My Teaching Sites Thai Samakee and Nong Ya Sai

Yesterday we went on site visits to our schools. It is a mix of mostly rural placements. I am about 25 minutes by taxi truck (the Thai name is tsong taow) to the city of Nakhon Phanom. There are four of us within a reasonable distance of each other so we went together. The one high school placement in our group was quite an impressive structure and grounds and you could see the mountains across the Mekong River. At one of my schools, Nong Ya Sai, there was an elaborate rose giving and all the kids were there with their uniforms and greeted me in English and we gave speeches and took a tour. The director there is clearly a real go getter since the kids are on their October vacation. She has made many improvements in the tiny school including the planting and managing of a eucalyptus grove that they somehow sell to make paper products. She is pregnant and due the same time as my American field director, Jesica. The woman in green I am talking to in the bottom picture is "Boom" the kindergarten teacher who I will work with three hours a week teaching. They require another teacher in the room for classes lower than first, just because of the language challenges. What I am going to do for three hours a week with 5 and 6 year olds is what causes me the most anxiety! I never saw Arnold Schwartznegger in Kindergarten Cop, but I may have to look for it online for pointers on how to achieve a happy ending. Seriously- if you have good songs a la "Itsy Bitsy Spider",  send them to me!

This second picture is from Thai Samakee where my reception was the opposite- no director present, no kids, no ceremony. A nice teacher showed us around and gave us a glass of water. Maybe the director of this school is related to CM.

 This last picture was taken at Zach's school, the most rural. It was stunning to see the same kind of orchids I have growing in my kitchen in Maine, throughout the school. There are many stunning plants and flowers, but surprisingly few birds in the region.