Teaching English
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2008
1
10
20
Trip End
May 30, 2008
Krabi,
Thailand
Thursday, February 7, 2008
We are now in Khao Phanom. We found this amazing school and this great host family. We took this bus and they literally dropped us off on the side of the road with all our bags and then we had to walk thru these winding roads to find the school. That school actually could not accept us as volunteers for some logistical
reason that due to the language barrier, we were not really able to understand. But they called the director of the educational system in this province and she arranged for us another school and a host
family. They drove us for 30 mins into the middle of NOWHERE!!! We are currently staying with an elderly couple who have hosted volunteers before from the US, Belgum, England...etc. We have our own
room in their amazing house which he built all by himself out of wood. They also own part of the rubber forest so theres dried rubber patches all over the house which leave a rather unpleasant smell throughout the whole house. Neither of them speaks english so we try our best using non verbal ways to communicate. After we arrived, we were told to change into nicer cloths. Ash and I tried our best to piece together a somewhat decent outfit not really knowing what we were getting dressed up for. We get in this really nice car and they drive for another 10 mins where theres this huge gathering of people in tents in the middle of nowhere. It turns out that we were invited to a Thai Wedding. The whole thing pretty much consisted of eating and running and we stayed for no longer than an hr but it was still a pretty cool experience.
We started teaching on Monday. The school is a 30 min walk from where we are staying and with no public transportation whatsoever, we have to make this trek every morning which i guess is a nice way to start the day. We are seriously living in buttfuck nowhere!!!
They have us teaching 5-6 classes per day!!! we are both absolutely exhausted at the end of the day. On our second day of school, we attended a funeral during our lunch break! apparently, one of the students was hit by a bus just a couple of days ago.
My birthday was amazing. Ashley completely surprised me, which is surprising since i'm with her literally 24 hrs a day. but some how, she arranged to sneak off and inform all the teachers. So in the middle of me teaching class, all the teachers showed up with presents and a cake!!!
Today is chinese new years so we have a 4 day weekend. Ash and I will be doing some island hopping starting tomorrow.
Will keep you updated.
love,
ash and als
