Giving Thanks, 11/26

I am grateful for a sense of belonging and a sense of things settling, somewhat, on the inside enough for me to soak up what's around me. Now I feel at ease and quite content to call Mancha Khiri my home for a while. My fears of this village seeming too small & isolated have subsided, and now I breath easier, enjoying the eager, shouted greetings of the neighborhood children and the elderly smiles, as I pass by them on their bamboo daybeds under trees. Our school, just three blocks away, is always pumping with activity, beginning with a morning assembly each day (a gathering of more than 2,000 students & the faculty to sing the national anthem, say prayers to Buddha, honor the latest great student achievements, and hear a message from adult mentors. Throughout any given day there are Isan music & dance practices, Scout troop/ soldier trainings, color sports and preparations for academic competitions-- to name a few. A very lively campus! Tony and I are the only teachers who eat with the students in the canteen, but we also enjoy our solitude in the Foreign Language Department office, where we prepare for our 25 classes of 45 students (that's each of us), check our emails & Christian Science Monitor online, and drink coffee (I have my sacred jar of peanut butter there, as well). We have had a new challenge of creating lessons for really basic English speakers-- lessons that need to be high interest, fun, meaningful & useful. Hmm, wait a minute! Shouldn't ALL school lessons consist of the same? Well, still, this IS a different ball game for the both of us! (speaking of, Tony created a baseball game of sorts to test their skills & it was a hit). . . As you can see in the photo, we were in a parade with our fellow teachers & admin (student band & fire dancers followed us)-- Tony is wearing the King's yellow, note. This parade took us to the river, where we floated our candle cradled in a beautiful bamboo & flower holder for Loi Khathon. This celebration happens every full moon in November, to honor the importance of water. People send their floating candles off with wishes. It was a lovely sight! We are learning a great deal, both at school & of the culture we are immersed in... So, yes, so far things are going quite well for Tony & me. There are so many people I MISS, but for that I am even grateful. Just lucky to have good people in my life, good people to come back to. There is much to be thankful for, indeed. I can only hope you all are feeling the same way today. . . love, Becca

beginning of November shots

the streets of Mancha Khiri
& dancing!

Arriving at Mancha Kiri....

11/9~ It's the weekend. Becca & I have had the second half of the week to experience what's in store for us here. Mancha Kiri, in all it's myriad of spellings (it's spelled one way on the Municipal Building front wall, spelled another way at the Police Station, different than at the apartment building we are staying at & different yet at the bus station), is a small village of shop keepers & rice farmers. It has a main thorough fare with three smaller streets, called sois, bisecting it; one we live on, one that the high school we teach at is on, & no traffic lights. It is where everyone knows each other; where water buffalo can be seen herded down a street, causing cars to go around them, & their caretaker comes up behind them with either a stick to goad them on or a 5 gallon plastic bucket to catch their droppings before they hit the road. A place that is surrounded by water & rice paddies. It's in a vast valley, very green & lush & whenever I am in such a place it is easy to think I'm in Hawaii, but it's the water here that prevents that comparison. The north is a virtual swamp & the people have learned to create raised earthen walkways in cultivating it.
But it is the students we have come here for. They are quiet & shy mostly with a bubbly curious side. They all know some shard of Engrish & they stumble on some bit of pronunciation & that is why the land of smiles sequesters native English speakers. But it is not a heavenly marriage; farongs, as foreigners are called, aren't really that welcomed in the land of highly suspicious, superstitious working people beyond the convenience that they provide & their money. It is not to say that there are no genuine smiles & generosity on those lively brown faces, but there are many levels beyond that smile & we will never know how weighty the thoughts are that occupy those that we greet. -TLC.