Lesson Plans

On May 30, 2016July 26, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Awakening, Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Friday night Noi texted me to see if I wanted to go to the market on Sunday in Tak. She said it was a big market with a lot of plants. I need to go to Tak to go to the big Walmart like store so I said yes. Then she said “See you tomorrow at 7:00”. So I texted her back to see if she meant tomorrow or Sunday. She confirmed Sunday.

Saturday morning I decided to sleep in and they I was going to spend the whole day working on lesson plans. No such luck. At 7:20 I heard yelling and horn honking. It wasn’t real loud over the fan I had on, but I heard it and realized that Noi had meant Saturday, not Sunday. She has probably now woken up all the teachers. I ran downstairs and asked her to give me 5 minutes. I threw on a pair of shorts, a t shirt and a hat and ran out the door. The market was on the street next to the river and had a nice breeze coming off the river. It was a very comfortable temperature until 9:30. Then it was as if someone had thrown me in an oven and it became so uncomfortable. The market was fun. It had every fruit tree, plant, herb, and fish you could ever want. It also had a lot of clothing too. It was fascinating watching Noi try to decide on anything. It took about 20 minutes for her to pick out 4 lime trees, going back and forth with the man selling them. It took her about just as long to pick out three shirts. After the market we went to Tesco Lotus and I bought granola, cheese, salad dressing and a bunch of other things I can’t get in my town. We had pizza for lunch. She let me order since pizza is not her thing. I ordered a pepperoni pizza. She ate it, but I don’t think she liked it much. On the way home we stopped by a big temple in Ban Tak. We didn’t stay long. I’ll have to go back sometime. By the time I got home it was 2:30 and I had done no lesson planning. I was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do and by the money problems I’m having. Life just felt impossible. So, I turned on the air conditioning and took a nap for an hour. I never nap because I usually feel worse after a nap. I still felt bad, but I got up and went to the coffee shop and worked there until they closed. I felt a lot better once I had started working on the lesson plans. I went and got a massage after that. All the yuck I had been feeling is definately being held in every part of my body. I got home around 9:00 and went to bed.

Today I spent most of the day doing lesson plans. I took a break to have lunch with Tip, but probably should have just kept working as it took way too long to get lunch with her. I had hoped to get this week’s and part of next week’s lesson plans done this weekend, but only got this week’s. Still, that was the most important part. My mood was much better today even though I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped.

A guy I had been matched with on Tinder when I was in Chiang Mai contacted me and we texted back and forth a bit. He’s riding his bike from Chiang Mai to Phuket. He left Chiang Mai on Friday. Since he will be passing pretty close to here, he’s going to come visit me. That should be on Tuesday. Still no one on Tinder in my area.

Of course I keep questioning why I don’t like teaching or living here. In theory, it shouldn’t matter where I live or what I do. One piece of the puzzle that keeps coming up is that I don’t like the concrete walls that are around schools and government buildings here. Something about concrete, heat and walls reminds me of my early childhood. I have no idea what happened, but this is not the first time I have had this memory. And by memory, I don’t mean that I remember what happened, but that I have the felt sense memory of being lonely and unhappy, hot and something about concrete. Then I had the thought that I was pretty unhappy through most of my childhood. And now I’m teaching teenagers. Huh….

Now I’m just listening to something crawling around in my ceiling and wondering how I’m ever going to sleep.

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20160528_114418 — Brilliant! An escalator for shopping carts.

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New Guest

On May 28, 2016July 26, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Last night’s house guest was a scorpion. I’m sad to say he met the bug spray. Are they deadly or just painful? It seems that Thailand is sending me a new horror guest every week. What’s next? Have I seen them all now? When does it stop? Does it get worse before it gets better?

20160527_074007 — This is where the horror happens

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Big Mood Swings

On May 26, 2016July 26, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized2 Comments

Yesterday I felt very overwhelmed with lesson planning. I don’t like lesson planning. I don’t mind the actual teaching, but trying to figure out what and how to teach is just unpleasant. I got text books for my advanced classes and was looking through one to get ideas on what to teach this week. It seems like that would be easier, but the activities in the text book are so disjointed and difficult to follow. They are also way too hard for these students. So, it just makes me sad a the the Thai system that they hold the students to such high standards, but they just aren’t there. I don’t want to be a teacher anymore. Ok, I can’t say when I wanted to be one except before I was one. This is hard.

After school yesterday I went to get coffee at the roadside drink place. The lady there is so nice and remembers what I like. It’s cheaper than the coffee shop too. Since it wasn’t too hot (it was medium hot) and there was a nice breeze, I didn’t mind sitting outside. Then I went home and washed my motorbike. The thing still looks like a complete disaster, but I know it’s clean. Well, as clean as is possible. This made me content. Then I made dinner. I think I could stay here longer if all I had to do were mundane everyday things. I’m actually enjoying those. I feel very peaceful and don’t care that I don’t have a big social life or wild and exciting things to do. I’m completely present. Until I think about lesson planning or my car not being paid on time in the US or what if my house doesn’t sell, etc.

Today I woke up feeling completely horrible. Last night I looked at my US bank account I am running real low. I had to have some repairs done to the house so this month I won’t receive any rent so that will be a big hit when the mortgage bill comes in. After that, I won’t even have enough money to buy a flight home if I wanted to. The last I heard, the renter no longer wanted to buy the house. I still have over $30,000 of debt not including the house and car. The person leasing my car is still paying late every month. So, I woke up with this weighing heavy on me. I’m trying to trust that everything will work out ok, but I just couldn’t this morning. Most of the day I just wanted to leave, but go where?

I’ve had several teachers ask why I am leaving in September and if I was going home. Q, my next door neighbor asked if I was coming back after I went home for awhile. He also asked if Robin was going with me. I found that odd. Just because we are both westerners doesn’t mean I’m bringing a 20 something year old from England back to America with me. Robin’s on his own. I’m not even sure I’m going back to the US. Judging by the questions people asked me, most of them had no idea this was just temporary to begin with. They seemed to think I moved here for good. I find that heart touching and I felt a bit guilty. I questioned why I felt guilty though. I never planned this to be long term. I just don’t want to disappoint people. Guess I have to let that go.

The loud obnoxious skinny mangy school cat had kittens. They are so cute, but it’s sad because the mother just begs food and now she has kittens to feed too.

By the end of the day, I felt like I did yesterday. Just content. I went for coffee and a walk in the gardens with Tip, Ging, and their daughters after school. Then I came home to cook. I should have been working on lesson plans but I plan on doing that all weekend. I probably should be figuring out a financial plan, but I’m not sure what I can do other than move numbers around and get more depressed about it.

Noi came by and brought me lychee, mangosteen and a pair of pajama pants. She wants me to have long pants (although they won’t be long on me) to help keep off the mosquitos because rainy season is coming. I love this woman.

I also love mangosteen. I may have mentioned it before, but if I didn’t, these are the best fruit ever. And I am obsessed with them now. They are just starting to come into season here so I am happy about that. Lychee and rambutan have just come into season too. I like lychee, but only a few at a time. Rambutan is delightful to look at. They look like a shaggy monster. They are lychee’s hairy cousin. They taste way better than lychee too. I tried a new vegetable today. I was told it was like a not sweet melon and it is boiled or fried. So, I fried it with some squash, ginger and onion. It was very unexciting. The squash, ginger and onion combo isn’t too bad though.

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Too Many Classes

On May 24, 2016July 26, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Awakening, Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized2 Comments

Not much exciting happened Sunday. My bus left Chiang Rai at 8:30 in the morning and took most of the day to get home. I’m not sure why it took longer to get home than it took to get to Chiang Rai, but it did. There were 5 police check points on the way home, 4 of which we got pulled over and they searched the bus. I assume they are looking for people sneaking in the country as they checked IDs. They never checked mine. I don’t look Burmese. I got home and found nothing scary in my bathroom, but there was a dying rat peeing on my stairs. Why can’t dying critters go outside and die? They all have to die in some dramatic fashion and wait for me to get home to do it. I assume he ate too much of the rat poison. I had to sweep him into the dust pan and take him outside.

Yesterday at school, I found out that they are still coming up with random issues with my work permit. Now they want my work permit dates to match my employment dates, but instead of making the work permit good for 8 months, they want the school to rewrite the contract for a year. This would mean I would be here through March of next year instead of September of this year. How do you politely say no to that? I tried. Pat made a phone call. I have no idea where this stands now.

I have two higher level English classes. Today I went to teach one of the regular level classes and was told that the higher level class was mixed in. So, basically, what I was teaching was a repeat for the higher level class since I taught them earlier in the week. How is this good classroom planning? It will be an issue for the first two classes, but not after that. Still, this added on to work permit thing just set me in the wrong direction for the rest of the day. I felt defeated and although I know it will all work itself out, I couldn’t shake the feeling. After school, I figured the best plan was to go get a massage. They weren’t there. I contacted Tip and asked if I needed an appointment or could just go get a massage at the hospital. They have a section with acupuncture and massage. She called to set up an appointment, but they were closed for the day. I went by two coffee shops. They were both closed. I gave up and went home to clean my house in the heat. I’m going to have to clean my house every few days anyway. I cleaned 2 rooms and felt a little better.

I question why I don’t want to be here. Ok, there’s the obvious: critters, bugs, the heat, the language, etc., but in theory, it shouldn’t matter. I know that the real “I don’t want to be here” is the one from infancy, not wanting to be here alone in this body, in this life. I have worked on that a lot over the years. All I can gather is that I was left alone a lot in the first few weeks of life and it left a mark that is difficult to define and difficult to work on. I started doing the DSE (Developmental Sequence Exercises) again as I think this is what is needed to finally work through this issue. I catch myself wanting to blame someone else for my problems. Then a second later, I think “that’s stupid. I’m the one who chose this – on purpose”. There’s no one to blame. Even if there was, what would that solve? Nothing. So, this wanting someone to take responsibility is part of not wanting to be here. They both feel backwards and inside out. So, I feel uncomfortable and unhappy and I do my exercises. I watch my thoughts and reactions and I wait for the issue to turn in on itself and flip so it’s no longer inside out.

Today I had 5 classes. I’m exhausted and brain fried. Sometimes I have Thai teachers that help. Today, I didn’t for 4 of the classes and the lesson was pretty difficult. So, I feel like I didn’t do anything useful today. One of my classes was 50 students. I couldn’t keep their attention for more than 5 seconds. That’s too many students. I teach 6 different grades and 2 advanced classes. I had 16 classes last semester and now I have 18. Last semester I was creating 2 lesson plans a week – one for the first 3 grades and one for the last 3 grades. One teacher told me today that next week she wanted me to teach on one of the subjects in her text book. This is great because what I’m teaching will be relevant to what they are supposed to be learning. I’ve been asking for this for months. However, it now means I have more lesson plans to do each week. So now I will have to create one for the first three grades, one for the 4^th, one for the 5^th, one for the 6^th, one for one of the advanced classes and two for the other advanced class. So instead of 2 per week, I’m now up to 9 lesson plans per week. I’m not sure this is actually physically possible. Then add on that I agreed to teach a monk after school twice a week so that’s now 11 lesson plans. Then I found out that Tuesday the last period is for clubs and I have to co-lead a club with Pat. We have to teach them hobbies. My hobbies are snowboarding, mountain biking, hiking, etc. How do I teach hobbies? We will do pottery, but I have no idea how to teach that without supplies and equipment. Beyond that, I know nothing. Help – send me ideas. If you add all that up, I’m now teaching 21 classes a week needing 12 lesson plans. I suck at lesson plans. How did this blow up to this proportion? I can’t possibly see how this is going to work.

I came home to an air conditioner in my room. So, that’s wonderful. I had to clean the whole house again, but I didn’t mind.

20160522_075619 — This is what every street in Chiang Rai (and most of Thailand) looks like

More Chiang Rai Tourist Stuff

On May 21, 2016July 26, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Chiang Rai tour part two. See the previous blog for what we did in the morning. The tea plantation, White Wat and Black House would have been a wonderful tour in itself, but wait….there’s more. After the Black House we went to a Long Neck village. The Long Necks are the tribe where the women put rings of metal on their necks. They don’t know why this tradition started. Two theories are to keep the women safe from tigers or to keep them safe from other villages men. Neither make much sense to me. In pictures it looks like their necks are very long, but they are not actually longer. Their shoulders are lower from the weight of the metal. They start at age 5 and rewrap the metal as they grow until 25 or 35 when they stop growing and then they wear those rings the rest of their life. They are from Myanmar, Karen Tribes. They are refugees allowed to stay in Thailand, but don’t have citizenship, or visas. There was nothing about the men. The village was mostly booths selling stuff and some houses behind them. It was all show for tourists and I didn’t like it. The only thing I could think of was, “well these houses make mine look awesome”. Next to them was a village of Akah people. They are a tribe from China. Most of them have work permits and are in the country legally. Their village is next door mainly to take advantage of the tourists going to see the Karen Tribe.

Next up was the Monkey Cave and Temple. There’s a cave on the mountain and in typical Buddhist fashion, they built steep steps up to it and put a temple there. And in typical Rraine fashion, I climbed all the steps wondering if today is day I get heat stroke. It was not. But there was a cave and they built a temple in it. At the base of the mountain is a much bigger temple and a lot of monkeys. Thus, Monkey Cave Temple. There were no monkeys in the cave. Monkeys are cool for about 5 minutes and then I want to move on. Our guide had a toy wooden snake that if you hold it by the tail, it moves like a snake. The monkeys hate it. So, monkeys are as scared of snakes as I am.

We then went to Mai Sai which is the Thai border town with Myanmar. We had to drive up a very steep hill that was lined with a market. Our guide told us it was the border market and if we wanted anything we just needed to roll down the window and buy it. I was impressed that our van made it up the steep road. At the top was an overlook. It looked like one town below, but he pointed out the river and told us the river is the border so we were looking at both Thailand and Myanmar at the same time. Apparently China is not too far north of that. There is a half hour time difference between Thailand and Myanmar. How does that happen? And of course, there was a temple here too. We wandered around that a little. There was a large statue of a scorpion. Wau means Scorpion. The scorpion was guarding all the gold. I’m sure the story is better than that, but that’s all I remember so you can get the rest by either looking it up or making it up. Up to you.

The next stop was the Golden Triangle. Yes, this tour is still going and this isn’t the last stop. I told you we saw ALL the things. The Golden Triangle is the area that use produce large amounts of opium. It was an area of 367,00 square miles. Most of the world’s heroin came from this area until the early 21^st century. It covers three countries (Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos) and use to be hidden. There are two rivers which made it easy to trade and transport. Opium use to be the same price as gold, which is part of how the area got its name. Myanmar is still producing opium, but is second to Argentina in volume now. Thailand has made the confluence of the two rivers a tourist attraction.

And what tour would be complete without a stop at the opium museum? It told all about the history of the area and the opium business and how it’s harvested. It also had an impressive display of harvesting tools, measurement weights, scales, pipes and pictures of people smoking opium. I learned that morphine and heroin are both derivatives of opium. I had no idea. Upstairs was a section dedicated to the history of smoking tobacco, pictures of the long neck tribe, and information on the giant catfish. I see the leap from opium to tobacco, but drugs to giant catfish? Giant catfish is a real thing and not a hallucination from the opium.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong_giant_catfish

And last, but not least, we went to Chiang Saen. This town in Thailand has a lot of ruins of old temples. I’m sure there was more significance and history I could tell you about, but I was done and no information the guide gave us stuck with me. I do remember that one temple we saw was being rebuilt since it was damaged in the 2014 earthquake.

That evening I went to dinner with girls I just met yesterday. There was a Saturday night market. I walked around that for a while after dinner. I did a foot massage and it was the most useless foot massage ever. So, two night, two bad massages – what’s up Chiang Rai? Overall, it was great day being tourist!

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20160521_145115 — Thailand (on right) and Myanmar (on left)

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Black and White and Tea

On May 21, 2016July 26, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I signed up for a tour through my hotel for today. I figured that I had to fit it all in one day since I will spend most of Sunday on a bus back home. This seemed like the best way to do that. Oh my god….we saw ALL the things. This was one of the best tours I’ve done. There were only 5 of us and our tour guide explained everything to us and we went all over the Chiang Rai area seeing everything.

I’m going to break this blog into two since we saw so much.

First we went to Singha Park. It use to grow barley for Singha Beer. I’m not sure where the barley comes from now, but the farm has been turned into an eco tourism park and multiple farms. Now it grows rubber, tea, strawberries, fruit trees, barley, and probably a ton of other things. We went to part of the tea plantation. We saw oolong tea #12 fields. Off in the distance, it was tea as far as the eye could see.

http://singhapark.com/index.php/about-us?___store=en&___from_store=th

Next we went to the White Wat (temple), Wat Rong Khun. This was one of the most memorable things I’ve ever seen. I saw it 10 years ago and was excited to see it again. It’s the only all white temple in Thailand. The artist lives at the temple and is directing a team of workers to keep building on to the temple grounds. It is expected to take until 2070 to finish the full design. He will not live long enough to see it finished. It represents reincarnation, heaven, hell and nirvana. I remember from 10 years ago how beautiful it was with tiny shiny mirrors all over it. Now it’s many buildings and full of new things to see that weren’t there 10 years ago. The mural inside the temple that depicts hell (or worldly things) was impressive and is being added to constantly. Sorry I didn’t get a picture, but no photography was allowed inside. It had demons, superheros, Elvis, Japanese cartoon characters, the burning World Trade Center, Michael Jackson, Hello Kitty, a minion, and characters from every modern movie. All the worldly things of modern day. It was very impressive. Of course, the opposite wall had pictures of Buddha in Nirvana. There was a gold temple which represents the worldly things and life here. The bathrooms were completely gold, floor, walls, and ceiling. I guess the bathroom falls under worldly and not nirvana. There was a walk way with a cover that looked like it was lined with fur. When I got closer, I realized it was covered with something metal, but I couldn’t tell what. Then I saw trees made of the same material. Then I saw one out of place. They were paper thin metal leaves with beads on them. Each one has a name on it. You can buy them, put your name on it and what ever your wish is and it will become encorporated in a future tree or ceiling or something. I can’t even fathom how many million of those were there. Still one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Rong_Khun

Next was the Black House. All I knew about this is that it was built by a famous artist and it’s all black. I assumed it was one house, but it was a compound of black houses. The artist Thawan Duchanee is a famous artist that painted animals. He often (or always) hid a picture of Buddha’s face in his paintings. He became Thailand’s most profitable artist, ever. He would use dead animals to help get the correct scale for his paintings. The many houses on this land contained skins, furs, bones, and many other animal parts. I think most natural museums have less animal parts than this guy had. There were at least 4 alligator pelts and a whole skeleton that must have been an elephant. There was so much furniture made out of buffalo horns. The buildings were all beautiful with amazing doors and carvings. You could have wandered there for a whole day and not seen everything. There was even a black swan in the lake. Not sure how they pulled that off. There were a couple cages. One had a giant snake in it and one had an owl. I found both of these to be more disturbing than the dead animals.

http://www.thawan-duchanee.com/index-eng.htm

See the next blog for all the things we did the rest of the day. Here’s a lot of pictures:

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20160521_085237 — More Tea off in the Distance

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20160521_092451 — New sculptures not painted white yet

20160521_092511 — The one with the red fingernail represents the female

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20160521_093956 — Fur Ceiling? No. Thousands of metal leaves

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20160521_103945 — Animal Skins hanging between posts

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Cats

On May 20, 2016July 26, 2016 By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Over all it was a 5.5 hour bus ride to Chiang Rai. Not great, but do-able for a long weekend. After I got off the bus, I went to the ticket sales window to book my ticket home. There was another westerner next to me that had been on my bus doing the same thing. We chatted a little. She’s living in Tak. My hotel was only a 10 minute walk from the bus station so I walked it instead of taking a Taxi. My hotel is near the clock tower. There is so much gold and ornate carving on the clock tower that you can barely notice there’s a clock.

When I went out to dinner, I ran into the girl from the bus station and three of her friends. They invited me to join them. They are all teachers that came through Xploreasia too. It was nice to share dinner with someone. Yes, I tried Tinder again and only one match came up and he was way outside of the city. It was nice to have pizza.

On my way to dinner I saw a coffee shop with cats in it. What is this wonderful thing? I went there after dinner just to check it out. You can have dessert or drinks and sit at low tables on the floor while playing with cats. The cats were healthy and fluffy, unlike the stray cats in Thailand which I’m afraid to pet. Throw a puppy or two in there and it would be perfect.

I went for massage after cats. Most of the massages in Thailand are excellent. This was not. Her movements were not smooth and she just wanted to talk the whole time, sometimes stopping the massage altogether because she got distracted by her story or she needed to show me pictures on her phone. I guess not all the massages in Thailand can be good. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

20160520_162021 — Look closely, this is a clocktower

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Chaing Rai

On May 20, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

A few days ago, Pat called a different lady who sells bus tickets by the highway. This one sells tickets for the Green Bus. I’ve ridden the Green Bus once before. They are slightly more expensive, in nicer condition and make longer trips with less stops. There is no way to book Green Bus on line and pick my stop as a pick up point so I needed this lady’s help because she is able to do that. I paid for and picked up my ticket a few days ago. So, now I know where her store is. She pointed to a store across the highway as the place to pick up the bus. So, my instructions for today are to drive my motorbike to the store. The lady’s mom will let me store my motorbike at her house which is behind the store. Then wait for the bus. Again, seems unlikely, but I know from experience that it will all happen like that. It did. I arrived at the store and was about to ask the man about the green bus when he asked me “Chaing Rai” which is where I’m going. So, I’m at the right place. I asked “motorcye”? (motorbike) and a lady came out and showed me where to park it. I sat at a picnic table outside the store until the bus came. I mostly watched a rooster go about his daily business. He would root around in the bushes, looking for bugs, I assume. Then he would find a high place like the picnic table next to me and stand and crow for about 5 minutes. Then he’d go back to the bushes. Then he’d find a new high spot to crow. Back and forth covering all the high spots to announce from. About 5 minutes before the bus was to arrive, the man came out and put up a green flag. I assume that was to tell the bus to stop.

A few days ago, Noi asked me how I was getting to the bus and I told her I would ride my motorbike. She didn’t like this idea and said she’d drive me. I asked how I would get back because I don’t like the motorbike taxis. She said I could call her and she’d come get me. I tried texting her and calling her this morning to see if she was picking me up and I never got in touch with her. I’m kind of glad because I might be stranded with no one to pick me up like last weekend.

The bus ride was over 5 hours. I checked into my hotel, paid for a tour for tomorrow and now I’m going to head out to find some food.

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Ban Na

On May 19, 2016July 26, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Today I didn’t have any classes. I went to school anyway so at least it looked like I was working. I did work on future lesson plans which is good because they still take me forever. At lunch I went home and made a grilled cheese sandwich and then went to get coffee. It was way too sweet, but that’s really my fault for not practicing “no sugar” in Thai. Then later in the afternoon one of the ladies in the school office made a coffee run so I had another way too sweet coffee. I love that they put coffee in bags and then give you a side of ice so that your coffee isn’t watered down. I just love that they put liquids in plastic bags. I know that if you don’t have a cup or bowl to put the liquid in, you just stab it with a straw and drink out of the bag. I have no idea what the correct protocol is for when you have a cup of ice. Do you still stab the bag with a straw? Do you cut a hole in the bottom or do you oh so carefully undo the rubberband and hope to not spill any? I’ve done the latter.

In an attempt to learn the student’s names I asked them to put their names and favorite activity on a piece of paper and then draw a picture of anything they’d like to on the back. Just after a few classes, I realize that this is an impossible task on my part. There are over 500 students and I haven’t been able to remember one name yet. Attached are some of my favorite pictures they drew.

After school, I went back to my house and sat on my “couch” in front of the R2D2 green evap cooler. I’m supposed to go to the temple for the festivities tonight. I just wanted to stay on my cool couch forever and not move.

Chelon, the teacher that is a historian of the area and who put together a booth at the temple and directed the play that was going to be done tonight had asked me and Robin to attend the festivities. She had told Robin 6:00pm so Robin picked me up at school a little before. We got there and people were still setting up. None of the teachers were there. Robin had never been to the temple so we walked around the temple grounds for a while. The guys in the band, Noi’s husband is one, were delighted to see me again and tried to get me to dance. There was a lady last night that insisted I take her picture. Tonight she insisted again that I take her picture. One of the guys in the band really took to Robin and gave him the sash he had been wearing. He also insisted that I take a picture of him. So many villagers were excited to see us and smiled or wai-ed us. There were food vendors but none of the food looked good to me. There were a bunch of tents with food too. Robin ran into a lady he knew from the dam and she invited us to eat with her in one of these tents. Most of food was too spicy for me or had fish in it, but I still managed to find some to eat. My mouth was on fire for about an hour from a tiny bit of tom yum I put on my plate. I really like tom yum, but jeeze, why so much pepper?

The festivities really didn’t start until 8:00pm. So I was fairly bored by the time they did. I never did see any of the other teachers except Chelon. She bought us cotton candy. I felt like a very happy 8 year old. There were a lot of people standing on the stage while people gave speeches. Then in the middle of one of the speeches, fireworks started going off behind us. The area has been in a horrible dry spell. So, let’s set off low exploding fireworks right next to the people and lots of burnable things. I love not quite safe fireworks. After the fireworks, they set off what looked like a geyser of sparks. The geyser of sparks went off every 5 to 30 minutes for a good portion of the rest of the evening. Then the play started. It was the history of the town of Ban Na. Ban Na is the town that had to be relocated/abandoned when they built the dam. It is now deep underwater. Islands near the dam were once mountains. The best I can tell is the people of Ban Na moved around in boats, grew rice, and had a nice life. Then there were men with swords. Then the people had a peaceful time. Then the town fell to drinking and fighting. And I have no idea what the rest of the play was about or what the ultimate fate of Ban Na was (well, I know about the dam, but that didn’t seem to be part of the play). After the play there was traditional Thai dancers and then a parade of sorts on the stage with people in traditional dress, carrying offerings or banners. Even though I was rather clueless of what was really going on, the part that I really liked is that this isn’t some cultural show for tourists. This is the real thing. This is the real history told through dress, play and pageantry as told by locals for locals.

When the show appeared to be over I was ready to go and Robin seemed ok with that. My new buddy who keeps getting me to dance tried to convince me that it was too early to leave. I should stay and dance. It took quite a lot of slowly inching away to be able to leave. Chelon seemed so touched that we both came to this and walked us out to the motorbike and stood in the street as we drove off.

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Celebration Prep

On May 18, 2016July 26, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Today I had 3 classes in the morning. It’s so hot. After lunch it got chilly, windy and then it rained. Then it was hotter than before and humid. I wonder how I ever survived childhood since I grew up in this climate. It feel impossible that people can live and thrive in this heat. It zaps my energy and feel like a zombie walking around.

After school, Noi said I should go to the temple with her. Some of the teachers are decorating and getting ready for the celebration tomorrow. As I say yes I wonder if I might regret this yes. I’m tired and I just want to go to bed early. I went home and took a shower just to cool off. I sat in front of my evaporative cooler on my “couch” and didn’t want to leave, but I had said yes and at 5 til, she called me to ask where I was.

The temple looked like a small town, high school fair. There were several booths that the villagers are setting up. There’s a big stage and some food booths. There are decorative lights. The decorations remind me of the homecoming floats we created in high school. They spend the time on some details and not on others. The obnoxious green satin material is carefully gathered and draped to create beautiful drapings. The post of the booth are covered in other fabric. Yet, the wires everything is hung from are sticking out like a sore thumb. That’s just one example. One of the teachers is a historian for the town (or that’s what I got out of the conversation). The booth we were decorating had a bunch of old photos of a town called Ban Na. Ba Na was the town that existing in this area before the dam was built. It would be under water now. There are some people still alive that lived in Ban Na. There are pictures of the historian teacher talking with one of them. There are also pictures of her with the Princess which is a big deal. I wasn’t a huge help in decorating, but they were excited to see me there. Some of the men were practicing with their band for the festivities tomorrow. I walked over to watch/video. They made me sit with them in the circle. They tried to talk to me, but I had very little idea what they were saying. There will be a play tomorrow telling the story of Ban Na so I watch some of the practice of that. The actual holiday that is tomorrow is a religious holiday though. So I’m not sure why all the history. Buddha was born, enlightened and died all on the same day. Tomorrow is that day. It has a long Thai name for the holiday which I can’t remember.

Noi and I ate dinner. I remember eating at this restaurant before. I probably wrote about it. It looks like a falling down shelter on the side of the road with a few tables. But the food is delicious. After dinner, I asked Noi to take me home. I’m so tired.

20160518_172903 — Paper cut out decorations

20160518_180227 — Getting ready for tomorrow

20160518_180237 — Getting ready for tomorrow

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	eaglegenuinec87d1476… on Going Home
	delicately4f6d967f14 on Going Home
	delicately4f6d967f14 on Icebergs
	delicately4f6d967f14 on ATV Tour
	eaglegenuinec87d1476… on Kluane

Rraine Drops

Month: May 2016