I hope you have all had a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Ive certainly had an eventful one myself, to go with a busy and spectacular past three months!
In October, I was sent off to Chiang Mai during the school holidays for a three week language course with AUA, who have a course specifically for Project Trust volunteers, like myself. It was great to see all the other volunteers from all over Thailand, and as well as having a very fun time on holiday I appear to have learnt quite a bit of Thai! I can now read and write as well as speak, but I must say Ive not made as much progress as Id hoped since the course.
After the course, due to unforeseen circumstances, I was moved project to North-Eastern Thailand, to a small town called Na Kae, with a new partner, Naomi. We get on really well and the project is pretty similar, except the students are a bit further behind. Were also teaching at one of the local primary schools, an after school club and another secondary school. Im finding teaching really rewarding and such a mixture of things. The students are generally lovely even if they are VERY late! You just have to get used to the concept of Thai time here.
In our spare time weve done a little bit of exploring and have made friends in the local area, and as the farang (foreigners) we very often get invited to dinner with people we dont know but apparently love [us] like children!
Christmas in Thailand is interesting. Our primary school is Catholic, so had a massive bash the weekend before, with parents watching their little dears do allsorts, from random dancing to a fashion show to a brilliant nativity play! What we didnt expect was our main school, Na Kae Pitthayakhom, to have a similar thing one afternoon! We did our bit and wrote a quiz for the students and taught them all We Wish You A Merry Christmas and had quite a bit of fun in the end, even if we had to ad lib Jingle Bells as the music for WWYAMC went missing!
As well, this term we have had Sports Day. Or rather, Sports Week! We got a week off teaching, whilst every student in the school played in, cheered for or refereed one of the many activities going on, all finishing up on Friday with a huge parade in which Naomi and I got glammed up Thai style, before coming back to silly games!
I guess, this is just a tiny snippet of whats been going on over here, but I hope it gives you a good idea of how amazing it is out here. Thank you for giving me this chance.
Caitlin Ripley (Thai name: Mali?)
