6/9/2001 - English Camps

When last we sent an update we were just beginning to settle into our new home. We have since been on the road for nearly 3 weeks working at 3 different teacher trainings, and we were beginning to get homesick for our home here in Sangka.

Work has definitely been the defining feature of our first month here in Sangka. When we arrived our co-worker in the local district primary education office (an office with jurisdiction over primary schools in an area similar to a school district in the US) told us that we could take a few days for ourselves to get our house set up, and then we could start work on the 1st of May. This was a nice gesture, but we were without transportation (we didn’t even have our bikes yet) and we didn’t know what was available – but we did know that everything was at least a half hour walk from our home. We got out enough to eat, and otherwise we slept for the better part of 4 days trying to recover from our training. AND THEN. . . .
About 8:00 AM on May 1st, minutes before we walk out the door for our first day of “work” a man calls our home. We didn’t even know that our telephone had been hooked up yet. The man spoke better English than our local co-worker and works for the provincial primary education office (an office with jurisdiction over the 17 district primary education offices). What did this stranger want, and how did he know our phone number before we did? It turns out that he is essentially our co-worker's boss on the provincial level, and he was asking us if we could help with a 10 day English training sometime this month. Hmm. We ended up going to the provincial capitol to visit this caller (it turns out his name is Chatchai) that afternoon with our local co-worker – and we got roped into planning a 10 day English training for 200+ Jr. High English teachers. That was fast. “Welcome to your new job. By the way, you will be conducting a 10 day training for 200 teachers in 2 weeks. Good luck.”

As it turned out, we had a little bit of help from a few Thai teachers who speak English (well, sort of), and a few days worth of help from other Peace Corps Volunteers who live nearby. One of the PCV’s who helped is from a neighboring province, and he had to squeeze our training in between a visit from his family and a new project starting in his own province. The other PCV showed up on day 5 of our training almost immediately after returning from a trip to Italy. We have now successfully survived and we believe that most of the teachers learned something, but 200 teachers is too many people for a training session, and 10 days in a row is far too long for a training session. In spite of being difficult, we learned a lot about our province, and we met a lot of interesting people that I’m sure we will meet and work with again in the next two years, and their positive experience at our training will pave the way for more significant work later.

We also learned a few things about working with Thais. Thais consider it very rude to tell you "no" to your face when you ask them to do something. Example: We needed assistant trainers to organize small groups of teachers playing Scattegories, Pictionary, Charades, etc. One trainer volunteered, "Oh, yes, I would love to lead a group tomorrow morning. Could I have one of the Pictionary groups?" Tomorrow morning came and went. In the afternoon the trainer shows up, "Oh, sorry I missed this morning. I had a wedding to go to." In addition, it was intimidating for most of the trainers (the ones with poor English skills) to "go up against" a native-English speaker and embarrass themselves by admitting they did not understand something. Example: The training course objectives (as set by the federal government) included giving teachers information on available teaching materials and resources. To Denny and Lisa, this meant info on libraries, videos and tapes the provincial and local offices might have, books that might be available, sources of funding, etc. We suggested that since we had just arrived in this country and did not know all the ropes, that the assistant trainers could each tell about what they know in their own expertise. "Excellent idea," says Chatchai. "We'll have a panel discussion." The time comes and Denny and Lisa are invited to sit on the panel, (mostly for show we think). Chatchai hands the microphone to Lisa and asks, "So how would you teach listening to students?" Huh? Lisa was not even sure that she understand the question, let alone how it related to available teaching resources. Lisa kept score throughout the panel discussion. Chachai kept asking questions like the one above, and we kept trying to redirect the discussion back to available teaching resources. In the end the score was Chachai 5, Denny 1 (In the last 5 minutes of the panel discussion Denny managed to direct a question at all of the Thai people in the panel that was direct enough that they all responded with answers that sounded like they were about teaching resources, but since the answers were in Thai, we're not entirely sure).

But the stories of Chatchai do not end there. Not only did he call us before we knew we had a phone and got us to do his 10 day training, but he conned us into 2 other trainings. One of the times when we visited his office while planning for this training he handed Denny the phone and said, “This is Ajan Panee from Yasoton. She’d like to talk to you about what you will be doing at her training in Yasoton. You remember, the training that you agreed to help with yesterday.” The only problem was that we had not talked yesterday – this was the first we had heard of the training in Yasoton. We were railroaded with incredible efficiency. A few days later he called our district office and said, “I’d like to know what you are planning to do for our one day training the 16th of May. Remember, the one you agreed to help with this morning.” Again, we had not agreed to help, nor had we even heard about a 1 day training the day before our 10 day training began. Needless to say we’re not really happy about being treated like a ragdoll by our friend in the Provincial Education office, but we have successfully survived, and we now have the local moral authority to tell him "no" if we need to. And lest you get the wrong impression, outside of work, he is one of the nicest, most charming, gracious, and considerate men we have met. "Oh, are you hungry? I'll take you to dinner. No, I've already eaten thanks, but it's my pleasure to bring you here. I'll just have coffee." "Oh, you've not been to the night market yet? Here, I'll take you in my car so you don't have to walk in the heat." "Is your house in Sangkha comfortable? Do you need anything?" "Oh, here are the supplies you asked for one hour ago: paper, crayons, and the photocopies you needed."

So, immediately after our 10 day training in our own province, we moved on to a training in Mukdahan. Mukdahan is on the Mekong River – the border between Thailand and Laos. Along the river there is a market that all of our Thai colleagues were excited to visit. Evidently the market is a tariff-free zone, and there are many items that are brought over from Laos. However, we didn't notice much difference between this market and any other market we've encountered in Thailand, except that it actually had a river view, which was rather nice. There were knick knacks that we didn't need, Thai style junk food that we don't like, and a lot of hand-woven fabric. The fabric turned out to be a pretty good deal - nice patterns and Lao cotton is cheaper than Thai cotton.

On the home front, we have met our neighbors and had the opportunity to chat a little bit. On one side of our house we have neighbors who are teachers in our district. They are the people who took us to buy the refrigerator and other appliances. They’re really nice, but we think they’re a little afraid to speak with us. They know a little English and we know a little Thai, but we’ve not really communicated well with them yet. On the other side of our house we have neighbors from Cambodia. They are a bit more outgoing, so we’ve had more luck speaking with them. The first night we spoke with them we learned that the father in the household is a nonfiction writer, and that they could not go back to Cambodia. Lisa started making up stories about how they were probably political refugees and that the father had written things critical of the Cambodian Government and that they were in mortal danger if they went back to Cambodia. Denny rolled his eyes and told Lisa to stop being so dramatic.

It turns out Lisa was right. They are political refugees who cannot go back because the father writes things critical of the Government. They left Cambodia and moved to Thailand courtesy of the UN and they are waiting for the UN to clear their way to the USA sometime next year. Needless to say, they are motivated to learn English. That helps a lot when we communicate with them because their native language is Khmer which we do not speak. They speak only slightly more Thai than we do, and a similar amount of English, so communication is still a struggle. But seeing smiling familiar faces when we come home is very nice.

Also, we've found a Christian church in Sangka (there is exactly one). The people are extremely nice, and a couple of people can speak English. The church is going to be a great place for us to improve our Thai reading a speaking skills. They sing all of their songs in Thai, so we've got to be able to read to keep up, and they preach in Thai, so we're learning new (and reinforcing old) words every week. This week they sang "God is so Good" in Thai, and then in Lao, and then in Khmer, and then in a local language called Suwai, and then in English too! There are small parts of the congregation that speak each of these languages as their first language (we're the English speakers), and everyone learns the common Thai language in school.

The first picture above is along the Mekong River in Mukdahan with Laos just across the river - if you squint there is a farmer plowing with a waterbuffalo in the wet field in the foreground. The second is from Denny's Birthday party. Lisa bought a cake at the local bakery (bread's not real common here, so the bakery is a bit of a novelty) and invited the neighbors over. The teachers are on the right and the Cambodians are on the left. It was nice to have friends to celebrate with! The last picture is of Lisa and Karen Downey,a fellow PCV, at a Buddhist temple in Mukdahan.

We hope that all of you remain safe, and we'll try to respond personally to your emails that come our way.

Denny & Lisa Wells