Work Party

Saturday, 8 January 2005

This morning, I woke up early and started working in the classroom. By 9 am, Thai teachers were starting to show up to help. Our administrators had recruited (which means they told them they had to) six teachers to help us prepare for our open house next week Saturday. I'm leading the children in a little skit about protecting our Earth (since we just finished studying continents and oceans and talking about the tsunami; plus Thai people aren't the cleanest people, and littering and pollution is a constant problem.), so after sketching out how I envisioned the stage to look, we went to a store to get paper, and they helped make trees and big letters E-A-R-T-H, as well as vocabulary words in Thai (I'll write the English). We worked on tearing down all the Christmas decor and making signs until about 1 pm, while listening to music and eating junk food. One of the teachers had made a beautiful "S", and then I heard Jill (who had come in from Bangkok for the day to visit and help) go "EARTH doesn't have an S in it!". One of the Thai teachers told me, "Sorry, our English is not so good!" It was a funny moment.

Matt took us to get lunch, and then we went to the fair going on at Ong Phra (the chedi). Today is also Children's Day, and so there were many food booths, furniture, and Thai crafts for sale. We bought incense in Thai aromas like Jasmine and orchid, then headed home, where I worked a bit more. It's getting hotter now during the day. Walking out in the hot sun at a fair was pretty draining, but I feel like I need to exercise, so off for a run!