English camps and cowboy parades...just another day.

So I've yet to get those pictures of the scout camp but they are on their way sometime soon! One of the Thai english teachers took the picture and it's just always hard to coordinate picture swapping time..

Annubahn English camp staff

In any case, I've got pictures from yet more activities - the English camp I participated in a few weeks ago and the one in Ubon. As well as the cowboy parade that took place last Friday. It was actually teacher sports day and a good excuse to start drinking whiskey- soda water at 11:00 in the morning. I'm amazed at the tolerance of some of my fellow teachers. I didn't know it at the time, but teacher sports day is a huge deal here.  There were 51 schools from around Nakhon Phanom province that came into the city for the parade and to participate in sports all day. It was held at Pia - the 'rival' high school in NKP city and there were tents and tables set up all around the perimiter of the field. Almost every individual school had some version of karaoke going with a mini dance floor and a buffet lunch for the teachers - it was incredible and so very surprising.

Kara and I with Venus!

Thai English teachers, and Venus and Al

I love these teachers :)

In our tent after the parade...before everyone raced to take off their costumes and makeup!

Fon, on my right, teaches with me and P'mai is just wonderful at English and a great help at school.

That's my assistant director in the skirt....he's a ton of fun and likes to crack jokes

To start off this crazy day, all the participating teachers (which was most of them) met on campus at 7:45 to get on a bus to bring us to the middle of town (only a 10 minute bike ride). Most of us were in cowboy costumes and apparently that was the theme of the parade becuase all the other schools had cowboys too! There were some amaazing costumes though. Some of the teachers had woken up at 2 am (not gone to bed?) to get their hair and makeup done for this thing. It was a big deal. They complained a little as it was sooo hot and they didn't really get to choose their costumes, but they looked great.  We walked to Pia's soccer field/ sports stadium and then lined up in typical Thai fashion and waited until the guest of honor arrived. This took approximately 2.5  hours. I was melting. Everyone was. Despite it still being the cold season, it's heating up here. Humidity is on the rise and temperatures are in the 90's! Please explain to me how that is the cold season!?

I hung out with the teachers and some of the other volunteers - Kate and Jay were there with their schools - for most of the day. We ate some pretty good food....sticky rice and this curry and vietnamese crispy bread, etc. Later that day I was getting picked up to travel down to Ubon (about 4 hours by car) for the English camp so I skipped out a little early and went back to pack up my things. Haley had met a guy at immigration when she went to get her visa extended who runs english camps around Thailand. It's called "Dragonfly English Camp" and they've got a pretty good thing going on. They are actually fairly well known around here as my teachers and directors knew what I was talking about when I told them where I was going. Haley, Val, and I were going to help out at one they were holding just outside of Ubon Ratchathani.  It ended up being an amazing and completely exhausting weekend. I would definitely do it again, though maybe not for a few weeks becuase I need some sleep! All of these activities have worn me out.




We arrived in Ubon late Friday  night and met the other teachers and discussed the days ahead of us. Then Haley Val and I had some very necessary girl time in our little hotel/motel. It really was a nice place, with air conditioning, a queen size bed, and hot showers! All anyone needs when traveling.  We were up bright and early the next morning to host camp and I had a blast. It was full of energy and lots of singing and action games. There were about 200 students, from M.2 to M.6 (13-18) and everyone was involved in the activities and it looked like they were enjoying it. We had games ranging from things like scattegories to team songs to 'Who wants to be a millionaire' to pictionary. It was very well put together and they  had a lot of great ideas that I will be able to use with my students.

The second night we were there, we were just hanging out on a mat in the parking lot - quite common actually. one of the guys had brought a guitar and life was pretty great. Everyone was relaxed (and exhausted) and we had not a care in the world besides getting ready for English camp the next day which was more fun than anything else. The family who owned the hotel was on a bench nearby and their little boys were playing around with their bikes and toys. It really was one of the most low key nights I had had in a long time.  We were sitting around, talking and listening to the guitar and someone noticed something in the road. It turned out to be an enormous field rat. I mean, this thing was big. And it was just laying there in the middle of the road which was bizarre. A few cars came by, slowed down and checked it out, and kept on trucking. Then on of the family members from the hotel went over with a plastic bag! The rat ran away, but the little boys and this guy kept searching and eventually we see them come out of the bushes with the rat in the plastic bag - you could see the long tail just hanging out. One of the common practices here in Isaan (much more so in the rural communities) is to eat rats. They're a source of protein and fairly easy to catch. However, juts a few weeks ago, a teacher died at one of the schools another volunteer is working at from eating the rat - it had been infected with something. While it was something we were horrified about and somewhat upsetting, I guess it's fairly common for things like that to happen. Every week there is a new story about a students family member who died in a motorcycle crash or a friend who's family all got sick and passed away. But it's a way of life here and something that they all take in stride which is admirable from one point of view and very sad from another, as so many of the accidents are things that could be prevented.

 

  

 

One of the teachers after the powder fight...he was a great sport!

With our rat however, the family must have realized it was sick (it was hardly moving when it was laying in the road) and they got rid of it. Crisis avoided! The next day was just as exhausting as the first but we knew what we were doing a little more. The last activity of the day was with johnson and johnson's baby powder - here they put baby powder or 'prickly heat powder' all over so prevent sweating and it actually works quite well. We had the students make two huge circles, one inside the other and sit down. there had to be enough room for us to walk around between the two circles. then we passed out about 40 baby powder containers and had them start passing them around while the music was playing. When the music stopped, whoever had to baby powder had to stand up and listen to the directions. as it was our first time there, we had nooo idea what the game entailed. So the students stood up, and the directions were things like 'pour the powder into your right hand and smash it into the face of the person next to you!". pandemonium. It was amazing. And the kids loooved it. So we did that for a while and then it was 'smash the powder into members of the dragonfly team' and they just took off after us! I escaped the first time but Haley didn't and I have not laughed that hard in months. I was on the floor and couldn't get up for a good few minutes. It was just completely unexpected and a shock to see. The next time though, I got powdered pretty badly haha. It was a meeesss. And a huge success.

After the powder fight, it was time to say goodbye and I can honestly say I felt like a celebrity. All of the students were coming up to us and having us sign their notebooks and name cards...it was crazy and again, completely unexpected. I'm used to my students here at NPW who are used to us and not that appreciative of the work we do anymore and it was soo refreshing to have students appreciate what we were doing. They wanted us to write them notes and take pictures...we must ahve stayed there an extra hour taking pictures with them and writing little notes. There were a few of the younger students (all in my group) who were so sweet and great at English so I gave them my contact information and told them to keep up the good work. One of them told Haley that she was their inspiration and another wrote 'i love alix' on the evaluation forms. I was floored. So for the weekend we at least made a difference in a couple kids lives which is a pretty good feeling.

Every school must have a cow....right?