Fixit

This post covers two days as it was a whole weekend thing.
Fixit is the name of a number of different centres around Si Saket where electronic and mechanic students go and help people in the villages fix their appliances and motorbikes as they cannot get into the main town area to fix them. As well at that, there is also a section where people give the older people a health check as they cannot make it to the hospital. It is such a nice thing.
On the Saturday, Clem, Yok Soyai and myself went to help make the lunch. We spent all morning chopping up different vegetables and just before lunch I made a huge batch of Som Tam. It was quite funny as I couldn't remember what to put in it so was asking P-Chittey but she was busy so some SISAT students came up to me saying that I should add in all of this stuff. Thankfully, they weren't having a laugh and helped me make it. The second time I managed to make it by myself. We then ate lunch.
In the afternoon, we relaxed. At one point we went into the little play park that was nearby and acted like proper children using all of the equipment not caring that we were too big.

After that we helped make a straw mat. It was quite complicated and we thought we would ruin it but we did it anyway. Once that was over we went back home.
Sunday came along and we went with the Director travelling to four different Fixit centres in Si Saket. The first one we went to was the same as the day before. This time there was a very long speech in which we were called upon to say something. We weren't prepared so we had no idea what to say. I cannot remember what I said but it wasn't very good and I was glad that no one could really understand me.
We went to two more centres and had to stand through the sames speeches again. By the third centre though, I had sussed out what I was going to say.
The last centre was the best though. We arrived expecting to have to listen to the speeches again but we were taken into a room were everyone was having a Thai massage! Perfect. We got taken to a mat and had a full Thai massage. The legs, arms, back, neck and head. It was so nice although every so often it would get painful. It was worth it though. It was hilarious when she did this quick twist of my back and neck as all I could hear was this massive sequence of cracks! The person massaging me and me burst out laughing at it.
I must admit having to stand through a number of speeches and being quite bored all day was made up by that massage. A perfect ending.

Teacher's Day

After seeing all the children have so much fun on Children's day, I think its only fitting that we have a Teacher's as well. My wish came true. This day was basically a day where we could all act like kids having a sports day with a massive party afterwards. I think I perfect day.

Even though we all did a sports day, they were not the sports that are usually played in an English sports day. The sports we did were, football, volleyball, hula-hoop, a silly relay, sack race and tug of war. Five schools in Si Saket took part and we all had our own section of the field where we could sit and eat as much food as we liked. I took part in the hula-hoop and the tug of war. Hula-hoop was hilarious as we had no idea what we were doing and were just making it up on the spot! We didn't win. We did win tug of war though. Some people said it was because we has heavy people on the team but said it was because they had lucky farang who aren't fat, all that weight is just muscle.

 As well as taking part in the sports, Clem and myself also did cheer leading which was a lot of fun. We all wore the same outfits and had our hair and make-up done and had a special routine. It was really funny at one point as we were cheer leading as our team was playing football and the ball got kicked over to us. When the SISAT player came over his was said 'Who cares about football, I want to watch the dancing girls'! He took his time getting the ball.

 In the evening there was a big dinner and party for all the teachers. To start with they gave out trophies and we got quite a few. Afterwards we ate, drank and danced. This time I missed my dance with the Director but he danced with all of the others. Unfortunately it finished early so we had to go back. The only thing was that when we got back home we realised that Clem had left her jumper there so we had to go back again. Once we had got there, we couldn't see it so we went to ask someone. When we found a person, Clem was about to ask if they had seen her jumper when she stopped in her tracks as the person we were asking was wearing it. Clem was so embarrassed asking for it back. An amazing day although I did ache a bit over the next few days from the tug of war and the dancing.

Children's Day.... wish we had that in England

Like in the title, this day is just for children. It's a pretty fun one too as all the kids had to do was to play games that were organised for them. Us teachers and adults on the other hand had to put in a lot of time thinking up these games, getting prizes and decorating our space.
The night before we blew up I don't know how many balloons and let me tell you, they didn't taste very nice and I was very light headed afterwards. Once that was over we stuck them everywhere as decorations as all children love balloons.

The next day we got there early to finish setting everything whilst waiting for the children to arrive. To start with, we had all the SISAT children but only a few stayed around. Then, all the younger children came and we played loads of silly games like balloon pop where everyone has a balloon attached to their leg and they all have to pop each others without letting their own get popped. Other games we played were teams games where you are all in a line and have to pass something down such as rubber bands with a straw or a hula-hoop whilst holding hands. The kids loved it especially when we gave out loads of sweets and chocolate. Throughout the morning I was wearing a number of different funky glasses which got me stared at even more than usual!

Once it had finished we tidied up and then went to the cinema with P-Chittey to watch a Thai film. Even though we couldn't understand what was being said, we understood the plot of the film quite well. The one thing we found funny was the romance though. When two of the main characters held hands, everyone in the theatre screamed and cheered. All that happened by the end of the film was that he had kissed her cheek and that got them cheering! I wonder how they would react when watching some films that are made in America and Europe as there tends to be a bit more than a kiss on a cheek.
Once that experience was over, our host family took us to the Aquarium as it had opened today and had free entry. We went around and saw all the fish and then went back home. A very busy but fun day.

New Year on a Beach....... Well that's new

It's New Year, hello 2011 and 2554.

 For New Year all of the volunteers in Thailand went down to an Island call 'Koh Chang'. Clem and myself took a night bus to Bangkok and then got a mini-van down to Trat to get the ferry. It was a long journey but we made it to the ferry port and got a quick 20 minute ferry over to the island. When we got to the hotel that we were staying at we were a bit confused as when we arrived in Trat, other volunteers where on the ferry but about 2 hours later when we arrived, they were still on the ferry! We realised that they must have got a different ferry to us as ours only took about 20 minutes.
Whilst waiting for them, the two of us went to the beach. First of all we went to the sea right by the hotel we were staying in. Unfortunately, when we got there, all we saw was a very uninviting rock beach. So, instead we decided to paddle in the sea and walk in a direction in hope of finding a nice sand beach. Reminder to self: do not wear flip-flops when walking through water as it gets tough. It was hilarious though as we kept on losing our shoes and my trousers got wet and we had to find ways around the deep bits but it was a laugh and we found a beach! After that little adventure, we had a dip in the sea. It was weird to think that it's winter in England and minus numbers and here I am, boiling hot and cooling down in the sea. Eventually, people started to arrive and we all had a laugh in the water and on the beach catching up. We stayed until the evening as we wanted to watch the sunset which was beautiful. 

 Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and got ready for New Year! We all had dinner and then back to the beach. Most of the volunteers sat down, drank and chatted away while Clem, Billie, Jelley and myself sat and watched the fire people dance with fire. It was all quite pleasant until they set up this massive hoop and started telling the drunk public on the beach that they could just jump through! When watching it, I was scared for the people although they were drunk and stupid enough to do it. One persons jacket caught on fire and at one point, someone jumped through and it landed on him! I actually thought that he was was going to go up in flames. Thank fully he didn't though. After a bit we went to the other end of the beach for the countdown with all of the other volunteers. We then danced for a bit before Clem and myself went to star gaze as there was no light pollution so we could see loads of stars which made me happy. Afterwards we went back to the hotel. A pretty awesome New Year.

A pre New Year's Celebration

 On the final day of SISAT before a couple of days off for New Year, all the teachers had a party in the evening. We all sat at tables and had a meal and then there was dancing. The day before, we were told that we had to sing onstage which I wasn;t a fan of but did anyway. Clem and myself sang 'Way back into love' from Music and Lyrics and then us five volunteers sang a Thai song. Thankfully it went well and the teachers loved it it, especially when we started to sing a Thai song.

 Once that was over it was just a fun evening.
As the evening wore on, and the Thai people drank more whiskey, the dancing started but but before it could get too dancy, the Director danced with Clem, Jing, Fah Sai and myself. It was hilarious as I wasn't very good at dancing and spent most of the time looking at my feet and I wasn't used to being lead but I didn't step on his toes or fall over so I think I did alright.

Also there was this song where all the girls have to dance and then random guys follow whilst you are dancing. Freaky but oh well. This is Thailand. Clem and myself stuck together in that dance and we were a bit freaked at the all the guys dancing around us.

Afterwards the proper dancing started. People did karaoke and we all had a brilliant time. When the Director sang, we all got on-stage and danced and stayed up there for a while whilst other people sang as well all doing different dance moves. It was a lot of fun. The only weird thing was that on the way back home, this random teacher started to follow us saying 'I love you' in the Philippine language to Clem. We were quite scared and told him to go away and them practically ran home. He was quite drunk though it was just a bit scary to turn around and see him following us. A very fun night. Bring on New Year.

Christmas after Christmas

A couple of days after Christmas and we are celebrating it in SISAT. We were told to wear traditional dress. Do we still have a traditional dress that isn't a Morris dancer's outfit? Instead we just wore Christmas colours of red and white. To begin with, we went carol singing to all of the different departments and got them to sing along as well with the help of sweets. After was had finished singing, we would throw handfuls of sweets at the students and just watch the hand fly up to catch as many as they could. It was a lot of fun.

 Once that was over, we had some free time until activity and the afternoon.
The main event of the activity was the Santa competition. Different students dresses up as Santa or Mrs. Santa and the some of the teachers judged who they thought was the best. Some students did a cute dance or dance. It was a lot of fun.

In the afternoon, the students were split into five different groups and they went to different parts of the college for an activity. Us in the English department did English Christmas songs. Once we had got them singing, they sounded quite good. They were even quite loud when we started throwing sweets out. A very fun and late Christmas celebration.

It'ssssss CHRISTMASSSSSS!!!!!!!!

It's Christmas day and the two of us woke up to stockings from Santa. In mine was a number of goodies and some fake snow to remind me of home. In Clem's was straws (as she loves them) and a few other goodies. After the stockings, we opened up our presents from England which was a lot of fun especially seeing them all under our tiny Christmas Tree.

Once that was over, we went and decorated the outside of the house before leaving for Leong Nokta. Let me tell you, it was an adventure getting there. First we got the train to Ubon but it was about 3 hours late! Next we have to get a Song Tao for about 45 mins to the bus station but when we tried to get a bus to Leong Nokta, they all told us that the buses had finished for the day. We weren't that impressed as it was wasting our Christmas day. Thankfully, someone came over and told us that if we went to Yassatorn, we could get a bus from there. So, the next step of the journey was to go there. On the bus we managed to get the last two seats right at the back of the bus. Once we finally arrived at Yassatorn, we and to wait for about an hour for the bus to Leong Nokta. After a while we finally arrived at Leong Nokta to find the bus station deserted as it was a small town and so late.

 We set off from Si Saket at around 1pm and got to Leong Nokta at about 10/11pm! Such a long journey to go not that far. Once we had got to Anna and Fleur's house, we did secret Santa. The first time we all picked names, five of us picked our own names. The second time we chose though, I got Chess and the funny thing was that she got me. I gave her a cute frog money jar and I got a beautiful purse. Afterwards we watched Love Actually and Black Adder's Christmas Carol (Although I fell asleep in that as I was tired).
The next morning Clem and myself woke up in the living room as that's where we fell asleep to find no one else there. Anna and Fleur had slept in their own rooms and the other three had gone into the spare room. We never realised that they had left as we were fast asleep. As we were the first to wake up, we went to the bus station to look for bus times to Ubon as we had to get back and decorate the school. Once that was over we watched the Grinch whilst waiting for everyone to wake up as I had never seen it. It was amazing! I loved it.
Once people had woken up, we had to leave which was sad. We got on a bus which went straight to Ubon this time but it was so crowded that Clem and myself has to sit in different places. I was sat next to this cute little girl and her mum. Everything was going fine until I woke up and found out that the girl had been sick. Not pleasant as it smelt very back. What made it worse was that the mother then poked the child's stomach to see if there was anything left which is fine, but the girl was pointed at me! I really didn't want to be thrown up on again. Once we got to Ubon I got changed and we went to find the bus back to Si Saket.

 We got back in no time at all. To get there, it took around 10 hours while to get back, it took about 4. Just a small difference. Once we got back we helped prepare the college for the Christmas activity which was the next day even though Christmas was over. That took up all of the afternoon and went on into the evening. Finally though, it was all done and we could go home and rest. A Christmas full of travel but it was a fun spending it in Thailand.