Weddings, Teaching and TV Stars

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  Tharua, Thailand
Sunday, November 5, 2006

Well, it's been a busy time since I last wrote...

I've just returned from the wedding party of a fellow English teacher's daughter and I've got a wee bit of time now to write this up before the 'Loy Krathong' festival celebrations this evening.

So... at the moment, Alex, a volunteer in Uthai Thani who has some time off, has come to visit - nice to have someone else to show round our home town!
He arrived on friday evening and saturday morning we were all up at 6am and on our way to the wedding of a teacher from one of the Primarys we taught in (it is wedding season at the mo!).
As the Thais seem to adore big ceremonies for the smallest of occasions - a wedding is quite something and, to fit everything in, must start early!

We arrived at the house and were taken to sit in a room where a circle of monks were chanting blessings and splashing Holy Water on the couples' heads. The monks were then offered plates of food while the bride and groom had linked circles of rope placed on their heads. All the guests (there were many) then individually poured some water through the couples' hands and said some blessing in Thai (we had some help with this!). We then ate some sticky rice and thai sweets (eating had to come in there somewhere!) and proceeded to join a procession headed by the groom. This involved a mass line of guests carrying all sorts of fruits and treats as an offering to the bride's parents. The gate to the house was closed and as the groom approached, a little 'role-play' was carried out in which a small boy told him he couldn't enter to the reply "but look at all the stuff I've brought" - or something along those lines! There was even a part to play for the old drunk men in the ceremony... These men, who seemed to have been drinking since the whole thing started, were the bearers of huge sugar canes (signifying a sweet marriage). When they arrived at the gate they stopped and protested (while drunkenly dancing) that they wouldn't let the procession move any further unless they were given more drink - a woman arrived to tease them with an empty box of beer though after a bit of staged arguing, she supplied them with bottles of whisky... this, we were told, is all part of the ceremony! We gathered back in the room to watch huge wads of 1000 baht notes being ceremoniously handed over to the bride's parents. This, apparently, is the grooms money and it is up to the bride's mother what happens to it. In this case, after adding some of her own and spreading it with flowers (for good luck), she kindly gave it to the couple.
It was after this that permission was requested from both sets of parents (not sure what happens if they decline...) and the 'vows' were taken. Finally, the bride and groom (who, by now were looking pretty exhausted) received gifts one by one from the guests who continued to tie a little piece of white string around their wrists. It was at this point that we left as we weren't staying for the party that was to follow. An interesting experience though!

After a very enjoyable trip to Nakhon Sawan last weekend (it was great to see another project - I like how different it is to ours), we had our first day as proper members of the Nittayanukul School English Department on Wednesday.

You can call me Ajahn Ruth now, lol! (or Khruu Ruth - depending on what you think sounds better!) The teaching has been quite good so far - that moment when you first walk into the classroom and they're all staring at you expectantly is still slightly intimidating though. There is a pupil in each class who's job it is to shout "Please stand up!" Then class then all gets to their feet and (slightly robotically) chant "good mor-ning tee-cher" to the expected response "good morning, sit down please." "thaank yoou tee-cher" , they all sit down and the lesson begins...
I have 16 classes a week, with an extra class on wed after school (and possibly tues...). At the moment we have Thai teachers in with us who sit at the back... i guess they'll stay till they see that we're comfortable. Classes are, supposedly 50 minutes long though both teachers and pupils routinely arrive late. I will be chatting to a teacher who I assume is free when, 20 minutes in, they will comment "oh, I have a class". This is just 'Thai Style'!

What haven't I mentioned yet? Oh yes - we're TV stars! lol, well... Caz and I were apparently on the Ayutthaya news channel as we'd been filmed while at the 'welcome to your new job' party of Aj. Kwan's husband who is now the director of a local Primary school which we will teach in once a month. We didn't see it but that was a bit of exciting news...

Anyhow, this had been quite a wee essay so I'll leave it hear for now. Untill next time x

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