P.A. Gai and Phee Toy

 

Phee Toy and me celebrating Chinese New Year in our new scarves.



Last week was quite the week with changes occurring at every second. I learned early in the week that my P.A. (principal) is moving schools. This came as a bit of a surprise. I knew he was thinking about leaving but didn’t know his move would come this soon. I am really sad about his departure and know my school won’t be the same without him. This news has also come at a time when I am feeling pretty lonely. I have a lot of alone time while I am at my school and I live by myself so there is a lot of time for me to talk only to myself. Tuesday was a testing day for some students so when I showed up at school I learned that I would only be teaching one class for the day; leaving me with an entire day with nothing to do. I did end up playing a lot with my 3^rd graders, the kiddos whom I adore!

Wednesday rolled around and little did I know it was my P.A.’s last day at school. He was quite busy finalizing things and distributing his responsibilities to each of the teachers. That afternoon I got a call from his wife, Phee Toy, whom I LOVE! She invited me to spend the night. Once P.A. Gai finished his work for the day they picked me up and we went into Sakon Nakhon and met up with their 3 kids at a market. I haven’t seen the kids since Christmas so it was so wonderful to see them again. Gaeo, the oldest daughter, has grown and she is almost as tall as me, which is tall for a Thai girl. We got home and had a huge dinner with everyone around, P.A. Gai, Phee Toy, the 3 kids, P.A. Gai’s parents, and even Phee Toy’s younger sister and friend joined us. I felt right at home even though their house is in the middle of getting an addition put on so the house is a bit of a wreck.

Back at the market before meeting up with the kiddos Phee Toy and I did some shopping- she bought me the most beautiful green silk scarf and a matching purple one for herself. It is a generous gift as the true silk scarves are not cheap. Just being with her and having some girl time filled my loneliness.

The next day we had a bit of a delayed start in the morning. . . everyone was moving slowly to get out of the door. Not to mention we were tending to the baby bunny that Owen, the middle child, got the night before. When he brought the itty bitty bunny home it was terrified and freezing and of course was being passed around a lot between the 3 kids. I had a feeling that the hamster sized bunny wouldn’t make it through the night and sure enough it didn’t but the kids all thought it was sleeping. Poor little guy.

To make my week even better they invited me to dinner in Nakhon Phanom Thursday night. So at the end of school Phee Toy came to pick me up and we made our way into the city. We didn’t know where P.A. Gai was and he wasn’t answering his phone so Phee Toy and I decided to have a little girl’s time and went to get our hair washed. I must say that the other week I expressed to Jes and Heather that I thought it was kind of silly that Thai women go out to get it washed weekly. BUT. . . I discovered on my own that if I was living here all the time and having to wash my hair in cold water, I too would be going out to get my hair washed weekly. It was better than the Thai message I got a while back. They really scrub your head (I don’t think I will have to itch my head for a year) and rub your temples and neck making my sleepy self even more groggy. After, they dried my hair straight which was amazing to have my hair cared for, and not by me. Having my hair straightened I saw how long it really is getting.

After, we went to dinner with many P.A.’s at Krew Nok’s (Teacher Nok) restaurant. I ate some pretty spicy food and had some red wine with ice in it. It was nice to have wine since I haven’t had it since leaving home but red wine with ice and spicy food isn’t the greatest combination.

Phee Toy and I left after dinner so the men could party and sing karaoke. We went and got dessert, banana crêpes with coconut milk, from our favorite shop.  We got them to go and went to the river front where Chinese New Year was being celebrated. We had quite the laugh that a Thai and an American were crashing the Chinese New Year’s party. It is open to the public so we didn’t actually crash it. Both of us were exhausted at that point but were having so much fun enjoying each other’s company. We haven’t spent that much time together since my first weeks teaching here.

Phee Toy is one of the people that makes living in Thailand worth wile. She is patient with me trying to understand Thai and she works hard to learn English. We have a wonderful way of speaking Tinglish to communicate and I don’t think there is another Thai person that I can communicate as fluently with and have so much fun while doing so. We laugh at the simplest things together and she brightens up my day. Phee Toy told me that when she was a kid she dreamed of being a teacher and that she would play school with her friends and she would always be the teacher. This little story shows just how wonderful she is and how similar we both are since I had the same dream. We talk about how we don’t like teaching Annuban (Pre-K and K) and that we love teaching P. 2 (2^nd grade).  Our similar taste in teaching and our love for children is one of the reasons the two of us enjoy each other’s company so much.

I am really sad to see P.A. Gai move schools because I will be more distant with him and his wonderful family. They understand the importance of education and understand that I, and all the volunteers for that matter, are here to help the schools improve. I am going to miss not having them in my life daily but hope to still have sleepovers at their house. They have also told me that when the addition is complete I can move in with them if I choose. I am seriously considering this as an option for when I return from summer break in May. I would also love for P.A. Gai and Phee Toy to come visit me back home in Colorado so that I may show off my home, and be as jai dii (generous) to them as they have been to me. When expressing this to Phee Toy she said she would love to come visit and she would love to have her kids experience schools in America. This also showed me that they really see how important a good education is which I feel is rare among Thai people in my area.

Friday we spent the day going to P.A. Gai’s new school. I thought I lived in the boonies of Thailand but his new school is really off the beaten path. We took dirt and cobble stone roads to get there and got lost since the GPS didn’t even know where to go. We drove around and were laughing at the crazy move P.A. Gai is making. One of his friends said when we were lost, “Rita tour forest”. I found it ironic too that in order to find our way to the school we asked people at every turn which way to go. Just to give you a picture of what was going on we had a string of 5 cars full of Chok Amnuay teachers and P.A.’s from around Nakhon Phanom who were dressed as rip roy as rip roy (looking your best) gets. Our first stop for directions was in the middle of forests and rice fields and we found one lone house. Three P.A.’s got out of the car and were asking  the owner of the house how to get to the school while at the same time talking all three of them were talking on their cell phones to other people who knew the way. It was quite the scene to see. The city folk going out into the country. That night before heading back to NKP there was another party for P.A. Gai. He loved that I attended and loved sharing with his friends and colleagues how proud he is of me and how great of a teacher he thinks I am. While sharing his pride he always managed to sing parts of “Wheels on the Bus” a lesson he watched me teach. Having P.A. Gai tell me he “I am very proud” means the world to me and as long as I have made a difference in his life and his family my work here is complete.

The week was so full of wonderful memories although it was all celebrating P.A. Gai and his move. I felt so comfortable speaking Thai and I felt so at home with the people I enjoyed my days with. When I met up late Friday night with all the volunteers for a dinner with Gen’s dad I almost forgot how to speak English. It was a strange feeling to have to think about how to meet a new person the “American” way but I was so proud of myself for how fluent and immersed in the Thai language I had become in just a few short days. 



Gaeo, Phee Toy, P.A. Gai's mom, Phee Toy's dad, PA Gai's dad, Owen, Donah, PA Gai, a close friend




P.A. Pat (a principal of a school in NKP), Donah, me




Of course I had to sing a song, 500 miles- never heard it before, Owen and Donah gave me flowers while singing