Month: September 2016

Unemployed

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized1 Comment

This morning was goodbye time.  At morning assembly, they said goodbye to me in front of the whole school.  The director gave a speech and Pat translated.  He talked about how he could see my strong intention and kindness that I brought to the students every day.  Kru Pat gave a speech and I gave a speech.  Some of the teachers gave me gifts including Kru Pit who told me good luck and be happy in Thai and then hugged me.  Two of my students gave speeches too.  Of course, I was crying.  So many people told me not to cry.  It makes them so uncomfortable when someone shows emotion.  Noi even asked me if I felt relief after releasing all my bad feelings.  What bad feelings?  Crying isn’t bad.  It’s an emotion, it’s a natural part of being human.  Everything exists at once, it’s not bad and then good.  But, how do you explain that who believes in black and white so strongly?

Then everyone went into the meeting hall where they had ceremonies to say goodbye to the teacher who is retiring.  There was a picture slide show, speeches, gifts, photos, singing, students prostrating, and more photos.  One of the gifts at each going away I’ve seen is a fan.  I wonder if a fan is the most popular gift.  I’m glad I didn’t get a fan.  I wouldn’t be able to take it with me.  I love the singing and think it is a wonderful way to show gratitude, but I’m not too fond of the prostration.  Why does this bother as a sign of respect, but singing doesn’t?  (I had video of the singing, but wifi doesn’t want me to upload them right now).  After all this each class came up on stage and took a photo with the teacher.  When M1 was up there I remember thinking they looked so young (11 and 12 year olds).  It struck me that here was a man saying goodbye to his old life, an old life as a teacher ending standing next to so much youth, lives that had barely begun.

After all the pictures most students and teachers had left.  I noticed the M6/1 class standing in a circle patiently waiting for all the pictures to be done.  They brought the retiring teacher into the center of the circle and sang to him.  It was beautiful to watch.  Before they had started they had asked me to wait and not leave the meeting hall yet.  After they were done with him, they brought me into the center of the circle.  Someone said they had to sing in English and they didn’t know what to sing so they sang the alphabet song.  It was hysterical.  Then they tried to sing “See you again”, but didn’t get past the first chorus.  They finished with a Thai song.  It was very touching and my favorite memory of the day.  I didn’t get any photos or video of it.  If they surface later, I’ll post them.

I wanted to buy one of the school shirts.  There was one dark green one left and I was holding it up to see if it would fit.  Kru Chelon came in and saw me.  She had me try it on and then was so excited because she wanted to get me something, but didn’t know what so she bought the shirt for me.  So sweet!

Random thought of the day:  Why don’t they make belts in different sizes?  Every girl has a belt that is way too big for her.  So the tail of the belt wraps all the way around to her back or over to the other side.  Since this is annoying, they hold the belt in place with a binder clip.

I didn’t do much the rest of the day which was good because I’m still sick and just feel horrible.  Noi was supposed to come get the bags I’m leaving with her after school.  She decided not to take them and we went to dinner instead.  I felt so horrible that I barely made it through dinner, but I had no food at home so I didn’t really have much choice.  At some point she said she thought Americans were frank and went on about how this was a bad thing.  This is one part of Thai culture I just don’t agree with.  I’d rather someone be honest with me than lie to me just because lying is “nicer”.  This conversation, along with one about me being a liar because I say “I don’t know”, did me in.  I’m too sick to deal with this right now.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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M6/1

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Trying on my new shirt

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Thompien, the Director and Pat
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Kru Pit

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Goodbye

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized1 Comment

I didn’t teach much my last week.  I was so sick most of the time.  My last M4 MEP (advanced 10th graders) was Today.  After we took photos, the bell rang for the end of class and they just stood there awkwardly.  Finally, one girl asked if she could hug me.  They all wanted to hug me.  They were awkward at hugging and I just cried.  Even after the hugging, they wouldn’t leave.  I spent most of the rest of the day aimlessly staring at my computer.  One of my M1 MEP (6th grade) found me and brought me a gift of a pair of massage pants and a t-shirt.  The t-shirt has Tak, Sam Ngao and the zip code on it.  She picked that t-shirt so I could always have Sam Ngao in my heart.  Later, some of my M4/2 students came into my classroom just to sit with me and ask me questions – where you go? – When you go to America? – What you think of M4/2? – Why no boyfriend?

This evening I said goodbye to Tip, Fai, Ging and Tent.  I’m sad to say goodbye to them.  I imagine there will be some more crying tomorrow.  Tomorrow morning there are no classes so the school can say goodbye to me and the teacher who is retiring.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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MEP 4
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Some M4/2 Students
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Last coffee
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M6/2 Class
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M6/1 Class
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Peeling a pomelo
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Gift from one of my MEP 1 students
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Goodbye Laundry Roosters
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Tip and Ging
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Well, their English still needs some work, but that’s not the point

School Farm

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

I stopped by the school farm today.  The lime trees are budding and most of the dragon fruit has been planted.  I’m not sure any vegetables have been planted, but it makes for a great ghostly kind of picture.  The banana trees are looking sad, but I think they will bounce back if someone waters them.  My kitten buddy is waiting for me almost every day.  He’s so cute and then he tries to destroy my screens.  Too bad he didn’t show up when I first moved here.  I might have took him in.  Oh, and 2 days to go.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Lime Trees
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Dragon Fruit
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Veggie Gardens

$%#&^(*&(* Trail

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized2 Comments

This weekend I didn’t have much to do.  I packed.  I cleaned.  I rode my motorbike up to the top of the dam again.  There’s a shrine up there I haven’t seen before so I walked up the steps to see it.  There’s a shrine near the bottom of the dam too that I had never been to.  I rode my motorbike up this ridiculous hill.  I didn’t make it the whole way and had to push the bike the rest of the way.  I barely made it.  Then behind the shrine, I saw trails.  What?  They looked like mountain bike trails from the race not too long ago.  This whole freaking time I could have gone hiking?  My friend Gerry had asked why I didn’t go out into nature to process since I don’t have privacy at home.  I told him there were no hiking trails and most everything is thick dense jungle that has monsters hiding in it.  Then this trail appears.  Damn it, too late.

Sunday I napped.  I never nap.  Monday I woke up feeling like death.  My head is stuffed up and I can’t stop coughing.  Oh, that’s why I napped.  Noi took me to the hospital.  The doctor said I have a cold or the flu.  They gave me medicine and sent me on my way.  I’m not convinced I don’t have a sinus infection.  I slept most of the rest of the day Monday and half of Tuesday.  I started feeling better today, but now I feel horrible again.  I’m not surprised.  I’ve been trying to hold it together and get a lot done in a short period of time.  I’m stressed.  I’m going back to bed.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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This is what most of where I live looks like – No hiking here
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No hiking here
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And no hiking here
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What?  A trail?  Too late.
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I’m not good enough to ride all the way up this

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Tiny Giant
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Of course, stairs

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A Buddha, elephants, zebras and chickens

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Karaoke house boats going out for the night

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Magic String

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized1 Comment

Yesterday was all it was promised to be.  There were around 300 teachers from the Sam Ngao area for the retirement ceremony.  There were 11 teachers retiring.  I must have looked lost because a teacher from Tak decided to take me under her wing and take care of me.  Her name was Kru O.  She spoke very good English.  She showed me where to sign in and get my goodie bag.  Then we went and sat up in the second row.  She had heard of me.  Some of my advanced 7th graders use to be her students.  She asked me a ton of questions.  When she found out I was leaving, she seemed shocked that I would want to leave.  I told her I wanted to live in a bigger city.  She now has a new job for me in Tak.  It would be at a small school – class size of 10 students instead of 30 or 40.  And that’s how you get a new job.  Not real sure I want that job or want to live in Tak, but I’ll throw it on the back burner in case.  Kru O reminds me of Noi, She’s tiny, so full of energy and quite forceful.  She scares me a little.

A lot of the teachers were dressed in matching school shirts.  Some of the teachers were dressed to the nines in silk dresses, silk suits, silk, satin or lace shirts or traditional Thai dress.  I saw some of the most beautiful silk I’ve ever seen, vibrant colors that you couldn’t look away from.

The day started off with someone talking over the microphone, but no one listening.  Then they lit the candles on the Buddha altar.  The monks came in.  The altar like things were actually chairs for four of the monks to sit in.  The rest of the monks sat on the stage.  The retirees sat in a circle around the arch.  There was chanting.  Kru O explained that the ceremony to ask for a happy life.  Then at some point we took the string hanging down and wrapped it around our heads.  The retirees did the same.  The string started wrapped around the Buddha statue then went to the arch.  From the arch it went out to the retirees and the four monks.  Then the string went out to everyone else.  This must be some powerful string.  There was more chanting with each of the monks reading something different.  After a long time, we took the string off our heads and one of the monks walked around with the reeds in his hand using them to throw holy water on everyone.  I got video of only the tail end of this.  Then there were offerings of food and other things given to the monks.  Then speeches.  Then the giving of gifts.  Each retiree got a pretty wrapped package and a glass box with what looked like a statue of the King in it.  After all that, it was time for lunch.  I tried one of the things that looked not to spicy.  Wrong – it was spicy.  They had the dessert of jelly things in coconut milk with ice on top.  That just didn’t cut it.  I snuck home for some steamed veggies.

I came back to find most people had gone home and they were cleaning up the mess in the meeting hall.  I helped a little, but it was mostly students doing the work and teachers directing so there wasn’t much I could do.  I spent the afternoon grading tests.

I went to Tip’s for dinner.  She made tom yum which is one of my favorites, but I can rarely eat it because it’s usually too spicy.  It always smells so good and breaks my heart that I can’t eat it.  Fai doesn’t like spicy either so she made it with no peppers!  After dinner I played crosswords again with Ging and her husband.  Ging won again!

I got home around 9:00 to find the gate closed and locked.  It’s been closed before, but never locked.  How do I get home?  I texted Q, Noi and Pat.  Pat got back to me and told me she texted Ton and he’d let me in.  He came up to let me in.  Apparently everyone that lives at school has a key to the gate except me.  Wtf?

Today I started cleaning the house.  Yuck.  I usually don’t mind cleaning, but the amount of cobwebs was gross.  It took 3 hours and I still have to clean half my bedroom and the bathroom.  I’m just hoping there is no bug apocalypse or some other natural disaster in the next week that will make me have to re-clean.  Now my challenges for the week are to get laundry to dry without smelling bad and get everything packed into two suitcases.  Go!

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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International Peach Day

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Yesterday, the day started off with a small ceremony.  It involved speeches and all the teachers standing on the stage for photos that I will never see.  Thompien told me it was International Peach Day.  Huh?  Ok, that could be a thing, I guess.  But based on the two peaches I’ve had here, it’s not worth celebrating.  After asking her a few questions I figured out it was International Peace Day.  That makes way more sense, but I like International Peach Day better.

Tomorrow is a ceremony for all the teachers in the District who are retiring.  They spent most of the afternoon getting the meeting hall ready.  I went down to see it at the end of the day expecting the normal podium, brightly colored satin fabric and a bunch of flowers.  It was that and more.  At the front of the room is a three sided arch made of sticks and leaves.  There are four gold and red altar like things around it.  Then there is a network of wire leaving the archway going out over the chairs.  There is string hanging down from the wire in various places and over each chair.  Someone tells me that tomorrow we will put the string on our heads for good luck.  Noi tells me that the string will connect everyone’s aura.  We will be connected to someone, who I assume will be in or near the archway.  Maybe the people retiring?  She tried to explain what an aura was as if I didn’t know.  I have no idea what will happen tomorrow.  She lost me at aura.  I’m excited to see what happens.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Tie it up

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Tuesday one of my M4 girls came in to class tied to two M1 boys.  One tied to each of her wrists.  The boy on her right had to write in the answers to the exam she was taking.  The other one just sat there.  No one batted an eye as if this was a normal thing.  True, I have seen two students tied together before, but it doesn’t seem normal to me yet.  I wondered who was being punished – her, the boys or all three of them?  What action warrants being tied together?  Does it work?  None of them seemed shamed, upset or in any way punished.  What classes were the boys missing?  If this works, I like it better than hitting students.  That happened again.  After two of my classes this week, I was asked to wait outside.  You can ask me to wait outside if you think I disapprove, but I can still hear the crack of the stick.  Or maybe having me wait outside was to spare me being uncomfortable, but now it was uncomfortable and awkward.

I have to mail some boxes home because I have too much stuff.  Noi helped me by finding boxes for me.  Then she showed me where to buy the brown paper and string.  Then she showed me how to wrap the boxes in brown paper since I don’t know how to wrap a box in paper.  It involved a lot of glue and tape so that paper should be good.  Then she wrapped string around the box and had me tape the string to the box.  I thought the string was to make a handle, but she said it made the paper stronger.  I told her we were not allowed to use string in America, but she didn’t care.  It has to be done this way.  I hope the packages make it ok to America.  They were ridiculously expensive to mail.

I went over to Tip’s.  I thought it was for dinner, but she wasn’t eating.  I ran quickly to the market and got a salad for dinner.  Ging came over and we played crosswords (generic scrabble).  It was fun.  Ging won!  Tip’s son, Dam asked me to come over again so he can play crosswords with me.

Pat was real nice on Wednesday.  I asked her to help me buy a bus ticket.  She sent the school driver to get it.  I got my change from the ticket, but no ticket.  I texted her to see if she could check on where the ticket went.  She replied where to pick it up.  I was confused why I still had to pick it up.  How did he buy a ticket for me without getting a ticket?  I was confused when to pick it up and how they would know I was the one that paid for it.  I also have no idea when the bus arrives.  One of her answers was Saturday 1.  Saturday the 1st of October, or Saturday at 1:00?  If it’s Saturday at 1:00 is that the time I need to be there or the time the bus will arrive?  She wouldn’t be clear and then today when I tried to talk to her in person she said “I told you, but you don’t want to understand”.  I give up. I don’t know what to do.  Anything I do or say is wrong.  I try to take a deep breath and not be frustrated, but I’m frustrated.  I wonder where my patience and compassion have run off to.  I can’t seem to find them.

I gave tests to 6 different classes.  Almost every student failed.  Why am I here?

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Phone Down

On By rrainefioreIn Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

My phone has just decided to not work right.  I bought this phone and switched to TMobile because I’m supposed to get unlimited data and text in Thailand.  No one texts me and hardly anyone calls me so I’m not sure why I need unlimited data and text.  When I got here, my phone had no problem recognizing a cell signal and doing it’s data thing.  Now, it shows no bars and won’t recognize a cell signal when the cell coverage is still the same.  I have worked several times with TMobile and they do some hocus pocus on the other side of the world and then my phone works again.  This time, no hocus pocus would work.  I spent 5 and a half hours on the phone with TMobile today trying to trouble shoot this.  Their last resort was to reset the phone to factory settings.  Now I’m still trying to get my phone settings back the way I like them and it didn’t do anything useful.  Then they transferred me to Samsung.  Samsung’s solution was to mail the phone into them.  Then I have no phone for 3 months or more?  How do I tell them where to mail the phone back when they are done as I have no home.  I thought I’d get the information from them on how to send it in and then sleep on it, but they hung up on me.  My end conclusion is try a Samsung store when I see civilization again.  A phone that works with a wifi connection is better than no phone.  My Thai phone is fairly useless for most things.  I also concluded that “Samsung” is Korean for “Expensive piece of shit”.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

The Plan

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized1 Comment

My plan for Saturday was to go to the coffee shop and figure out my trip to Kuala Lumpur since I have to get out of town fast.  Then massage, then dinner with Robin.  I got a text from Noi in the morning that she had a plan for my day.  We were going to go to Tak for lunch, then I could work on my computer while she went to a seminar and then there was a thing going on that Kru Chelon was doing her history display at and we’d go to that until about 7:30pm.  Does she forget I’m sick?  That sounds like a long day.  Wasn’t I on the say yes to everything plan?  I rearranged massage and dinner and told her I’d go if we could leave earlier.

She was late picking me up so we didn’t have lunch.  The hotel she was doing the seminar in had good enough wifi, but no air conditioning.  I was able to book my flights to Kuala Lumpur, but felt so sick within a couple hours as the heat was making me feel feverish.  Lack of food or drink was not helpful in this situation.  Oh god, why did I say yes?  She texted to check on me and I told her I was hot and hungry.  She was hungry too so she skipped out of the seminar early and we went to the mall for “lunch”.  By now it was after 3:00pm.  Lunch was unexciting, but after being sick for a week, unexciting food was perfect.  We wandered around the mall.  I bought new flip flops since Teva has fallen down on the job and the pair I bought in the US before I left are useless if there is a drop of water on the ground.  The ones I bought are pretty ugly, but Noi told me they make me look younger.

Then we headed to the thing where Kru Chelon was.  Several students and teachers were there.  It was youth day.  Many students from schools all around had displays or were doing dance or music performances.  Thai dancing bores me, but there was a band that played on wooden and bamboo instruments that was so fabulous.  I really enjoyed that.  Noi told me the style of music was from North East Thailand.  It had a great beat and a lot more passion than most Thai music I’ve heard.  She said their music was faster because their history is war so they are not a relaxed people.  She likes Northern Thai music better because Northerners are more laid back and don’t worry about anything.  I found this funny coming from the tiny lady who has more energy than 5 normal people combined.

Ok, now time for another story lost in translation.  On the way home Noi asked me if I would be here in December.  There is a natural firework in Northeast Thailand and Laos.  It’s more like a fire bomb than a firework.  It comes out of the ground.  It only happens near the full moon at the end of the enlightenment season.  Legend is that it’s the fire bomb from a dragon.  Scientists have not been able to figure out how it happens, but they have verified that it is not a human prank.  She wants to go.  I asked her when it was, when is the end of the enlightenment season?  Maybe October.  None of this makes sense, but I’m pretty sure I want to go see fire shoot out of the ground from an ancient dragon.  If I google NE Thailand Fire Bomb, will I get a clearer picture?  That didn’t go well.  It was just about the recent bombings in Thailand.  More digging I found there is a festival before the rainy season called Bang Fai (Rocket Festival).  It sounds fun, but there was no mention of dragons or a mysterious firework.  It was in May.

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

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

 

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