for 2/17

Blog for 2/17/09

So, it turned out that I did not have an afternoon class, but that the two in the morning was all. I spent the afternoon visiting with students who were brave enough to try and talk to me, usually just talking amongst each other until they decided that they knew a question in English. Usually, if a teacher was around, they were most likely to go and ask him or her how to say something in English, but some of the teachers were more willing than others. It was interesting to look at the group dynamics; how it usually worked was they seem to nominate one more outgoing student to be the spokesperson, and others will whisper in her ear until they figure out how it is they say what they are trying to say. I found out that we will go to Mae Hong Son tomorrow for the rest of the week, for what I think is a big sports tournament against another school. However, often I think I know what is going on, and really I have no clue. I’ve just kind of given up on understanding everything that’s happening, or asking questions such as ‘what are you doing? Where are you going?’ I figure, if I’m supposed to go with them, they’ll probably come and get me. I watched some of the boys play basketball, and I sat on a table I shouldn’t have and fell off.. at least it was a bit of an icebreaker. I have a few photos in my bag, one of me, Milissa & Brenna at graduation, one of Rudy and I on the boat, and another of Brenna and I on the beach in California. When I brought these out, that was nuts. They were like ravenous wolves.. really. So the pictures got passed around and commented on (who knows what they were saying) and I answered basic questions, such as the names of the people involved and tried to get the concept of graduation across. I’m pretty sure I failed. I did get lots of beautiful comments on the one of the three of us, so, go girls! We’re hot. Once school was out, I walked back to the village, with a group of girls again, and tried to get them to tell me the name of the school or various things, but they are mostly too shy and just say yes, even when I know I’m mangling it terribly. Today, people were wearing shirts with it embroidered, and it is the Saeree Wattiya School. I’m pretty sure. Once I got home, I was hot and sweaty and gross. Along the way, a girl had wanted to try on my backpack and I let her, but then I couldn’t get it back! I felt very strange having a student carry my bag, and I couldn’t tell if she just was doing it because I am a teacher, or if she wanted to try it or what. Things like that, and having the students bring you coffee or water or lunch, just make me feel strange. They are also the ones that do the cleaning at the school, all the sweeping and picking up garbage. There is a very different student teacher dynamic, for certain. So I get back, and this time I am successful in getting the shower to work. It’s a tiled little shed room outside, the same one with the toilet (which is more like a ceramic hole that you squat over) but it actually had a shower head and even a little baby water heater, which heats it up to most than cold for a little. Pretty luxurious for out here, and more than I was expecting, but I’m still very conservative with it. I still haven’t bought any thing, so I’ve been wearing the same pants more than a week, and I just use the soap Mom gave to give away to wash myself, and my hair, which it doesn’t work that great on. Hopefully while we’re in MHS I’ll have a bit of a chance to get some things. The daughter was not here, so I was a little uncertain of how things were going to work, but I think she works at a different school during the week. I went into the kitchen area, and felt a little helpful playing with baby while the grandmother cooked, even though it was just for me ( I think they already ate) and I stayed in the same room as them. Maybe things are loosening up. After that, it was a little This American Life, reading, and bed. I basically sleep not too long after the sun goes down, and get up with it. It feels surprisingly natural. I could hear the mother/daughter (I really with I knew names) come home, and there were a few other women with her. They started singing, and actually were recording themselves on some kind of tape, because they played it back. I think it was for the baby. This morning, the director came by as I was eating breakfast and I got a ride to the school. I don’t think they really know what to do with me when I’m not teaching, or I look really longing, it’s hard to say, so they send me off to the internet. About an hour later, Non comes by and asks if I want to go with them to another school, so I do. It is an elementary/primary school by a lake, and they are going to present their school as an option for the students next year. Basically, recruiting. I spoke just a bit to the students, just for effect I guess, but mostly just watched. I did talk a bit to the Thai English teacher there, Eh, who was very nice. She had taught at a private school in Chiang Mai for 5 years, but now teachers here, and we commiserated a bit on how little English the students know. She has her family still in Chiang Mai, so she lives here during the week and then rides her motorcycle four hours to go home on the weekend. Then we come back, and I noticed earlier that there are these red mats out on the paved walkway that goes by the teacher’s workroom and other room next door, and then Non tells me that later monks are coming here, and says I can watch or be there for whatever is happening then. When I was eating lunch in the workroom shortly after, lunch that a student brought me (I don’t know where the other teachers eat.. so far I’ve been on my own, and it is still very strange being served by a student), a monk came inside. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but he wasn’t’ very old or silent, and smiled at me and said “Hello.” I saw later that there were three of them sitting on the directors porch, or equivalent
I sit a little outside, because it seems half the time when people are congregated I tend to clear them out ( the teachers) but I attract a group of sightseeing students who ended up behind me, and then I saw a red truck with lots of people around and I go investigate. Non-says “supermarket”! so I guess it is the grocery truck. I asked her, and she says it doesn’t come every day, but that the teachers buy food and prepare it themselves during the week. She gave me (bought me?) a cola, which has and English label on one side and a Thai one on the other. Something sweet was definitely nice to have. There were teachers buying produce, and also students buying snacks, all kinds of things.

Side note:
I just went to the classroom that I thought I was supposed to be teaching a lesson in today at 2:30, but that building is pretty much deserted, just with clumps of students here and there, some doing work and some just playing. And in the room I was said to go to was just a handful of boys kicking a ball around, some of which were in my class yesterday, so that wasn’t them. Anyway, I’m not sure if they all just split because they knew I was the teacher, or if there really isn’t afternoon class today? Beats me.

Okay, back to earlier. I had assumed that the monks were coming to give a service (? I’ll just say that) for the students and teachers, but as we are at the trunk a group of woman and men come walking up. The women are dressed in traditional clothing: a long skirt of woven cloth, mostly in some shade of reddishpinkpurple, with horizontal stripes. The tops were more varied, but all the same style, a longish fringed tunic with short sleeves, and a short v neck in the front and back that have dangling threads, and some threads dangle from other areas, and these are in a variety of colors and patterns. The men wear a rather simplified version of this as well, but only a few were. I recognized the mother and daughter and baby that I live with, too, which makes me more nervous to interrupt this, but Non tells me it’s okay, and she is in the door way taking pictures but I went in with another teacher, and Non ends up not coming in at all. There are a bout 30/35 people total, men in the front and women in the back, sitting on the floor of what I believe is usually the computer lab, due to the rows on computers on both sides. There is a light blue curtain on the far side, in front of which the three monks are sitting, first one in a brown robe, and then the two in orange. The carpet is rough, but a very brilliant blue. In front of each monk are what looks like a basket of gifts (there was a red bow on it) and then some kind of container in cream and white. To the right of the monk in brown, who seems to be the main guy, were two dark ceramic bowls on gold stands, and a bunch of green reeds or grasses. Further to the right, near the door, were two statues on tables, on small and gold with two lit candles in front of it and one bigger and duller, but both the same Buddha. The ceremony started with a man carrying around one of the dark bowls, for baht. Then, the brown monk started, speaking into a microphone. I think his voice was out, because the other two didn’t use it and he would stop at different intervals and drink water or clear his throat. There was a repeat and answer session, with hands touching prayer style the whole time, and then the brown monk started chanting from behind an oval yellow screen on a handle that he brought out. During this sometimes the other monks would join in. He put it down after a while, and then it continued. There were three basic parts: repeat after me, chanting (sometimes together, sometimes just the brown monk or the one in the middle who took over at times) and then talking in a more speaking tone of voice, where people seems more relaxed and sometimes put their hands down. There were breaks where people shifted, and the bowl was passed around another time or two. At one point the main monk took the reeds and dipped it into the second bowl and flicked the two statues. Later on, after a period of silence in which no one spoke and even the babies were harshly shushed, he came around and flicked water on all of us. I can now say that a monk has… uh.. if only I knew what he was doing. Blessing? Anointing? Forgiving? Whatever it was, some water hit me for sure. The he, the director, and the man who carried the bowl for baht went outside, and the teachers left and brought back bowls of these cookies (sort of like a sweet Ritz cracker with frosting in between, very tasty) cups of water, which didn’t make it to the women, and bowls of some kind of white sweet ( I assume, since I didn’t have any near me) dip for the cookies. After a while of this, I felt very out of place, and so even though the last monk hadn’t returned, I left. It was still a very interesting and enlightening experience, and I’m very glad I got to see it. I do feel bad about not teaching my lesson this afternoon.. I wonder what happened to the students? I’m not sure if I’ll stay here tonight to leave for MHS tomorrow, I think I’m supposed to but I need my toothbrush, at the least, and my journal for the village. Still, I won’t do anything until Non or the director comes back. They’re pretty much my go to kids. Whew.