Nakon Panom

During May Thailand has a 5 day weekend. From Friday to Tuesday. We were going to go to the south with one of our friends who also works at the college but that fell through the day before so we weren't sure what we would so. We managed to fill the time though. On Saturday we went with P-Aim to see her cousin become a monk. He had already shaved his head so we went to the temple with him and watched him perform all the chants and become a monk. It was really interesting even though we had no idea what was being said. Afterwards we went with her and her sister to Ubon to go to the second hand market. On Monday we went with P-Aim and her family to Nakon Panom. It was a 4/5 hours drive away. We went in a car with her aunt and two of her cousins. It was a smooth ride but the only problem was that I was in the front and Clem was in the back so we could really chat or listen to the i-pod together. We stopped of in Mukdahan (not spelt right) and went up this tower where we could see the border to Laos and the surrounding scenery. There were a lot of trees. We were also really fit and climbed the stair all the way to the top. It was very tiring and seemed to go on forever. It was really sweet though as we could hear P-Aims dad ahead of us speaking words of encouragement like the floor numbers and that we were nearly there. It was funny as we couldn't see him, only hear his voice.

Afterwards we went onto Nakon Panom. We went to a market where I bought a cool green wooden watch. After the market we went to a temple which was beautiful. We even got blessed by a monk and was given a blessing band which is good. Once we had finished we started the long drive back to Si Saket. It was a really good day and I'm glad we were able to go with P-Aim's family.

It's Freshers!

We had to be back in Si Saket by the 1^st of May. Even though we weren't teaching until the 9^th, the first week of May was the freshers week for the new 1^st year students and the students returning for their 4^th year. On the first 3 days we helped out some of the teachers and the student council with the new 1^st years. It was a lot of fun and a lot of sitting around waiting. The best bit was during the evening on one of the days as we played a load of silly games like massaging people and dancing. On the last night of the 1^st years freshers week, all the students stayed over in the school so when it was dark we all lit candles and sang songs to welcome them in. We then game them all a blessing ceremony which was cool. It involves the teachers putting blessing band (white string made by monks) on the students and blessing them for the years ahead. We never had one when we arrived in Thailand so once we had done the students Clem and myself also went along the line of teachers so we could be blessed as well. Better late than never!

For the students returning for their 4^th year we did the same games and stuff plus one more. It was a game of rock, paper, scissors but a lot more fun. You would start of in pairs facing each other and having to do this small jumping in different directions thing and then do the one, two ,three thing and play one round of rock, paper, scissors. Whoever loses goes behind the winner and they go off to find someone else. As the game goes on, the lines of people get bigger as more people lose. To start off with I did really well, I won again and again, First of all Me and my partner (Nampang) stuck mainly with the other teachers and student council members but once they had run out went went off to find a line of students. They were all pretty nervous to come up to me as I was farang but they did anyway. To start with I was doing well and beating them which the line of people I had behind me loved until one time when I lost. To the back of the line I went. Oh well. It was so much fun though and so simple. On their last night they also stayed over and we did the candle thing and blessing ceremony again.

Well that's about it, that ends Freshers week.

A Week in Ban Meta

First of all, sorry for the immense lateness of this post. It's been a busy couple of weeks.

As you may have read a long time ago, in November the two of us spent a weekend at an orphanage. For our final week of travelling, we went back there to volunteer for longer. We got a bus from Chiang Mai to Lomsak so we could get picked up. The only problem was that the bus didn't get into Lomsak until 2am in the morning so we couldn't get picked up. We were thinking of just staying in the bus shelter and sleeping there if it wasn't scary looking and deserted. When we got there, we found that it was in a busyish looking place with a seven eleven so we didn't mind sleeping there. We didn't sleep there though, instead we saw a guest house and managed to get in and were able to sleep on actual beds.

We were picked up at around 9am and taken to Ban Meta. We were there whilst the kids were doing chores so we had some time so settle in and unpack and wait for lunch. When it came along we had a dilemma. We had been there before so we recognised a lot of the kids but we didn't want to sit with them straight away as we were nervous and they might get a bit scared if we just sat with them so we sat on another table together eating our lunch. We found out though that they remembered us as some of the younger ones poked us as they went to put their bowls away and some even remembered our names! After lunch we started to sort out what we would be doing for the week as we were asked to do arts and crafts with the kids. We looked through our resources and sorted out what we would do. Through out the week we all made,

Kites,

Lanterns,

Masks,

Aeroplanes,

Crowns,

Beaded Jewellery,

Geckos,

Stain Glass Windows,

Origami,

Drawing,

Balloon Animals,

and some other stuff which I cant remember.

We had one group in the morning which was usually the younger ones. Followed by the older ones in the afternoon while the little ones were asleep. It was very tiring. We never really had a break as it was constant teaching and looking after the kids. We relished the times when we had a break! We ended up stopping the late afternoon session so we could have a break and the leave the room we were constantly in. During that time we went to the play area and played with the younger children. A lot of the time I was being given pretend food to eat. I gained a lot of weight while I was there. I had a lot of ice cream made from leaves, flowers and rocks. Delicious.

One evening we also played a massive balloon game. We spent one afternoon blowing up around 100 balloons and after dinner we got all the kids to tie one around one of their legs. When the games started, they all had to pop each others balloons. They all loved it which was good.

One other evening which was one of my favourite was when some of the youngest ones took me back to their house and we watched Scooby-Doo together while they played with my hair. It was relaxing and a lot of fun as my hair kept them all entertained. Once they got hold of my camera, they were off taking photo's. Although for 4-6 year old kids, they were very careful with it which was good. 

 On our final day we had the Sunday service. It was just like I remembered. Very happy and very clappy. Well, you have to experience everything. We left after lunch so we could get the last bus to Khon Kean. From there we wanted to get a bus straight to Si Saket or Ubon but we found out that they had finished. Instead we had to go all the way down to Nakon Ratchasima which was a long away in the wrong direction. We wanted to get home though and did it anyway. We manged to get back at 6am in the morning. That concludes the travels of Look-Kaew and Namchar.