Even tho I was terribly tired this morning, the day turned out to be a fabulous one. After 5 months of asking for help finding a tutor to learn thai my coteacher brought me to a woman who I think will be a great match. She currently teaches English to children and speaks amazing English, as she lived in Australia for a year. Get this, her name is Volkswagen!!! Her little sister is named after another car manufacturer, and her youngest is named the Thai word for oil (as in gasoline). Thais are funny w names. They make them up a lot. My principals name is “Tongsook” which means Gold Happy, so she will be rich and happy!!
Last week I was feeling really bad that I don’t know the names of my students at school. I have over 100 students, most of which I see for only 2 hours a week. And it is so hard for me to remember all their names, ones like Siwaporn, and Boonum. They all seem to be 3 sylables and begin w an S or R. So I decided to give them all American names. I had a blast doing it and they LOVE having American names. So now I have classes w Rebecca, Sam, etc. I started out trying to give names that sounded something like their Thai names, but quickly ran out of ones I could think of, as I mentioned, all Thai names are sort of similar. Then I started naming kids after friends and family in the states, or names that would be easy to remember. Like one girl has a shaved head, so I named her Tracy, after Tracy Chapman; that is until I realized that name was too hard for her to say. Thais have a lot of trouble w R’s. It was fun. Can’t wait to call on Ringo in class.
The other highlight of the day was that my principle already set up a meeting for us to work on a sex education project. Let me back track...
My main objective in Thailand w the Peace Corps is to train teachers on student centered learning; and I do that by co-teaching w English Teachers at two elementary schools. But I also here to help out in the community in any way they need me. I am supposed to help them find a need or strength, then help them fix or strengthen it. For example I have a friend up north in a rice farming community and they want to get better fertilizers. He doesn’t have to know anything about rice farming or fertilizing to help them, but he can get people together and help them realize their resources. Help them find the person who can train them on rice farming.
Last week I was at a fabulous conference on gender and health in Thailand. There were about 15 fellow volunteers, each of whom brought 1-2 counterparts from their town. I brought my co-teacher, and my principal. The whole conference was run in Thai, with occational translations, but mostly I sat at the back with some volunteers and one of the translator who would whisper what was being said. The speakers were all Thais. The first day of the conference we had speakers talking w us about domestic violence, breast cancer, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and workplace gender roles in Thailand. By the end of the 2 and a half days we had all developed projects that were needed in our individual communities. So I asked my counterparts what was needed in Uthai Thani, and they said we need sex education on all these issues for the adults and students in our town. So we schetched out a way to do sex ed for adults, and students in Uthai!!! Yeah. Now we are meeting w the head of health in the town hall and getting things going.
Other highlights of the day were getting to the swimming pool; talking to my bro, David, about his birthday party; and, as I do most days, hanging out at my friend Jeeda and Wendy’s house. Tonight their 3 year old son, Munglee, was really opening up to me. Chatting w me, and wanting me to play w him, and even letting me spoon feed him his cereal (he was having trouble getting the last of it). Part of the reason he was so open was because we all spent all day together yesterday.
Yesterday my two best friends, Wendy, and Jeeda, along w their son, and 3 friends took a trip. We went to this fabulous zoo. The zoos here are a lot like what I always pictured old zoos to look like. Big vertical bars where you can get right up close to the animals. Some you could even pet through the bars. There was a really fabulous bird sanctuary we walked through and I saw a bird called Lady Amherst Pelican!!
After the zoo we went to Karaoke!!! A favorite Thai past time. But it’s not at a bar w a group of strangers watching. At most every mall there is a Karaoke area where you rent a room by the hour or by the song. The place we went was a really nice room w a huge couch, comfy chairs, a big screen TV, and a huge window looking out onto the fancy bowling lanes. It was the perfect setting to introduce the Thais to my fabulous rendition of‘I will survive.’
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