Thai'd

This past week has been a long, sad, but unforgettable one in Thailand. The time had finally come to say goodbye to my students, teachers, and friends in Pla Pak Village. Goodbyes seemed to be harder than I could have ever imagined. The amount of generosity that the Thai People have shown throughout the year always amazes me. I feel like I have been given and taught so much more by my students and co-teachers then I could ever hope teach or give in a year. My string tying ceremonies, a ceremony that is specially unique to the Issan part of Thailand, at both of my schools were definitely one of those times were I was humbled and put in 'aw' by the amount of kindness that they exude.

For a ceremony a banana leaf 'Kratong' is made and decorated with flowers. The strings that will be tied around the wrist are placed in the kratong and offerings such as chicken, fruits, rice, and whiskey are put around the kratong. The village elder is the one who conducts the ceremony, saying a buddhist chant. Next, each person ties a white string around the recipient wrist that is suppose to preserve good luck and happiness for the person, money can also be tied in as a gift. Many of my student's parents and other village people took the day off of work to come wish me good luck. Both of my string tyings were very touching to see all my students and parents huddled around me wishing me good luck, happiness, and hopefully a return to PlaPak someday. As I looked around I was trying to imprint each of their faces in my memory so I would never forget the day or the people that have given me so much.

My final wave goodbye from the students of PlaPak Noi school!

After a 11 hour drive to Bangkok, Today I fly to Malaysia to spent the next 6 days touring around! Only about 22 days left in SEA...

Welcome to Thailand!

Hi! I'm here safe after a very long journey, around 44 hours! However it was a great bonding experience for the other volunteers and myself. Right now we are staying at the high school in Pla Pak while we complete our orientation training for the next month. All the girls sleep in one room on mats and the boys in the other. For orientation we have 2 hours of Thai Lessons in the morning followed by TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language) certification, and Thai culture. Our days have been quickly filled up. Learning Thai has been a challenge, espeacially the 5 different tones (middle, high, low, raising, falling) and the Thai letters. However our Thai teacher Ajarn O has been very pacient with us.

Some exciting events that have happened

* Joining the students in the rice field to help them harvast. We had a great opportunity to learn how to harvest rice with a sickle. It's a lot of work!

* Meeting our school principles. About two days ago we got to meet our principles and some of the Thai english teachers. We are were all very nervous to go to a formal event and attempt our Thai "hello" and "nice to meet you". After the high school through us a huge party complete with karaoke. One of my Thai teachers gave me a gift of a pillow sham and fitted sheet!

* String Tieing Ceremony. At the party they held a string tieing ceremony where they do a buddhist chant while a candle burns and after go around tieing springs around our wrist. Each string tied they wish you "good luck and happy".



I'll try to update again soon about my house that I got to go see and my Thai Roommate Pi Yok. Today we are going to visit our schools which I'm very excited about! Hope all is well back home! I apologize for misspellings this is my first time on a Thai keyboard and the cursor is very jumpy!

*Pictures will be added soon once my computer can connect to the internet!