roo mai chai....khun sap.....arai godai

Hello :) So much has happened since last time I wrote. We had our English camp which was a tremendous success! Oh, I have a funny story to relate to you all. First, a little insight into the structure and logistics of how the camp worked. There were about 8 volunteers and 150 students and we each taught 2 different lessons/songs to 6 different groups of kids who were grouped by fruits. In addition to this, we did large group activities in the morning and then at the end of the day. When we did the large group activities we all sat under a large outdoor pavillion type thing in a awkward concentric circle as to fit all kids under the same roof. It is the end of the day activity that I want to relate to you. So, at the beginning of the day we introduced body parts in English so at the end of the day we played a game called person to person to review those parts. So each kid had to find a partner. The MC would call out a body part and the two kids would have to tap those body parts together to the beat of the music in the background. We were successful with leg, arm, hand, head, foot but came upon an extremely awkward moment when the MC said mouth to mouth. Our MC's name is John and in fact I'm not going to blame this awkwardness on John because it wasn't really his fault. I was watching him when he said mouth to mouth and he didn't tell the kids to do it, he just asked the Paw Aw (principal) and she was all gung ho! So the kids (and John and the Paw Aw) awkwardly did mouth to mouth but more so in a style resembling a French greeting. Usually we would move on to another body part but not this time! The Paw Aw had everyone sit down. We all sat down in our strange grouped circle and waited while she ran off stage. She came back with a large water bottle (similar to the water bottles that office staff have "water cooler talk" around). She set this large bottle in the middle of the circle and proceeded to play spin the bottle. She was speaking in Thai and I had no idea what was going on but the kids were screaming and laughing and thinking it was sooooo hilarious......me, I was confused as all hell. As I was sitting there attempting to catch my co-volunteers' eyes for a moment of shared "what the hell?" , I noticed that the Paw Aw pointed the bottle at me. I stared at the bottle for a moment but only a slight moment because she made me get up and spin the bottle. I spun the bottle with such hesitation that it didn't even go around in a complete circle. The bottle landed on John. He was just as confused as I was. We look to our Ajaans for help who tell us to just to the chicken dance Thai style (which is way more fun that the chicken dance American style). All ended up without harm but my god was it a very strange moment in Thailand. The day ended up with autographs and dancing. Some of the kids that live in my village were able to come to the camp so I was blessed with hearing the new things they learned during camp. It was quite wonderful to see the fruit of our hard work but after hearing "what is your name, how old are you, and what is your favorite food" for the 20th time.....well....yah, enough said.

Today we just finished a teacher camp which consisted of 100 teachers and 10 volunteers. It was not as much of a success but it was still a very good experience. Let me explain to you all that I am not in Thailand to teach. That is not my purpose in Thailand. I do teach. I will spend a good amount of time teaching but I am here to teach teachers how to teach English. Most of my time will be spend working one on one with the co-teachers of my two schools. In addition to this, however, I will be working very closely with my supervisor who is also the supervisor of the English Program in my province. Our goals are to work in detail with the curriculum (and ultimately change the curriculum to better suit the needs of the students, and in all honesty, to be effective in general because at this point, it frankly sucks) and to create teacher clubs and teacher camps in order to get all teachers in our province on the same page. I didn't know that my job was going to be on such a large scale but I am sooo thrilled that it is. Thailand wants to improve their English program and I can't do that effectively by working at only two schools. So, today we held a Teacher Camp mostly as practice for the volunteers but also to give the teachers some ideas. The hardest part for me, and something that really put my job in perspective was when a teacher came up to Scott (my teaching buddy for the day) and me and asked for help, for advice on how to get her Paw Aw's to listen. She seemed to be a very energetic and devoted teacher who already had a fantastic grasp of student centered learning. She came to us because her Paw Aw is on a completely different page. Her Paw Aw wants her to teach from the curriculum and and the level she was teaching (Matiome which is like high school) includes grammar. The problem is, the kids don't even know the basic letters, the sounds they make , or how to answer a question as simple as what is your name. I suggested she go to the ESAO which is the level of government that I will be working with, the ones that have the power to change, but the problem here in Thailand is the power struggle. She comes with little power to change so it will be difficult for her to be heard. I found a great appreciation for my supervisor at that point who wants to listen and who wants to change and to start from the ground up. I told this teacher to keep doing what she was doing, that change is slow but it is coming. Thailand is in a state of reform in terms of education. Some teachers are oblivious, and those seem to be more common but I find it so much more difficult to see the teachers who are lightyears ahead of their country. They are in some ways being held back by their government and it is very frustrating for them.

I want to end here by commenting on my title. It means "or not, ya know, whatever". This is not a common pharse in Thailand. A friend and I translated it because it happens to be said quite a lot by him. It means so much for us but for the purpose of this email, it falls in line with "may ben rai" which actually is a legitimate Thai phrase that means "its all good". We find ourselves caught up in so much sometimes - you can answer for yourself what you get caught up in - but sometimes, being caught up in those things is a waste of our precious time. Sometimes it is so helpful to just remember that life has a way of working out....

I teach without shoes on. When I sweep the 100 dead bugs up from the floor I don't use a dust bucket (english words have escaped me already - I hope you know what I mean by dust bucket) because the floor is made of wood. I simply push the pile of bugs through the slats in the floor. For 3 days I studied Thai at a Wat. Life is good.