Monday January 25

Sirirat told me we would leave her house at 6:30 am sharp for her to take me to the school I would be teaching at for the rest of the week, so i got up extra early to help prepare and eat breakfast. Needless to say, we didn't leave until after 7. Siriat always seems to be rushing and is somehow still always late. A very busy woman! she dropped me off directly to the school so I left my backpack in somone's office and was herded into a teacher's meeting. Sirirat said something in Thai to the teachers and I heard my name. "Good," she said to me, " see you." I waved and said thank you praying that someone in the room spoke english. I attentivley listened to Thaiu for about half an hour befor the school director pointed to the english teacher and told me in ratehr rough english to go with her. Phew! She breifly introduced herself as Pinky on the way to the teacher's lounge type room. Her English wasnt very good considering that she taught it and her accent made it really difficult to understand her. "sit" she told me, pointing to a chair. "You want coffee?" I told her no thanks. "Wait here. You can read books." she thurst workbooks 1,2, and 3 for english into my hands and left. She came back about 10 minutes later, "come." I followed her into a classroom. There wern't enough desks for everyone so some students shared. The walls were bare. One kid said in a well rehearsed voice, "stand up!" all the kids stood and in a practiced chorus said,
good morning teacher, how are you?" She responded, "fine thank you. sit down." The children sat and immediatley bagan talking. Classroom magagment was lacking. "Introuce yourslef." I told them my name, where I was from, a little bit about myself, and my age (everyone wanted to know that in Thailand). They repeasted my name and oohed when I said I was from America. The teachr nodded to me and said, "ok you teach now." I nodded and she left. ooookkk! nothing like diving right in. I had no idea what they were studying but since they couldn't seem to answer any of my questions, I went ahead and started at the beginning. Greetings, they were good at those. I went on to the animal lesson I had done with the kids at the orhpanage the day before. The teacher had popped her head in a couple times and when the bell rang, came back in. " You are very good teacher. children like your lesson very much. They like learning when you teach! Not when I teach! Come, you teach more." She led me to a different room. This was another 7th grade. "same same. good." She left. This class seemd smarter than the one I had just taught adn they picked up on the concepts faster. The teacher came back in halfway through with a couple fo other teachers and the school director. He took out his camera and staretd to film me teaching. I ignored him and kept going. The kids got really into the race to write animal names on the board and were all jumping up and down cheering and shouting out animal names. With 15 minutes to spare, I asked the teaqcher what they had been working on in class. She said "writing numbers from 1 to a million." I clarifired by asking the numerals or spelling them out? "both" she answered. We started goign through numbers. The kids' pronounciation was terrible but they coudl indeed write out every numbr i put on the board.I skepticlaly started writing higher and higher numbers. No problem. They couldn't spell cat (cot) or dog (doy) correctly bu knew how to write 99,652= ninteynine thousand six hundred fifty two correctly. Great. On our ten minute break, I was given some chips made of fried fish parts that had the texture of strofoam "fish french fries good!" she said smiling. I ate one despite the fast that the smell was enough to make me not want to eat them. "mmm" I said choking it down, "doog." "Eat more!" she told me. I said thanks but didn't. After the break I taught a lacadasical 9th grade that was shocked when I insisted that they pay attention and was then passes off to the primary english teacher (who spoke terrrrrrible english) whre I taught her 3rd graders the same lesson I had done with 7th and 9th grade. The 3rd graders were smarter, more attentive and picked it up faster so i spent the second half of the class doing directions with them. There were too many kids adn the room was too small though so we did it one pair at a time. when it wasn't their turn, the other kids cheered them on and made corrections to the directions-giver. Over 4 hours had already gone by. The teacher picked out a student, told her something in Thai and gestured for me to follow her to the manager's office. The manager was lovely although only spoke very basic broken english. It turned out that I ws staying at her house. She drove me there even though it was across the stret, and we ate lunch together making convrsation about the weather and when our birthdays were. Hers is February 14th and she is 59 years old, although she looks younger. She showed me the room I'd be staying in. The pepto bismol colored walled and ceiling matched the bed covers marvelously and the 70's era curtains. The clock on the wall didn't work and had Colgate toothpaste on its face. She told me she had to go back to school but that I should stay here. "no more english classes today" she said and left. I found a spot to wash my clothes and hung them up in the sun to dry. I went for a walk down the street by the house to explore a bit and came back about an hour later still to an empty house. I read until Pen (my new host mom) came home. She calls me her second daughter, speaks very little english and is very very very glad AND happy that I have come to thailand and am staying with her. When I professed my desire to learn Thai cooking she promised to teach me if I helped her with her english. Deal. "Are you hungry?" she asked me. " little" I admitted. It was only about 5:00. "ok!" she got out a wok and some eggs. realizing what she was doing I tried to tell her that I coudl wait and eat with her and her family later but she didn't understand. I submitted as she showed me how to make Thai fried eggs, bok choy with onions adn garlic, and scooped a heapign plate of rice for me. "we have pork if you want but sirirat tell me you no like meat." thank you sirirat! "yes, I am a vegetarian" I told her apologetically. She gave me ketchup for the eggs, calling it potato sauce. Everything was delicious and I told her about 15 times to ensure a repeat vegetarian friendly experience. She told me about her husband who was a farmer that grew rice and that he would come home around 7. We washed dishes together and moved into the living room to avoid the vicious misquitos that were biting me through my shirt.I showed her my photo book with pictures of colorado and my family. Stuck in the front was a little buddah card that said "peace" on it. She noiced it right away and I knew as soon as I saw her face that it was a terrible idea to put it there. There was a quote on the back that I especially liked and I tried to explain that to her while she interrogated me about my religion. " Yes my parents are both Christian" I lied. "No I don't want to go to a temple to worship, I'm not Buddhist." I told her I was tired and wanted to go to bed. She insisted on helping me close the blinds and asked me if the 3 blankets there would be enough to keep me wqarm. "I'll be very warm," I assured her. It was about 90 degrees outside.