Namsom...
So i finally have arrived in the place i am to call home for the next two months!
Namsom is a small town near the mountains, surrounded by rice fields and palm trees. It is very pretty and has a chinese temple in the middle of a lake at its heart.
The dorm is a wooden home with one western toilet (yipee!) and a shower (rather than the thai method of scooping water from a bowl which i have become accustomed to), hammocks, a balcony, kitchen, computer to burn photo cds and a resident scally dog which luckily stays outside. It has recently had pups and has long swinging teats. apparently the pups were taken away the other day but one must have escaped because it was outside the house this morning crying and trying to get in! it was very cute!
The bus to Namsom was, well, interesting. I rocked up to the bus station, backpack already 3x the size i left england, expecting to jump on a coach or even rickety version of a normal bus. oh no. that woul;d have been luxury.
It was a van with a hut nailed to the back with two benches inside. two hours in that i thought. death. and certainly no sleep. As more people crammed in, it got worse. But the openness meant it was breezy and I got to see the scenery.
However after about an hour i realised i didn;t know if the bus stopped at Ban Phue (where i changed buses) or if it carried on elsewhere. hmmm. no "falangs" around (westerners) or English speakers.
I managed to say Namsom inquistively after pointing at my lonely planet map (they had no clue) and they indicated I needed to get off. phew. could've ended up god knows where. However I was suddenly on a street corner laden down without a clue where to get the next bus.
Luckily the street vendors took me under their wing, said they would call the bus when it approached for me and sat me down on the step next to the pavement.
Here they quizzed me on my marital status, name, age and nationality all in thai and i grinned away not knowing what they were saying until i produced the scrap of paper with thai phrases learned earlier in the week.
I could then ask their age and name and numble a reply! It was quite good fun but bloody hard work.
The minibus came and i scrambled in for another 40 minute drive to Namsom. Once there I called the thai coordinator Jeab. No answer. ah ha. people were lovely though ad came to ask where i needed to go. But they all knew. There is only one place for people like me in Namsom - Ban Falang (the westerners house). The only Falang in Namsom are the volunteers.
When I arrived on Wednesday there were Daphne and Alexis (Dutch and American) who had been there for 3 weeks, Femeke (Dutch) who had been there a day, and Sabina and Rebbekah (german) who leave today. Alexis also leaves tomorrow to join the nuns in Loei for a week and daphne leaves next wednesday and Femeke a week today! So I am hoping new people come to join me soon!!!
It is really nice here. My first night they took me to the nightmarket - a row of food stalls and I met the teachers at one of the schools. She roped me into English camp for the following day.
So sure enough, at 7am yesterday we were picked up, Alexis, Daphne and I, to be driven 2 hours to teach some English. They are immensively respectful of teachers here and children are always bringing drinks and food to you.
I was given the 'verbs' group and had to teach 150 kids 'to be' and 'to have' in four groups for an hour each. Tough! I felt deflated after the first lesson but buoyed up by hw\ow much i felt i had improved by the final lesson.
The teachers there gave us traditional pillows and sheets as a thank you (how i will get them home is a mystery) and we came back to Namsom adn to juoin the others for a goodbye meal with Jeab, her friend and a guy and gurl from the hospital who i will be teaching twice a week.
Today I decided to change the school i am meant to be in. The main coordinator (mooy) is away so I figure I have the right! The school Thasom I am meant to be in likes to stick to the government textbook which is way too difficult for the children and the teacher is meant ot be horrid.
The other school, Nangngu, is poorer but the teacher speaks great English, is very kind and buys lunch everyday and lets you get on with teaching properly!
I went to help Rebbekah and Daphne today and it was fun -though by myself may be harder as it is a two hour lesson!
until next time...
Namsom is a small town near the mountains, surrounded by rice fields and palm trees. It is very pretty and has a chinese temple in the middle of a lake at its heart.
The dorm is a wooden home with one western toilet (yipee!) and a shower (rather than the thai method of scooping water from a bowl which i have become accustomed to), hammocks, a balcony, kitchen, computer to burn photo cds and a resident scally dog which luckily stays outside. It has recently had pups and has long swinging teats. apparently the pups were taken away the other day but one must have escaped because it was outside the house this morning crying and trying to get in! it was very cute!
The bus to Namsom was, well, interesting. I rocked up to the bus station, backpack already 3x the size i left england, expecting to jump on a coach or even rickety version of a normal bus. oh no. that woul;d have been luxury.
It was a van with a hut nailed to the back with two benches inside. two hours in that i thought. death. and certainly no sleep. As more people crammed in, it got worse. But the openness meant it was breezy and I got to see the scenery.
However after about an hour i realised i didn;t know if the bus stopped at Ban Phue (where i changed buses) or if it carried on elsewhere. hmmm. no "falangs" around (westerners) or English speakers.
I managed to say Namsom inquistively after pointing at my lonely planet map (they had no clue) and they indicated I needed to get off. phew. could've ended up god knows where. However I was suddenly on a street corner laden down without a clue where to get the next bus.
Luckily the street vendors took me under their wing, said they would call the bus when it approached for me and sat me down on the step next to the pavement.
Here they quizzed me on my marital status, name, age and nationality all in thai and i grinned away not knowing what they were saying until i produced the scrap of paper with thai phrases learned earlier in the week.
I could then ask their age and name and numble a reply! It was quite good fun but bloody hard work.
The minibus came and i scrambled in for another 40 minute drive to Namsom. Once there I called the thai coordinator Jeab. No answer. ah ha. people were lovely though ad came to ask where i needed to go. But they all knew. There is only one place for people like me in Namsom - Ban Falang (the westerners house). The only Falang in Namsom are the volunteers.
When I arrived on Wednesday there were Daphne and Alexis (Dutch and American) who had been there for 3 weeks, Femeke (Dutch) who had been there a day, and Sabina and Rebbekah (german) who leave today. Alexis also leaves tomorrow to join the nuns in Loei for a week and daphne leaves next wednesday and Femeke a week today! So I am hoping new people come to join me soon!!!
It is really nice here. My first night they took me to the nightmarket - a row of food stalls and I met the teachers at one of the schools. She roped me into English camp for the following day.
So sure enough, at 7am yesterday we were picked up, Alexis, Daphne and I, to be driven 2 hours to teach some English. They are immensively respectful of teachers here and children are always bringing drinks and food to you.
I was given the 'verbs' group and had to teach 150 kids 'to be' and 'to have' in four groups for an hour each. Tough! I felt deflated after the first lesson but buoyed up by hw\ow much i felt i had improved by the final lesson.
The teachers there gave us traditional pillows and sheets as a thank you (how i will get them home is a mystery) and we came back to Namsom adn to juoin the others for a goodbye meal with Jeab, her friend and a guy and gurl from the hospital who i will be teaching twice a week.
Today I decided to change the school i am meant to be in. The main coordinator (mooy) is away so I figure I have the right! The school Thasom I am meant to be in likes to stick to the government textbook which is way too difficult for the children and the teacher is meant ot be horrid.
The other school, Nangngu, is poorer but the teacher speaks great English, is very kind and buys lunch everyday and lets you get on with teaching properly!
I went to help Rebbekah and Daphne today and it was fun -though by myself may be harder as it is a two hour lesson!
until next time...
posted by charlie at 5:24 pm
1 Comments:
ooh good luck with the teaching. definitely agree with your choice of switching schools! btw i love the image of a hut nailed to the back of a van.. :)
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