My First Few Days at School

The weekend that I arrived I was already given the two days off for the simple reason that there is no school on the weekends. I was taken out to lunch where the meal was a Thai buffet, and I was able to try a wide variety of foods and desserts. Sunday afternoon was spent in the park playing games and kicking the soccer ball around. After a few hours of fun time we pulled out a blanket and had a picnic dinner at the park. The fun and games ended that day when on Monday classes started again. In the mornings all the older and younger kids get together to have morning flag ceremony, which includes singing the Thai National Anthem. I learned that the king himself who just had his birthday on December 5th wrote the National Anthem. It is very interesting to see all the ways that the Thai people honor him because he is so liked for all the good things he has done for all the people here. Following the flag ceremony there were morning exercises and off to class; I chose to go with the younger children today because I figured they might be more understanding of my Thai. The highlight of class was when the teacher (I’m still learning names) taught the children about brushing their hair, putting lotion on their hands and baby powder on their faces. The boys in the class chose to cake their faces completely with baby powder and put lotion on their hands and arms. The girls decided they had had enough and went on to more learning lessons, but the boys decided that they were having too much fun. After lunch I went with the older kids who had art class for the first time today. They learned about the primary colors and also what happens when you mix the three of them with one another. I led afternoon activities where we did some ball dribbling; balancing books on our head, and finished up with steal the bacon. I then had some free time and with a few minutes left of activities I handed out Air Heads (an American candy) to the children, but they each had to say their name before I would give them their choice of color and flavor. The names are very hard for me to remember but I feel that out of the 22 children I have about six or seven names memorized (that is very good percentage, approximately 32%!). I hope by the end of the week I will have them all memorized. The food here is wonderful, in fact it is some of the most tasteful food I have ever had. The cook here does a wonderful job preparing the food not to mention she makes more than enough; the kids are really encouraged to have at least two helpings. They always ask one another if they have had two helpings by saying, “two, two” and showing two fingers.

So far, the nights are the lonely times because the children are in bed by 8:00 PM, but it is nice to have some time to myself along with also going to bed early. You need to keep in mind that when it gets dark two things happen: 1) the mosquitoes come out to feast, and 2) most people are not fortunate to have electricity so why not go to bed and have an earlier start in the morning. Soon, I hope to venture out more into the nearby villages; I have some people that are willing to show me around for the first time.