Visual stimulation :)

Greetings from Ranong

Hey all,

Yesterday Veerle, Sander, Femke, Karin and I hitchiked from Paksong to Ranong for some shopping and relaxing. A friendly guy from the market gave us a lift bringing his grill station home from Paksong. Before a van full of boxes had passed us but didn't stop. Guess what: after 20 minutes we saw exactly this when having had a bad accident on the road to Ranong. We don't know what happened and if the driver is okay, but somehow it was good luck for us that he decided not to pick us up.

I am sitting in Ranong now, have bought some creme against infections (moscito bites can become severe health risks in this area), enjoyed grilled bananas and am thinking about what to do next. The last week was pretty exhausting but very succesful as well. Unfortunately, Sarah has left us. She decided to stay with her boyfriend instead. I hope she's happy now, however, the whole situation for her is quite difficult and we would have loved her to remain a part of the team at Thoor Taang School.

The kids are still pretty cool and a lot of them are learning English quite well. The Thai system focuses on repetition without a lot of creative learning methods and individual care. A lot of teachers are doing a good job anyway, but it feels as if the children had more fun learning with us, playing games, linking proper studies and more relaxed parts.

Next week I will probably be going to Langsuan with Pee Yoon, the English teacher, and the principle to buy new books and shelves etc. from the money donated for the library. We will also have something like a grand opening day with all the children and people from the village - I might even have to give a speech in Thai :).

I am really happy to see how everybody appreciates what we are doing here, both children, teachers and parents who also provide us with delicious fruit from their gardens. All of us are having a good time and are putting a lot of effort in what we do. Can"t believe that I am here for only one month longer, but I am already planning to come back next summer for another two months or so.

The next week will focus on how the children live, their houses and environment. So far we have already done family and things they like: volleyball, Thai boxing, pizza, mangos ... A lot of things are so different to what we do in Europe, but at the same time the kids are just children, they like to wind each other up, are proud of their motorcycles, the older boys try to act very '"cool" and are more into sports than English ;), kid around a lot, love to draw ... There are much more similarities than one might think.

As the Thai say: same same but different :).

I added some new pics as well.

Take care.

Julia :)

Some more pics

market in Kuraburi

Khaolak view

Femke and I on the back of a pickup truck

on the way to Khaolak

Lan, Sotoku and Lek

dusk over the jungle

fantastic food at Sotoku's leaving party

the volunteers' house

Some pictures

kindergarden boys

third grade girls

children from Thortaang kindergarden

Namfon's sister

dead baby king cobra

after Tattoo bar in Ranong

Khaolak calling

Dear all,

We are spending this weekend in Khaolak after having had a pretty confusing but good week.

Teaching went well, apart from the fact that Sarah and I have to take care of regular English classes as well as doing The World I Live In at Thortaang school. As nobody told us in advance we had to improvise a lot. However, most of the children are really nice, but proper communication still remains a major problem. I have learned some Thai vocab for the use in school which works okay :). The past week focused on colours and animals, we played a lot of games, had some competitions and let TWILI children start with drawing their families, writing their names in English etc.

I chatted with P Yoon (the English teacher) about the donations. They are all very glad, especially because the school does not have any spare money at the moment and very urgently needs new books and shelves. We will be going to Langsuang to buy everything on some weekend after Ingrid, the volunteer's coordinator, will have returned from Holland (tomorrow). I can also take some pictures officially handing a "cheque" over to the principle, so hopefully you will all be going to see some pictures of this sooner or later ;).

The weather was pretty rainy, though we had sunshine from time to time as well. Today it was awesome and we could even go swimming in Khaolak, about 2 hours South of Phato and Ranong. Quite relaxing ending for a busy week. Femke and I will do some more preparation for our lessons tonight or tomorrow. The focus will lie on fruit and veg, some basic stuff as the children's level is pretty different.

I also already got a Thai nickname from grade 4,5,6: Fonn = rain :).

Alrighty, think that is it for now.
Have a nice one wherever you are - we are enjoying the heat and sun, Thai food, the jungle and sea etc. despite of dangerous snakes living around us :).

Take care and all the best from Khaolak (remember the tsunami 2004),
Julia

Sawatdee kha!

Dear all,

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Ranong at the moment (20 Baht per hour, less than 50 cent or 35 p) after having checked in at TV bar with Satoko, a Japanese volunteer from the TCDF. We are planning to spend our free weekend with a couple of other Dutch and Japanese volunteers as well as Poo, the Thai volunteers coordinator, in Ranong to have some drinks and see something else than the jungle for a while.
Ranong is situated about 50 km west of Phato, the next "bigger" city to Paksong where we are staying.

I arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday evening after two okay flights from Frankfurt to Dubai and Dubai to Bangkok with Emirates. Was shattered anyway, took a shower after having checked in at Sawasdee Sukhumvit Inn where we already stayed last year (the reception lady even remembered me and welomed me back) and treated myself to some chicken with cashews and rice.

Wednesday was prety busy. I did not sleep very well, to hot and humid without aircon, to cold with, got up around 9ish and had some fresh pineapple and melon for breakfast before I headed off to meet a friend at Central Plaza, a big shopping mall in Bangkok. I got to know Kate in Warwick two years ago, working with her for Hospitality. She took me to a Japanese restaurant, we had a nice chat and she helped me buying a Thai SIM Card (if you want my number please drop me a line!). Afterwards it rained like hell and I decided to take a taxi to the train station instead of the subway. Guess the guy ripped me off, as it took quite a while to get there, but I did not pay more than 3 Euros anyways, so who cares :). Bought my ticket for the night train to Langsuan for the same day and took the next cab to MBK shopping centre where I had a quick look around, a snack and met up with a girl from Bangkok who read my blog, wrote me on facebook and awaited me with two huge bags full of books for Thortaang school. Thanks again for that :). I rushed home, packed my stuff and took the train to Langsuan, ariived in the morning, got a motorcycle to drive me to the market, almost fell off cause my backpack was that heavy, found a pickup taxi to take me to Phato, arrived and got picked up by Rose from the foundation who just dropped two volunteers off in Phato who were leaving.

There I was again, beautyful surrounding, very nice people and fantastic news: a four metre long king cobra on the property. Scared like shit I couldn't sleep very well, but had an okay day anyway.
On Friday we hada meeting with Poo, talked through a lot of things with all the volunteers (seven in the house at the moment), got some delicious food fixed by Moon and I started to prepare my first lesson with Sarah who is going to work with me in Thortaang school. I used a lot of material I bought in Bangkok for drawing and a couple of kids living close by already helped us. When I went down the mountain to our place I sudenly heard Sarah screaming, running out of the bathroom having seen a snake inside. Jay, the Thai volunteer, found and killed it after a while: a small king cobra (60 cms long) in our bamboo shelf. FUCKING HELL, I HATE SNAKES!!!

We stayed up very long at night, learned some Thai with Jay and tried to use what Poo taught us before. Saturday morning Marieke and Dagmar went for the pony club with the kids, I had a nap and then we left for Ranong, found some nice guys giving us a lift and arrived about two hours ago.

On monday Poo will take us to Thortaang shool to stay there until Wednesday evening and teach. We will be living in the teacher's house and have children from kindergarden up to 12 years old. When Ingrid, one coordinator, comes back I can give all the stuff i bought and got to Thortaang school and arrange what exactly to buy with the donated money, when, how etc.

Thanks a lot to everyone who gave a bit - almost 500 Euros are a LOT over here and can really make a difference!!

I'll try to write some more soonish and maybe put some pictures up, but this also depends on the connection, whether I'll have time to come to Ranong etc.

So long, chok dii!
Julia :)