Learning Names and Batik

Another great day teaching. It was particulary wonderful walking up the hall to have a few students run out the classroom and give me a huge hug. After only being with them one day they are already very affectionate. I am so happy being with them and the teachers it doesn’t even feel like work. Makes me think I may need to look into the option of teaching as a profession. I’ve always believed that when working doesn’t seem like work it’s no longer really a “JOB,” it’s just your life. Lessons today included review of the alphabet, numbers, My name is, and learning the Itsy Bitsy Spider. I also made each student (Nak rien) a nametag to help me remember who is who.

For our cultural activity we made batik- a lengthy art process involving drawing an image on a canvas spread, tracing the image with hot wax using needle-like tools (spilling any wax ruins the piece entirely), and then painting in the image with watercolor. Being that I’ve always struggled with making things perfect, it took even longer for me to complete mine. But, the end result makes me smile: an image of the happy, fat, budda holding the word “Happy” in Thai characters. Others painted images of Trang, scenery, words, hands, flowers, and patterns.

First Day Teaching

I just returned from my first day volunteering and it was fantastic! I have a class of 12 children- 3 of them are 3 years old, one is 5 years old, and the remainder are 4 years old. They are so enthusiastic, smart, and absolutely adorable.

I really had no idea what to expect today, but that made for an easier time getting acquainted with my job, expectations, and role. Luckily I have a Thai teacher named Jin Tahna to help translate and keep the kids in order. I started the morning off doing a name game with everyone. We all got in a circle and went around saying “Dee chun chur” which means “my name is.” We then practiced in English. We then used a ball to roll around the circle to go from person to person sharing your name. I am going to do my best to learn everyone’s name, but I have a hard time just like they do! They are learning Thai and are also expected to learn English. We’re all learning together.

After the name game we all sang the alphabet as a group as I pointed out the letters on a wall. We sang it really LOUD and then really soft. The kids finally started to jump out of their shells. They all then got a bubble letter to color (a worksheet I made the night before) and I sat down with them to do the activity. I got “M” and drew lots of little dots in different colors. The little girl next to me loved what I was doing so much she copied me on “N.” It was so much fun!

After a lot of alphabet teaching we played duck duck goose and all the kids kept “goosing” me so I took myself out of the game to let them play. After just two and a half hours of playing and teaching it was time for lunch.

All the kids went for lunch at their own table, all the teachers, two other volunteers, Rupal and David, and I sat down to eat. This was great because the teachers don’t speak much English so we continue to learn from each other. I had some fruit called lang sad which was similar to lychee and delicious. I also tried a black bean cake that had egg yolk in it- very good. Rupal and David already have a relationship with them which is fun to see (all the women teachers love David because he’ll eat anything). They’ve both been in Trang for a month already volunteering. I’m looking forward to getting to know them and work with them more. Just from the few days I’ve been here I can tell they are both wonderful people.

Welcome to Trang

Today marked the beginning of my reason for visiting SE Asia. I got up very early to catch a flight from Bangkok to Trang, Thailand for 8 weeks volunteering as a kindergarten teacher with Cross Cultural Solutions. I was so excited to pack, get out of the big city, and meet my new CCS Family. I got up around 4:00am to get a taxi at 4:30 for a flight at 7:00. I didn’t want to miss my flight so I left for the airport a little earlier than needed and was at the gate by 5:30. Of course with that little sleep I was exhausted and took the opportunity to lie down on a row of chairs for a nap before boarding. I made sure to sit close enough to the runway so I would hear the boarding announcement, but that apparently didn’t help. I woke up be a sheer stroke of luck at 7:00am sharp and saw no one around me or in line. After quickly grabbing my stuff I ran the few feet to the entrance and heard them call out my name as last boarding call. That was a close one!

After a quick hour’s flight I landed, got my bag, and met Jack, our program assistant who was standing holding a CCS sign outside baggage claim. I also met two other volunteers, Kailee Brownbridge, an 18 year old from Canada and Annie Sewell, a 19 year old from Los Angeles, both who are taking a break from school.

Upon arriving at our new home we were given a tour (coffee, plates, refrigerator, bathroom, etc) from Jack and had a few orientation activities including a scavenger hunt in Trang. We finished the day with a scrumptious curry dinner from Mama Thailand, “Mama T,” and by watching a few scenes of a bootlegged version of Inglorious Bastards with three other volunteers, Rupal, David, and Laurel, all whom have been here for a month already. With the German and French subtitles in the movie and the attempt to translate them into English by someone who only knows Thai, we didn’t watch much of the movie. I crawled into my new bed (I share a room for 6 with Kailee and Annie- it’s like camp all over again with our three bunkbeds) and settled in for my impending teaching adventure.

First Set of Cultural Activities

My first day in Trang- done! We had a great day of orientation for our volunteer placement and overall stay in southern Thailand and then visited a local Chinese temple called Meunram. Jack did a great job explaining how to light the incense we were given and pray to the gods. You first light four candles, leaving them in different places in the room. Afterwards you place three incense sticks in about 10 bowls of sand. At each bowl we made a wish, some wishes themed for different things in life such as health, wealth, and happiness. I remember what I wished for and still hope they come true.

After our wishes and prayers we were given a large metal cup full of numbered turquoise sticks similar to chopsticks and shown how to shake the container until one of the sticks falls out. The number that falls out represents the number you need to receive a unique premonition. We walked to the wall of numbered boxes and were each given our fortune written in Chinese and Thai on a piece of paper (Trang has a very strong Chinese influence). Jack read each out loud once we’d returned to the bus, mine said something to the affect of, “your time is not quite right now...you are ready for love and your soulmate is very close by- just an arms-length branch away. You’ll be with your soulmate in a very short time, but not quite yet.” Interesting....

Post premonition we drove about 45 minutes through Hat Chao Mai national park and took a boat to plant mangrove trees in a nearby river forest. The Queen of Thailand has called for this project as a way to protect the surrounding area from tsunamis and other natural disasters. Trang was not affected by the 2004 Tsunami partly because it was far enough away from the epicenter and partly because of the natural protection provided by trees.

After planting the mangrove trees we went down a side river and stopped just short of a rocky inlet to see 2 limestone caves. These caves were dramatically different than those I saw in Halong Bay. While they weren’t as large, they were more untouched and not as frequented as Halong Bay. Our group was the sole visitor in this moisture infused, muddy, and slippery place. We crawled up natural water pools deep into the cave and saw hundreds of stalagmite formations and limestone walls. At the entrance to the second cave we also found 10 or so abandoned bee hives way up above our heads. I really felt with nature and was appreciative of the visit.

The last part of our activities today was the beach. Once again I got to treasure the natural beauty of southern Thailand without the interruption of tourism. The sand was white as can be and overtaken by tiny crabs. I was really curious about where the pattern in the sand came from, but once I laid down to read my book I saw the thousands of crabs all coming out of their holes to eat the salt and spit out the leftovers. Each were different size ranging from a few centimeters to a few inches, but all were doing the same thing, eating and spitting out little balls of sand. They would create paths of balls and I wished I’d had an SLR camera to capture their activity. If today was anything of a representation of the rest of the cultural activities provided by CCS I knew I would be in for an experience of my lifetime.

Bangkok

The past few days were spent scurrying around this massive city. The highlight was definitely getting to hang out with Liam after not seeing him for a few years from working at Soi 4 in Oakland, but I also had some fun with Mark roaming the streets before he caught a flight to Australia. Mark and I hit Khao San Rd to make fun of the backpacker hippies, had a delicious, but very spicy lunch at the Navy Club on the water, visited the legendary MBK mall and Sukhumvit, acted like tourists on the Sky Train, and even squeezed in a great game of pool at a local bar where we also saw some older western men canoodling with young Thai girls.

Liam was the perfect host. It was so great to see a familiar face after traveling for almost a month. I couldn’t believe how generous he was with his time. While he only lives about 20km outside downtown, it takes a while with traffic to make it in after work each night. We hung out Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and had an absolute blast! The first night he took Mark and I to a really great restaurant he and his friends visit called Somtum and then showed us an immense night market full of everything anyone would ever want to buy.

Our second night he and I went to a mouthwatering crepe place where we had tzatziki in a relaxing setting and then tested some very strange dessert where I was the only white person. The name I think is Mai Sai Nom which means fresh milk. It’s as popular as Pinkberry back home but serves texas-style toast with heaps of butter and a topping of your choice. We split three: orange marmalade, chocolate, and sugar. We also got fresh, unpasteurized milk and a thai tea. It was a very foreign event for me and I forced myself to not think about how many calories we consumed. But, I loved trying it and talking to Liam more.

The last course after greek tzatziki, french crepes, and thai toast must of course be fried bugs at the local market. I decided to add a few more items to my weird menu of foods consumed in Asia by trying grasshopper and larvae. It’s hard to even admit that I ate larva, but Liam said it tasted like a french fry (why does everyone say that insects taste like fries? They do not!) so I thought, “what the heck.” Post insect we toured the market, bought a few presents for friends, walked through the beautiful and fantastic-smelling flower market, and then drove home.

When Liam came into the city for the third night it was unfortunately a Friday night and raining extravagantly. It therefore took him two and a half hours to reach me, which I felt horrible for. We kept it low-key since I was tired and had to wake up early by enjoying an hour foot massage near my hotel with berry smoothies. I’m so lucky to have a great friend like Liam....

Patpong Ping Pong

I don’t need to write too much about what happened today as we simply drove from Battambang to Bangkok, about a 5 hour commute. However, we did have an excellent Thai dinner to say goodbye upon arrival. Many of us are staying in Bangkok for another few days before heading off to another country or back home, but tonight was our last night together as a whole. We decided the best way to wish farewell together would be to entertain ourselves with the scandalous yet well-known ping-pong show at Patpong. I’m not going into details about what we witnessed for our high-priced $15 ticket as the images stuck in my mind are enough of a memory, but I’m glad I went for the experience and story telling purposes.

Boats, Bikes, and Bamboo in Battambang

Some fellow travelers had some heated discussions today about taking a small boat to Battambang instead of a previously planned bus. I am very thankful that those who spoke up insisted on getting the boat as it provided what I would imagine to be a much more adventuresome experience.

I loved just sitting wearing my headphones and watching the world on water go by. The wind felt refreshing against my skin and hitting the various water villages provided much entertainment. We watched fishermen farm, families gather on porches, and kids playing in the water. After probably an hour or so of continual driving we stopped at a ‘gas station’ consisting of a floating shack that sold snacks and various sized bottles of gas. We rested for around 30 minutes and watched other boats come in to refill. I’ll never forget watching the tiniest boy paddle his way alone from one side of the water to our dock. He was no bigger than the tire sitting close to us and had to maneuver this large wooden boat all by himself. His clothes were tattered and he didn’t smile at all, but he was all adorable. It was a little heart-wrenching to realize he was already working and probably hasn’t had the full five-year old experiences I took for granted at that age.

From our break we continued along the Mekong to Battambang. When we started to get closer to the main city we came across lots of families living on the side of the river and perhaps every three minutes or so we would see 5-10 naked kids jumping from trees into the water screaming “HELLO!!!” and waving furiously. It was something you can’t recreate and something totally unexpected. I was so happy watching them all scream and wave at us. It was particularly funny when I was waving at one group of kids and a little boy started grabbing himself and playing around putting it all on show. Poleak and I cracked up laughing.

When we got to Battambang and dropped off all our stuff we were able to relax for a short 10 minutes or so before hopping on the back of a motorbike to take a tour of town. I have decided that a motorbike is the best way to see a new city as long as you can trust the group you go with. On this particular adventure we started off by visiting rice paper business where we learned how the fabulous spring roll paper is made. The family who runs this business makes 2,000 a day for about $20 income. It’s hard, monotonous, physically tiring work too.

Other stops on the tour included a snake farm (where of course I got to eat some), rice business, sticky rice business, and fish paste business. We rounded it all out by taking a long ride on the bamboo train. I’m not quite sure what number I’m at regarding types of transportation taken on this trip so far, but the bamboo train will be another to add to the list. This ‘train’ is really just a bamboo plank put on two metal rolling rods similar to a long dumbbell. The spoken rule to avoid collisions since trains go both ways on the single track says that whichever side has more trains (we had two for our group) has to get up and take apart their train for the others to pass. You also have to give way to a train carrying a good that is particularly difficult to unload and reload. It’s great the locals still use this for transferring food, tools and gadgets, etc. And if the day couldn’t have gotten any better, the bamboo train ride was timed perfectly for a beautiful sunset.