Everything but the learning

As I was sitting in the office yesterday afternoon, I heard a loud noise and looked out the window to see a huge white cloud enveloping campus. Apparently it was time to fumigate the school grounds as it's the beginning of the rainy season.  Of course, no one was told - not parents, teachers, or students - and all over campus you could see children running from the white cloud. It smelled sickly sweet; another teacher remarked that it smelled like peaches gone wrong....as long as you were inside with closed doors. As soon as you stepped outside, it was an overpowering smell. It's amazing that something potentially so toxic isn't even considered a health risk here. Safety isn't a priority, and it seems that learning isn't either. As soon as the fumigating started, classes were essentially canceled because of the smell and 2000 students were roaming the campus before they were allowed to leave.

Today brought another interference to English learning on campus as M. 1 had evaluative testing all day - in the new English building. Us teachers were told to 'find our students and teach them wherever we could'. But word had spread even by first period that there was no English classrooms today and the students disappeared. I was told that they 'ran way' and we wouldn't find them again. This is nothing new though, students 'run away' all the time according to my Thai teachers, and there's really nothing you can do about it. Even after 8 months, I have a hard time coming to terms with this. My last class of the day yesterday was a full 35 minutes late to my 50 minute class and I just about lost it with them. When asked why they were late, the students said that they 'didn't know what time class started'. After some stern talking to (none of which they understood) and a threat that I would go to the director, I finally found out that another teacher had been teaching them during my class time. When I asked who I could go to to get this figured out, I was told 'no problem ajahn, do not worry'.  My thai co-teacher ended up telling the English director, so hopefully everything will be straightened out again by class next week.

Friday was another interesting day here at N.P.W.  The students had a twice as long morning assembly to talk about safety! It sounded great in theory but in practice proved to be quite unsafe. All of the students sat in a plus formation (+), with the center of the cross empty for teachers and directors to speak in. On Friday morning, the fire department came to visit. They were doing a fire safety lesson that involved propane tanks and fire extinguishers. At first, all seemed well as the firemen showed the students how to work the fire extinguishers. However, afterwards, they bring over a propane tank, set it in the middle of the students, and light it! Then students were able to take turns using the fire extinguisher on this extra large flame that had the potential to burn multiple people. For about an hour, students kept lighting and extinguishing the propane tank. It was definitely one of those things that you would just never see in the States. Imagine the uproar if you had 12 and 13 year olds playing with propane tanks on school grounds...