Give me some sugar

I am now a volunteer!!!!!!!!!!! We were sworn in on Saturday which was not only a momentous day for my group but also for Peace Corps Thailand as a whole. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the Peace Corps Thailand/America relationship - which is no small deal. Our relationship with Thailand is the longest running and most successful relationship throughout the Peace Corps World. The ceremony was graced, as many of the Thai staff would say, by the Princess' presence and were told that having her there was one of the greatest honors. It is hard for me to gauge the true essense of her royalty and importance simply because I am still ignorant about the depth of the Thai government but I was no doubt humbled by the fact that we were there. More and more I come to appreciate the depth of my job here and the ceremony aided in the removal of one more layer of the things I take for granted. The ceremony supposedly made national news so if you want to do some searching, I'm sure you could find some more information. That very day though we were all swept off to our individual sites so goodbyes were very brief.

My site: I am currently staying with a host family, though I do have a house for rent waiting for me. I do not yet have the address but will get it to you as soon as I possibly can. So, if you were thinking of sending me anything for my birthday... dont sweat it - I'm in Thailand, that is birthday present enough :) My house for rent (baan chow) comes with absolutely nothing.....which is no surprise when comparing to the states but here in Thailand it is more of an exception. I am going to be moving into my baan chow on Thursday and am very excited....I get to run where and when I want and to eat when and how much I want....I can wear what I want to bed and I can just sit and relax! I haven't worked at all since I moved to site and it has been fantastic! I went to two parties yesterday - one was similar to an end of the year party in the states but so much more fun! The second one was for the new teachers so I got to give a speech and sing kareoke. I sang country roads. As I was starting my song I was told "By John Denver. He dead already". Country roads all right.

So I want to tell you all about a little holiday here in Thailand called Songkran. And when I say little I mean huge. And when I say holiday I say it with confusion because I don't understand what exactly is being celebrated....there goes my American mind thinking there needs to be answers. We've been told that April is so hot you honestly think the sun is going to kill you like it does the trees. The Thai's solution for reprieve is a couple-day holiday where they nearly extinguish all water supply to have a country-wide water fight. They say that you are soaked for days and farangs are an especially susceptible target.....yaaay. I am honestly really excited about the water part of this whole charade but I am mostly excited because I don't have to be riap roy.....and for those of you who know me well enough and know how much I love playing in water, being more excited about not having to be riap roy is a big deal.

So I think the bed that I am sleeping on at my host family has bed bugs. I am very very itchy and the bites are most definitely not from mosquitos.....

So the plan: I will be doing 2 three day english camps within the next two weeks, two teacher training seminars, lesson planning for the first six months of school, and working on the curriculum. Also, I learned yesterday at the party that meth is a very big problem in this area so I will think about that as a secondary project.

For my family. If you have not yet heard, Matt just shipped off to the Army yesterday. He is so incredibly excited and sees this as possibly the biggest adventure in his life - most certainly the biggest up to this point. I hear a happiness in his voice that I haven't heard for a while and through his happiness comes a point for me where I relinquish all my sadness and feel excitement for him. I think it is going to be good for him - very good. When I figure out where he is, I will let you all know. Could you be sure to let him know you are thinking about him and maybe send him a letter from time to time? He considers you all more family than is own. Through times full of challenge, support is so imporant - so lets all be there for him ok?

I feel like there was so much more I had to say, and there most likely is but I have come to a loss of thought right now. Considering it has been so long since I last wrote, this probably doesn't adequately fill you in....sorry :) With a smile of course cuz there is nothing you can do! But if you think of questions let me know ok....I like questions.

For Penny, yes of course I remember meeting you! I am so excited for you! Congratulations - sincerely. One thing that I have learned through experience already and have been told from other volunteers, is to not compare your service and self to other PCVs' services. They are so incredibly different and so incredibly unique. When I was assigned to Thailand, I was so sad. I wanted to go to Mongolia or South America - certainly, Thailand wasn't going to bring to me what I wanted and what I expected from the other countries. And now that I have spent three months here, I realized that I was right, Thailand doesn't bring me what those other countries could have. And that is more than ok - not because its Thailand (I would say the same for any country) but because it is simply what is it is. Eastern Europe is going to be fantastic for you. Enjoy it for what is has intrinsically for you. Keep me updated ok? good luck!!

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.