My blog posts fall under two categories: Introspection and Cultural Analysis. As I scrolled through my few posts from this past year I noticed there was very little description of what I actually do. The times I find myself writing are usually at a high point and I tend to focus on the trigger that took me there instead of my daily tasks and events. Youth Development is the most vague job description. You probably have absolutely no idea what I do, I mean heck… I’m still trying to figure out what I do exactly. I’ve decided to do this year in review to give you a glimpse of what it looked like to enter my community and interpret my role. I apologize in advance for the length. Grab yourself some single sourced fair traded coffee (you better not add creamer…) and let’s go!
March
I arrived in Bo Kluae, Nan! Aka: site. Everyday I sat at the Tessabon (local government office) and twiddled my thumbs. Just kidding, but in March the schools have just closed for summer break. So I spent the first the last two weeks of the month sitting at my desk, 8AM-4:30PM, thinking of Camps, activities, and lesson topics I could do when school opened. None of which I actually used but at least I was brainstorming. In the evenings I would spend time with my host family, swim in the river and ride bikes with a group of kids in my village. The main focus of these first few months was community integration.
April
April consisted of most of the same work as March. I spent a majority of the time in my office with my new counterparts and community members eating, chatting, and just becoming familiar with one another. We would go out to lunch, spend time at people’s homes, and prepare food and decorations for the festivities of Songkran. Hours were spent making banana leaf desserts, cooking absurd amounts of food, cleaning the office and buildings where the activities would take place, and making origami like decorations out of various plants. I was even given the chance to walk in a parade with my office in the main city of the province wearing a traditional Lua outfit.
May
School resumed! I was given the chance to help a fellow PCV with their two day Student Friendly Schools camp. This camp was inspiring and gave me an idea of what a camp that includes topics such as Sexual Reproductive Health and Gender looked like. In the last two weeks of May when the schools reopened, my counterpart P’ Yoy took me to all three schools I would be working with, the health clinic, and other offices in the area to introduce me and establish my schedule for the year. Things got off to a rocky start. The schools had absolutely no idea who I was or what “Youth Development” meant, so they designated me the newest English teacher regardless of the fact P’ Yoy explicitly said “She is not an English teacher.” But I am a native English speaker, so it made sense to them that that’s what I would be doing.
June
My first month IN the classroom attempting to run activities. Between the misunderstanding of my role, the games I was introducing, and trying to facilitate, and the chaos of Thai classrooms, it was a challenging month. Everyday I would show up to school and hope for the best. One school just wanted me to read flashcards for hours at a time… This was awkward. When I would attempt to facilitate my critical thinking games the teachers would say they were too complicated, made the kids “think too much,” and did not include enough English. “Stop speaking Thai, speak more English.” One school didn’t like to initiate competition between students because they didn’t want anyone to lose. One school would just shove me in a classroom and say, “Teach English.” However, I did have the opportunity to do a lesson on healthy eating where we made salads and sandwiches. This month I also helped prepare students for their English competition, writing, memorizing, and reciting speeches.
July
This month I was basically not even at site. We had a group training in Kanchanaburi that lasted for what seemed like FOREVER. It involved a lot of encouraging one another and talking through challenges, trainings by the second year group on how to approach and teach certain topics like SRH, and a counterpart conference. After this training there were some holidays and I traveled to a province in Isaan to attend the candle festival.
August
This was a much better month. After going out to coffee, sitting and actually communicating my anticipated role to two teachers, they were excited to try the ideas I had. I also agreed to do simpler activities and include more English. Compromise. The kids LOVED the games and with time we were able to increase the difficulty, but they were still too shy to voluntarily answer the discussion questions that followed the games. I also helped a fellow PCV with her Creative Arts/English Camp where I lead lessons in dance and DIY critter cup gardens. They also did activities in singing, theatre, baking, and storytelling which were lead by other PCV’s. The focus was in the creative arts activities and for each topic we threw in about 5 vocab words. This month I was also able to kick-off our pen pal exchange with the help of 3 teacher friends in CA. My students got a chance to practice their reading and writing while also exchanging some culture.
September
After gaining some ground on my role in the schools I continued doing weekly activities to focus on life skills (critical thinking, teamwork, leadership, etc.) with my bprathom students. Towards the end of the month I was able to attend the Student Friendly Schools training with two of my counterparts. There we discussed how to have a student centred classroom, positive reinforcement, and recognizing signs of gender based violence at the school. (See blog post Ah-Ha Moment for details) Finally I was able to start working with Kru Ying on facilitating activities with the Matayom students about gender related topics.
October
School was closed this month so I bpaitiao-ed (traveled) to Japan and attended a language training with other northern volunteers to improve our language skills before the new term.
November
My CP and I kicked off the new term with a Halloween party. The kids absolutely loved talking about Halloween, I read them a story about the 10 pumpkins who disappear, and they designed their own “costumes” from old clothes Kru Aum had collected. We continued our pen pal exchange and celebrated the holiday Loy Krathong.
December
December was ALL about Christmas! Reindeer hats were made. Jingle Bells was sung. And, weeks were spent learning the words and motions to the Merry Christmas song Stockton Ballet School performs every year at the end of the Christmas recital. Some students even got the chance to taste their first candy cane courtesy of my BFF Nadizzle!
January
One week was devoted to Children’s Day activities at each of the schools and the Tessabon! Carnival-like games were played prizes were given, and kanomes were consumed. This is a special time of the year where the whole community comes together to celebrate the kids and have a giant community wide party. We spent hours blowing up balloons that would be used for decorations and games, setting up booths, and handing out snacks. It was a wild time.
February
MY FAVOURITE month of service that year. It was in this month where I truly felt like I had accomplished a goal due to the Sexual Reproductive Health Camp I was able to conduct at my Matayom (High School) school. Though it did not go perfectly and there were quite a few things I would change in hindsight, I am extremely thankful for Kru Ying, the grant from Safe Space Training, and the 5 PCV’s who helped make it happen. We took a holistic approach to SRH edu where students discussed healthy/unhealthy relationships, decision making, future planning, STI/HIV/pregnancy prevention, and EVERY M. 4-6 students had a hands on experience putting a condom on a cucumber.
March
School closed its doors for the summer and I took another Bpaitio, this time to India!
I feel like I did more learning than teaching this last year, but it was necessary to integrate into my community and gain some understanding of the people, systems, and needs. It was a difficult but fantastic year and I cannot wait to see what this next school year holds! Also: congrats if you made it all the way through this post (it took me a month to actually write).
Earthly Escapade 