The Week in Review

Other then the visa run, I haven't been very good at updates. Let me fill you in on what has been going on in my life over the past week.

29-30 January

My patience and serenity obtained from the temple that I spent the weekend at finally wore out after the fourth straight hour of being unable to teach a group of 9 students how to form a wh-question with do (ie: What do you eat?)

31 January

I officially told Kyaw (the founder of the school) that I wanted to stay for one year. I can't remember if I told the blog about that. Aside from my visa not coming through (a definite possibility) I am stuck her for the next eleven months, and I am very happy about that.

1 February

The town of Ban Nai Soi was very excited about an upcoming festival that they spent the week preparing for. This was the first day of the two-day celebrations. The festival was held at the local Wat (temple) and was some sort of annual Buddhist thing that we were never able to figure out. At first we thought that it was the new year, but later learned out that the people who said “yes” when questioned on whether it was the new year or not just didn't know what we were saying.

However, the highlight of the event was that five girls from CLC were performing in the Karaoke Contest. E-e was singing and Morn, Nehneh and two other girls that didn't attend CLC were dancing. They were quite good and we were very proud when they made it to the finals and won fourth prize. I was also proud of myself for sitting through thirteen identical performances before they went up which made me very glad that I didn't have kids (for whom I would have to sit through 14 years of similar garbage). All has the same format-- there were four girls in each corner and a singer in the middle. The person would sing their Thai pop song and the girls would wiggle and gyrate to moves that they were generally too young to know. The first prize was well deserved (sorry E-e and Co) when it went to a group of girls who paraded out wearing haltertops and hot skirts and threw their bellybuttons around for the entire Temple to see. I felt very sorry for the poor monks who were peeking out from the monetary dorms. No it was not the haltertops and hotskirts that earned them the prize, it was the fact that they did something different then gyrating but actually making their arms the most active part of the act and not looking like they were dragged out of bed at three in the morning to perform.

The judgment of the contest was partially from a few judges and partially from the number of paper necklaces that the dancers each won. How to “win” a paper necklace? Well, you could buy a mess of the things and throw them on the necks of the dancers in a custom that might have been imported directly from Samoa. This meant, of course, that it was the richest performers (or rather, the performers with the richest friends) who would win the “popularity prize”. All the CLC people scraped together what we could, but the collection that we were able to hurl onto stage pathetic in comparison with the other kids. I felt justified when the winner of the popularity prize didn't make it to the finals.

2-3 February

Visa run (see next entry)

4 February

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

5 February

Today the girls gave their presentations that I asked them to write, and I was very proud of them. I took a $100 donation that I received from the lucrative “Let's scam MALI on the price of the plane ticket to Thailand by editing the email in Word and inflating the price” fund and told them that they each had to write a proposal of how to spend the $100. Whoever had the best and most useful proposal would get the money. They worked in groups of three and I listened, pen ready, about to write down the million things that each proposal was missing. I was very impressed when I found that there were few holes in their proposals (aside from the fact that I knew that their price predictions were probably bogus). I was so proud of them when they presented a history of the problem, why the problem was a problem, what their solution was, and why the solution was needed.

Aside from the quality of the reports, the highlight was that Thai speakers have a difficult time pronouncing “v” and so I spent the whole hour feeling like I was watching Pilate from “Live of Brain. First I had to suppress my giggles as Rosy stood up and told us why we needed a “wegtable garden” that would supplement our vegetables requirements. After this I got to find out why a “wollyball court” would help with the happiness and the health of the students. Hearing the proposal about the need for an additional bathroom wasn't quite so amusing, but probably the most needed.

6 February

Who knows? This place is full of surprises! Stay tuned!!