Hello everyone.
At last, it's Saturday, which means its time for my next update. First I want to thank Jae for adding a comment to my last entry. To answer your question, I'm here until 20 August, which is when I fly back to the US. I was originally planning to stay in Mae Sot until 17 August, but just recently I've been considering leaving about 2 days early, so I could spend a few days in Laos. Of course, I will keep you all updated on what i actually decide to do.... any decisions won't be made until much closer to that date!
So, what's happened to me in the last week??? i don't even know where to begin! I was really tempted to update halfway through this week, since there's been so much thats happened.... but i know I can't just write everything, or else this blog would go on forever, and I don't think anyone would really want to read it. So....
Let's start with Sunday. All day Sunday I was on the bus from Chiang Mai to Mae Sot. I got into Mae Sot at about 7 pm, and went promptly to the guest house (one of the donors to the school, Fernand, had arranged a special deal to get a room for 2500B, or about 75$ US, per month at a particular guest house). The guest house, while far from perfect (doesnt have hot water, mechanical flush toilet, poorly lit), is reasonably big, has a decent bed, and a private WC + Shower..... which is the best I could get for 75$ per month! I phoned one of the other volunteers, Astrid a French girl, who came with some of the other teachers to pick me up and bring me to the orphanage to meet the children. I ended up sleeping my first two nights at the orphanage (don't ask why.... its a long story).
To clarify some things, the orphanage and the school are one and the same. The same strutures (I don't want to call them buildings, becuase they aren't...) are used during the day as a school, and during the night as an orphange.
The only difference is that the orphanage houses about 35 children, while a total of about 180 kids are at the school during the day. The orphans are incredible young people.... I know all of them have their own life stories (i haven't asked any of them.... I never know what the right thing to say is), and they are all super super warm people. They all call me "teacher" and don't hestitate to serve me. They are incredibly disciplined children who demand no pity, and who are incredibly motivated for school.... they looked forward with great anticipation to the beginning of the school year, and are so passionate about learning that they want to do their homework at any hour during the day.
The other students are a bit more diverse.... they all have different life stories. Some of them are disciplined, some aren't so much. Some of them are helpless and poor, some of them don't seem so poor (of course.... the school is direly poor).
Classes started on Wednesday. I was originally scheduled to teach three classes: Grades 5 + 6 (combined), grade 9, and primary. Primary proved to be too much of a challange, since none of them understood a word of anything I would say.... so I was "upgraded" to grades 3 + 4 (combined), which is only a little better. I do enjoy the respect pretty much all the children give me....and I love seeing the children interested in learning, and trying and answering my questions and taking notes. That said, it really is quite challenging in some ways. For one thing, I have no preset curriculum. Nor am I supplied with any sort of materials (except for a white board, a marker, and an eraser). Every day I have to think of a creative and productive way to spend the 45 minutes of classtime eloted for each class- not as easy as it sounds!!! Learning the names is also quite difficult.... Burmese names can be difficult to pronounce, and many of them sound similar (I couldnt even tell you how many Aungs I have...).
I have been doing my best... I have to be really creative every day. (If any of you has ANY ideas for me.... email me at ROCO148@msn.com). Many of the female students seem to take a bit of a liking to me... one of my grade 9 students just stares and smiles at me the whole time, and hides her head in embarassment whenever I call her name to answer a question. The other day she gave me a flower. One of the grade 10 students (not in any of my classes) is even more forward.... yesterday she "asked me out" to lunch, then asked for my phone number, implying that she wanted to "hang out" on Saturday (i.e., today). While she's an incredibly sweet girl, only a year younger than me, and I must admit I rather enjoy the female attention, I'm a bit scared of where this is headed...
The school is in the village of Mae Pa, which is 6 km north of Mae Sot (which is where I'm staying). So I ride a bike to and from school every day. Mae Sot itself is quite interesting....
there is quite a mix of different people here.
The most visible group are the Thais. The Thais are a reserved people, not unkind, but not terribly friendly. The language is nearly impossible to master, as it is very tonal, and the Thais try to recognise the tones NOT the letters (so my phrasebook isn't much use, since i can't produce the tones very well). The Thais understand almost no English.... so communication has been quite difficult. Then, there are the Chinese, who own a lot of the department stores in town (Mae Sot, despite being in "boony land" is suprisngly developed and modern.... almost anything I coould need to buy could be found here....). Then, my favourite group, the longyi-wearing Burmese. The Burmese are quite unlike any people in the world..... nowhere else have I ever seen such warm, generous, giving, friendly people. I have fallen quite in love with the Burmese peopl. THe burmese language is also much easier to master.... while it is tonal, the tones aren't nearly as important as they are in Thai. The fourth group, which is largely invisible except in the "right places", is the Westerners. I have yet to interact with any, apart from those volunteering with me at the school (aka the BHSOH = Boarding High School for Orphans and Helpless Youth).
At this time there are two fellow volunteers (both of whom I believe are only staying for another month or so). I have already mentioned Astrid, a french girl of 22 who is teaching English and giving optional French lessons. The other volunteer is an older French man named Stefan, whose English is very minimal and is only giving the optional French lessons. I kinda feel bad for him, since he only actualy teaches about 1 hour a day.... however, he has the ideal teaching situation- he is only teaching those students who are MOTIVATED. Both of the volunteers are quite friendly, and my French is adequate to communiate with both of them (although Astrid also speaks decent, although thickly accented English). Both of them sleep at the orphanage, so it's kinda difficult to "hang out" with them on evenings, etc.
I'm sure many of you are wondering about the food situation. Food is quite cheap and quite good. The Thais don't seem to differentiate between different meals and will eat the same thing at any point in the day (although its been hard for me to adapt to eating chicken fried rice at 8 am). A good dish of noodles or rice will cost about 20 B ( which is about 60 cents US).... a larger meal might cost about 40 B (1,20$). Street food.... like a small skewer of BBQ meat... runs for 3B ( less than 10 cents), and the delicious sweet roti, which is something like a crepe (Note: not quite like the roti prata found in singapore), runs for about 20 B. Western food is available, but not quite as good or as cheap.... usually a dish of, say spaghetti, will cost like 50B or something..... still cheap, but not when you can get just as much food for 20 B.
Anyway... I think that covers the most important things that happened this week. This week has definitely been one I will never forget (I'm sure I'm not going to forget what I've done this summer....), and has been one that has particularly touched me. While there has been a lot of "getting used to things" and the transition hasnt been 100% smooth, I can't say I have any regrets about coming here. Even if I left this week (which I'm not going to, although I must admit I've thought about it....), it will be a week that has changed my life. Of course, with two months left, I've only just begun my time here. And while I'm quite happy that I'm getting this experience, I also think I'll be ready to return to the familiarity of the West.... where I can talk with anyone in English (or French), and I can take hot showers and use mechanical flush toilets and drink tap water and walk the streets without having everyone stare at me.
That's all from Mae Sot for this week.... I will update again in one week. Thanks again to everyone who continues to read this blog. I apologise for not putting up my Myanmar + Chiang Mai pictures.... the uploading process wouldve taken a bit longer than I anticipated, so I figure I'll just wait until I get back to north America.... so the pictures aren't coming for a while. In the mean time, you're welcome to look at my singapore and malaysia picatures, which are already up on my facebook profile. If you have any questions, or messages of encouragement, I welcome you to leave comments (although I might not address them immediately) or email me at the given email address. I wish you all warmth and joy!
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