Final week

Our internet isn't working at our house (again... still...) so internet-ing happens at school or at a coffee shop, and with a long list of Internet tasks (fill out travel insurance application, check on flight info, email so-and-so) blogging hasn't been the highest on the priority list. I apologize. We'll (and by that, I really mean I because I'm not even sure Gabe knows the password to get into blogger!) try to do better!

This is our last week of classes. In truth,we give all our finals on Thursday, so we really only have 3 days of review-intense classes. We're feeling mixed emotions, which I'll try to articulate:

Sadness - we're sad to be leaving these precious kids. They are SUCH fun - they're cute and smart and funny and vibrant and joyful. I think my heart is mourning saying goodbye to them a bit!

Happiness - it has been such an honor to walk through 39 weeks of teaching with these students. I always knew I'd fall in love with them, because I asked God to give me a special love for them and I knew he would, but I never expected to feel so loved BY the kids. I've lost my patience, I've raise my voice, I've made the students do extra work or taken away privileges, and throughout it all, even amid little ups and downs, they show me they love me - gifts of just-picked weeds, hugs, greetings in the morning, shy smiles, quickly granting forgiveness when I apologize and ask for it... I don't think I'd realized just how BIG these kids' hearts are. I am happy to have been loved so well by these little ones.

Anticipation - we have a "quiet" week planned here in Thailand after we finish finals to pack up, get our classroom in order, say our goodbyes, and then we start a series of travels,  staying and working with ministries and visiting people for the next 4 months where our longest time in one location will be a month. Basically, we'll be living out of our backpacks and experiencing some amazing things and spending time with wonderful people. I'm excited (and, for parts, a little nervous) about it!

Satisfaction - I think it is without the wrong kind of pride that I can say I'm satisfied with what we've done this year here teaching. We haven't done a perfect job, but we have earnestly sought to teach well, love well, share Jesus with these kids, and be a blessing to the ministry here by trying to help build into and invest in the English program here through developing detailed daily lessons plans , creating re-useable materials for future teachers to use, developing an "orientation document," and seeking to help the administrators with feedback about what is working well and ideas for how to make the experience of teaching here better for teachers in the future. There's a lot I would continue to build on and develop if I was here longer, but I don't think there's anything major I would change about how we've been teaching.

It's hard to believe we're almost finished - especially when I think back to the beginning of the year and remember how I thought it would never end! - but it is. And our hearts are full of precious memories and joy from this year. In the words of Paul in his letter to the Philippians, this little school, and the people in it, "have a special place in my heart."

Moments: A Hannah-ism

Gabe and I have developed alter-egos.  These egos come out strong on school function days when our presence isn't so much necessary for the education of the students, but rather vital for the appearance and presentation of a white foreigner on behalf of the school.

We call each other by our best prize-winning-at-the-fair cow names: Angus and Bessie.

On Fridays, we get to dress up in traditional Northern Thai clothes and stand in front of the school for 45 minutes while the students arrive.  It's actually kind of fun to see all the parents drop their kids off, but we do feel rather like we should have blue ribbons tied around our necks  (or, at least we HOPE we'd get blue ribbons!)

A few weeks ago we went with the Principal and our Office Administrator and the Grade 1 Homeroom Teacher to be visible at a presentation at the local government office regarding the school.  We were asked to speak (we've become what I'd like to think of as GOOD at off-the-cuff, public addresses) about the school, and then greeted all the community members that had come, and then we went back to school.

This all happened during our normally schedule time for Grade 1, but we were later than the start of Grade 2 when we got back to our classroom.  With only about 40 minutes left in their classtime, Grade 2's appointed speaker (our smart, sassy, fun student Hannah whom we love and would be delighted to scoop her up and keep her forever!) came into our classroom where we'd just set down our stuff, walked boldly up to me and said:

"Teacher Dani, today we are learn?"

Yes, Hannah, I sure hope so!

Moments: Flowers, Immigration, and Bathrooms

Yesterday some of our Grade 1 little girls came in after classes to bring me some decorations: a handful of weeds flowers and a weed flower crown.  This particular plant looks a bit like a mini-daisy crossed with a dandelion: cute, sweet, a little bit fuzzy, and stinky.  Regardless, they were thrilled when I got a glass of water to be the new home for their gifts.


Today we were planning to go to immigration to check on the status of our visa, after which we needed to go to City Hall to do something with our Work Permit.  When we got to immigration, the powers that be in Bangkok hadn't sent our papers back, so we drove back to school to wait to call them until this afternoon.  They hadn't arrived this afternoon, so we'll go in tomorrow.


During Grade 3, two of our boys disappeared during their 5-minute break at the half-way point of class.  Gabe went to the boy's bathroom to see if they were hiding in there.  Toilet paper is not traditionally used in bathrooms here, so the kids just have the ceramic throne in each stall, plus a small hose with a sprayer (kind of like what my mom uses to water her plants) to clean themselves with.  Gabe heard giggling and saw water shooting over the top of the stalls.

(Do you know where this is going?!)

One door was open, and our student Happy froze when he saw Gabe. Then he started fumbling to put away the hose.

The other student, Luke, didn't realize Gabe was there, so when Gabe tried to open his door, he held it closed, thinking it was Happy.  Gabe leaned around the door and said very sarcastically: "Are you having fun?"  At which point, Luke's face also froze into this pained/scared/I'm-in-trouble/What's-he-going-to-do? look.  

They started plodding meekly back toward class, and Gabe hollered after them, "I want to see some hustle!" At which point the rocket fuel in their behinds lit and away they went, bursting a few seconds later through my door and speed-mumbling, "I'm sorry I'm late!"

Fortunately, Gabe had already talked to their homeroom teacher - since all the students have been unruly the last 2 days in that class - and arranged some extra-boring writing assignments to complete in her classroom under her supervision for any troublemakers.  Gabe marched them into Krue Ratt's classroom, gave Ratt a meaning-loaded nod, and walked out. 

We'd like to think the students believe we've developed superpowers of communicating with our fellow teachers through nods and sign language, without having to use words!  Hopefully this event supported that belief.

Once they were out of the classroom, things turned around a little and we were able to finish the class without going completely bonkers!

Tech Problems and Social Lives

We've had some tech issues in the last two weeks...  Honestly, technology issues is probably one of the quickest ways for God to get our attention and show us how UN-patient we are!  Call us a product of the 21st century, or a First World Spoiled Brat, but whatever it is, we recognize this is a good area for us to grow in!

Problem 1: The Wi-Fi at our house is dependent on a booster from our neighbor's house.  Usually, it's fast and available all over our house, and generally, wonderful!  However, it seems to have mood swings every so often and will just STOP working for awhile, and then somehow get over it's issue and reboot and everything's back to normal.

About 2 weeks ago, it stopped working.  It hasn't gotten over it's bad mood!

Now, we CAN access internet from our neighbor's router directly, but it requires us to go sit on the cement outside their back wall and even then, it's pretty slow... uploading photos, streaming videos, viewing any website with a lot of graphics, etc, are just not really happening. (So, the umbrella festival blog post I had planned to do two weeks ago has been put off for the duration of that time.  Sorry.)

We also can scooter to a coffee shop to access internet if we need to, or go down to the school and try to tap into the Wi-Fi there (which is what I'm doing now), but the regular speed at the school is about similar to sitting on our neighbor's sidewalk, so it's not a much better solution (although it does mean we avoid being giant targets for the mosquitoes!)

Problem 2: The classroom computer has been crashing multiple times a day for about the last 2 weeks as well, and last week, it seemed to have given up the fight.  So we went for a week double planning our days, (one plan for if the computer recovered after a crash, and one plan for if it didn't), and now we've been teaching for a week without a computer (I know, I know - people taught without computers for centuries... I get it.  Like I said, we're First World 21st Century-ers, though, so this has been an adjustment for us!), and frankly, we've passed the "I'm patient about this" mark!  In truth, it wouldn't necessarily be so bad if we knew the computer was going to be out of commission for a week or two, but the not knowing how long it will be until the computer comes back means we're sort of in this "put off that activity/prep/lesson until the computer comes back" and it just keeps dragging on and on!  We're hopefully supposed to get our computer back from the computer repair office it was taken to today, but we'll see :)

So, all that to say, these two issues have been a bit of an irritant for us the last few weeks.  It's obviously revealing how much we depend on technology, and probably a good reminder for us to NOT depend on it so much... So you can pray for us to learn the lessons God has for us in this situation!

On to a more happy, social note, we've been playing "Pandemic Legacy" with our friends, Jacob and Jonathan from church.  Pandemic Legacy is, like, a board game that married a choose your own adventure story and had a marathon of a baby!  The basic premise is that the four people who play the game are a team of World Health Organization workers that have to work together to fight against a dangerous epidemic that is threatening the world.  Each play through of the game is one month, and we fight the epidemic over a year's time (so, at minimum, 12 rounds of the game).  However, after each month is finished (if you don't meet your objectives for that month, you replay that month), new rules come into affect, new characters show up, and it generally causes you to evolve your strategy or lose!

We're on October, so we've almost finished the game, which is fun, but even more fun is the fact that we've really enjoyed getting to know Jacob and Jonathan better.  Gabe meets with them every week or two for coffee and dude time, and our game evenings have allowed us to engage in fun conversations about the Bible, historical context of Biblical passages, life in Thailand, etc.

I've also been able to connect with a few ladies here.  One friend I meet with for coffee on mornings that Gabe has to be at church early for worship practice.  I think I could have cried the first time I met with her, as it was SO NICE to have a coffee date with a friend and just have girl time.  As a former multiple-times-a-week coffee-date-making gal, I have missed being able to connect with someone over a latte (or, in this case, a 3oz Marocchino - pretty much 2 shots of espresso with a chocolate bar melted into it... Amazing!).  Last week I even made it to a girl's night/valentine-making party with a group of ladies from various ministries and locations in the world that are all here in Thailand to serve God and the people of Thailand.  It was an evening of meeting new ladies and rich conversations for me.

Bottom line: God has blessed us with some great opportunities for developing friendships here, and we are grateful for how others have reached out to us and invited us to do life with them!

Moments of Success

As an experimental ESL teacher, I'm not always sure how to measure "success" in the classroom.  Students might perform well on a test, but then freeze up when I try to talk English to them in front of their parents.  Or, they might figure out how to sound out a word, but forget what their newfound vocabulary means and how to use it during a class exercise.

Today, in Grades 2 and 3, though, we had moments that I think classify as "success."

In Grade 2, I handed back spelling quizzes.  One of our sweet, shy, lower-performing students earned a spelling start today.  It was his first time.  All other nine members of Grade 2 cheered loudly for him.  Early in the year, we had a little competition problem with Grade 2.  One of our students got very, very bent out of shape when she didn't win a game, and we instituted a policy of, after every game, requiring the whole class to cheer for each other: "Good job Team 1! Good job Team 2! Good job Team 3!"  She didn't cheer one day, and we had quite a major struggle of the wills, but ever since then, all of Grade 2 has been good about cheering for each other - even if they are sad that they didn't win.

When our first-time-spelling-star student came up to the front to put his sticker on the "Star Speller" board, his class was genuinely happy for him.  It felt like a moment of "team spirit" success.

At the beginning of the year, I would avoid (at ALL cost!) allowing Grade 3 to get out of their seats unless it was a very specific, structure activity.  With 22 of them (23 for a while), it felt like the second they were released from the expectations of their seats, behavior dissolved into a chaotic, maddening, free-for-all mess.  I've gotten a LOT better about explaining my expectations of the behavior I want to see from them when we do classroom activities now (working in partners or small groups, relays, etc).  Today, probably for only the third or fourth time this year, I instructed the students to not only stand up, but also to move their desks and chairs to the sides of the room.  Six months ago, this would have resulted in a full 20 minutes of me trying to get their attention back on me, but today, in a mere five minutes flat, they had all the desks and chairs neatly against the walls, and were sitting in lines in their respective groups.

We played a version of a telephone-relay race (practicing asking and answering questions and pronouncing English words), and the game progressed in a (mostly) controlled manner, with everyone participating, and nobody getting hurt, and my patience remaining in check for a good 15 minutes.  I looked at the clock at four minutes until the end of class time, and decided to go ahead and keep going for the last four minutes, even though some of the students were starting to get a little crazy (competition gets fierce among some of them... and others get bored easily and want to do other things).  We were able to hold it together for those final four minutes, and the class listened diligently when I instructed them to put their desks and chairs back into order (in the past, I've been so frustrated at the end of class I just send the students on their way and put the room back together myself!).

Classroom management success!

It is in these areas - the character development of sharing each others joys and triumphs when one student makes improvement, and keeping yourself under control to be able to listen to the teacher and participate in fun games - that I find myself measuring my success as a teacher.  I'm not sure that's what all teachers do, but for my first run at teaching elementary ESL, I feel like it's as good of a measuring stick as any I've got!

Moments: Washers and the Nest of Vermin

Today's Saturday, which is usually laundry day. I loaded up the laundry basket with our weekly offering of darks and lights, strapped it to the scooter with paracord, and drove the 5 minutes to our village's communal washing machine station.

An elderly woman was standing at one of the washers when I parked the scooter.  She was holding a section of a washer's lid in her hand.  I smiled and nodded and bowed slightly and "Sawasdee-ka'd" her, and loaded my laundry into two open machines.  She said something to me, which I didn't understand, but I smiled again and looked at her machine.  "Do you need help?"  She gestured toward the part of the lid in her hands and said something else.

I figured that part of the lid had somehow disconnected and she couldn't figure out how to reattach it, so I stepped close and worked for a few minutes getting the lid to re-align and lock back into place.  There was laundry in the machine and detergent powder sprinkle over the top of the laundry.

She said something else to me after I got it fixed - it was in the same tone as what she'd said to me before.

Then I began to wonder if she didn't have enough baht to pay to cover the cost of the machine - but I didn't hear anything that sounded like Thai numbers.  Additionally, I didn't have my purse with me and had only grabbed enough coins to pay for my two loads.  Then, after I'd smiled yet again, she turned, walked into the shop/restaurant that seems to manage the washing machines, pulled the garage-style metal door closed over the opening, and left me outside with my scooter.

Now I'm not sure if she was a customer needing help with the machine and/or money, or if she was a manager asking me if the laundry was mine/if I'd broken the machine, or if she had intentionally taken the machine a part to fix something and I'd un-done her work.

I'll probably never know.  So much for trying to be helpful!

In other news, my parents mailed us a package that included rat poison.  We seem to have at least a few rodent occupants in the ceiling above our bedroom and the guest bedroom.  Our guest bedroom has smelled weird since we got here, and it wasn't more than a month after we'd arrived that we started hearing scampering/rustling in the ceiling at night.

This week, I was awakened two times, absolutely convinced something must be in our bedroom.  The first time I thought I heard a small body "jumping" around the room - sort of weird "plopping" noise - and the second time, I was sure a rat was unwrapped plastic from something in our room.  In both cases, I grabbed my headlamp, turned it on, and beamed the invasive, hopefully-intimidating light around the room and the bathroom, but I didn't see anything.  I went back to sleep shortly later in both cases.

Today, Gabe found a step ladder, went into the bathroom in the guest room, climbed the ladder, pushed up one of the ceiling tiles, and threw four cakes of the rat poison in the four different directions.  We're praying the rats will do as their told: eat the poison, leave the premises, and go find water to drink and die away from our house.

Now, as we were crawling into bed, we just heard a loud kerfuffle in the ceiling, along with some screeching, active scampering, and rustling.  Let's hope the noise was due to rats greedily fighting over the poison and not the nest going into death convulsions above our bed.

Moments: Third Grade Happy Dance

Today, in third grade, if you'd happened to look in the window or cracked the door open, you'd have seen me literally performing a happy dance for the students after I handed out their corrected spelling quizzes.  I flailed and twirled and jumped and skipped - and my performance was received with a lot of giggles.  My dance was in celebration of the fact that seven of our 22 students had 100% of their spelling words correct on their quiz yesterday, and an additional ten students scored above a 75% and earned a "star" on the spelling chart on the wall.

We try to make a big deal out of getting the stars - drum rolls, announcing the score, allowing the students to guess who it is.  It's like a little ceremony each week.

My heart melted a tiny bit when Yayee (new to English this year) and Veevee (our most loner/artistic/living in his own little dream world student) and Pai (one of the rambunctious kiddos that should probably still be in 2nd grade but he's been pushed through the system a bit) ALL were able to put a spelling star on the wall chart for the first time today.  The room erupted in cheers for them.

In other news, Veevee "helpfully" kicked a vietnamese centipede he found out of the walkway in the hall... and directly at my ankles.  I think the desired result was to frighten the other students who were standing in line in front of me waiting to go into the classroom, or perhaps startle me.  His helpfulness earned him a bit of a conversation in the hallway with Teacher Gabe, his homeroom teacher, Krue Ratt, and another boy who had witnessed the whole incident.  Fortunately, the centipede met a swift (albeit not, maybe, humane) end by crushing from the reigning Thai shoe: the Chaco sandels.

- Dani