you notice that I referenced a six-month report?? Yes! It's been over six months since I've been at my site, a quarter of my service is complete, about a third of my time here in Thailand has passed. Time certainly does seem to fly in Peace Corps!! So more about this report... Every six months, Peace Corps Volunteers have to submit a comprehensive report which entails a quantitative and qualitative summary/breakdown/analysis of our service. Basically, we do some number crunching and write a few essays reflecting the work that has been done so far.

One section of the report called for a success story, a story that demonstrates a positive impact that I've made. I revisited and skipped this section so many times. I kept thinking: I know I've been here six months already, but it really doesn't seem like it's been that long, it really doesn't seem like I've been able to do very much, I don't feel like I've made much of an impact at all. Most of what I've done so far is teach English, and that's hardly been "successful." Sometimes it seems like the students forget half of what I teach after a couple weeks; sometimes just being in the classroom is difficult, as I haven't had much classroom experience and behavior management in a different language is no walk in the park... Honestly, I'd had a particularly trying week, and I just could not drudge up any semblance of a success story aside from how I resisted a teacher's insistence of "You should use the stick, they understand the stick."

At some point in this whole thought process, I thought back to my days as an AmeriCorps/City Year Team Leader, I often encouraged my team members to look for and share "starfish stories" from their service. The term "starfish story" is based on the tale of a little girl walking on a beach littered with starfish, she picked them up as she strolled along and threw them back into the sea; though she was ridiculed and taunted by others telling her that she couldn't possibly save them all or make a difference, she smiled as she went along, and as she threw in another starfish, she said "I made a difference to that one!" (paraphrased)

Although somewhat different, I decided to follow the advice that I'd given my corps members in the past, "The story does not have to be a grandeur spectacular tale, it's the little things!" So here goes my success story...

[XYZ] School is the smallest school in my subdistrict. Every Thursday afternoon, for three hours, I teach a room of fifteen students from ป4 to ป6 [4th through 6th grade]. We learn and we play together, and when they asked me recently if I have any children, I told them that they were all my babies. These students, although they are a handful at times, are the nearest and dearest to my heart. Most Thursday afternoons, the pre-school (anuban) teacher, the  foreign teacher (teaching English to ป1-ป3), and I are the only [teachers] present at the school; sometimes after pre-school is dismissed, I would ask the anuban teacher to join us in our activities for the last hour of school.

Recently, I taught Mother's Day songs at all six of my schools leading up to the Queen's Birthday/Mother's Day Celebration. I had selected two songs - "You are My Sunshine" and "I Love My Mommy." At each school, I played both songs once and had the students vote on which one they wanted to learn. At [XYZ] School, "I Love My Mommy" won by a single vote. I translated the song so that the students could understand the meaning, transliterated for pronunciation, then we practiced singing and came up with some actions together. I realized that some students were slacking off a bit, just doing the actions, and relying on other students to carry the song. To encourage full participation and teamwork, I separated the students into three random groups of five and gave them fifteen minutes to practice the song. The groups were randomized to encourage students to work with other students outside of the little "best friend" cliques that they usually form.

Group Practice

 Each group occupied separate empty rooms to practice, I informed them that there would be a competition after fifteen minutes. I went from room to room to silently observe and to give time reminders in five minute increments. In one classroom, I observed students singing and playing separately in different areas of the the room. In another classroom, I observed students singing together with their papers and practicing the actions. In the third room (office/lounge), I observed students lounging and laughing on the couch, drinking water from teacups, pretending that they were having coffee, then pretending to practice when they saw me. After fifteen minutes, I brought the groups back together, and they had a surprise audience/judge, the anuban teacher. The groups went up one by one to perform, it was obvious which group really practiced, which group semi-practiced, and which group "pretend practiced." I didn't have the language to fully and properly explain to them the correlation between their practice session and their performance, but I conveyed some of my ideas to the anuban teacher (who also doesn't speak English, but is a sympathetic listener), and she was able to really bring it home for them. The students all understood why the winning group won and agreed that they should work better as a team.

As I dismissed the students, they asked what I would be teaching them next week. The next week was going to be a short week due to the Mother's Day holiday, and I hadn't really thought about a lesson, so I told them that I didn't know yet. They told me that they wanted to learn the second song and that they wanted to use teamwork. Although it would be post-Mother's day, I loved the idea and decided to take them up on their suggestion. We did a take-2 the following week, this time inviting the other foreign teacher and the ป1-ป3 students to be the audience (the anuban teacher had to leave early). Honestly, the improvement the second week was stellar compared to the week before, it was a more difficult song, but each group demonstrated teamwork in their practice, and they all did a great job performing! It was so good that by the third round, the younger students were able to sing along to parts of the song. I told my students how proud I was of all them.

I had only planned to teach them an English Mothers' Day song, even though I knew that they would probably forget it in a few weeks, but I have a feeling they walked away with much more. I hope that they will always remember the importance of teamwork and apply that lesson to other areas of life.

The moment they became my babies...

They'd had their "Wai Kruu" ceremony to honor their teachers that morning,
When I got there in the afternoon, they showed me the arrangements
that they had made and said that they wanted to honor me too.
They sat me down and proceeded to have a mini ceremony, just for me!
It was so very touching.

I adopted them right then and there.

Post-Wai-Kruu-Michelle Ceremony

The Fifth and Sixth Graders performing "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing"

Check out the cunning little wolf!

With my babies :-)

Mother's Day, Thai Way

Mother's Day (wan-maeh วันแม่) is celebrated on the Queen's birthday here in Thailand (likewise, Father's Day is celebrated on the King's birthday). Queen Sirikit is affectionately known as "Mother of the Country" so to celebrate her birthday, as well as to honor all mothers in the country, August 12th is a national holiday (which actually resulted in a four day weekend since it fell on a Tuesday this year). Queen Sirikit was born on a Friday, since the customary "color of the day" for Friday is light blue, light blue flags bearing her insignia are flown throughout the country in honor of her special day. Schools and temples host special events and ceremonies to honor mothers in the each community. To prepare for the ceremony at the schools, I was asked to teach the students an English Mother's Day song. I taught a simple song that I found on YouTube and even performed with the students at one of the ceremonies. At the Mother's Day Ceremony, I was truly touched and impressed by the sentiments of love and appreciation shown to the mothers.

First the mothers are seated
Then their children kneel before them
with an offering, a mini wreath.



The children present the mothers with the offering



Then bow three times to the mother's feet



Then they embrace :-)
This mother and son are my neighbors and like my
extended family. I usually have meals at their home and
the son is my bodyguard and stays with me if I'm ever home alone.
He's the most mature ten year old I know, it was nice to see
him embraced so sweetly with his mother on this day.



Kindergartners are always the cutest!



After the ceremony with Kru Ya (one of my co-teachers)



The flag of Queen Sirikit, Mother of the Country



The flag is flown all over the country in her honor.



Students learning mothers day songs,
traditional Thai song and then my English song



Practicing in small groups
(for some odd reason, the videos won't load)



The whole class practicing.
(I wish the videos would load!!)

In my previous post, I mentioned that I would be highlighting some of the individuals who have become near and dear to me over the past few months. It's only appropriate to start with my host mom. I call her Pii Noi - "Pii" is the prefix used to address/refer to older siblings, "Noi" is her nickname, which means little or tiny. It's been a bit over five months since Pii Noi opened her home to me and offered me her top floor, I was a stranger at the time, but I've felt welcomed and at home since day one. Since then, she's played a huge part in helping me to integrate into the community and settle into life here. Pii Noi is well known and respected, and has introduced me to many good-to-know people in the community. Although she doesn't speak any English, we communicate pretty well, she's patient with my broken Thai, we play charades from time to time, and more often than not, we understand each other.



Pii Noi and I at mother's day dinner :-)



 Just a few things about Pii Noi that I love:

• She is extremely kind, generous, caring, understanding, and intuitive.
• Her style balances simple and classy very well.
• She is strong and brave, I've seen her take on a snake and a scorpion!
• She has a great network of friends and family. She knows everybody and everybody knows her.
• She once was a cook, and cooked a lot when her children were young, not so much anymore, but when she does, it's great!
• She has a nice kitchen and keeps it open for others to use.
• She is a busy body and gets up with (if not before) the sun, every single day. Her energy is not quite contagious, but it is motivating.
• She was the only girl in her family and she has two sons, and so she's genuinely very happy to have a girl (me!) around. 



Pii Noi and I at the Sports Day where I was
dressed up in traditional Thai wear for
the opening ceremony.



Before I moved into my community, Peace Corps gave me a list of families in the community that I could potentially live with. For various reasons, circumstances and/or conditions at those homes were not exactly 'fit' when I got here. My supervisor told me that one of the officers at the hub lived nearby and had room in her house so I could stay there. That officer was Pii Noi, and her home has been my home ever since.

My first dinner at my new home with my new family

Recent breakfast with extended family members.

It is a Peace Corps requirment that volunteers live with a family in the assigned community for the initial three months, after which we may rent a home in the community. On day one, before she knew much about me, Pii Noi said that I could stay with her for the full two years if I wanted to. We've revisited the conversation a couple times since, and apparently she still feels the same way, I've even verified with third parties, and well, here we are five months later. 

Recent lunch at a Japanese restaurant
(occasionally we eat non-Thai food)

My host mom has been widowed for about three years, her youngest son studies in a neighboring province and the older is on his own, so it's usually just the two of us. We keep each other's company, we talk, we laugh, we have conversations; on the flip side, she also allows me to be my introverted self and she understands why (or at least accepts that) I don't wake up at 6:30am on the weekends. Overall, I'm happy and comfortable living with her. Sooner or later, I am sure that I will leave the nest, as the independent/introverted parts of me crave more of my own space, but no matter what, I'm sure that I will maintain a close relationship with Pii Noi.

Just chillaxing after a recent dinner



Honorable mention to my first host mom,
who taught me how to eat, sit, dress, and
carry/present myself the "riap-roy"
(Thai appropriate) way.

Extra Special Shout Out to my real mother, my birth mom,
who has encouraged and motivated me every day of my life.
This picture was taken my last night at home -
we went to dinner at a Thai restaurant.
I miss her very much.