Been Busy...

Monday, June 9, 2008

I can remember seeing images of forest fires being broadcast from California for as long as I can remember. The red glow filling the living room like some back ally in Amsterdam now reflecting off of my face nearly every evening. There must be a forest fire nearby. This seems unlikely as everything is too wet...to humid for a small brush fire to run like the devil across the open jungles of southern Thailand. But then again Florida is on fire, or at least it was the last time I heard anything about it. Maybe a hurricane fixed that problem. I suppose anything is possible. This is Thailand after all and anything really is possible. I doubt the far side of the mountain which looks after my village is on fire. Someone would have said something. Instead I am left with the mirroring image of the sunset bouncing its way off of the ocean, mountains, and clouds as it slowly fades away from me and only begins to rise for you. Somewhere in that moment the nights sky begins to fade away leaving everything red. It gives an odd color to the jungle around me.

I wonder if their is a slight moment between when the sun sets just beyond the reach of the ocean and when it begins to rise just above the tree line in the east on the other side of the world. Is it instant or is their a moment of darkness? Is the earth that big?

Not too long ago an e-mail floated around the Internet. Something about how we don't really read or pronounce words anymore but instead only see the first and last letters of a word and make an assumption of what we believe the word to be. I culod plobraby wtire sehntiomg hbrorile aobut yuor mtoehr and I can olny ausmse taht you can alaltcuy raed tihs buaesce of
sehntiomg I raed on the ineertnt. Thai children face this same problem in a slightly different way. Except the ability to pronounce such words eludes them.

Following the compulsory greeting given by the students which is return by myself... parrots speaking to each other... it can be fun to throw the occasion wrench in the works... roughly 28 or so 4th graders sit down and prepare to learn something from the pale skinned foreigner. At the very least he looks funny. This should be interesting for a least an hour. Time to warm up with some basics in pronunciation.

"Are you ready?" although asked rhetorically it is still given with a bit of casual enthusiasm.
"Yes!" a little loud. They could do better.
"Are you ready?!"
"YES!!!"

Repeat as needed in various forms including deep monster style voice and high pitched girlie-man voice. Make sure to include hand gestures and various postures as well.

Three letter nonsense words work best and by breaking them up into the individual letters, they can slowly begin to understand the pronunciation behind each letter and how such combinations of letters can form different pronunciations.


B - A - T
BA - T
BAT

Half the time the words don't even make sense and the other 2/3ths of the time the kids don't even know what the word actually means. That doesn't really mater. The definition doesn't really mater. A bat could be a small piece of fabric found only in Japanese shopping centers. Who cares. They just sounded the word out on their own which is what is really important. Figuring out how to work a dictionary... similar to operating a 1995 Dodge Neon... will have to wait until next week. Or next month. One step at a time. Tiny steps. Very tiny steps. Seriously, don't walk so fast.

Last week I was teaching students in six separate classrooms at two schools while my weekend was spent about two hours south of here in Khao Lak. This morning was greeted by a site evaluation while tomorrow will be another full day of teaching including English club before journeying to Bangkok for further training which will take place in Kon Kaen. Or maybe Kon Kean. Or is it Khon Kaen? Perhaps I'll just say I have a week ahead of me full of further Peace Corps training about 14 hours away from me by bus. A very long journey ahead which I'm not looking forward to although some more time away from site sounds wonderful at the moment. Although I will miss my students every moment I am away from them, I can't help but look forward to the chance to be with fellow volunteers again. We'll be making fart jokes.


P.S. This is a Tokay. Common in Thailand, they can average about 12 to 14 inches in length and primarily eat smaller geckos and larger insects. This guy, whose name is Mr. Tokay, casually lives in my house like an indoor/outdoor cat. He comes and goes as he wishes. We have an agreement. He doesn't hangout in my room and I don't kill him.