Spare Change.

The school has been looking into getting me a work permit and a teachers visa; it’s what the rest of the teachers have, and it more appropriately reflects what I’m doing out here than my current documents. I would have had to get a new visa anyway, as mine runs out in December. At least 4 months too short. We’re hoping that it can all be done in country, down in Bangkok, which would make things a lot easier. But the visa commission wants applicants to have at least 25 days on their current visas, so before I can head south I need to do a border run; go to the border, hop over, get a stamp and come back. It’s part of the Thai visa system, all required for me to remain here legally. So on Wednesday I got on a minibus and headed for Burma.

Long Time No See...

Looked at my calendar today, in an effort to work out where exactly I was in terms of my stay here: all who know well enough (Which is to say everyone, this isn’t exactly a big secret) knows I’m horrendously unorganised and time has a tendency of getting away from me. So I wasn’t surprised when I realised what had felt to me like no time at all was actually about 13 weeks. Which on paper looks like a decent chunk of time.

For most of the time after the team left I’ve been staying at a place called The River (The rest of the time Jill Bird was kindly letting me stay at her house). It’s a gorgeous looking place, all green grass and beautiful trees: as the name suggests we are actually next to a river. The River is also the name of the organisation that owns and runs this site, and their focus is on change in the community and serving the needs of Thais at their source. The idea is to change the cause of things, rather than the results. They’ve got a blog as well, http://theriverteamthailand.blogspot.com/ , which is well worth a look at.

Gorgeous scenery surrounding our room!

The River team has a tremendously full weekly schedule, with teaching, community visits, cell groups, a youth and kids club, a hotel run by on site staff, a cafe and probably a lot more I’m not aware of. Both the cafe and the hotel are run by River staff and are used as a form of training: most of those who live on site come from the tribal groups, who are at the bottom of the social and economic hierarchy and so don’t get opportunities we might take for granted. I’ve been taking part as much as I can, fitting things around my teaching and planning at the School of Promise. You’ll all be pleased to hear I’ve loved every moment of it immensely!

When I first started staying at the River I was sharing my room with an Australian girl called Rachel, from Brisbane. There were a few days of crossover time when there were three of us, just before Rachel left for home. The third girl, Ellen, is from Belfast (In a city full of foreigners, it’s remarkably hard to find a fellow Brit), and now there’s just the two of us. That said we have managed to infiltrate a group of young westerners who we meet every Thursday for Spaghetti night and a pub quiz. One of the things I hadn’t anticipated about this trip was how draining it would be to constantly be in a foreign culture, and those few hours on a Thursday when I’m surrounded by westerners is turning into a moment of peace in a week full of work.

Mich, Ryan, Me, Ellen at quiz night.
Forgive Ryans expression...

Got to run, youth is just starting. We’re going to help teach them Old MacDonald: I’m sure they’re going to find the whole thing hilarious. Such is the trend of Thai humour!

Emma.

Nung Song Sam

These are three of the smallest students in the School of Promise, and most defiantly the youngest. I think. A lot of the kids are from the Karen hill tribes, who don't remember birthdays (I'm not even certain they have a word for 'birthday') and as such will not always be sure how old they are in Western terms. And will give you a different age each week...

We have a school rule about sharing names of the children on the internet, so from now on they shall be know as Eric, Elaine and Marie. Their actual names are short and often amusing: one of the girls at school is called Cartoon. Seriously, that's her name.

Well, her nickname or chue-len in Thai. Any of you who where at the Sunday service may have heard this bit of Thai culture trivia already, but for those of you who weren't I'll give a little refresher. Nicknames are what Thais call other Thais most of the time. They're often shorter, easier to say and have a very unimportant and childish meaning. The 'unimportant meaning' is key, as a big part of Thai culture involves spirits; pleasing them, placating them and generally keeping them happily out of your affairs as a meddling spirit can bring disaster. Spirits will involve themselves with whoever they feel like, but having two names will confuse them sufficiently that they  will go and prey on someone else instead.

With all that in mind, their given names are long, complicated, convoluted and full of such grandiose meaning that you wonder if your short and apparently meaningless label makes you seem a bit silly to them. Anyone ever seen 'Spy Kids'? That bit where the two children are asked by a security door what their names are, and the girl spends at least a minute citing off her horrendously long name and you wonder how she had all the space in her head to remember it? One of the kids did that to me once. It was an experience.

Does anyone know what their names are supposed to mean? Or did you parents just like the sound of it? Could be interesting to see if you reflect your name at all...

Emma.

ps: For those of you wondering, nung song sam is Thai for one two three. Another bit of trivia for you!

A Commentary on ‘Ode to Emma’.

Dear Anon,

Loved the poem. Though there’s no need to be so self-deprecating: I’m sure your nose isn’t that big.

But I’m skipping ahead by a whole stanza. First line. “Emma Emma, where are thee?” To answer your question, Thailand. “Where in Thailand?” you might ask, and to save you wasting your literary talent in composing another poem simply to ask this I shall pre-emptively answer you. Hang Dong. Is that helpful?

Reasonably helpful if you want to Google-map me, I suppose. Still.

I’m at work; work being The School of Promise. It’s is a small primary school about fifteen minutes away from the Bird’s house by car and is run by a mixture of Thais and Americans, all Christians. Two days of the week are entirely in English, with the other three in Thai. It’s still very small, with only twenty-eight students in total: the class I’m being eased into teaching has only three. To those three small 1^st Graders (Year 2 in England) I am now Miss Emma.

To narrow it further, I’m in the music room. Which currently has no musical clutter of any sort and instead four English teachers and a whole load of Thai childrens books. I can practicly hear the next line of your currently-in-production piece of prose. “Emma Emma what is wrong? At work you should work and not write blogs.”

Obviously your piece would have better rhyming. I’m not great at rhyming.

I’m not working right now because for today I’ve finished. It’s nearly three o’clock, as of this sentence. I’ve observed and helped in two English lessons, one Science lesson and fun reading time. I’m being eased in to everything, and after almost a week of solely observations, introductions (To systems, students, fellow teachers) and tips on which meals in the canteen don’t agree with western stomachs I was asked to plan and lead a Math lesson. That’s done too, and now I’m making sure no-one abuses the books. Over this next week I’m going to change from observing to teaching by one lesson each successive English day, to make sure I’m not overwhelmed.

At the moment the rest of the English teachers are planning future lessons, which I’ll be doing as well in a week or so once I’m fully into the swing of things. We have to try and follow what the Thai teachers teach, with translated Thai text books. They have to constantly check that what’s in the text book actually makes sense, with the language barrier sometimes throwing a fast ball. The English teacher for Grades 5 and 6 (Years 6 and 7 in England) is planning Science, and we’re all trying to help and getting ourselves ridiculously confused over genetics. Double eyelids and cats lacking whiskers made an appearance. Don’t ask. Because we really don’t know.

Right, where were we in the poem? Dum de dum... “To blog in oft thou didst promise...” In oft? Didst? Have you got some Olde English to Modern English dictionary secreted away somewhere? If so I want a copy, just so I can make sure you’re using it correctly. And yes, I did promise. But we had a small holiday after the group left and we just started work again last week, so we’ve only just got anything worth posting about. Here’s hoping this blog satisfies you. Things will be picking up as we head into autumn though, so expect blogs aplenty over the next few months!

Emma.