I've Arrived Safely!

Tuesday, 10 August 2004

Hello...

Sawadee ka!

Greetings from Thailand....

After 18 hours in the air and many hours sitting in airports and lugging around luggage into small bathroom stalls, I made it to Thailand Monday night at 11pm. Getting through customs and the baggage claim and exchanging my money into Thai baht went smoothly, and I was greeted by 7 people from the school BamrungWittaya. The principal and his wife, their son and friend, the teacher, theschool chaplain, and Jill, the teacher I am replacing in the English program, had been waiting since 9 pm (even though they knew my plane was to arrive at 11pm, they wanted to make sure they didn't miss me!)...We drove to the school in two cars, and got there at 1:30 am. I stayed up until 3:30 am unpacking andorganizing things in my room (We live in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house, with cableTV and air condition.) , and then woke up to the sounds of busy traffic,children, the national anthem, animals crowing, barking, and playing...at 6 am. I figured being right on the campus of school, it will probably be like this everyday!

Although Jill gets to the classroom at 6:30 am, I didn't go until 8am. It's just a short walk across the grass to the classroom, so that'll benice for sleeping in! The school day so far has been long, hot, and busy. There are 7 children in the English program. They are all 6 - 8 years old. 5 boys and 2 girls. AThai teacher works alongside us, as an assistant, and she also teaches Thai language, culture, history, and home economics. Thursday is Mother's Day, and it is also the Queen's birthday, a national holiday. So, many classes are doing celebrations. The class spent the majority of the day practicing a skitto perform in front of the school. I suppose I'll get used to the way thingsare done here, but it was painstaking to watch the adults spend 2 hoursfidgeting with squeaky microphones, feedback, and waiting for other classes torehearse things while more productive learning in the classroom probably could have been accomplished. The kids were definitely antsy, as the adults fidgetedwith things, but this afternoon, they performed for over 300 kindergartners andabout just as many parents, and it was a cute 10 minute performance. The American tunes they chose as background music, "Mickey" and "Wake Me up Beforeyou Go-Go" were a bit much, but amusing.

The one thing I am gonna love is the home cooked lunch. We sit all together as a class and eat family style Thai food. We had about 5 different dishes withrice. Although I don't know what everything was, it tasted good. Although the kindergarten assembly was about 2 hours long, all the doors wereshut, there was no air circulation, and each adult had about 15 minutespeeches, at the end, each child's mother got to sit up front and have her sonor daughter give her a flower and a wai (respectful bow). For about 300 students, this again took awhile. But, the mothers and children were so happy. There were only about 20 students at the end who didn't have mothers show up,and they got to give flowers and wai me, Jill, or other teachers. Although school is over at 3:10 am, many parents don't show up for a couple ofhours so we're currently keeping the kids occupied, reading stories,encouraging them not to speak in Thai, but to speak in English while in the classroom, and writing.

The principal and his family are taking me and Jill out to dinner tonight. I think I'm going to take a nap first and then think about practicing my Thai. Jill is fluent in Thai, and the teachers say she is really good at the language. Although she said that it could be easy to get away with not learning much Thai, since a handful of teachers and the administration know English, she took a 5 week intensive Thai course last year, and from talking to their teachers and friends, has become quite a fluent speaker. The children were already trying to teach me things today. They laughed because Jill has a reward system in the classoom where the students get points taken away if they speak Thai when they are not supposed to rather than English. They added my name to the list, and I said, well, that wouldn't be a problem because I don't know any Thai yet. The children are very sweet, and their English skills are already pretty good.

The one thing the teachers are all saying is that I look like I am Thai. (It's just when I open my mouth, they realize I am American.) Everyone is so nice and generous and giving. I know I am going to really enjoy my time here, and I am going to learn a lot. So, mom and dad, not to worry. Everything is fine, I'm safe, and I will keepyou posted of how my days go. I will get a cell phone soon, but for now, we have high speed internet in the classroom, so I have easy access to my email. Thanks again to those who helped me move and store and ship stuff in my last few hectic days in Seattle....Stay tuned for more from Nakhon Pathom,Thailand