Home safely

Just so everyone knows, I'm home! I arrived home on July 4th (the fireworks felt very appropriate).  I wasn't sure if I was going to make it for a bit though, I had the worst case of pink eye on the planet. I didn't realize I had it until I arrived in Bangkok, so by that time all I could do was buy some dry-eye relief drops. I went to a pharmacy during my layover in Qatar, but it turned out all they gave me were allergic reaction drops. By the time I arrived in Dallas, I could hardly even keep my eyes open, they were so swollen and oozy. I also had some blood vessels burst under the eye, which meant that--even after I finally got some proper medication the next day--I would earn the nicknames "Bates from the Bates hotel" and "wolfchild" because of the redness. Fortunately, it almost gone now, and I can quit wearing sunglasses.


Thanks so much for all your prayers and support! I really felt them and I am so grateful to everyone who lifted me up throughout my journey. I really think I did what I was meant to do, I learned a great deal and had a wonderful experience. Thanks again!!

                                The very bizarre Qatar airport

Quite miserable

Weekend Pictures

 James Bond Island

 Muslim floating village, our lunch stop

 Reclining Buddha in Monkey Temple

 Chicken Island, though I think it looks more like a turkey. Our snorkel stop on Saturday

Tup Island, our dinner stop

00wet

It promptly started raining again as soon as we got to the hotel Saturday night. I hoped maybe the storm would blow through over night, but no such luck. We had had nice weather for three days, so we were due a big rain. But it wasn't raining as I set for my Bond tour, so I was hoping it wouldn't be that bad. It rained some on our way there, and at a gas station where we made a pit stop (the pier was 1.5 hr away), our guide if asked if everyone had their rain coats. A Spanish couple sitting in front of me asked, "Will it rain?" I looked out the window. "Yeah, probably, but not very much maybe." They looked at me wide-eyed, and then didn't buy raincoats. Maybe they thought that since we had the tour, it wasn't allowed to rain. I wish that had been the case. As soon as we got to the pier, the clouds unleashed. We waited for it to lighten up at least, but it was still raining when we clambered in the long tail boat. This was the most nervous I ever been on a boat, it really felt like it might be too rough for him to make it. And our guide had said it would take 20 min.
We were soaked, rain driving in to our faces and occasional waves spilling in over the sides (though as the water is so warm here, that actually felt welcome). But the view, what we could see of it through the rain in our eyes, was magnificent. Huge cliffs rose right out if the sea, some if them with intricate rock formations and caves. James Bond Island was one of these. There wasn't much to it, just a breathtaking view and an interesting cave, but it was still surreal to be where my picture was.
Next, we went ocean-canoeing. We didn't get to manage the inflatable kayaks (no idea why they called them canoes) ourselves because there were an army of "canoe drivers" there at the floating station to take us around a bay surrounded by caves, mangroves, and sea-mountains. My guide's name was Book, and he showed me a "walking fish" (a fish-looking thing with legs to climb in the mangroves) and took me through a cave and showed me different rock formations.
Next, we went to lunch at a Muslim village built right on the water next to a sea cliff. We had a lovely view as we ate a delicious Thai meal (chicken stir fry, I think they always eat some form of this). It had stopped raining, but we still had time to explore the village before we went back out. They obviously make their living off the tourists there, because it was difficult to see what else they could do. It wasn't very pleasant. All the buildings were so close you felt like you were in a dirty back alley packed with all the typical souvenirs.
As soon as we got back in the boat, it started pouring again, but at least we were going back. We next went to the Monkey Cave to see an enormous statue of a reclining Buddha inside a massive natural cave. It was mesmerizing, and also sad because there were several Buddhists there praying to or at the statue, hard to know which.
Our last stop was meant to be swimming at a waterfall, but the park was closed because of all the rain.
Besides, we all agreed we'd swam enough for one day.

7 Isles

Since it was my last weekend, I was determined to do as much as I could. I knew I wanted to do the "James Bond Tour," so called because it's the location of The Man with the Golden Gun, because the picture of the island had been my backdrop for my now useless computer for the past 6 months. But I wasn't sure what to do with my 2nd free day. Fortunately, some of the other volunteers solved the question for me. They decided to do the 7 island tour, which was basically the same one I had done but longer and with dinner. So we all went to Ao Nang for the weekend and found a hotel (we split the 1,000 Baht, around $33, bill) that was basic but pretty nice with the skinniest pool you ever saw and, miracle upon miracles, air con and hot water! We booked the 7 islands for Sat afternoon and I booked Bond for Sunday.
It was a perfect Sat, great day for the beach. That afternoon, we piled into the back of an actual truck (that was adventure #1 as some of the others had never ridden in the back of one) and went a couple of miles down the road to the pier. It was a bit choppy, a few times it felt like we were jumping out of the water, but our guide kept dropping down from his rooftop perch to tell us "okay okay!" Railay was our first stop, a resort island with a nice beach, followed by snorkeling at Chicken Island. We had already dropped off the two sisters (it was definitely a family tour, they were all either related or dating) at one of the islands to start cooking our dinner. The snorkeling was much better than the last time I did the tour, when we didn't even stop because it was too hard to see. This time I saw all manner of coral, multicolored fish, and sea urchins. Unfortunately, one of the girls in our boat didn't see one and stepped on it. There was nothing we could do for her, she had to wait till we got back to find a clinic, but she said it didn't feel too bad and didn't let it stop her from still having a good time. We stopped one more time for snorkeling at a different island, but it wasn't as good. Our guide had also pointed out a jelly fish before we stopped, so now I had two criturs to be paranoid about.
Our next two stops were for marvelous beaches with breathtaking views. We had our dinner, barbecue chicken with a bit of a kick, and watched the sunset at the second beach. It was fantastic.
After we piled in the boat after dinner, we thought we were done. But we had one last stop. At Railay, our guide got out a spot light and swiveled it around, asking, "You see jellyfish?" I thought maybe they glowed or something, we had heard of some kind of glowing deal in these waters before. When we didn't see any, he said, "okay, time for swimming. Who first?" We laughed. He was joking. Then he jumped in the water! And he was making fairy dust in the water, bright green magical dots appeared all around him! "Plankton! Come on! Come swim! Plankton glowing!" Three of our party jumped in. It was amazing to watch the light show. Then someone else jumped in with a snorkel and said he could see them. This was too much for me. I jumped in with a snorkel. Sure enough, you could see minuscule neon orbs, and the more you moved the more you saw. Then I heard someone swimming very fast next to me, obviously trying to get back to the boat. Something had bit her she said. We were all back in in a flash. She had been stung by a jellyfish. Guess we hadn't looked hard enough. Everyone felt terrible for her, but there's not much you can do for jellyfish stings except let them sting. So we rode back to the pier under the stars, and I for one felt extremely thankful for the day and no injuries.

Yesterday, my computer decided to die. I think Macs don't like traveling, my other computer died in Spain a few years ago. So I'll have to either go to an Internet cafe or borrow the laptop at the office, if it's available. Fortunately, I had mostly finished the last project I needed to do, editing the reading curriculum developed by Projects Abroad for the volunteers to use. This week, I'm helping out at a couple of different schools. The one I was at yesterday and today is bigger than the other one I was at, the classes usually have about 25-30 in them. This makes it difficult to keep their attention, not that it would ever be easy. They're a wild bunch, always running around the classroom, boxing with each other (mimicking the Thai boxing they see on tv I guess), and won't listen to directions. The only way to get them to do anything is to physically take them and show them what you want them to do, but as soon as you move on to the next kid, the first one's acting crazy again! Nuts! Even with three volunteers!
Tomorrow I'm going to a school where there's just one volunteer, a nineteen year old from London. She told me yesterday her 5th graders were so bad, she almost walked out. The teacher who's responsible for them just said, "yeah, they're awful, aren't they?"I have a meeting tomorrow with the supervisor for the school I'm at today, and I'm trying to think of a nice way of saying, "the kids aren't going to learn anything if your teachers can't help with management." Next week, we have a meeting with a bunch of teachers to present the new curriculum, and I'll have to make that point again. God grant me polite words.

Yesterday was my housemate Saranda's last day. She moved to Ao Nang, where there's a Projects Abroad camp for beach clean up. I'm going to try to visit her this weekend. For her last day, she wanted to have a manicure, ride a motortaxi, and eat in town. She wanted to get a massage too, but decided to wait till later. I had my first massage ever two days after my arrival in Thailand. It was an interesting experience. I had a full-body Thai traditional massage. The place was very peaceful and artistically decorated and the staff very friendly. They did some weird stuff though, like sitting behind me, holding my arms folded over my head and rocking me around to stretch out my back.
I had a pedicure with Saranda, my first ever (250 baht, around $7). I was a bit ashamed of my horrible feet, but she didn't say anything, so she must be used to traveler's ugly feet.
After our spa-treatment, Saranda said she wanted to ride around Krabi on the motorbike taxi. So we talked one if the drivers down to 170 baht (about $4) and he drove us all around town, showing us a couple of things we hadn't seen before. I think Saranda was hoping he'd go a bit faster, but since we didn't have helmets, we were all three squashed up, and I was wearing a skirt, I thought his speed was just fine.
Today if it doesn't rain, some of the other volunteers and I are going to the nearby Tiger temple, which has 1300 steps. Apparently this is a Buddhist tradition to help enhance the spiritual experience. Ha. Least it's not as hot today.

Teacher Conference.

On Friday and Saturday, I attended a conference for English teachers again. For this one, I had been warned that many of the teachers had "not majored in English," and only taught English now because there is a need for it at their school. It seems that many teachers teach many things, Social Studies, Writing, Math, Science, even though the students go to different classes to learn all these different subjects (they don't just have the same teacher all day like they would in elementary schools in the U.S.). However, the English level of these teachers was appalling. They kept asking me to slow down, and a couple of the activities I tried to do with them simply didn't work, even when one of the organizers or my "boss" here, the curriculum developer for Projects Abroad, translated. At one point, I was trying to get them to work with a partner, but they were still just talking in groups at their tables, so I went over to a man and said, "Will you talk with just her, please?" And he said "Will you talk with just her, please." No joke.

But they seemed to still like it. Later the Projects Abroad people said they got some calls asking if I would come work in their schools for a semester, doing I don't know what. And they were all very nice to me. Some of them did speak fairly well, and fortunately there were enough of these scattered throughout that the material could be translated.

On Sunday, my pal and housemate Saranda went on a kayaking-elephant trekking adventure. They took us to an amazing natural canyon made from cliffs rising straight out of the sea. We also got to open sea, but it was only a few feet deep. At one point, they stopped so we could swim, but the sand underneath was so oily that it wasn't exactly enjoyable. The water is also excessively warm here, not at all refreshing if it's a hot day.

After we finished our kayaking (it took about 2 hours), they fed us lunch at a restaurant on the pier. The only other people with us was a cute Malaysian couple here on holiday. Apparently, Malaysians eat with their hands.

Then we piled in to a van with three girls from Singapore, an Engineer, a Psychology student, and a special Ed teacher. We thought we were going Elephant Treking, but instead we stopped at what appeared to be a rustic hotel. The guides led us to a natural pool, complete with mangroves, lilies, and a rope swing, and told us to "Swim! Cold spring! Very clean! Good swimming! You swim? Why you not swim?" We stared at them, then at the pool. "Are you sure it's clean?" we all asked. "Yes! Natural, very cold! That's why we bring you here! Hotel uses it! Good swimming!" Okaaayy. I dipped my feet in. It was slightly cool, not exactly what I'd call cold. I mentioned this. "Oh, yes, very cold! Very cold for us! Very clean and cold! You swim!" Good grief. I guess compared to the ocean it was cold. I still didn't like the looks of it, but the guides weren't going to leave until someone swam. So I jumped off the rope swing. It actually was nice, and it did start to feel cold after awhile. But Saranda and I were the only two who tried it. The Malaysians and Singaporeans just dipped their feet in.

To end the day, they took us to an Elephant, uh, farm? Ranch? I don't know what to call it, but they kept elephants and trained them there. Both Saranda and I were nervous about this part; we didn't want to take part in abusing the elephants. But it turned out to be not so bad. They looked like they had more room than they would in a zoo, and they only do one ride a day, if the trainer is to be believed. They seemed to treat them well. We rode around for about 30 min on the property behind the ranch and the guide told us about the elephants in broken English. We apparently got the good elephant, a 41-year-old named Nang (apparently, they live to be close to 100); the Malaysians' elephant kept stoping to eat. When we got back, we feed Nang some cucumbers, which she greedily ate, and then blew her nose on me (yes, elephant snot is slimy; at least it wasn't green). But it was a grand day, and I was glad to have Saranda to share it with me.

Today was my last day at the first school. This was the school were Kru Pecht taught, who has been sort-of mentoring me. I didn't realize I was actually going to be teaching their at first, neither did Projects Abroad, so I never got a class schedule or anything. I was surprised to find that some of the classes were 2.5 hours long, but we still filled the time. The only day I had any trouble was with the 2nd graders, but I think that was because they didn't have a teacher for the 2.5 hours before me, so they were crazy. But we learned the sounds of the letters and made alphabet books and practiced spelling with letters we made and all kinds of things. The depressing thing I learned is that it's hard to play games with them, especially the younger ones. This sounds counter-intuitive, but the only instruction their used to is copying what the teacher says, so they have no idea how to play games with rules where they are out of their seats. It was easier with the older kids, but you could still tell they weren't used to doing it. But on the whole, they were very sweet and eager to learn. They would run up to me when I got there and say, "good morning, teacher!" over and over because that's all they know.
Tomorrow and Saturday, I have to present at another conference. This one seems a bit more low key, but there are still 100 teachers supposed to be there and many of them with even lower English levels. Hope they comprehend all the games I'm going to try with them!