Ayutthaya Ruins

We arrived safely in Ayutthaya. It was a bit early (4:30 am), but we made our way to the guest house and I'm afraid we roused the keeper from her sleep. She had marked am in her book, but thought we were coming in the afternoon.

After some additional sleep we headed off to find bicycles. We spent the rest of the morning biking through Ayutthaya and marvelling at the ruins. We stopped in the ancient city historical site to take a closer look.
These are ruins from about 600 years ago before they moved the capital to Bangkok. The three points (chedis) are among the most photographed in Ayutthaya.

It was hot, but in the shade it was okay. There weren't too many tourists around, but we do find it funny to see westerners again. We haven't seen too many in the last month.

We headed back to the guest house for another nap (we really didn't get much sleep on the train last night). The guest house is quiet and comfortable and the owner is very helpful. So are the other guests. In fact we met a retired professor from Vancouver and he pointed us to a children's theatre festival that is on tonight. So that's where we are off to this evening.

The only thing that we don't like so much about the guest house is that it doesn't have Internet. But here we are enjoying a cup of tea at a cafe with wireless access, so that's not so bad either!

CM

Leaving Today

This morning we packed and did some cleaning. The girls got out for a bike ride and played for a bit in the school yard. It was good for Nadim and I to have them out from under foot while packing and good for them to have a bit of play time without us around.

For lunch we headed off to Wee's house. She wanted to have us over before we left so she suggested lunch today. The food was delicious and once again we had Som Tam, or green papaya salad. The girls learned how to make it. It's very popular here, but they usually make it with tons of chilies and it is sooooo HOT!!! The girls just put half a chili in it and it was good for us.

Shadow, who has come here to volunteer from the United States was helping to show the girls how it was done. It's kind of fun to make because there is a lot of smashing to do.

Now we're doing our last checks and are about to head of to Ubon to take the train to Ayutthaya. That is the old capitol so there are lots of ruins and wats to see. We are only there for a few days before heading off to Kanchanaburi which is west of Bangkok. Our train gets in at 4:00 a.m. so we aren't looking forward to that, but that's the only train we could take so one early morning won't kill us.

CM

A busy day

This was our last full day in Yasothon and it was packed! We made burritos with the other grade 5 class. Some of the boys became experts at frying tortillas. It's a pretty good recipe for keeping the kids busy. First they have to make the bread dough, then they make the cut vegetables and squish the beans for the filling. Next is cooking the filling and then they roll out the dough and cut tomotoes and lettuce for the toppings. We had three batches of the recipe going so there was lots to have the kids do. Naiyana was back so it was nice to have her help with translation.

The kids generally liked the burritos, but a few weren't big fans of the beans. Can't please 'em all! The boys got into the flour and before you knew it there was a white hand print on the back of a couple of the boys' heads! At least it washes off.

Yesterday when we did the cooking the class ran late and we were left with no helpers for dishes, but today some of the girls volunteered to help. We had a real assembly line going and it didn't take long to clean up.

During lunch break we stayed at the school and got out our jump rope. The kids love the skipping song that starts "Mexico, Texico, over the hils in Mexico..." because there are actions that they have to do (turn around, touch the ground, etc.). At first they weren't too sure about having to do these challenging stunts, but pretty soon, I would be walking through the school yard and the kids would make a motion of swinging a skipping rope and ask "Mexico, Texico?". My hand is not quite blistered, but pretty tender from swinging the rope for them. I left them the words to the song, but I'm not sure if they'll continue without us.

The afternoon was busy too. Nawarat asked us to make pancakes with a younger grade, so of course we agreed. The younger kids were so well behaved! Much less rowdy than the grade fives. The little kids enjoyed our stunts of pretending not to know how to crack an egg. We got out the scissors, and they were all laughing.

Before we left the cooking class we still had to give a puppet play. Yasmin and Roya had practised a play that we found online so we gathered up a bunch of kids and had a little show. The kids seemed to enjoy it, but the younger ones don't understand English too well, so I'm not sure if they got the plot. It wasn't long so I think they enjoyed it in any case.

We rushed home and were in the middle of cleaning up when Goli came by to pick us up. We were going for chocolate cake and tea at a friend of Goli's. Off we went again. The couple we visited have a Chinese background and they had recently visited China and bought tea that was ten years old! They invited us to have some. We were a bit afraid to drink it, but of course we couldn't resist. The tea was good, but I especially liked the cups that they were served in. The cups had blue dragons on the side of them, but when the hot tea was poured in them and they heated up, the dragons turned red! Perhaps I'm easily amused, but I quite enjoyed that.

This was not the end of our day though. We came back home in time to be picked up again. Naiyana wanted us to come to dinner for our last evening in Yasothon. So we all went out to dinner. We had delicious Thai food. Naiyana is an expert in ordering all the best things. I no longer even bother to open the menu when I'm with her. We have complete trust that whatever she orders will be great.

After dinner we went back to Nawarat and Naiyana's house. The moon was full and so we enjoyed it in the garden outside their house. Of course the stories were flying. Naiyana told a couple but the one we enjoyed most was about Nawarat going to Cambodia about 20 years ago when the border between Cambodia and Thailand was quite dangerous. She told of Nawarat being detained for givng Baha'i books out, and how she had to rescue him. I think it was quite dangerous at the time, but as everyone was safely sitting in the garden with us, it was quite funny to hear her tell of getting angry at the Cambodian guards and refusing to pay bribes and then getting mad at Nawarat for getting himself taken into custody in the first place! I thought it quite funny her line about telling him and his friend they were as stupid as water buffalo! Poor Nawarat shrugs his shoulders and grins.

Left to right: Nadim, Nawarat, Ninyan, Christina, Yasmin, Shadow, Roya, Naiyana

Tomorrow we are leaving and it feels like we are leaving behind family. This has been a great month and we have made some wonderful friends. Yasmin and Roya are already talking about coming back after high school.

CM

Good eats

This morning we held a cooking class for one of the grade 5 classes. We made burritos because they have a picture in their books, but had no idea what it was! There was a little more challenge to the task because Naiyana had a medical appointment and could not be there. Ahhh...

It was actually quite fun. The kids were put to work making tortillas and chopping vegetables, and stirring the sauce. We had three groups of about 7 kids and each group made a batch. The kids had been responsible for bringing some of the ingredients so we were a bit afraid that we wouldn't have some things, but it all worked out, with Yasmin running home to get the cheese from our fridge.

The afternoon was spent home schooling and recovering from the chaos of the morning and then we went to a Baha'i meeting in the evening. We had prayers and discussions and then we all ate together. We had Korean style grill. The kids had fun feeding a fire in a clay pot and then fanning it to get the coals hot. Then we topped the coals with a pot that had a mound in the middle and a moat around the outside (excuse my poor description). We then added the meat to the mound in the centre which had air holes in it, and we added broth to the moat and began feeding all sorts of greens, bean sprouts, noodles, etc. to the broth.

It was a great meal, but I must confess that my legs were getting stiff from sitting on the floor. I'm not sure how these Thai people do it, but they always look so much more comfortable than us farang (foreigners).

We ended the evening with a game. This one was quite funny. We each had a unique, silent signal and we stood in a circle with one player in the middle. We passed the signalling turn by doing our own signal and then that of another person. Because it was silent signals, we could hide who was passing the signal by doing it behind the back of the person in the middle. They then had to try to guess the signaller before they passed it on. Sounds complicated, but I assure you that Goli's signal, which was popping eyes and tongue stuck out, gained us many laughs!

CM

Around Yasothon

Today was Constitution Day, so the school was closed, but Yasmin and Roya had home schooling anyway. Later in the afternoon, we biked over to the park and the girls played on the structures while Christina and I discussed the trip and upcoming destinations. The kids even met a dinosaur at the park, and were able to "talk" to him. They asked the dinosaur not to eat them because they are so famous and popular that they would be sorely missed, and the dinosaur agreed. Phew! It was a long bike ride on a warm winter day, so we had to stop for ice cream on the way back!

Two of the main roads in Yaso (the cool kids say "Yaso" for Yasothon) are separated by a temple, and people use the temple driveway as a throughfare between the main streets. In the evening, the trees in the temple grounds are alive with birds. They make so much noise you can hear them down the street. They only do this in the evenings though, not during the day. We stopped our bikes to try and look at them, but they were hidden in the branches and we could only hear their loud chirping.

We were invited to a spaghetti dinner at Goli's tonight, and that was lots of fun too. Yasmin and Roya even got to help make "som tam" - papaya salad. Contrary to the sweetness that the name suggests, this salad is actually quite hot. It is made with grated raw papaya, carrots, garlic, tomatoes, green beans, lime juice, peanuts, and lots of chilis, all mixed together in a big wooden bowl. They only put one chili in the salad tonight, but it was still quite hot. Those little chilis are small but mighty! The teachers at the school love this salad and have it every day, with lots of chilis. I tried it at the school once and it burned me up.

We had biked over to Goli's place, and it was dark by the time we came back. The streets were relatively well-lit and we cut through the temple grounds and listened to the birds again. There are a lot of stray dogs here too, and some of them like to bark and chase you when you get near their territory. Tonight they were all sleeping, so we quietly slipped past them!

NM

Class Connections

This is our last week in Yasothon. Before we leave, we wanted to put the class here in touch with some kids in Canada. That way we hope that our short time here will have a more lasting impact.

We contacted Yasmin and Roya's good friend Kendra and have managed to arrange for her class, also grade 5, back in Ottawa to write letters and draw pictures to send to the kids here. Last week we took a picture of one of the classes that we've been working with and today we took a picture of the other class. By the end of the week we should have a stack of drawings and messages to send to Kendra's class.

Tomorrow is another holiday - Constitution Day, so no English class for tomorrow. Later in the week we plan to do a cooking lesson with the grade 5 classes, so it should be a fun way to end our time with these students.

CM

Nadim's 'fro

Back in Yasothon and Monday again, means back to home schooling and English class. Other than that, and some work on our puppet theatre, not much is new.

We had a little photo shot with Nadim today because we wanted to show off his hair style! We made him smile, we made him act angry, we made him give the peace sign, and then we went through them all. Gotta love digital cameras! The girls thought the one below was the funniest. Nadim is always smiling, so I guess this one made us laugh because it's so out of character!

Take a look at some of the pictures from September in Beijing and compare it with now. Nadim hasn't had a haircut since we left Ottawa, three months ago. Initially he was too lazy to find a barber shop, but now the girls, especially Roya, insist that he grow it long. They don't want him to cut it all year, but thus far Nadim has agreed not to cut it until the end of our Thailand visit. We'll see...

CM

Weekend in Ban Phai

We visited Nicolas and Kwan this weekend. We had met them in Bangkok last month and they invited us for a visit. They are about 3 hours by bus from Yasothon. We arrived just before lunch on Saturday and they took us directly to the market. We enjoyed lunch and had a look at some award winning silk. It was pretty expensive, so Nicolas suggested that we go to a town that is close to Ban Phai where they are known for their silk products.


Left to right: Nicolas, Christina, Nadim, Kwan's mom, Kwan holding Natsha, and in front, Yasmin, Roya, and Neesha, Kwan's aunt and a cousin.

It was really interesting to see the ladies making the silk. Their feet were pressing the pedals and their arms were pulling a bar. They really had a rhythm going. The cloth was beautiful. After watching for a bit we headed off to some shops and I couldn't resist buying a few metres of fabric. I bought two different types. Both were a mix of cotton and silk and will be quite durable. I'm not sure what we will make with the fabric, but I'm sure I'll think of something!

Nicolas and his wife have a small farm. They have eight cows, and some land with young mango trees that were just planted and also some rice fields. We were fortunate enough to eat some of their sticky rice and it was very good. In the picture below you can see the edge of the rice fields, which has already been harvested for the year. To the right of the picture you can see a dark green tree that is fairly round. It is a mango tree and the small mango trees that Nicolas planted are just beyond that tree.

Yasmin and Roya enjoyed playing with their two daughers, Neesha who is almost 4 years old, and Natsha, who is only about a year old. Neesha was quite a character and the girls enjoyed playing the big sister role with her.

As we got talking, some of their life stories came out. Yet again I am awestruck by the power and strength of some people. Nicolas is from Switzerland and that is where he met Kwan. She had gone to Switzerland to make money because her family had been taken by a scam artist and was in danger of losing their land and houses to loan sharks. Nicolas was also going through rough times, but Kwan helped him through it and Nicolas saw that Kwan needed to be with her family and help them through their hard times.

They decided to move to Thailand. Nicolas and Kwan have invested in some dormitories and are working the farm land. The investments that Nicolas has made has helped not only his wife and children, but his brother-in-law's family and Kwan's uncle's family as well. The wooden house on stilts that the family was living in has been improved. It now has a concrete first level. There are also small houses for the extended family as well. You can see the impact that this couple has made.

I had mentioned that Nicolas had some hard times. It was because of this, that Nicolas began to research religions. He felt he needed a stronger power to help him through his issues and began to research Christianity, Buddhism, and other Faiths. This is when he came across a prayer from the Baha'i Faith. He liked it very much and began to research more. He was so taken with what he read that it was almost all consuming. He told me that he spent nearly 48 hours at the computer downloading and reading, and downloading and reading. He really liked the idea that all religions are from the same God. As he researched some more, he found he liked the concepts and teachings of the Baha'i Faith. He wanted a religion he could be faithful to and with the Baha'i Faith he found what he was looking for.

When I asked him if he missed Switzerland, he laughed and told me that in the morning he would go to work in Geneva and it would be dark and cold, and the faces on the bus were all depressed, and when he came home from work it would be dark and cold, and the faces on the bus would be tired and depressed. Now he wakes up in the morning and the sun is shining, it's peaceful, everyone greets each other with a smile, and he is surrounded by family who cares about him. Although the slow pace took some getting used to, he says he doesn't know if he could go back to life in the fast lane!

We all really enjoyed the weekend. More and more, we find that the people are the most interesting part of our trip.

CM

The Monkey

We went into town today to gather some supplies for our puppet theatre project. We always go through the side streets in part because it's less busy, but in part because one of the houses has a pet monkey. The girls always insist on going by him so that we can say hello. Today he had an ice cream stick!

Much of the afternoon was spent on our project. It's slow going without some of the power tools that we have back home. We particularly miss our electric screw driver.

This evening we went to the town centre and took part in the celebrations for the King's Birthday. It was very formal, but at the end we enjoyed the part where everyone lit candles. The celebration wrapped up with fireworks, which the girls loved. It made me think of Brian and Kim (the pyromaniacs) on our street and the fun we've had at home with fireworks displays. After the fireworks, we went out to dinner with Nawarat and Naiyana and their two daughters. It was a really nice evening.

Now it's late, and we need to get up at a decent hour because we're off for the weekend to visit Nicolas. He recently became a Baha'i after he did some research that was triggered by a Baha'i prayer that he found on the Internet. There are no Baha'is near him so he's a bit isolated. When we met him in Bangkok, he suggested we visit, and we happily agreed. He is about 3 hours by bus from Yasothon. Tomorrow we will meet him in Khon Kaen which is a city near him. We'll spend the afternoon there and go back to his village, Ban Phai, for the night. We'll return to Yasothon the following afternoon. It will be fun to get out of Yasothon and see something else of the northeast.

CM

King's Birthday

Tomorrow is the King's Birthday, so there is no school. Today was the celebration at school.

The girls had to get up very early so that they could get to the school by about 6:30 a.m. for make-up, hair styling, and dressing! They were quite pleased with themselves I think. Yasmin had two tone hair, because the hair buns that they pin on were all coloured black! The earrings and necklace were really fun to wear too.

The girls did their dance with a few other girls. They remembered all the steps and seemed to have had a good time. There were other dancers as well, and a group of kids that sang, and a few speeches and prayers as well. Of course the national anthem was sung too.

The kids all showed respect to their fathers and they were all asked to come to the front for a picture, because the King's Birthday is also a father's day celebration. The celebration lasted most of the morning so the English classes that we normally help out with were canceled today.

We decided to take a break from our own school work today too. Instead Nadim and I did a little work on a puppet theatre project. Later in the afternoon, we went to one of Goli's friend's house because they invited the girls to see their fish. They have a few big tanks of salt water fish. We saw Nemo and Dory type fishes, and lots of others. He had all kinds of coral and sea anemone. It was very cool. To top it off we had tea and home made carrot cake complete with cream cheese icing. It was awesome! Nadim enjoyed a capuccino because they had the machine to make it with and offered some. Of course Nadim can't refuse good coffee!

CM

School Buses

Transportation here isn't quite the same as back home. In the Bangkok you could get the express buses which were typically air conditioned and in good shape, but you could also get non-air conditioned buses, or even half-ton trucks that were fitted up with seats and a shade cover in the back.

School buses are similar. You don't see the big yellow school buses that we see at home. You often see school buses that are really just trucks filled with students. I don't think they have the same safety rules here.

Speaking of safety rules... the other day we were in the market and this motorbike went by. It was a man with his daughter. The daughter who I was probably no more than two was standing on the seat behind him with her hands resting on his shoulders! Of course nobody has helmets on here either.

The kids have become quite accustomed to no helmets when biking. We're also less diligent with seat belts (often there aren't any in the back seat). It's kind of surprising how quickly we forget about all those rules.

CM

Smiles

Thailand is known as the land of a thousand smiles. The reason is obvious. However, last night we had a special Thai smiley face! It was formed from Jupiter, the North Star, and the crescent moon.
Today was more of the usual. After our typical day, we started work on a puppet theatre. We're using some recycled material so it was a little slow getting started as we had to take things apart first. Then I got a little distracted while Nadim went to find some more tools. A group of grade 6 students came up to me, wanting to practise their English. We started a conversation about the school garden. Before I knew it they were showing me patches of earth where they had just planted watermelon, onions, garlic, corn, and lettuce.

They also showed me plants that were already growing or even giving fruit. They showed me chillies, a papaya plant, squash, and some other flowering plant that they didn't know the name of. It's kind of funny how we attract a gaggle of kids wherever we go. It starts with one or two brave kids saying "hello!" and soon we gather a crowd. "Nadim" is a little easier to say, and he's probably more of an attraction, especially for the little boys. We now often hear "Nadim Hello!" as we walk across the school grounds. They always want Nadim to make animal noises. That's what you get for playing animal charades! Chicken seems to be the favourite.

CM

Night Market

I've mentioned the kitchen and its lack of appliances... Well, you hardly need a kitchen with the night market nearby. It's only a 5 or 10 minute ride by bike. Around 5:00 p.m. the vendors come out and you can find rice, and all sorts of curry. You can also find spring rolls, fried sausages, skewers of thinly sliced chicken, fish, Thai desserts, fruit, and waffles. We even found deep fried crickets, scorpions, and silk worms! (we haven't been brave enough to try them!)

There's a fair selection of food, and most people seem to cook for themselves only on weekends, so the market thrives. Food is extremely inexpensive. For example, we bought rice and curry to feed the four of us and it cost 50 Baht which converts to about $1.75! We are learning that some of the vendors are better than others. The meat quality or the thickness of the sauce varies. In any case, we certainly aren't starving!

This evening at the market we stopped at one vendor who has come to know us. We had been having some issues with getting our number across with this fellow. So this time we asked for ten little dessert dumplings. He got it, but then as he was getting them ready he counts the four of us and the he counts the number of dumplings. He looks at Nadim with question in his eyes, obviously noting that there are two left over. Nadim smiles, and points to himself and holds up four fingers. We all burst out laughing.

Today was Monday and we were back at school. We went to the school in the morning because the girls were asked if they wanted to have some Thai dance lessons. There is a performance on Friday and they get to dress up, so of course they couldn't resist that! They came back all smiles.

Other than that, it was pretty much the same as last week. More home schooling, more English class, and more fun with the kids.

CM

Cow or rabbit?

Sunday is a great day for relaxing! We slept in, puttered about, and eventually got out the door for another walk / bike ride. This time the girls rode while we walked. We went by some small fields with water buffalo in them and then we came across the creature in the picture below. Check out his ears! Wonder if the poor fellow gets teased a lot.

Other than our morning bike ride which ended in a trip to the super market, we really didn't do too much. The girls played and did some more biking close to our house where the streets are quiet and Nadim and I did some reading and some further planning for the European leg of the trip. It was really a relaxing day, which is a bit strange considering the chaos happening in Bangkok and India. Time to count our blessings I guess.

CM

Morning Market

In the morning, and particularly on Saturdays, there is a market. We decided to check it out, but we were a bit late getting started as we slept in a bit and then were busy with webcams and phone calls with the folks back home.

By the time we got there it was after nine o'clock and things were beginning to wrap up. None the less we browsed through the various stalls. First we thought it was only meat and produce, but then we found some more stalls across the street with clothing and other goods. We came home with a couple of poncho shirts for the girls and some new Croc type sandals for Yasmin. We think a dog made off with one of Yasmin's old shoes because we could only find one. Teach us for leaving our front gate open and shoes outside!

This afternoon we headed over to the school. A group of junior high boys meets there on Saturday's with Goli, but today she had a funeral to attend and asked if we would go. So we played soccer, and did a couple of other games and things with those kids. They taught us one where there is a murderer who kill with the wink of an eye and you have to guess who it is before he gets you.

The girls had fun riding the bikes along the school driveway. The bikes are much too big for them, but they can still manage. They rode up and down several times and were happy for a bit of freedom.

CM

Hot water

You really don't know how much you enjoy hot water until you have to go without it. The water here is heated through a heater on the wall. You set the temperature and it heats it as you go. Well a couple of days ago ours broke. Ahhh. We had to manage with some cold showers, but today the repair men came and replaced the unit. Yay, we have hot water again!

Thought I'd share a funny shower related story.... Last week Nadim had finished his shower, but the door handle broke! I was trying to open it from the outside, he was trying to open it from the inside, we were sliding butter knifes, and other makeshift tools under the door... The kids thought he was going to be stuck in there for life. I was laughing quite unsympathetically and thinking God, I hope we don't have to call a repair man! Eventually we managed to get the door open and Nadim in all his glory was rescued.

Today was spent helping out with English classes and doing some home schooling and this afternoon we got anther bike so now we have two. The girls rode on the backs of the bikes and we got a bit better view of the town. Next time we'll have to remember our camera and take a few pictures of the streetscapes!

CM

Fun & Games

This morning was our two hour English lesson with one of the grade five classes. We switched our home schooling schedule up a bit so that we could go to the school in the morning. Naiyana was meeting with someone in her office when we stopped by and sent us along to the class saying that she would be there shortly....

After some songs and warm up activities a messenger came saying that there was some other emergency that Naiyana had to attend to. So we ended up teaching the class on our own! There were a few rowdy boys, but for the most part the kids were pretty good. I think they aren't used to speaking English so much. We had speaking practice by dividing the class in two and each of us took half and interviewed them about favourite seasons, animals, sports, etc. We also taught some new songs, and sang some that they already knew. We played a game. We even got around to doing a quiz and doing some work from their workbooks.

On our way back to the house to get to our own work, we bumped into another teacher. She invited us back later in the afternoon to interact with her students. We got through most of our studies and returned to the school. Two classes had been combined for one reason or another and so they were playing in the field instead of doing English class. We chatted with some of the kids, and then began to play.

They wanted us to sing and dance, so Nadim started up the "Chicken Dance". The kids thought that was pretty fun, especially as our "music" (Nadim and I tried to get the tune going) got faster and faster and the hand movements, arm flapping, and bum wiggles got faster too. Roya drew hopscotch and the kids had fun playing that too.

CM

Trouble in Bangkok

Today Nadim and I were all prepared to teach our first English class solo, but as we opened the door to Naiyana's office to retrieve supplies, we were surprised to see her there. She told us that she wasn't going to Bangkok, because protesters had shut down the airport and her contact in Bangkok advised her not to come. She will wait until things settle down a bit.

The feeling up here in the north is that they just wish this would go away. They seem to feel that it is a problem only for Bangkok. They have no desire to protest or cause turmoil. It's really a shame, because the protests will have huge impact on tourism and with the economy in the state that it is, this just adds additional pressure.

We're not too worried as we don't plan to be in Bangkok area for another month, even then it will only be for a short stay. We won't be going through the airport until mid to late January, so I'm pretty sure things will have calmed down by then. If not plan B will be to fly out of Chiang Mai.

So we had Naiyana there for the English class, but Nadim and I and the girls were put to good use. We divided the class in two and Roya and I took one half and Nadim and Yasmin took the other half. We then asked them questions about the weather, which seasons they preferred and why, and what was their favourite animal. The kids are pretty good with reading, but speaking is harder for them, so this was great practice. We spent most of the class interviewing the kids. We plan to do the other game about the past, present, and future the next time we see this group which will be for a two hour session.

Last week Nadim and I did some Mr. Fix-it work on the play structure. The slope of one of the slides was too steep so we raised the bottom up a bit. You can also see the tires at the end of the structure. We attached those as well. Looks like the kids are enjoying it.

CM

English Class

We found out today that Naiyana has to go to Bangkok for a few days. She asked us to take over her English classes for the rest of the week! Ever brave, Nadim and I agreed without hesitation.

There are two grade five classes. Tomorrow we have an hour long class in the afternoon, and Thursday and Friday we have morning classes that will last for two hours. The kids are learning how to say something happened in the past, present, or future using phrases like last year, this week, or next month. We wrote out a bunch of sentences and Yasmin and Roya helped hand them out to the class. Then each kid had to read them and stick them on the board under the headings "Past", "Now", or "Future". Next they had to write their own sentences. This mixed in with some songs and practice questions made up the hour long class.

We get to repeat the lesson tomorrow with the other grade five class. Hopefully it goes smoothly! Nadim and I are thinking of games and songs and some speaking exercises to do with the kids during our two hour sessions later in the week.

They have a hard time to hire English teachers here. Nawarat related a story about doing an interview with a teacher who had majored in English, but when they started the interview in English, she shook her head and asked to do it in Thai. He laughs and says, he wasn't too sure what she was planning to teach the kids!

CM

School Evaluation

Today the school was being evaluated for recognition at the provincial level. The teachers had spent all weekend preparing. There were displays for the various elements that they were being evaluated on and tables spread with binders of written material to back up their claims.

The school was decorated with swags of colourful fabric along the front concrete wall lining the street and along the eves of some of the buildings. There were pictures of the students harvesting rice, doing gardening work, participatng in gym class, swimming, and much more.

The committe members were treated to coffee and cake in the morning, and as the evalutation meeting ended around lunch time, they were given an amazing luncheon. The school presented the evaluators with gifts. They sang. Apparently part of Thai culture is to sing kareoke style. Even the head of the evaluators sang!

The school was very proud and from what I understood the evaluation seemed to have gone quite well. They were only the first school to be evaluated so we will not know the results for a while. I wish them success.

As for Nadim and I and the girls, we smiled and did the wai (hands pressed together like in prayer and bow to the person you are greeting). The language of course was an issue, but the school is proud of the international volunteers it brings in, so we were able to be part of the proof of that.

After our busy morning and early afternoon at the school we headed back to the Volunteer House to do some home schooling. Tonights agenda includes going to the Big C. It's a new department store that just opened a month ago. We're hoping to get some of the things we might find back home so that we can make a Persian stew for some of our new friends who will join us on Wednesday evening.

CM

Feast at Goli's

This weekend we were busy with house cleaning, helping at the school to prepare for a visit from the King's representatives. The school is being considered for an award and they are going all out with setting up a room to display the school activities.

On Saturday night it was time for the Baha'i Feast. It is a gathering that takes place every 19 days and is composed of three parts. First is devotions and prayers, a feast for the spirit., next comes administrative discussions, and lastly comes the social part which typically involves food. Saturday's feast was great. Some of the young girls sang prayers in both English and Thai. There was harmony and solo parts. It was so beautiful that it moved me to tears (that's not so hard to do, because I really am a sap).
After the administrative portion, we ate together. We had hot pot. It's a fun way to eat. You have a pot of boiling broth and just keep adding vegetables and meats to it. We had all sorts of different mushrooms in the pot. There were golden needle mushrooms that were long and skinny, there were white mouses ear mushrooms which were flat and white and there were some other mushrooms, more typical of what you see back home. Lots of tasty sauces and there were shrimp and pork too. Delicious!

After the meal, we played a game. The kids really liked that and wanted more, but as there were no more games planned, we had a little sing-a-long. It's surprising that so many of the Baha'i songs that we know are also well known here. They seem to often sing the English version and then have a Thai translation with the same melody. A lovely evening.

CM

Baha'i Volunteer House

Some of our friends and relatives are asking for pictures of where we're living, so we thought we'd dedicate a post to describe our temporary home. We're staying at the Baha'i Volunteer House. A couple of posts back, you saw a picture from the outside.

As you can see it is a long and narrow townhouse. The living room is quite spacious, but it is very sparsely decorated compared to our crammed houses back in the west. Thai living seems to be quite simple. In fact many homes don't have living room furniture, but instead use cushions for sitting on the floor.

As you can see from the picture, the dining area has a simple folding table and plastic chairs. It's certainly functional, but has none of the luxury of some of our friends' homes. I was on the webcam with Kim recently and she was in her dining room. In the background I could see the gorgeous print of a tulip, that I've always loved, and I could well imagine the softly painted, spotless walls, the gleaming wooden table, and padded chairs. For a brief moment I missed the niceties of home. Then the moment passed, and I was back into my hippie happiness.

The kitchen is nothing like the ones at home. There is one set of shelves, rather than the numerous cabinets that you find in most Canadian homes. There is a small sink for washing hands, but the dish washing is done outside. We don't have a dishwasher, microwave, toaster oven, or oven for that matter, no coffee maker, grinder, food processor, waffle iron, or four burner stove. Instead we have an electric kettle which is well used for making tea and instant coffee or hot chocolate. We also have a toaster used each morning. We do have a fridge, although it is about half the size of the one at home, and we have a gas burner. I haven't been doing a lot of cooking, because it is so convenient to go to the market and pick up rice and curries. We have done some cooking at home, but it takes a little longer as you can only cook one thing at a time. We end up setting things aside with a plate over it to keep warm while we prepare the next item.


We don't have air conditioning, but we do have several fans. Surprisingly we are remaining quite comfortable. The house cools down in the evening when the temperature goes down to the mid-twenties, and then seems to stay cool for most of the day. It's been around thirty in the shade. We're checking the temperature as part of our home schooling exercises!

In the back, outside, there is a covered porch. We have another set of shelves there with glass doors. We use it for extra pantry items. We use the porch to do dishes and to hang our laundry out to dry. We don't have a clothes washer either... Well, I guess we do. His name is Nadim! There is no hot water except in the washroom that is just off the kitchen so we haul the water from there for dish washing.

This is where the infamous frog story took place. We haven't seen any more frogs since that first day. The house hadn't been lived in for six months, so I think the creatures had started to move in.

We've adapted to the no frills and are really enjoying it here in Yasothon. We are walking to get to various destinations as we don't have any vehicle. We may soon be able to borrow some bikes, which would help us to explore just that much further.

We live across from a little farm with chickens and roosters (that seem to cock-a-doodle-doo in the middle of the night), and some water buffalo and goats as well. Today we walked down a street with rice fields on either side. It is harvest time for rice. We "talked" with a farmer for a few minutes. It was kind of interesting to see rice as a plant, much like wheat growing in our Canadian fields. As you break the grain from the stem you get a little pod and with a bit of difficulty you can open it up and sure enough you see a raw rice kernel.

CM

Dinner at Goli's

After a full day of home schooling and helping out at the school (I'll have to tell you about some of the work we're doing in a future post), we went out to Goli's house for dinner. She was the Baha'i that picked us up at the train station.

We had a wonderful meal prepared by different families. It was Thai food, of course. There were a couple of different curries, a hot chili paste, soup with coconut milk and chicken, skewers of chicken and pork, and for dessert warm bananas in sweetened sauce from coconut milk. Everything was really delicious, but the girls' favourite was the meat skewers.

After dinner we had an impromptu game of identify the Petshop. The girls had brought their Littlest Petshop animals, and so we lined them all up and Yasmin and Roya would have to say the name of a type of animal and the other kids, with some help from the adults, would pick them out of the group.

That led to other games where the kids and their parents were blindfolded and the kids then had to feed a banana to their parent. Nadim and Yasmin came in second. Roya kept feeding the banana to my chest and neck! I guess she thought I was a little shorter than I am!

We finished the evening playing a game of shrinking boats. We started with a large sheet of newspaper that our family could all stand on quite comfortably, but we kept having to fold it in half and prove that we still fit, by balancing for 5 seconds. We ended with a piece of paper the size of one foot. Lots of fun, and lots of laughs!

On another note, you can also see Goli's living room in the picture above. There were no chairs. We sat cross-legged on thick square cushions on the floor. The kids quite enjoyed this and almost started a pillow fight with some of the other kids... oops!

CM

The School

The director of the school, Nawarat, and his wife, Naiyana, are an amazing couple and we enjoy their company. They took us out to dinner 2 nights ago, and we had a great time chatting about the school, the town, their daily life, etc.

Santitham School was established in 1967 and has grown to about 700 students, from junior kindergarten to grade 6. The school charges very low fees to enable the poorer children from the surrounding villages to attend. The school motto is presented in a big sign in Thai and English at the entrance: "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."

It had been established by a Baha'i woman who put her life savings into it. I believe it was quite successful initially, but had fallen into disrepair about 15 years ago. There had been a high turn over of principals and the school was in desperate need of someone to inject life into it. This is when Nawarat and Naiyana come into the story.

Nawarat heard of the school's need and convinced Naiyana to commit to one year as a Baha'i service project. They talked of clearing some of the school grounds that had turned to jungle over the years and cleaning out an old administrative building which had become a storage area. They were operating with a very small budget and were really in the red. After one year, Naiyana tells of Nawarat's plea... "We've only planted the seed Naiyana! We must ensure it grows." and so they decided to stay one more year. More cleaning, more struggle, and more children too. By the end of the second year Naiyana says Nawarat convinces her with, "Naiyana, it's only a tender sapling...", and by the third year " Naiyana, we must see if it will bear fruit." After that, Naiyana says she didn't bother to ask Nawarat if their one year of service was finished. They have divided the years as principal of the school for the past 15 years!

They say that the first five years were the most difficult, but after that they began to break even. At this time they are even able to support a Hill Tribe dormitory project in another part of Thailand. They attribute their good fortune to many prayers. She says Baha'u'llah has given whatever she asks for. She prayed for funds and the Baha'is of the world donated. She prayed for the school to be recognized and the students and the school received numerous awards. She prayed for teacher and volunteers from all over the world have come. She laughs and says she's afraid to pray for anything more!

It's a pleasure to help where we can in such a great environment.

NM + CM

Frogs, lizards and bugs, O My!

The Baha’i volunteer house is a row townhouse, very close to the school. It has a small, gated front yard and an enclosed back porch. As is typical here, there is a sink in the back porch for washing dishes, a big tub for washing clothes, and a clothesline. We don’t have air-conditioning, but there are fans upstairs and downstairs. We also don’t have a washing machine, so we will be washing our clothes in the tub outside. The house is pretty big, and it is great to be able to put the kids to bed upstairs and enjoy a cup of tea downstairs. Also, the kids are enjoying the space and being free to run around and play upstairs. We gave the whole place a good sweeping and mopping yesterday, and we’re good to go. The Baha’i friends here had made the beds and put some basic food items in the kitchen for us, which was very nice.


We are meeting some of the local “wildlife” too: there are lizards, crickets, frogs, goats, dogs, buffalo, etc. We saw some goats being chased up the street by a couple of dogs earlier today. Yasmin saw a baby lizard on the floor in the kids’ room yesterday, just walking around. She tried to give it a toy to climb, but it ran away!

We also found a frog in the sink outside when I went out to do the dishes! Amid shrieking and laughter, we tried to shoo it away and make it go out, over the half wall, but it kept jumping around and we finally let it stay on the ground, but kept an eye on him.

A different frog was sitting on the washed pot this morning! We couldn’t see inside the pot, so we weren’t sure if there was another one lying in wait there. The kids looked into the pot through the kitchen window and said there was nothing in it. So we brought out the big pail and held it under the pot to catch the frog just in case it jumped down. It stayed right on the side of the pot as we lifted the pot and brought it close to the concrete half-wall and wire fence above it, to make him go outside. It would not go out though, and we were banging on the pot and shrieking and laughing at the same time. It just hopped on top of the half wall and we tried to poke it with a stick to make it go outside. By this point, he was a little upset and started puffing himself up. So we let him be for a while, but kept checking on him from the window. After a while he jumped on the clothesline, and was getting ready to jump back into the sink, so I tried to knock him to the fence again. He managed to land on the ground and went in the corner. Later on, we found him on the side of the big pail and we lifted the pail and banged on it to get him to jump on the fence. After a bit of harassing, we managed to make him go outside. Phew! We haven’t seen him again, but we are watching our backs!! We did not have an issue with frogs in Bangkok because we were on the 6th floor. Here, we are on the ground floor, so they have better access to us.

Lizards are actually our friends because they eat the bugs, so we leave them alone. It is a little eerie though to have one near the ceiling in the shower! We always turn on the lights, and look around to make sure the coast is clear on before entering the rooms. You never know if a little creature is going to land on you from above! The excitement never ends!

NM

Living the Thai life!

We arrived safely in Yasothon. We were picked up at the train station by some local Baha'is. It was very generous of them because the train station was an hour and a half from Yasothon.

The Baha'i volunteer house where we are staying is quite nice. It has tile floor everywhere. It is the custom to remove shoes before entering, so tile is easy to clean.

The house has two bedrooms upstairs and two bathrooms. The living room is large with chairs that are a bit older, but functional. The kitchen has a fridge, but no microwave. It also has a gas burner and an electric kettle, but that's about it. We'll be living a fairly simple life for the next month or so.

No Internet in the house, but there may be the possibility of having it hooked up. We'll see. It certainly would be nice to have Internet as it really is our access to everyone at home.

CM

Stocking up

We didn't feel like going into Bangkok today and we had seen pretty much what we wanted to see in the city, so we stayed in Nonthaburi. We headed off to the shopping centre to buy a few things for our trip. We had run out of tea and peanut butter (and chocolates!) so we thought we should get some before heading to Yasothon. G.S. note that I found Toblerone here too!

Yasothon is a town of less than 25,ooo people. I don't think there will be much sight-seeing for us in the area, but hopefully we will be kept busy with Baha'i activities and helping out around the school. The school goes only to grade one, but it is well attended by about 500 students.

We take the train tomorrow night. It is a 10 or 11 hour ride, but we have first class tickets so we will have two cabins and freshly starched sheets, towels, soap, etc. (according to the seat61 website anyway!). The tickets are very reasonably priced as well. Hopefully it will be better than the Vietnam train experience, which was pretty grungy.

We went next door to the Baha'i Centre again this evening. We had supper with all the kids. Sunantha had taught them how to cook and they had made a delicious noodle dish with chicken. They even served it out to everyone. Afterwards we had some devotions and then there was a story in Thai that we didn't understand, but it had a fox and a lion in it. We then helped the kids make oragami fox puppets. It was great fun!

CM, NM

One night in Bangkok...

We headed back into Bangkok late this morning. Today we went to Wat Saket, which is also known as Golden Mount. The building wasn't so impressive, but the view was pretty nice. There were also large bells that you could ring. Of course the girls had fun with that!

In the same area there was "Monk's Bowl Village". It's really just one little street now, but it is known for the families that moved there when the capital changed from Ayuthaya to Bangkok. Those families brought their trade skill with them and they still make the Monk's bowls (for collecting alms) in the same way. We watched them hammering and polishing for a bit and then headed off to the train station where we had to get tickets for our trip to Yasothon in north-eastern Thailand.

We then went down by the river to watch the sunset. It took some searching and some wet feet, because the river has flooded some of the smaller streets, but eventually we found a small restaurant on the river bank, with a great view of Wat Arun (a.k.a. Temple of Dawn). We had perfect timing as the sun was just going down.

It was pretty impressive to see the lights come on and the scene above slowly transition to the scene below. Really beautiful.

After supper we went by the Grand Palace and saw the wat and palace buildings all lit up. We couldn't go in but the view of the peaks of the buildings from over the edge of the wall was still good. It was really busy in front of the palace, because people were paying their last respects to the king's deceased sister, who has been lying in state for a while and will be cremated later this week. So we got a tuk tuk out of the busy area to one of the main bus terminals (Victory Monument) so that we could catch our express bus back to Nonthaburi.

We're all tired now and are thinking of a more relaxing day tomorrow.

CM, NM

Taiwan Beach

Today was a Baha'i holiday to celebrate the birth of Baha'u'llah. We took the day off school and went with some other Baha'is to the beach. It was a bit of trip to get there. We all piled into a minibus (there were seventeen of us, mostly kids) and drove for a little over 2 hours. That took us to Pattaya and from there we took a boat to a little island with some lovely beaches with white sand.

It's the end of the rainy season for Bangkok, so the beach was full of waves. The water was like bath water. I'm usually a chicken when it comes to getting into the water, but it was so warm that even I could walk straight in.

We all enjoyed the beach and the waves and headed back to Bangkok late in the afternoon. It was pretty cramped and crammed in the minibus so I was really happy to get out. It was a great day, and we're all happily tired now. Time for some tea and then early to bed.

CM

Snakes!

It was a little cooler today, which only means that it was hot, but not as unbearable as it has been! We went into Bangkok to the snake farm. It is actually an institute where they do research on venomous snakes.

We were too late for the morning show where they actually milk the venom from the snakes, so we looked around at the snakes in their cages and then at the very educational displays. We came back for the afternoon snake show where they showed us some of the many snakes they have. The handlers were very calm and one even caught a King Cobra with bare hands. I was a little nevous about it, but the girls enjoyed and even held a Python at the end of the show.

While we were waiting for the afternoon show, we had headed off for some lunch (pad Thai from a street vendor) and a trip to Lumphini park which was nearby. At the park we saw these strange reptiles that were swimming in the water and would climb up on land sometimes. They looked like iguanas, but not as spiky.

While at the park, I saw a little green snake drop from a tree. I told Roya to wait, but when she started to move, it slithered away up a tree. It kind of freaked me out, especially after having just visited the snake farm!

We got back to Nonthaburi and cleaned up and then rushed back into Bangkok to the Baha'i Centre where they were having a Birth of Baha'u'llah celebration. We enjoyed the delicious food, prayers, activities, and especially talking with the other Baha'is. It's a rather late night and we are heading off to the beach tomorrow with some of the local kids who have taken the day off to honour the Baha'i holiday. We are supposed to get an early start to beat Bangkok traffic... we'll see.

CM