Science Fair and Confusing Thai Words

Friday, 20 August 2004

Today, the older students had a science fair, so we went to visit in the afternoon. The students were making candles, doing egg experiments, mixing a variety of solutions, and other students were taking notes of the nice poster displays. I was very impressed with the quality of work and the enthusiasm of the students. Our little guys loved seeing the work of these middle school students.

Each day after school, I have been sharing new ideas with Phu’s mother and how she can help him at home. I taught her the phonics sounds and gave her posters so that she can practice at home with him.

At around 7:30 pm, Jill and I were going to head out to dinner, and Paint (pronounced “Pin”) and Porn (pronounced “Pon”) offered to take us to get something to eat and to go to Big C (like a huge Target). He ended up treating us to dinner, and during dinner, they both tried to teach me Thai. I asked them about an arts festival Linda had told me about, and even though Jill and I were both really exhausted from the week, they took us there after shopping. The festival was at Silkaporn University, and we watched traditional Thai dancers perform on a stage set on a lily pond with white silk drapes cascading and blowing in the breeze across the coconut trees. A beautiful fountain sprayed a light mist into the air, just light enough to feel refreshing on a warm and humid night. We passed bright neon lights of different festival celebrations going on, and a wat (temple) lit up like the Parliament Building in Victoria, B.C.

We laughed about the words Gai (a teacher’s name), grai (near), and grai (far). Very distinct Thai sounds, which sound all the same to me. Gai ended up spending the night, but I think we blew a fuse or something, as our electricity went out just before we were going to go to sleep.