Stick a Fork in Me…

…because I’m done. This has been one of the longest days of my life. I awoke at 4 am to the sound of what had to be a dozen roosters crowing (I was told later there were only two, but I have yet to fully accept that statement). I basically napped until it was time to get up when the gong was rung at 6 am. Vanessa and I showered and got ready for our first day. We were about to walk out the front door when Meredith returned from the kitchen stating that Panong had thought we were going to start work at 6 am, necessitating our waking up before it was even light out. I suppose that is not actually a bad plan as that is one of the coolest times of the day and if I am going to be relegated to watering (by hand) the entire garden I would rather it not be under the burning sun. So, we missed it today, but tomorrow we will arise even earlier and begin our day of work at 6 am, one hour (although morning work sometimes takes an hour and a half) before breakfast at 7 am.

Today we were out and about at 7 am for breakfast and then sat in on the women’s meeting (which is actually pretty sparse of women as there are only eight in residence and four of them are going to school during the day) at 8 am. During the meeting it was decided that we would make the central garden area “beautiful,” in whatever way we felt that should be achieved. This process involved breaking out an ancient weed-whacker, which Ross put to good use, and some old hedge clippers for snipping down weeds close to the plants (where the weed-whacker would do more damage than good). We spent our time from 8:30 to 11:30 (with one ten minute break) working in the garden and it now looks amazing and is once again usable (it had become very overgrown). The work was very hard for us poor, lazy law students. We were constantly going during those three hours, with Panong and sometimes Sa Ae (one of the fifteen year old mothers) joining us in our work. We did a good job by my standards, but we are now living in fear of what they will ask of us next (the dreaded field is still unplowed!). We were given a few minutes to shower and then had lunch until 12:30. At that time we started English lessons with the men for a half hour, followed by English lessons with the women until 2 pm.

The English lessons went ok, but I don’t feel comfortable with them. Unless you have had training for teaching English as a second language to someone else it is a nearly impossible task for the native English speaker to teach the language to others. Unfortunately, none of us have had the proper training. We are all fumbling around, trying to remember how grammar was explained to us when we were in the second grade and failing miserably I’m sure. There are two men learning English at this time, one of whom has been studying for three months (Djom) and has a very good basic grasp of the language, and the other who has been studying for about two months (Troat) and is at a very remedial stage. Both men want to learn conversational English without learning to read and write it, which makes it even harder, as learning by speaking only involves pointing to objects and stating their names (which means, after the half hour lesson when we are done repeating the words they are most likely completely forgotten and there is no way for the men to be reminded of what the words are since they can’t read them and try to sound them out). Try thinking about how to explain proper grammatical structure when the student doesn’t even know what grammar means; a very tricky task. The women are more advanced and, therefore, a bit easier to teach. They both understand the basics and are learning some finer points of grammar and mostly want to learn more advanced vocabulary and pronunciation, such as the sounds of “th,” “tr,” “ch,” etc. which often don’t show up in the Thai language and are, therefore, very tricky for the native Thai speaker.

After our lessons, we were told our assistance was needed in the nursery/day-care center. When we arrived we were informed by the two women watching the children that they needed to leave and we were now in charge of the five year old, five month old, one year old, and one and a half year old currently in residence. No time table was given as to how long the children would be in the center and we were left on our own to survive or be destroyed as the kids saw fit. After about a half hour, two more young children (around two years old) were brought to us and it was a full house. As the only member of our team with “child care experience” (thank you to all of my brothers and sisters out there giving me nephews and nieces, not) I was put in charge of the very small baby. Well, I can now report that Sal Ah is a bit of a fussy child who likes to pee on me. Diapers are considered a luxury item here (they are very expensive), so children are simply dressed in their clothes and when they pee (most likely on you) you simply change their pants, wash their bottoms, and move on. Three times that child peed on me. Luckily only once did it actually hit me, the other times I managed to hold her away in time to avoid the actual pee. I now never want children until I am well into my thirties, if then.

We spent over three hours in the nursery/day-care center until after five when Mikayla and Katrina came home and informed us that the center closes at five and we could take the kids back to their mothers at that time. We promptly did so and then got some plates for dinner, which is served at 5 pm. We receive an hour for dinner and then are “free,” although that is not really the case as the school kids have just gotten home and want to play with us too. Tonight we managed to play until around 7 pm, when we pleaded exhaustion and their dinner time to escape. The exhaustion bit of our story is very true and even though it is only 8 pm here, I am ready for bed.

A Few Extra Notes:
1. If we have more weeding adventures here I am likely to expire as I am just as allergic to the weeds found in Thailand as I am to the weeds found in the US. My arms are now covered in Cortisone cream in the hopes that I will be healed and ready to go tomorrow (there is only a bit of lingering red rash at this time, so my wish will most likely be granted).
2. My tilly is a lifesaver and I love it. I wore it all day while gardening and it did a wonderful job of both providing shade and air flow to the top of my head. There can be no better hat on Earth than the tilly.
3. Someone would make a fortune introducing the concept of a rake and gloves in Thailand. Here, a broom is used to gather the cut weeds together from around the yard and gloves are not to be found. I learned the hard way to be careful when scooping up the weeds here with a couple of cuts to my hand.
4. Going to the restroom is extremely uncomfortable as it is not completely closed off from the rest of the house. You see, the bathroom is a separate room, but the walls between it and other rooms do not go up to the ceiling (they miss it by about two feet) so when you are using the bathroom everyone can hear what you are doing. Can anyone say awkward?
5. It is very hard to make a child listen to you when you are speaking two different languages. Most of the time when we are interacting with the non-English speaking children there are a lot of blank looks being passed around with no sign of comprehension on either side. Luckily laughter and acting like a dork are universal, which saved our butts today.
6. Only four days left and counting of Immersion Week…