This past week has been incredible. I’ve been experiencing such highs and lows lately that its been kind of frustrating not feeling in control of my emotions. This past week, however, I gained some control of emotions and was able to really enjoy the week.
First things first, I was able to convey the importance of me needing to bike/run alone everyday after school, if only for 20 minutes. Nit understood and now allows me this freedom. It’s incredible what this has done for my happiness in general. It certainly helps that by the time I can go for a ride the sun is setting over of the rice fields and Kut Chim is absolutely beautiful. I’ve also felt so much more a part of the community here because of the rides. Everyone is out and about and I say hello to everyone I see. They always ask where I’m going “bai nai” or tell me that I’m strong “kang lang.” Nit has even allowed me to go for short runs alone (she thinks biking is much safer, so I was pleasantly surprised at this). As I started my run, all of my students were leaving school and started to follow me – I felt like Forrest Gump! Although many of them couldn’t keep up (exercise doesn’t really exist here) it was just a hilarious feeling. Just running through the village and saying hello to all the people has really helped me feel more at home here.
Another event that really brought me into the community was a string-tying ceremony for a newborn baby. The English teacher at my school had a baby the day before I moved in, so all my teachers headed to her home after school one day last week. String tying ceremonies are always special, but this one just felt really significant. The only attendees were teachers at my school, so it was much more intimate that others. As I tied a string around the infant’s wrist, I spoke in English all the things that had been wished for him in Thai. It was a really special moment that I’ll never forget.
After meeting up with my fellow volunteers every weekend since we went our separate ways, I knew I needed to not make plans for the weekend. It was a 3 day weekend because of the King’s Birthday and I was sort of worried about how I would fill my time. I thought about going into NKP to meet up with friends, but I felt like I needed to stay in my village to prove to myself that I could spend all that time alone. It’s definitely nice to look forward to some fun on the weekend, and now I’m so happy to know that even if I don’t make any legitimate plans, I can still have fun right in my own village.
I woke up Saturday morning to some girls giggling outside. I opened the door and found a group of students from That Phanom. Their English teachers had given them an assignment to find a foreigner and interview them. I’m not quite sure how they knew I was there, but word travels pretty fast. I’d met a South African teacher from their school a few times, so I’m sure he told them that I lived in Kut Chim. Once they got here, all they really had to do was ask anyone in town and they could direct them straight to my home. I’m not sure how I feel about being so easily accessible (my phone number has been passed around as well – in the middle of the school day I get calls for “small talk” from people I’ve probably never met before) but I’m getting used to it. Anyway, I sat through the interview – it was filled with questions like “Until you have been to Thailand travel to when?” and I managed to come up with answers that I thought might be the right ones. I thought about editing their questions, but I didn’t really know what they were even trying to ask. I asked about the South African teacher, and they told me that he only teaches the VIP classes (larger towns and cities have leveled classes – my village is too small). This explains the fractured English from the interview.
That afternoon I was reading on my porch and four of the neighborhood children came running down the driveway carrying hula hoops. They started hula hooping and singing the ABC’s which I took as my invitation to join them. They giggled at teaching me how (hula hoops are much bigger and heavier here and kinda hurt your sides) and we spent the afternoon taking turns hooping and singing and even practicing some numbers. They even stayed and helped Nit and I make dinner (summer rolls – yum!) and I really enjoyed their company.
Monday morning J called me up and said he was going for a long bike ride and that he would come down to Kut Chim if I wanted to join him. J is in his second year of WorldTeach Thailand and has had ample time to explore nearby villages. Living alone and being an older guy he never really experienced the independence issues the rest of us have faced. We ended up spending about 2 hours on dirt roads around my village just seeing where the path would take us. I was worried about Nit being upset that I’d been gone so long, but she didn’t say anything about it when I returned. It was really nice to be able to feel so spontaneous. That afternoon, J, Gen, and I headed into That Phanom, where we were dropped off and allowed to explore on our own a bit. Again, more freedom! We went to the temple, wandered the markets, and found a real café!
Back at school, I’ve really been enjoying my students. I taught pictionary last week and they love it! I also broke out a word card game, Scrabble Slam (thanks mom!), to practice making words with them. Playing cards is actually illegal here (maybe it’s just gambling) so when they saw how proficient I was at shuffling they squealed with delight! Through some miming and “tenglish” they explained about cards being illegal and I just gave them a little smirk and said “mai pen rai,” which I think really made their day.
I’ve also taught them the word “rules.” We’ve had classroom rules since day 1, but “rules” is currently a vocab word. Rs, Ls and ending consonants are difficult for Thai speakers…so imagine how this word really threw them off. Discouraged, they seemed to almost give up. Instead of letting them, I wrote a thai letter on the board, ง, and asked them to pronounce it. They perfectly pronounced the Nga Ngu. And then I tried…and failed. This letter is really hard for English speakers. Sure we make this sound at the end of words like sing and thing, but making this sound at the beginning is nearly impossible. It seemed to be a really meaningful learning moment for them and they were more motivated to say the word “rules.”
While not without some typical frustrations, there it is, the best week in a nutshell…no crazy festival, no traveling adventures; just small, unplanned, perfect moments.
For pictures of my hula-hooping friends:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068466&id=1326450028&l=068b9d4011
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