Thursday, 11 December 2008
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Kerry I am inserting this blog from Australia so you can click on the link. If the link works then click on the line opposite the headphones.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Thursday December 11th DAY21
1) Two of the staff
2) Dinner time
3) The children at work
I can feel the progress I am making with these beautiful children now. It is making it all so worthwhile. The staff are getting to know me and are relaxing more each day I am there. It will be very sad to say goodbye to them now. Only 4 more teaching days left! Today the children wrote their first sentence in English- My name is -----. I try to make the learning fun for them with lots of games and songs, all spoken in English. They have taught me a lot of Thai from the songs they sing-it works both ways.
This afternoon we are visiting a Temple, which will mean putting on long pants, a blouse with sleeves and closed in shoes. They are very strict with their dress code. It would be disrespectful not to adhere, and actually they would not allow you to enter. This evening we are heading into town to a coffee house. The guy who owns it was on our Island hopping tour yesterday, and he invited us for coffee. We don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Tomorrow we head down to Krabi for the third weekend running. No decision has been made on what to do yet. I will write in my blog, hopefully on Sunday. The house will have filled up with more volunteers by then. I hope some of them have their own computers, or getting on this one will be tough, especially at the rate I type!!!
This afternoon we are visiting a Temple, which will mean putting on long pants, a blouse with sleeves and closed in shoes. They are very strict with their dress code. It would be disrespectful not to adhere, and actually they would not allow you to enter. This evening we are heading into town to a coffee house. The guy who owns it was on our Island hopping tour yesterday, and he invited us for coffee. We don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Tomorrow we head down to Krabi for the third weekend running. No decision has been made on what to do yet. I will write in my blog, hopefully on Sunday. The house will have filled up with more volunteers by then. I hope some of them have their own computers, or getting on this one will be tough, especially at the rate I type!!!
Wednesday December 10th DAY20
1) Melissa and Dale. 2) The group
3) The three of us
What a great day today. I haven't downloaded any photos yet, so I will add them some other time. Melissa, Dale and I went 'Island Hopping'. Our tour began at 8.30am when we were driven to the pier at Trang beach. There we caught a very old motor boat with 20 local Thai people. Our first stop was the Emerald Cave, so called we assume because the sea is emerald green in colour. We all climbed down into the sea and swam through about a 100 metres of cave, led by our tour guide who was holding a torch because it was so dark. The cave opened onto a secluded haven with a small beach and surrounded by the rock face, which was covered with bushes and trees. It was magic. We three "Farangs" were in the spotlight for photos with our new friends who could speak no English. Nevertheless, they made us very welcome. Once back in the boat we set off for the Islands, three in all. At each stop we snorkelled with colourful tropical fish through the coral reef which surrounded each of the Islands."Suai"-Beautiful. Food was provided-rice, of course, plus fish and chicken dishes. It was a memorable day. The Andaman Sea is so warm, its hard even for me to get out of the water.
Last night, 'Jack' took us to a local Fair. It was a cross between Malton Fair, York Market and trashy $2 stores anywhere in the world. We were the only white skinned people there, so we got lots of stares. We went because there was supposed to be some Thai dancing. There was, but it was one lone male. We tired of him after an hour, and left. A little disappointing, but interesting to see the local Thai population enjoying themselves.
Last night, 'Jack' took us to a local Fair. It was a cross between Malton Fair, York Market and trashy $2 stores anywhere in the world. We were the only white skinned people there, so we got lots of stares. We went because there was supposed to be some Thai dancing. There was, but it was one lone male. We tired of him after an hour, and left. A little disappointing, but interesting to see the local Thai population enjoying themselves.
Monday, 8 December 2008
Tuesday 9th December DAY 19
Today was lovely. The teacher was at school all day, and it took the pressure away from me. She could see what I was trying to achieve with the work sheets I had prepared, which meant she could explain to the children what they had to do far more quickly than I could do. Khem, the co-ordinator at CCS Trang, had a long talk with her this morning, and explained that the Volunteers must always have a teacher in the classroom with them. In actual fact, it's better when they are not there, as long as there are 2 Volunteers working together. The feed back from the teacher was good. She told Khem that the children had learnt a lot, and were now ahead of classes higher than them. I was really happy to hear that.
Tomorrow is a public holiday-Constitution Day. We three girls are going to take advantage of the day and go for a tour of some of the Islands around Trang. It is an organised trip, but it will all be in Thai, we think! Very interesting!!!
We have our final Thai language lesson later today. The best preparation I did for this trip was my Thai language lessons. It has meant that I am not completely lost in the classroom, and I can pick up snippets of conversation. It's still a difficult language- so much vocabulary to remember. The Thai's speak sooo quickly! I suppose we do when they hear us talking. Tit for Tat.
More tomorrow. Thanks for the comments. Hope Perth is going well for you Helen and Liam. The floor sounds good Col. New Rule---no outdoor shoes on new floor!!!!
Tomorrow is a public holiday-Constitution Day. We three girls are going to take advantage of the day and go for a tour of some of the Islands around Trang. It is an organised trip, but it will all be in Thai, we think! Very interesting!!!
We have our final Thai language lesson later today. The best preparation I did for this trip was my Thai language lessons. It has meant that I am not completely lost in the classroom, and I can pick up snippets of conversation. It's still a difficult language- so much vocabulary to remember. The Thai's speak sooo quickly! I suppose we do when they hear us talking. Tit for Tat.
More tomorrow. Thanks for the comments. Hope Perth is going well for you Helen and Liam. The floor sounds good Col. New Rule---no outdoor shoes on new floor!!!!
Monday December 8th DAY 18
The photo is of some of the children eating their meal in the "Dining Room." The menu is the same every day-Rice and stir fry!!!Week 3. It was a hard day at the office today. The regular teacher didn't appear until 10.45am, so they were all mine until then. Come to think of it, they were all mine after she arrived too. I have seen so little of her while I have been at the school, she is definitely on Thai time. The teachers are supposed to be there all the time to help with translation, but as she has no English, it probably doesn't make much difference whether she's there or not. I had a really good day with the children though, and I feel I am making some progress, but I was absolutely "done in" by the time I returned to CCS House. Dale and Melissa work together in another school, so they find it a little easier. They can bounce off each other as they go along. I found out today that the next lot of Volunteers ARE coming. Some of them arrive on Saturday, and there is one lady called Joyce, who has been allocated to my school just for a week. It will be lovely to have some help, and perhaps more ideas and input into helping these lovely children learn English in my final week.
The 2nd WEEKEND
PHOTOS
1)The Hotel Dog. Reminds me of another dog!!
2)The Floating Village.
3)Patricia tagged along with Dale and myself for the day.
4)The Elephant Ride
Here I am at the half way stage of my adventure. Time is beginning to gather speed, and today I booked a train ticket to get back to Bangkok for my return flight to Melbourne on December 21st. Melissa, the other Aussie, is travelling with me. I'm happy about that as it is an overnight train, although I was quite prepared to "go it alone"just for the experience. The journey takes 15 hours!!!
My second weekend was lovely.My room mate Dale and I travelled on public transport to Krabi, a two hour coach drive north of Trang. From there we caught the local bus to Ao Nang and found our Hotel. We struck lucky. For a very moderate price we had a hotel that looked out onto the sea. The room was lovely, and the beds were the most comfortable either of us had slept in since leaving home. We had two really good nights sleep. On the Saturday we took a day trip to see the Island where the James Bond Movie "The Man With the Golden Gun" was filmed. I've never seen the movie, but I will now, just to see if I recognise the view made famous in the movie. We went canoeing through mangroves, had lunch on a floating Village, went swimming under a waterfall, and finally did our elephant trek. That was the highlight for me. I think Dale was a bit worried we were going to tipple over. Then we fed the elephant bananas, and I know why they say "giving comforts to an elephant." He ate about 5kgs of banana, skin and all, in about 2 minutes. It was a great day, a great weekend.
My second weekend was lovely.My room mate Dale and I travelled on public transport to Krabi, a two hour coach drive north of Trang. From there we caught the local bus to Ao Nang and found our Hotel. We struck lucky. For a very moderate price we had a hotel that looked out onto the sea. The room was lovely, and the beds were the most comfortable either of us had slept in since leaving home. We had two really good nights sleep. On the Saturday we took a day trip to see the Island where the James Bond Movie "The Man With the Golden Gun" was filmed. I've never seen the movie, but I will now, just to see if I recognise the view made famous in the movie. We went canoeing through mangroves, had lunch on a floating Village, went swimming under a waterfall, and finally did our elephant trek. That was the highlight for me. I think Dale was a bit worried we were going to tipple over. Then we fed the elephant bananas, and I know why they say "giving comforts to an elephant." He ate about 5kgs of banana, skin and all, in about 2 minutes. It was a great day, a great weekend.
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Thursday December 4th DAY 14
The weather in Trang has changed. The monsoon has passed us by, and winter is here. The temperature is still a hot 32C!!!! At least it cools in the evenings now to a manageable 26C. School today was lovely. The kids are just adorable, and they are more comfortable with "Farang Teacher" now. It will be hard to leave them. Thursday is our last day at school for the week. It's rather nice to have a long weekend every weekend. Tomorrow Dale and I are going to Ao Nang, which is a two and a half hour bus ride away. It is a tourist spot, but we both want to do the "James Bond tour", so we will put up with the tourists for a weekend!
This afternoon we were taken to a weaving village-not really a village, more a shop with a small factory behind. It blew me away to see the intricate patterns they were weaving in silk by the old fashioned weaving machines. Two ladies were changing the colour of yarn half way through a piece of work. They had to tie every single strand by hand. They reckoned it would take them 4-5 days.
Trang, would you believe, has a "Tesco", but it it is not a food supermarket, more a clothes store. In it there is a blow up Santa Clause, just for the few Christians who live here. Only 2% of Thais are Christian. Other than that, you would not know it was Christmas. It will be a very short lived Christmas for me this year!!!
I have downloaded photos today onto the computer. I will put some onto the blog site on the corresponding days, so scroll down the blog to view.
Bruce,-It was lovely to hear from you. I wasn't sure if you would see my blog site. I am happy that you have caught up with it. Kirsty, great to get your message. Will probably talk to you at Christmas. Chris and David- always lovely to hear from you. How's Liverpool going David. It was on an English news that Arsenal beat Chelsea, but we haven't seen other results.
This afternoon we were taken to a weaving village-not really a village, more a shop with a small factory behind. It blew me away to see the intricate patterns they were weaving in silk by the old fashioned weaving machines. Two ladies were changing the colour of yarn half way through a piece of work. They had to tie every single strand by hand. They reckoned it would take them 4-5 days.
Trang, would you believe, has a "Tesco", but it it is not a food supermarket, more a clothes store. In it there is a blow up Santa Clause, just for the few Christians who live here. Only 2% of Thais are Christian. Other than that, you would not know it was Christmas. It will be a very short lived Christmas for me this year!!!
I have downloaded photos today onto the computer. I will put some onto the blog site on the corresponding days, so scroll down the blog to view.
Bruce,-It was lovely to hear from you. I wasn't sure if you would see my blog site. I am happy that you have caught up with it. Kirsty, great to get your message. Will probably talk to you at Christmas. Chris and David- always lovely to hear from you. How's Liverpool going David. It was on an English news that Arsenal beat Chelsea, but we haven't seen other results.
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