Rita Teaching in Thailand: I live in the middle of nowhere!!

My Classroom

I know this is my 3^rd blog for the week but I have just felt like there is so much to say about what I am doing at this point in my Thai adventure. . . So. . . another story begins.

There are moments when I think life is normal and that I am living on my own and my family and friends are just a phone call or short drive away. BUT that is not the reality at all. Little times here and there make me feel like. . . woah I live in a tiny Thai village in the middle of nowhere!!! I shower in cold water, shiver and wear long sleeves and pants when it is 70 degrees out, semi hand wash my laundry, don’t ever drive a car and wait up to an hour for the bus to come to go anywhere other than my village.

My “I live in live in the middle of nowhere” moments typically happen on my walk to school each morning when I am greeted by smiling faces that say good-morning (with a cute little ring in their accent when they say morning). I can’t help but smile and love where I am as they bop their little heads and why me at the same time. Although they can be stinkers in class and make me frustrated I still deeply love my students.

A little more about my students. . . I look forward to Tuesday and Thursday afternoons knowing I get to teach my P saam (3^rd grade) class and that after the students will stick around to help me pick up my room or just hang out with me. Since I got my own classroom all my students high-five me when they leave at the end of a lesson. Recently I have given them and option to give me a hug or a high-five. My older kids are creped out by hugs I think and my little kids don’t really understand that they get to pick what they want to give me. My 3^rd graders on the other hand wait for that hug they will get at the end of class from the minute they come in the door. I just love teaching them as each and everyone is attentive and focused on what I have to teach. They are eager to learn and the ones that when given the option to play outside they come into my room to put together an alphabet puzzle or read a book. My time time with them is such a joy after a struggling morning with squirmy uninterested 1^st graders.

Duck Duck Goose- notice 3 runners- their own new version

On Tuesday I had a group of kids reading and playing in my room after I was finished teaching for the day. I asked if they wanted to play a game and of course they did. I had them get into a circle and taught them Duck Duck Goose (which is nearly impossible for them to pronounce). Eventually more and more students kept trickling in to play and sure enough by the time the bell rang there were about 30+ students Annuban to P hoke (Prek-6^th grade) playing Duck Duck Goose with me. Their squeals of laughter were adorable and they put their own twist on the game. Unlike students in America who wish they won’t be “Goosed” for fear they will have to sit in the middle of the circle these students beg each other to be the goose. Only “ourn” as they call her was the one to be picked most often. Ourn is just a nick name as her real Cheu Len (nickname) is Bam. Ourn is the word for fat in Thai so basically they call this 3^rd grader fatty and choose her most often because she was the slowest of the bunch. Another difference between American and Thai people is that Thai’s are not insulted when called fat and many times the fat kid gets called ourn “fatty” and it’s not offensive or uncomfortable (well only for their American teacher). Then today, Thursday, afternoon came around and I gave each P3 student a hug good-bye and soon they were all around me giving me the most gigantic hug ever saying “len game, len game!” So we began Duck Duck Goose again but then I ended up teaching them Down By The Banks, a hand slapping game and if your hand is slapped at the end of the song you are out. We played many time, I even won one of the games and they cheered like crazy. Just their company and joy to play silly games with me makes me love where I am.

Playing games with my students is just another reality check for me. Sometimes I forget how white I really am. At home I don’t consider myself to be the tannest person of a bunch but I am not the pale white one either but when my hands are held up next to my students while playing a game it reminds me that I am not the same as them. I have a big nose, light colored hair, blue eyes AND paper white skin.

Ning and me with our bouquet

I want to leave Thailand and run home because I am alone all the time. No matter how much people around me during the week I am always living in my own world in some way or another. I come from another planet as far as my students are concerned and I have no way to communicate my true thoughts with anyone in my village. Not being able to speak Thai is so degrading and makes me feel stupid. I can’t discipline a child with them taking me seriously or even congratulate them in a way for them to know how proud I am of them. I cannot share about my adventures or who I really am and I cannot understand who they really are because of our language barrier. This is my greatest frustration with my experience right now. I stay in Thailand and know I can make it through the year because it is the little things that happen each day. Like Tuesday when a teacher gave me a white skirt as a random act of kindness. Yesterday when the student teacher Ning, 25 years old, came over randomly to my house and taught me how to make roses out of a banana leaf. Or when today one of my students, Man, 9 years old, walked with me around the school field (my typical after school exercise routine) and we had a wonderful conversation all in Thai about what we like and don’t like, our families and what we will do this weekend.

Naa Tak and me cooking

I find myself counting down the months until I get to return home (I am just about 1/3 of the way through) yet I also find myself wondering what I am going to do when I can’t eat som dtam (papaya salad), when I won’t make my nightly bike ride to see Naa Tak and cook with her in a true Thai kitchen, visit Phe Nok on the weekends, get the cute good morning hello sung to me as I walk to school or have my daily encounter of saying in Thai “hello, how are you” with Gamon my 4 year old little brother that lives next door to me, or get the gigantic smiles and hugs from my students.

Gamon helping his grandma make something

To end I would like to show the true education of a Thai child through some picture I took today. It doesn’t happen in a classroom it happens through experience of playing outside with friends and not sitting around in a padded room playing video games or watching T.V. and having to tell your parents via cell phone or text message that you are going to pause your game to sneeze like many kids in The States do these days. So for now, I will stay in Thailand changing my students lives one afternoon walk, one game or one smile at a time.