Tornados and Farts

I am going to start with this picture as a tribute to my brother. He just graduated from high school and I am so proud of him - not so much because I think high school is a terribly hard task but because I just love him so much and am proud of anything he does. This picture is for him because he told me once that he wanted to travel to other countries and take pictures of the not-so-common sports that the natives play. I thought that was such a fantastic idea and as I have no intention of stealing that idea, this home made checkers board simply made me think of him.

In the states, I hated crickets - granted, far less than I currently hate ants, dogs, chickens, and those obnoxious flying bugs that I have to fight with for shower space after it rains - but the crickets seemed to be more of a disturbance to the otherwise quiet and peaceful night. I've discovered that the crickets here in Thailand now mean something completely different - and I don't necessarily mean different in the sense that they are now edible and, supposedly, delicious - but that they now are a representation of silence to me. I realized this last night has I layed down to write in my journal. I didn't hear people, cars, barking dogs, or incomprehensible Thai music. Just silence.....and crickets. I was taken back by the novelty of this sense of silence for me. It was then my 14th hour of being awake and my world was finally slowing down. Even my runs, which I cherish as my release from the day, are still filled with noise: saying hello every other two minutes, telling people that I'm going back home, or though it is quite obvious what I am doing, responding to the question: "What are you doing?". But the noise does not only flood externally. Even more so, my mind is a constant Niagara Falls of thought ranging from "what the hell am I doing in Thailand" to "go Sadie, go, don't stop". The constant urging to keep pushing applies to my running of course but even more so I (the random picture is of one of my students who was displaying the word monkey) find myself applying those words to my work in Thailand. I have been placed within a tornado of a school system. It is, to put it bluntly, a wreck - but of course, to be fair, it is a wreck by American standards. I say that because I sincerely want to leave room for the cultural differences but then I realize, and am thankful to remember, that someone else thinks it needs improvement or else I wouldn't be here. Let me just tell you a little bit about my frustrations. Teachers don't teach. Ok, thats not entirely fair; they teach sitting at their desk listening to the students rotely read from their books. But even that is hard to come by as most teachers will sleep, read, or take an eating break during class. Classes never start on time. During one blastedly hot day at the high school my co-teacher and I were sitting in the classroom waiting, eagerly mind you, for the students to come. 10 minutes had passed so I, as politely as I could, asked where the students were. She replied that they were downstairs getting their hair cut. Indeed they were and consequently the lesson planned for an hour was cut down to half an hour. I could go on and on and on.......an on but I won't because I have to pay to use this computer and I don't want to bitch forever.

A PCV and I were talking about the job we have ahead of us. She shared that she was discouraged when her co-teacher told her to "stop being so serious" after wanting to sit down (this picture is of Liow and myself riding to the market to go watch the fish. He and I shared a seat and laughed the whole way as he asked me if I liked to eat farts) and lesson plan. Surely, we can take a page from the Thai book in terms of slowing down but oh how much we wish we could tell her back "but education is serious! Stop being so careless!" As I said we feel as if we are in the midst of a tornado, finding stable ground seems an impossible feat but we remind ourselves of the countless number of people we have randomly met in Thailand who, after hearing that we work for the Peace Corps, have exclaimed that they were taught by a PCV years ago and were changed by the experience. The kids are our stronghold - they are the flying cows caught within the same tornado that we can grab ahold of :) Ok, so a tornado analogy isn't exactly fitting here in Thailand...and it isn't the best analogy to begin with but there ya go.

This picture is of one of my high school classes. There are 40 students, 25 desks, and a room small enough for some Americans to consider a bedroom. I'm sure you all can grasp the innate difficulties imbeded within that statement.

In really exciting news however, I went on my first trip with the Kabinburi Bike Group and it was awesome! There were some serious bikers and some that went solely because they had nothing else to do. We rode 60 kilo (about 30 miles) to Gang Hin Pung where we ate sticky rice and som tam. Some of us then went mountain biking further up stream. It was so dense and dark in some places that I had to put my camera on night flash otherwise the pictures simply wouldn't come out. The trail was more so a hiking trail than biking trail and most of our time was spent getting on and off our bikes to carry it across rivers or over impassible jutting rocks but it was an absolute blast. The picture is of one of the kids that I met on the trip whose name I can't remember :) Now that I have a camera I need a place to store them online...does anyone have any ideas? Amy, what was the site you kept all of your Germany pictures? Ok, all for now :)