From Dorset

This is just a small one but I had to write about it as it really made my day. It was another parcel from my family in Dorset who have sent me some Christmas presents and an advent calendar. The brilliant thing was that as I received the calendar half way through the month, I had to catch up with eating loads of chocolate from it to get to the right day. It was so good as the chocolate in Thai land isn't actually chocolate due to the fact that it would meant too quickly. Instead they have this fake stuff which doesn't taste as good so to be able to have good old white chocolate was a dream come true :) All of this is helping to build up the Christmas spirit and I now cannot wait for Christmas to come along as even though it wont be the same, it will still be there. :)

Some Parcels from Afar

Today was a normal day until when activity cam along as P-Pui came up and just gave me two small parcels. After further study I saw that they were from my Mum who had sent me a pretty cool selection of English food. We went home to open it after activity and inside there were jelly belly beans, white chocolate fingers, pringles, juice, fudge and a Christmas Pudding for two. Such an amazing day. We spent the afternoon eating the jelly beans as we played the game where we picked one at random with our eyes closed, ate it and then guessed the colour. It was really fun as neither of us liked the licorice so our reactions were hilarious when we picked them. The other funny part was that Clem kept on getting two flavours of jelly beans and thinking that it was a different flavour. This happened around five times but when she actually got the flavour she was guessing with, she guessed something different! We were crying with laughter. We are saving the Christmas pudding for Christmas day and have been slowly munching our way through the other goddies. To my eyes, a pretty awesome day.

Working on a Farm

It was Saturday morning and we were going to help P-Pui teach an extra class but due to the visitors, we all had to help out at the college. We all went into TVET with Yok Soyai and helped set up and then we had to do the job that the hotel and tourism students usually do which was serve the food and drink and such. As a pair, I thought that Clem and myself did quite well serving the food and leaflets. Afterwards we sat at the back and had some of the food that was left over and had a laugh as Clem wanted to have a roll with the green custard in but could never find one. She ended up opening loads of packets looking for it and then trying to give them to myself and Yok Soyai when it was something else. She managed to eventually find some. After it was all finished and we had cleared up, we all went to Yok Soyai's house for lunch and we were going to get a massage as well but the place was closed. Instead we decided to go to P-Pui's farm with a picnic. On the way there we stopped off at Seven Eleven to pic up some food and some ice cream and then sat in the back of the pick-up truck and ate our ice creams. Bad idea. Due to the fact that the car was driving along and the wind created and stuff, as soon as we had got our ice creams out of the packets, the wind was basically disintegrating them faster than we could eat them! Our ice crams went everywhere. All over the pick-up truck and even all over ourselves. When we got out, I had ice cream in my hair.

After that little adventure, we arrived at P-Pui's farm and went to help her parents water and sort out the bamboo trees. I had to water them and only water each bamboo tree for 2 minutes while Clem rakes some leaves to certain places, I'm not sure. Let me tell you, it was so HOT out there. I was just standing still and the heat was near to unbearable. I don't know how Thai farmers do it when they are covered head to toe in clothes. After a while we finished and went to sit down in the shade and ate our feast. 

Once P-Pui's parents were finished, we all went back home to get ready to go back to P-Pui's home as we were going to make dinner. We all went to her house after an hour of getting ready and made Tom Yang Goong and fried Chicken for tea. The best part was that the shrimp (goong) was still alive in a metal bowl so if you hot the bowl every so often, the shrimp all jumped really high. It was so entertaining. They all kept on nearly jumping out if the pan when they were being cooked as well which was funny but a bit unnerving when it happens right by your face. We then all ate dinner which tasted good despite the fact that we made it and afterwards we all went up to P-Pui's room and she read our tarrot cards. Mine wasn't to good. I have to wait along time for love and I could get fired soon which is not a good thing. Once that was over we all went back home as we were all quite tired from a hard days work.

Dinner with the director

This happened on the evening after going to the English camp at the Primary School. We went to the main office to use the Internet and started to talk to P-Pui. Everything was going fine as the three of us were going to go out for dinner and such but then the Director came out. As soon as he saw us he started to talk to us and then he forced us to go to dinner with him. As we were to girls though, P-Pui had to come along as well. We all got into his car and went to a restaurant where the visitors were. The only problem was that the Director drove the wrong way so P-Pui had to subtly direct him the right way as she couldn't tell him that he had gone the wrong way. It was weird as we weren't allowed to talk in the car unless the Director spoke to you first so Clem was the only one speaking along with him as she was in the front whilst P-Pui and myself exchanged notes which was our conversation.

When we arrived, we thought that we would be able to sit at one end of the table to we could just be present and chat together. Unfortunately, we had to sit right next to the Director. This meant that we weren't allowed to talk that much again which was actually quite hard. The food was good though so on the upside, we had a good free meal. On the downside, we had to serve the Director food. There was this dish where you would have a leaf and you would then put different foods into it. We had to create them for the Director, and because I was sitting right next to him, I had to put some food on his plate from time to time. It was quite funny as I would have the food ready and would have to wait for P-Pui to tell me when the best time to give it to him was. I ended up sitting there for a couple of minutes with this food waiting for the right moment to give it to him.

On the way back I had to sit in the front which was all-right as he wasn't as talkative, but when he did talk, he started to quiz me on the Thai language which was really not the best thing in the world to do as being under pressure made me fell like I was going to forget things. When we got back we went back to our house with P-Pui and started to sort out a Christmas Party we wanted to have so it felt more Christmassy. This concludes the blog. Stay tuned for the next one.

The visit of the DO

Every year, our Project Trust desk officers (DO) come to our countries to visit us in our projects and see how we are doing and if there are any problems. Most people in Thailand had a visit from either Nick or Rachel, a few occasionally having both. We on the other hand had Nick, Rachel and Lucy!

They turned up Thursday afternoon and we met in the Directors office as he was away. To start with there was a bit of an adult discussion followed by the two of us giving a presentation on what we had done with some of the pictures to help jog our memories. Nick, Rachel and Lucy particularly liked our costumes that we wore to the retirement party. Those horrible gold things. Afterwards we went to our office to sort some things out and then went to dinner with the English department and P-Chittey. We sat with the DO's and had a bit of a chat and we all went our separate ways.

Friday morning and we had to up for 7.30am to welcome students so we decided to drag Nick, Rachel and Lucy along with us so we weren't the only ones to suffer at having to get up early! I think the students were a bit un-nerved to see three more 'farang' outside the school and did their usual stares and such but I think they got used to them quickly after having us for 3 months. Once that was over we gave them a small tour of the school and took them to a meeting. We managed to get out early though so they didn't have to sit through 2 hours of not understanding anything. Afterwards we all went for lunch. Clem and myself would have loved to go to this awesome sticky rice and som tam place but instead we went to this restaurant and we were all able to sit and chat about the project and stuff like that. Once finished we went back to go to activity and today I was dreading it. We started with the usual of teaching songs with Jing but then we had to go up onstage and sing ourselves with the SISAT band. Not my idea of fun but P-Boom sprang the idea on us the day before saying that we should sing onstage for the visitors. We had to sing the SISAT song and then 'I'm Yours'. Even though I was a bag of nerves, we managed it and I think it sounded good. Nick, Rachel and Lucy liked it as well so that's all good.
In the afternoon the three of them came and watched one of my lessons. It was funny as because they were in there, none of my students said 'Check name, go home' and they actually listened more. I think I need visitors in every lesson.
That evening was their last and we were all invited to go out to a restaurant to celebrate P-Do's birthday. It was an hilarious night as it was one of the restaurants which just tops up your drink as it gets low as people got a bit drunk and we all started dancing around the table! It was so much fun as someone would start by standing up and doing a short dance and then they would point to someone else who would then stand up and do a little dance of their own. The people who were more drunk than others did some amazing dances. It was such a fun evening.
Afterwards we dropped Nick and Rachel off back at their hotel which was immense, and then we went back home. Well I did, Clem went off dancing at the I-bar until four in the morning. Party animal!

A Day at a Primary School

Throughout the year, each of the volunteers have to do some form of English camp for a day. Both myself and Clem went with P-Boom, Yok Soyai, Fah Sai, Jing, Nampang, the Chinese speech student and one of their friends. We all travelled in one of the schools vans for about one hour till we got there. Once there, there were about 40 kids sitting on the floor waiting for us.

It started off us us introducing ourselves in Thai which I was not prepared for so I mucked mine up a bit. Afterwards we sang some songs with them. After that, myself and Clem played some games with them which they loved. Afterwards, we wanted a break to sort out what we were doing next so we asked Yok Soyai what she was going to teach today but she said that she wasn't and hadn't planned anything and that it was all down to Clem and myself to fill up the whole day even though we were the least experienced teachers. We had to wonder why she came if she was only going to sit there and watch. Eventually, she decided to do something and Clem and myself had a bit of a rest before lunch as the other people scrambled to think of things to do as they hadn't planned anything.

For lunch, the school had created a feast for us which included sticky rice, som tam and fish followed by a mass of fruits. 

After lunch Clem and myself had to take charge again after lunch so we described Christmas and New Year in England and then we got all the kids to make Christmas cards and they were actually really good for children who were around 10.

We finished off the day by going back and due to the fact that we all had Christmas hats for the day, Clem and I decided to listen to Christmas music to get us into the spirit. Even though we had to have planned everything, it was a fun day.

Father's Day

Now, even though Father's Day sounds like what happens in England, this day is reserved specially for the King. Thailand doesn't seem to have a Father's Day like the one in the western side of the world.

Everything happened in the evening so during the day we did the usual of going out and about. We had to be ready for 5pm but as we were out we got back late. We were expecting Yok Soyai and Jing to be there on time to hold the van for us that was going to take us there but they were late themselves for no reason what so ever so we ended up missing it. In the end we managed to get there with P-Art who was kind enough to pick us up even though Clem and myself were perfectly fine walking but Thai people don't like to walk anywhere so we had to get a lift.

We were dropped off at the field and joined our school and waited for it to begin. Whilst waiting, all the different schools were giving tributes and gifts to the king. Afterwards, there was about 20 minutes of straight Traditional dancing on stage, followed by some amazing Thai fireworks which yet again were huge! Afterwards we just went back home. It was a nice celebration but the Bangkok celebration was even bigger as it involved soldiers and one of the Princes. It was a nice way to spend the evening .