The week prior we had just gotten home from our Thai family's after the weekend and whilst lying in bed, exhausted, we got a phone call. Thinking it was our host asking if we were still alive, I answered hesitantly. It was in fact Mr. Thor, a friend of our Thai dad's who speaks exceptional English, inviting us to help him in an English Camp the following day. "You mean tomorrow?! Uhhhh, yes sure of course. Yes we meet for lunch? Have meeting? You ask our school? Ok, Thank you. Bye." After sorting all the ins and outs, we had accepted and were being picked up that afternoon to spend the night in a hotel before an early morning the next day.
This English Camp involved teaching 200 M1-M6 students English. Nicole, Sally and I joined Mr. Thor, an Australian named Adam, a previous PT Vol Dougie and a Thai woman who also speaks exceptional English. The morning was filled with very enthusiastic and energetic songs, actions, phrases. "Hello! Hi! Hi! Hello! Hello Hello Hello! Hi Hi Hi!" "Give me 1, Give me 2, Give me 3, Give me 4, Give me 5 - High Five!" The afternoon filled with different rotations of playing English speaking games, practising pronunciation and role plays. Come 3.30pm, we were thoroughly exhausted and yet still the day was not over. After what felt like a thousand photos with staff and students galore, the 7 of us drove back to Ubon to enjoy drinks and snacks at The Feeling - a pub, kind of. Getting to know other foreigners in the area and sharing experiences of teaching English is one of many pleasures.
We arrived back in Muang Samsip on Wednesday morning after spending another night in a hotel in Ubon and then had to frantically pack for the following weekend in Nakhon and get organised for Dave, our PT Desk Officers visit on Thursday/Friday. Thursday night when Dave arrived we enjoyed our favourite local Isaan meal of fried chicken, sticky rice and som tam whilst we talked about the project. Friday Dave observed our lessons which according to him went very good, even though I'm still adamant it was far too rushed having missed the first 20 minutes due to a meeting. Friday evening then came where we boarded our bus to Chaiyaphum to meet the Phana Vols, Cammy and Kevin, for a good nights sleep - in a bus station. I hope you can sense my sarcasm there. Many mozzie bites later and crooked necks and backs we boarded The Tin Can.
The Tin Can, capitalised on purpose, is what some Thai's would call a bus. I assure you however this was not a bus. This was a 5 hour journey sitting on metal floors in sweltering heat (hotter than it was outside?!) bumping at every turn and travelling at around 2mph. No joke. We were dying of heat stroke, dehydration (our water had pretty much evaporated away - OK maybe now I'm exaggerating) and to make matters worse, I had gotten a cut/bite which was happily oozing away with pus and my foot was swelling by the second. We arrived in Nakhon Sawan as piles of sweat, dirt, dust and in my case, pus with a foot the size of a football.
Nakhon however made up for this God awful experience with it's beautiful sights! We arrived and went to the park to celebrate fellow volunteer's birthday, Hollie. We had a real life chocolate cake made by foreigners who own an oven in Nakhon and lots of Hollie's favourite snacks. One beautiful picnic later we went back to Beth and Ellie's apartment in Nakhon which is pure luxury! Tiled flooring? Actual beds? TWO western toilets?! I think I was about ready to die of shock.
The following day we ran the English Camp for Novice Monks. The day started bright and early setting up the activities which ranged from an obstacle course to blindfolded monks being fed mouthfuls of chilli and trying to guess 'Spicy.' Nicole and I were in charge of Animals in which we painted whiskers on our faces and danced around as different animals for the day trying to get the monks to join in with our stupidity! After the camp we all dressed in traditional Chinese dresses and went to the closing parade for Chinese New Year Festival - Nakhon Sawan is the Chinese capital of Thailand meaning the parade was big and beautiful!
And finally, after 3 days of visiting our friends and eating glorious sandwiches - yes actual bread - we boarded the bus home. We did not opt for The Tin Can option this time. We arrived back in Muang Sam Sip early Wednesday morning and whilst I would love to say we then fell into sensational deep sleeps for days on end... No, we went to school to teach the little rascals I call my students.
I guess there really is no sleep for the wicked - wickedly awesome and charitable giving up my precious time to teach English to monkeys.
Zzz... lots of love from Thailand.
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