Yesterday was another long day.  It started at 7:30am, but I was the last one there.  Some teachers had been up since 5:00am getting the scouts up and moving.  They were all in formation and doing morning assembly stuff when I got there.  They handed me breakfast (meat and rice).  Most of the morning was similar to the other morning.  The younger students were only doing the one day and one night.  After the singing and tunnel thing, they set off to trek.  Pat and I sat by the main road to help them cross the street.  They trekked up to the lake I had been to the previous day and then back to school.  We had lunch and then sat around for hours watching them set up tents.  It was market day so that made me feel better.  I decided to eat dinner at home since I had to go back for another long meeting in Thai and the evening campfire activities.

At 7:00pm they were all standing in formation ready for the campfire.  There’s no campfire in sight.  There is a large white basin in the middle.  I assumed this is where the fire would be.  There were about 11 older people dressed in their scout uniforms who attended.  They had special seats.  I assumed they were retired teachers or town officials.  There was a full drum set.  One of the older men was the MC of the night.  He did a lot of talking, singing and getting the kids all fired up.  He was also quite funny, as everyone was laughing the whole time.  He had so much energy and was jumping around and dancing most of the evening.  Some small fireworks went off and the fire was “lit”.  It was one of those fabric fires with a fan below it and a red light so the fabric looked like dancing flames.  At some point earlier in the day, I was told I could dance with them.  There was a group of girls that came out in long silk skirts and Tshirts.  They walked around the circle doing a luau type dance.  A group of boys followed them, mimicking them.  Then, I was pulled out of my seat and shuttled down to the circle to join them.  I tried my best, but I’m sure I looked like the farong (foreigner) trying to dance.  They loved it.  There were more speeches, games, plays, singing, speeches, plays.  I figured I could at least follow the plays the students put on – no.  It’s funny, but the students don’t sing, the teachers do.  The guests (retired teachers?) were the life of the party.  They were the band and the singers.  The current teachers waited on them, bringing them drinks and snacks.  The part I liked the most was when one of my best students came out to introduce his group’s play, he introduced it in perfect English “Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Thai History”.  It must have been a play about Thai History.  Overall, it was a fun evening, but way too long.  About half way through, I thought, “ok, I can live here”.  Then the last hour was, “how much longer”?  It was done around 11:00pm.  And of course, at 11:00pm they tried to feed me rice soup.

I was back at school at 8:00am and morning assembly was underway.  Similar breakfast, speeches and singing.  It wrapped up around 10:00 and then we “helped” them break camp.  Even though it was a long 2.5 days, I think it was good to spend more time with the other teachers and be exposed to some of the school culture.

I made a new best friend.  He is Noi’s husband.  Noi is the teacher that is my Thai Sister.  He has just as much energy as her.  He is a retired English Teacher.  He kept saying that he gets a headache when he tries to speak English, but then follows me around asking me questions.  I enjoyed speaking with him over the past two days.  He is in the third video playing the xylophone.    The first two videos are of his wife, Noi.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore