The funniest thing I heard today at school was, when I asked
another English teacher if I had class later, “Oh if they come…that’s up to the
students.”
Welcome to the Thai educational system, my friends. On a daily basis, I have been dealing
with many frustrations and differences in the way schools are run here. Although I consider myself to possess
an easygoing personality, things are taken to a whole new level here. Some days my students don’t show
up. Some days they run out of
class (is my teaching that horrific?? Ha) or they are going to buy ice cream in
the opposite direction when I am walking to teach class.
My materials are very, very minimal. I have a whiteboard and
some pens. No technology and at the elementary (prathom) I teach at once a
week, I teach 50-60 little kids outside at one time, talk about exciting! I am
usually hoarse by the end of the day.
As I walk into that elementary school, I see the little kindergarten
faces peering at me through screen doors; their excited and nervous giggles
already putting a smile on my face.
As I teach, I try to put as many little positive things as I can into
their lives---because that is what I think teaching is.
I learned today
that my students are the poorest of the poor. Northeast Thailand is the poorest region in the country, and
these children come from parents who are barely eking out a couple dollars a
day by farming dry lands. For many
of the students, their dirty and tattered school uniform is all they have,
their legs are covered in scabs and they don’t own a notebook.
In class today, as I put a sticker on each one of my students and
said a little “Merry Christmas’, I saw their faces fill excitement. My heart was simultaneously utterly
broken and filled with a fulfillment that I cannot explain. Broken, because they are so excited
about one little sticker. Broken,
because I take everything I have for granted. Broken, because I cannot completely fix their lives and
communicate how much I love them. But thank goodness the joy is bigger than the
brokenness…I know that there is hope and that there is one who loves them who
can do all that I cannot.
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| My traditional Thai dance team! |
On a lighter note, I got to travel to the neighboring province of Chaiyaphum
with the Thai traditional dance team.
We took a karaoke bus for eight hours and let me tell you, I’m good for
about three hours of karaoke! It was incredible to see all the
behind-the-scenes work that went into the complex dances. The dancers had been living at school
for weeks, practicing every night and making their own costumes. They competed against many other teams
from all over Isaan, and performed so beautifully! I was so proud. The girls wept uncontrollably after
they were finished and those were the first tears I had seen in Thailand. Emotions are not to be shown here---especially
anger or sadness. But they were so
happy, relieved and tired that catharsis just happened naturally. Such a beautiful thing to watch.
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| So proud |
The team was comprised of about ten girls and five
ladyboys. For those of you who
have no idea what a ‘ladyboy’ is (in Thai ‘kathoey’), I’m referring to the
effeminate gay or transgender males that are very, very common here. In so many
ways, Thailand is more liberal than America. Clothing is much more modest, but ladyboys are widely
accepted and from my point of view, in school they hold prominent positions of
leadership and academic success. They are also some of my best students at
English!! Sexuality is a continuum
here, completely different from the Western way of putting people into clearly
defined boxes. Each morning I watch
my neighbor ladyboy painstakingly put on makeup on his balcony across my
mine. It makes me think, what is
gender really? Gender is so constructed by society and if society is different,
like Thailand for example, it can mean something completely different from what
I have experienced.
Whew. I feel like the post has been so random. I guess they are just a few of the
thoughts that have been swirling around in my head the past few weeks that
needed to be pinned down.
Although Christmas has been sad at times for me, talking to
my mom made me realize that the ache I feel in my heart for my family is a
beautiful thing. It is something
good from God that shows how close we are. I hope that each one of you got to experience joy from life,
whether with family or without this year.
Merry late Christmas and Happy Holidays friends. Know that I am missing you from the other side of the world!
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| My Christmas! Eating with students and watching a fabulous impromptu Ladyboy Miss Thailand competition! |
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| The ladyboys workin it! |
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| I tutor Paew after school, she's a go-getter! Also was forced into this awkward see-through Vietnamese dress... |
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| Sports Week cheerleaders |
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| Learning to drive on the left side of the road is weird... |
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