Bingo!

Thursday

Today was our first day of teaching the Plaboo kids, who ended up being 10-12 year olds. They came to the schoolhouse where we live at about 9 am and we had to teach until noon. It started off with about 14 kids. The kids have a pretty good base of English already, so we were a little thrown off by that. We prepared to teach really basic items, like colors, body parts, and animals. However, the kids already knew these things. We decided to start by teaching them how to write, “My name is …”, which they were pretty good at. They wrote down their Thai nicknames because their full names are really long and hard to remember. We went over the English words they already know quickly and I taught them a few new animals. I then brought out the Bingo game I brought, which was a lifesaver. They absolutely loved it and it was a good way to practice the higher numbers that they have a little trouble with. After two games, a new group came in and joined our game. Everyone seemed to have a great time playing the game, especially since I made them yell Bingo real loud if they won. 

At noon we stopped for lunch and I tried a new interesting item. It is a little bamboo packet and when you unwrap it, this extremely sticky goo is inside, wrapped around coconut. I am still trying to decide if I liked it, sort of like the Indian dish, chat. Still don’t know if I like that either. Because school is much more of a casual experience here, they finished their day at our schoolhouse. Some of the kids asked me to read a book to them in English. It happened to be the SpongeBob book I brought, so I was able to introduce them to SpongeBob and Patrick. They thought the book was funny and they loved saying SpongeBob SquarePants. I even sang them the theme song, which gave them a good laugh. I then became the student, as the ytaught me animal names in Thai, and had a great time laughing at me when I messed up things. Oh and while I was learning their names, I totally said a girls name wrong and everyone laughed really hard and looked surprised. I found out later it was a bad word, but I never found out which one.  Great first impression, Al. 

The rest of the day we worked on lessons and made games for next week’s classes. In the evening, we headed down to the temple to watch the dancers and singers perform. Lam informed us that it was the old style of Thai dance that used to be extremely popular and almost sacred. But with the modernization of Thailand, the dance has become way less popular. The few companies who still put on the performances are paid in rice. Lam said that Plaboo has a reputation for being generous in their rice offerings to the performers, so they come here often. The singers were a little creepy; they had on these crazy costumes and elaborate makeup. Also, not the best singers and really loud amps made for a constant ringing in our ears the rest of the night. Sort of like after a rockin’ concert, only not really. We went to the temple with the girls on staff here who are close in age to us, Om and Li. They weren’t too interested in the whole thing, so we didn’t stay long. They did ask us to cook them an American meal tomorrow, so we plan on doing that. Om has done most of the cooking for us here, so it will be nice to return the gesture.

Oh and while I was writing this, lizards were walking along the walls, roosters were cock-a-doodle-dooing, and cows were mooing. Just to paint an accurate picture. 

Friday

This morning we woke up and rode with Om and Li to the equivalent of a 7-11 on the mopeds at about 7 am. We went in order to get supplies so we could cook our American food for them. I guess they figured if we needed American food items, 7-11 was the best way to go. They were probably right. Shockingly, 7-11 didn’t sell a lot of the items we would need to cook them anything real fancy, so we settled on grilled cheese and fruit salad. Then we went to the Thai market because they needed some items. It is cool to see everything they sell, however some of it made me a bit nauseous such as the raw meat sitting on an un-iced counter and various fragrant fishes. I just repeat “mind over matter, mind over matter” in my head and it makes the nausea disappear. They sell a lot of items I have never seen before, and if we are there with Lam, she usually makes us try them all. The vendors love saying hello to us and asking us where we are from. Some of them even know a few English words and we are happy to listen and respond. It is a little strange having everyone stare at you and want to speak with you everywhere you go. I guess this is what MJ must have felt like. I always knew we had a lot in common. 

When we returned home, Lam was finally there. She has been gone the past couple of days in Bangkok for various meetings; again, she is the busiest person I know. She told us that she heard we did a really great job teaching and that we have a natural ability with the kids that not everyone possesses. That made me feel really great and appreciated. Sometimes it is hard to know if you are doing things right around here! She also presented us with pants and a shirt that the women in Plaboo make. They are made of a thick cotton material and have various designs on them. The women use a method similar to tye-dying in order to create the designs. This business allows them to stay in Plaboo during the off-season from rice farming instead of traveling far for other work opportunities or struggling to make ends meet. Lam and the previous American volunteer, Arley, helped them set up this business. Hopefully while we are here, we will be able to add a paypal option to the website so the clothes can be purchased all over the world. The clothes are really unique and I can’t wait to show them off when I’m home!

After some more planning and creating worksheets for our lessons, it was time for American lunch. Om and Li were really excited. Along with them, two other women from the village joined us. One woman, Tia, comes around a lot. She is really sweet and always sits in on our English lessons. She has a great laugh and puts me in a wonderful mood every time she shows up. Because they only use a wok and large pots to cook, it was a little difficult making the grilled cheese. I included some tomatoes in the sandwiches, which may have been a bit ambitious. They kept sliding out since the sandwiches were cooking on an angle in the wok. Also, Om kept turning off the fire because it smelled like they were burning but they really weren’t! I tried to explain that it just smelled like burning, but that got lost in translation. So the process took a little while, but I was finally able to present the much sought after grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. It seemed to go over well, especially for Li. She couldn’t get enough. Om liked them, but took out the tomatoes. Oh well, so much for trying to be fancy. While we were eating, they asked us if next time we could make spaghetti. We’ll see how that goes. I wonder if they have Chef Boyardee in Thailand?