So Many Reasons to Celebrate

I know I do this quite a bit, but here is yet another “catch-up” blog post! My last post was about the weather. It’s been over a month, and I’m still cold! We’ve had a couple of warmer spells, but overall, Thailand feels much colder this year than it did last year. It’s amazing that I can make comments like that now. That’s right, we’ve now been in Thailand for over a year! It’s a pretty big milestone for us. I’m already getting ahead of myself though. Let’s get back to everything that has happened over the past couple of months.

Scout Camp

December 23^rd and 24^th Zack and I accompanied my school to scout camp. Scouts (boy and girl scouts) are standard in every school, and we have various activities throughout the year related to scouts. Also, every Wednesday is scout day. That means that the students wear their scout uniforms to school and have scout activities for the last period of the day. The camp is an event that everyone seems to really look forward to. Joy (one of my co-teachers) kept telling me how fun it would be and how excited she was for us to go.

At the camp, the bpratom 6 through mattayom 3 students (grades 6-9) took part in scout activities led by staff at the camp while the teachers either followed the students around or hung out in a separate building eating som tam, drinking and singing karaoke. Right after we arrived at the camp, we all (Zack and I, the students, the scout leaders and a few of the teachers) went on a short hike. Of course, no hike is complete without ice cream, so partway though some ice cream vendors pulled up to one of the empty lots that we happened to be hiking though and everyone took an ice cream break. It seemed to be pretty good timing. Some of the students really struggled with the hike, but I was encouraged to see kids being active outside. Hiking regularly is one of the things Zack and I have really missed, so it was fun to share that experience with our students. As we were coming to the end of our hike, we walked past a wat and were blessed by monks who sprinkled water on us as we went by. It seemed like a really good way to conclude the hike.

Ice cream break!

That evening, each school performed a skit. Our students’ performance consisted of a lot of fire. From what I understand, their skit was about a ceremony that is performed to bring rain during times of drought. Basically, during this ceremony villagers put a cat in a cage and parade it around, throwing water on it. Of course, all I can think about is how traumatizing that must be for the poor cat, but luckily our students used a Mickey Mouse plush toy rather than an actual cat. I found out a little bit more about this ceremony HERE.

Can't say I've seen anything like this
 at school functions in the States...

That night I slept in a small house with all of the women and Zack slept in a separate house with the men. I was ecstatic to find that our bathroom had HOT WATER! (Unfortunately, Zack's did not...but he says he finds the cold water "exhilerating!") The students slept in separate dorms. We woke up the next day, and I didn’t even think about it being the 24^th, Christmas Eve. I came to that realization quickly though when my co-teacher and school administrator approached me ever so casually, pulled me aside privately, and as sweetly as possible asked if I could plan activities for Christmas the following day. I have confirmation that Thailand has changed me, because it honestly didn’t faze me very much that they would wait until literally less than 24 hours beforehand to approach me with this. A couple of weeks earlier I had mentioned to Joy that a fellow volunteer was planning a Christmas camp at her school. Joy made sure to mention this as they ever so kindly asked for my help. As nicely as possible, I also reminded her that my friend had been planning her camp for several weeks. The conversation quickly moved to what materials I would need for the camp. We brainstormed a brief outline in the span of about five minutes then proceeded to the closing ceremony for the scout camp. (More of this story to follow…)

Wat Luang Phor Toh

After the scout camp came to a close, we all made a side trip to the beautiful Wat Luang Phor Toh. On our ride back to site, Zack and I had some really great conversations with the teachers from my school who drove us. We learned the word “oop un” which we kind of translated to “warm fuzzies,” but literally translates to “warm embrace.” We’ve heard many people use this word when describing family, home, or other feel-good things. Before going home, we made a run to the store to get some supplies for our Christmas activities. As Zack and I began to check out, one of the teachers insisted on buying our groceries for us. We in turn insisted that we could buy them ourselves, but she told us that helping us made her “dtem jai,” which translates literally to “full heart.” Later that evening she explained that we need to allow people to take care of us and that it hurts the gift-giver’s feelings to not accept a gift. Zack and I are still finding the balance with this, mostly because we don’t want to be a burden to anyone. We have to tread carefully though because our intentions to not burden could potentially offend those trying to “take care” of us. This is a perfect example of the giving nature of the Thai people surrounding us. They just want to make sure that we are happy and taken care of.

Carrying on my family's sugar
cooking-making tradition in Thailand.

When we finally arrived home, I had a ton to do. Not only did I have to prepare for the school Christmas activities, but I also had to finish making cookies for a staff Christmas party that we were planning to host at our house after school. It was a Christmas eve to remember as Zack and I scrambled to make materials, bake, clean the house, decorate a little bit and wrap presents.

Christmas

There's my mom!

I woke up on Christmas morning already knowing that this was going to be a Christmas unlike any other. I arrived at the school early because I had a Skype call planned with my parents in Alaska. They were going to talk with the whole school, so I wanted to make sure that everything was functioning correctly ahead of time. After the normal morning assembly we started our Christmas activities. One of the first activities was the Skype call with my parents and little sister. The students were so excited to see my family. Their gasps of astonishment as my dad showed them snow and their excited murmurs as they saw my family’s Christmas tree were uplifting. My school principal introduced himself to my parents and shared how happy he was to be able to have Zack and I here and reassured them not to worry about us. The students were interested to learn more about my sister, who is deaf, and were so impressed and enthusiastic to find out that she is going to college. There were so many things that I was able to share with my students and counterparts. They got to see Zack and me in a new light that portrayed us as ordinary people who had families back home. It was an experience that brought all of us closer.

After the Skype chat, Kru Charoensri (my other co-teacher) and I used the projector to tell/show the story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer in English and Thai. Afterwards, Zack and I taught the song along with motions. We then played a “pass the balloon” game. Each balloon had a question about the story inside of it. The students passed balloons around as music played. Whoever was holding the balloon when the music stopped had to pop it and answer the question inside. The students who answered the questions even got Christmas presents as prizes! Our last game was a Santa hat relay race. Our principal dressed up as Santa and each team raced to put the hat on and say “Merry Christmas!” before passing the hat to the next person. The last person in the relay line then ran to “Santa” to give him the hat. It was pretty cute, and our principal seems really proud to be Santa. He kept joking about his skin color not being right, be we assured him that nobody knows for sure what Santa looks like and that he was a perfect Santa. Last, the school rock band (a band that Zack has been working with every day after school) performed for the first time! The meeting hall turned into a giant dance party, perfect for channeling Christmas cheer.

School Staff

The Band

The party didn't stop there! Right after school, the school staff came to our house. Some of the younger women came home with me during last period to help prepare fruit and snacks ahead of time. Zack made popcorn and I pulled out the Christmas sugar cookies that I had made the night before. I made hot coco, and we all ate together. It was unlike any Christmas I had ever had before, but my heart was still full and we were surrounded by people who care about us. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

My principal sits down for some Christmas snacks.

A little Christmas Cheer

New Years at the SAO

(above: Pi Noi, one of our absolute favorite people
below: some of the SAO staff)

The day after Christmas was the New Year’s party at the SAO (Zack’s work). It was a night full of singing, dancing, eating, drinking, gift exchanging, and all-around light-heartedness.

Trip to Koh Samet

That Friday night, Zack and I got on an overnight bus to Rayong province, where we were planning to spend New Year’s and my birthday on the island of Koh Samet. We arrived in Rayong early in the morning and ended up navigating our way to the ferry with a man we met on the bus who happened to be a vendor on the island. We felt so fortunate to be guided and were once again grateful for the kindness of Thai people. Once on the island, we still needed to find a place to stay. Since it was a holiday weekend, there were a TON of tourists, mostly from Europe. We secured a place for the first couple of days (which was actually our first choice of places to stay!) then spent a good chunk of the day trying to track down another vacant room. We eventually got it all sorted out. The next few days consisted of a lot of beach lounging, swimming and attempted snorkeling. We were lucky to be able to spend time with a couple other PCVs, so that made things even more fun. New Year’s Eve was a blast! We had real pizza, hung out on the beach, set off and watched others set of a million fireworks, watched a steady stream of lanterns floating over the ocean and toasted the New Year with champagne and good friends.

left: the view from our beach bungalow, right: our bungalow at night

Look what Zack found!!

So that brought us into the New Year! The beginning of January has been pretty eventful too.

We were still on the island for my birthday, which was relaxing and simple. I spent most of the day lounging on the beach reading and sipping on cold beer. The evening was more of the same, plus strawberry dewberry cookies and a really sweet song from Zack. It came to a close with us releasing a lantern together as I made a birthday wish.

Cheers!

Zack and I were home in time for our 6 year anniversary. We still can’t believe it’s been that long! We made dinner together, complete with my new favorite food, cilantro salad, and instant mashed potatoes from a wonderful friend back home.

If anyone wants the cilantro salad  recipe, let me know!
It's super easy and REALLY delicious :)

Out of Commission

Monday I was back at school, but feeling a little bit off. That evening it really hit me. I would try to get up to do something then would have to sit down moments later because I was out of breath and dizzy. For whatever reason, this extreme fatigue continued for a couple of weeks, keeping me out of school most of that time. I’m much better now, almost back to 100%, thank goodness. I was starting to lose my mind a bit and everyone at the school was super worried about me, so I received regular visits from my co-teachers and the rest of the staff. I also received several bagfuls of fruit to aid me in my recovery and felt so genuinely cared for.

PST

Once I was finally feeling better, I ended up getting a last minute call from our Peace Corps Program Manager asking me to come help out at group 126’s Pre-service Training (PST). (Zack and I are part of group 125, so this is the next round of volunteers!) Because of the protests in Bangkok, the person who was originally going to help couldn’t make it to the training. Zack had already been invited to go, so it just made sense for me to tag along. It ended up working out really well. The sessions were fun, and it was so great to get to meet the new group of volunteers! 

ONET

This pretty much catches me up to present-day. I’m back at school, trying to get into a normal flow again, but ONET (standardized testing) is interfering with that quite a bit. I may end up writing more about it later, but for now I’m just happy to have the opportunity and the health to be able to teach whenever the opportunity presents itself. When we teach it’s really enjoyable, and I am seeing an enormous amount of growth in our students.

Even in the past couple of months Zack and I have grown, and we continue to learn so much from our experience here.


Check out more pictures HERE.

Backtrack...First Experience Traveling Alone in Thailand

                Time to backtrack a little bit…Over the past few weeks I have hit several of what I consider to be “Peace Corps Milestones.” Granted, there are a lot of them because Peace Corps lends itself to almost everything being a brand new experience. I didn’t blog about it at the time (due to lack of time), but I think that it is important to note my first experience traveling alone in Thailand. I know, not that big of a deal when you consider that all of the other volunteers who are not serving with a partner have had to do it for months, but it marked an important date for me nonetheless.

                Since arriving in Thailand, I have had the amazing fortune of being able to travel (and do almost everything) with Zack. Granted, we were in separate training programs during PST (pre-service training), but we still got to bike to and from training together (usually), eat every meal together, face the whole “host family” situation together, etc. We really hadn’t had any reason since arriving here to not be together. Several weeks ago though, I broke a piece of my tooth while eating rice. (I think that there must have been a rock in it or something.) My wisdom teeth had also been bothering me a little bit, so I took it as a sign to just go to the dentist. I called Peace Corps and they promptly set up an appointment for me in Khon Kaen, which is about a two-hour-bus-ride away.

                My host family and counterparts panicked when I told them I’d be traveling alone. They couldn’t believe that Zack wasn’t going with me. One of my co-teachers even offered to drive me all the way there and back for the appointment. I reassured them that most Peace Corps volunteers are serving alone and travel by themselves all the time. They were still really nervous though. Really, it was a great opportunity for me to prove to them that I could do it myself and to show them that I value my independence even though I am married. Reluctantly, after many, many conversations involving me insisting I wasn’t afraid, I knew where to go, I had a plan if I couldn’t find a bus back, etc., they “agreed” that I could go. I say “agreed,” because oftentimes I feel like choices have been made for us before conversations even begin. In this case though, I was insistent about needing to go myself and they ultimately seemed to respect that.

                Honestly, it was probably the best “first time traveling alone” experience I could have had. We had been to Khon Kaen a couple of weeks before for a volunteer “meet-and-greet,” so I had a good idea of where I was going before even leaving site.  (I don’t know if I would have been so confident otherwise!) When I arrived to Khon Kaen, I was still really early for my appointment, so I decided that I could walk to the hospital. It was about a twenty minute walk, and I actually had some really good interactions with random people as I walked by. I was able to answer all of the standard “Thai” questions: “Where are you going? Where are you coming from? Have you eaten yet? Is it hot?” Everyone wanted to make sure that I was okay. As I posted previously, it is really difficult to “blend” here, so I definitely stood out.

                When I finally arrived to the hospital, it was still early so I just sat on the benches outside the door and relished in the air conditioning each time somebody when into or out of the building. At one point, I turned to the woman next to me and commented (in Thai) how hot it was. Her eyes got wide and she excitedly started asking me questions about what I was doing in Thailand. It boosted my self-esteem when she told me that I spoke Thai “very good.” I really don’t speak Thai that well, but it was still a really good exchange. She asked if I needed a ride anywhere and I declined, but was still grateful for her generosity.

                When I finally got in to see the dentist, the appointment itself lasted for only a couple of minutes. Suffice it to say, I was disappointed. The dentist was short with me and brushed off my comments and concerns. Luckily, Peace Corps is willing to send me to Bangkok in the future if any problems with my teeth continue. After the whole ordeal, it was a little funny that the actual appointment was as short as it was. Feeling a little bit slighted, I embarked on my journey back to the bus station. I was home by around 7:00 that evening feeling disappointed at the ridiculousness of the trip, but also satisfied that I was able to do it by myself. I think (and hope) that it also helped my host family and counterparts have a little more confidence in my ability to be independent.

English Camp and a Bpai Tiao!

Click HERE for this week's album

                All week both the YinD (Youth in Development) and TCCS (Teacher Collaborator and Community Service) programs worked together to put on a mini English camp! The focus of the camp was “ASEAN,” which stands for Association of South East Asian Nations. ASEAN is a huge deal in Thailand right now because Thailand will become a member of the ASEAN community in 2015. This is also the main reason why the focus of our program (TCCS) has been designed around collaboration with Thai English (as a foreign language) teachers. The Royal Thai government is currently working towards reforming education to become more student-centered and also wants students to become proficient in English to meet ASEAN requirements.

                We spent Monday through Wednesday preparing for the camp, and it actually took place at a local school on Thursday. Since we had really limited time to prepare, it was shorter than a typical camp would be (one day instead of two). All of the Peace Corps trainees worked so hard to make it happen, and it ended up being really successful! The students seemed to have a really great time forming friendships and learning English. The volunteers did a great job creating student-centered, participatory learning environments for the children, and I continue to be so impressed with how creative everyone is! The purpose of planning a camp during training was to give all of us some experience with organizing a camp. Peace Corps volunteers often put on various English and/or Life Skills camps in their host communities during Peace Corps service (as requested by the community) and also travel to the sites of other volunteers to help teach and support at camps in other communities. It sounds like TCCS volunteers tend to organize English camps, while YinD volunteers organize English camps and/or Life Skills camps. I really hope this is something that Zack and I are able to do at some point!

                On Friday we had a wonderful guest speaker at training, Venerable Phra Anil Sakya, a Buddhist monk. He spoke to us about Buddhism in Thailand and was not only interesting to listen to, but also had a really great sense of humor! Here’s a link to an interview with Venerable Phra Anil Sakya if you are interested in learning more. I am so impressed with Peace Corps staff for being able to connect us with someone so open and knowledgeable about Buddhism in Thailand.

                Saturday we went on a “bpai tiao” (trip)! We rode a “rot song-taao” (the same mode of transportation we used to visit the vice governor our first week) to Wat Kae, the National Museum of Suphanburi and the 100 Year Market in Saam Chuk. It was one of the most fun days that we have had yet, and I definitely felt like a tourist for the first time since being in Thailand. Check out all of the pictures in this week’s albums!

                I think that’s it for this week! Today we find out where Zack and I will be for two years in Thailand, so plan for big news in my next post. We also get to go visit our permanent host site at the end of this week, so I probably won’t post a new blog entry for a couple of weeks. Best wishes to everyone back home! <3

                

Already Halfway Through PST

 Click HERE for album

Our fifth week in Thailand was great! We’re already halfway through Pre-service Training! It has gone by ridiculously fast, but at the same time feels like we have been here so much longer than five weeks. This week we had our “mock” LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) to help us gauge how well we are progressing with language. At the end of training we will have our real test, which will consist of listening to and speaking Thai in a conversational format. I feel like I still have so far to go! We also had our “mid-term” evaluation this week to gauge our progress in general and our likelihood of qualifying for service. Zack and I both got really positive reviews, thank goodness! We are both still feeling really committed to being here, even though this morning I did wake up craving a Colorado hike.

Next week we find out where our permanent sites will be! I am SO excited for this next step. This whole experience is going to change a ton after PST is over, and I think that most of the trainees are anticipating the news of where we will be spending the next two years of our lives. This next week’s language training will be mainly devoted to training us how to buy bus tickets for our site visits. We will also be meeting our Thai counterparts very soon! I am really excited about this, but also really nervous.

One major development this week was that I started connecting even more with the children at my practicum school. On Wednesday, my host “cousin” biked to school with me and somehow (I’m not really sure how this happened) I was accompanied by about six more children on my journey  back to my house. The next day there were more, and by Friday we had about twelve. They love playing Frisbee with us (but the boys are always more excited to play with Zack) and showing us new games also.  Most days, the boys ended up playing sports (Frisbee, badminton, etc.) the majority of the time and the girls ended up talking together and playing games on (believe it or not) someone’s iphone. On Saturday, the children showed up spontaneously in the afternoon, but Zack and I were super busy doing laundry and didn’t have much time to play. Our host sister seemed to really enjoy having so many people over though!

On another note, it was really bittersweet leaving my practicum school on Friday. I felt like I formed a ton of relationships in a just a short amount of time and feel really connected with a lot of the people there. During morning assembly on Friday, the paw-aw (principal) presented me and the other volunteer doing practicum at that school with beautiful (enormous!) fruit baskets full of ripe mangoes, bananas, muffins and candied water chestnuts. They asked me to speak to the students in Thai, and my heart just about leapt out of my chest because I was so nervous. I did it though! And everyone seemed to understand me, which is a good sign.

Today we went to a nearby zoo/aquarium with our host family. It seemed like a really popular tourist destination and we even saw some other PCVs there. On the way, we saw some mountains for the first time! Granted, they looked more like hills in comparison to what we are used to in Colorado…but it was a nice change of scenery nonetheless. Be sure to check out the pictures of the zoo in the album!

One final story this week is just a testament to how great Peace Corps medical response has been during PST. On Wednesday, Zack woke up with a clogged ear. He tried a couple of remedies to fix it himself, but nothing worked. Late that afternoon he called the Peace Corps medical officer, and by that evening, he had been picked up from our house by Peace Corps staff, brought to a doctor to be diagnosed, brought to a clinic to have his ears suctioned out (I’m sure there’s a more technical term J) then brought home, safe and sound and hearing again. We both feel so fortunate that we are being so well-cared for!