| Author | Post |
|---|
Shirley
Administrator
| Joined: | 15 Aug 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 54 |
| Mana: |    |
|
Posted: 15 Jul 2009 04:07 pm |
|
jameshallamore@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:28:28 +0000
we have been doing lots and lots of things. We went to the nightmarket where they close 2 streets and ate some food from the market stalls. Out here in Chiang Rai there are a lot of stalls that cook food, and you can pick up food whenever, about 30-50 baht (about a pound or less). We met up with the Changing World girl already out here (Fran who is 27) but doesn't look like it. There was also another girl called Jess out here, she came out last monday and is 18. Me and jess ate crickets from a stall, they were quite nice. Jamie wimped out. We had a look at different stalls - it so different to the UK, so relaxed and the food is very nice and fresh. Although at times quite spicy. Been eating rice and noodles, chicken and pork, sea food as well. Its very nice. We have been taken around Thailand by Paul, he showed us The Golden Triangle and the river where Thailand, Burma and Laos can be seen together. We have been travelling around in the back of the truck with Jess and Fran who wanted to see the sights and see differents schools. It was really good in the back, the wind in the face and just chatting to them. We had drinks in the Elephant bar with Shirley and Fran that night after the market which was good. The people are friendly and you could watch the english premiership.
On sunday we arrived in Fang which is west of Chiang Rai close to the Burmese border and north of Chiang Mai (Google it if you want to). We are staying in a nice guest house behind a restaurant called the Ritzer. It was very nice have a hot shower (although it is luke warm), double beds, and a living area. We are staying in Fang until next monday when we actually moving into a village closer to the two schools we are staying in. We will have our own house, sqat toilet and cold shower. We wanted to get the Thai experience and will help clean up the house and paint it. Jilldou with her husband Ben (an australian) are helping us out and are organising everything with us. We are joking with them that they are our surrogate parents as they are giving us a 200 baht a day allowanace for food and water and drink. They are being helpful and we have mountain bikes to get round town from Paul. We will be staying in the village away from Fang for the next two months, so will be out of internet contact for a while. We will try and send emails from the school. We start teaching on thursday but are going out to the school tomorrow to help with their two day scout event.
Have to go now, as my hour is nearly up. I have uploaded pics on to facebok, so have a look.
I am safe and Im having an amazing time. Shirely is back on wed/thursday and she said she will call you to let you know how we are getting on.
|
Shirley
Administrator
| Joined: | 15 Aug 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 54 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: 15 Jul 2009 04:11 pm |
|
Just thought I would send an email to let you know how I am getting on. Although we have only been here a week it feels like longer as we have done so much. We are now settled in at Fang and have been getting to grips with school life etc. Since we last spoke, I have been up to the school where we have met the teachers amd the principle. It seems life in thailand is very laid back. If it doesn't happen on time, it doesn't really matter. We have been with Jill a lot of the time as she has to drive us to the school from Faung as it is about 20 minutes drive away - there is no way we could manage that on our mountain bikes. We are going to teach english to certain classes in Mong Seung which is located near the burma border. We will be taching children with range from 11-13 and 15-16. Our first lesson should be on monday, but it is quite difficult to know whether that will be the case. Me and jamie have come up with lesson plans, so we are pretty prepared. The teachers seem really friendly but not many can speak english. Pwe is our helper who can speak good english and obviously thai and she will be helping us throughout our time in the schools. Apparently the term finishes on March 10th or around that time as the schools break up for their summer holidays when it gets too hot. So we will be in Faung and the schools for approx. 2 months. Next week, there is a scout camping thing at another school so we will be only be teaching monday and tuesday - (apparently it is what the thai school system is like, always taking days off.
A couple of days ago we visited the school and took part in a scout organised event. I followed a group of girls around in their group and did the same activites as them. I think it was a good way to intergrate into school life and be accepted. They were very funny and i think they like furlangs (tourists). I had to walk over a bamboo pole, over a lake. Fortunately, i didnt fall in, but so many boys and girls did. In the evenings we had to taste food that tent groups had prepared. We ate a dish which was raw pork and blood - not knowing what it is! But we are well and didnt get anything from it. The teachers started drinking beer and whisky at about 6pm - even though they were looking after the children (they didnt get drunk though). I also did some dancing with a teacher which the children found funny.
In the evening I was dressed up as a zulu and did a dance around a fire with teachers and school children.It was good to feel part of the school but funny at the same time. Later on in the evening, they did traditional akka dancing, thai singing and did a very very strange play based on chinese folk law. Teachers were dressed up as a monk, a lady, a pig - think you get the picture.
On friday/saturday we are going up to the burma border to a temple with Jill and Ben, and local monks. The head monk will be arriving on saturday and he is a very respected monk in the area. We met him on wednesday when we went to the temple and had tea and coffee with him. We had to respect the buddhist way of life, you have to take your shoes off before you eneter any building in Thailand and had to be below him all the time, sitting cross-legged on the floor. On the friday/saturday, we are going up to the temple near the Burma border to give out food and items to local novice buddhists in the refugee camps who are young children. The plan is to play games and have activites etc and help the young children. We plan to be back on sunday.
The plan on monday is too leave our own little guest house and move to a real thai house closer to the school (about a 5 minute bike ride away). Jill wiil take us to school and help clean the house with another dutch woman while we teach. Therefore, from monday we will have less internet time to chat via email. Although we will try and use the schools internet. The food is really nice here, have been drinking lots of water and some beer to. Coke here is 20p and a beer here is about 50 p. Crazy!
Since we last spoke, a lot of things have happened. We have settled into our thai house now. We still don't have furniture in it as the owner who is an orange farmer hasn't been down to the house. Apparently, in thailand furlangs can't own houses, so they rent houses or get a thai friend to buy it for them. In the week, our water pump broke so we can no longer get any water through the pipes or the taps. That has meant we have been filling up buckets of water to flush the squat toilet, and a massive big black water container for our showers in the morning. It hasn't been too difficult just a bit annoying sometimes. It was funny though when hamley ended up breaking the pipe we were filling the buckets up with. After attaching the water hose to fill up the buckets, he ended up pulling it off too hard and snapped the pipe. There was water flowing everywhere and all the villages came out to see what was happening. They were really nice about it, and fixed it for us - but we still felt bad as they had to switch the pipe off from the pumping station and fix it. Village life is going well, all the people are really friendly and when we broke the water pipe, anyone passing in their cars or bikes stopped to have a look and have a chat.
We have been cooking our own food recently as noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner was getting a bit boring. There is a tesco lotus in fang so we can buy everything we need. We got some ipod speakers for our mp3 players to listen to our music, have been having cornflakes and milk for breakfast, and buying apples, some shirts for teaching, as well as some food and snacks. I Our allowances of 200 baht (4 pounds a day) is sufficient in mung chum as dinner is only costing 50p a time. We are off to Chiang Mai next weekend (6-8th) with two girls that we met in Chiang Rai when we were with the Khom Loy Project. They are working with Khom Loy too.
The teaching has been going well, teaching the younger and older kids is really good. Although we have been teaching english quite a bit, the p.e lessons have been cancelled with the older children. This was because of ceremony that took place on friday to open the new library. They spent a whole week preparing the ceremony which only lasted half a day. It was however, an amazing event and the effort they put in was huge. You would never get anything like this in england. They had monks doing the drapes on the tents, the girls doing different tribal dancing, making screens out of massive leaves. They made displays of their work and set up tables for the laptop project. The also brought in a catered company to cook the food - it was so delicious. We had fish, chicken, rice, red thai curry, fish eggs and stomach, and melon and pineapple to finish. The library had been sponsored by two companies - a thai mirror company and american company who makes beauty project. Apparently the library cost 600,000 baht and it includes 12 computers, new books etc etc. It was a great day, and a really good experience. We got talking to a thai man and his wife, who works for the American company and they invited us to stay at their home when we go down to Chiang Mai next weekend. I don't think it will happen as we are meeting jess and claire, but it just shows you how friendly the thai people are.
On friday, we ended up in Cheers pub with Ben, Blake (an american guy) and Kate (a New Zealand girl). They are all helping ben and jill to put their website together They are volunteers like us, but are only staying for a month before heading off to travel to other countries. Blake did their 'monk for a month' project, where he became a novice monk for 4 weeks and had an ordaining ceremony, as well as learning about buddhism and meditation. Blake is leaving on monday to go to Laos. On friday at this cheers pub everyone got drunk on whisky and beer, and the next morning everyone had hangovers. Jamie couldn't remember much and it was funny filling him in on what happened. He ended up loosing his tesco value glasses and doing some crazy dancing. On saturday we did a jungle trek with the others, blake, kate and roselee ( a dutch lady who we have known for about 3 weeks). It was run by a dutch man called willber who is a friend of ben and jill. We ended up walking through rivers, almost waist deep and wading through mud. It was a shock to see wilber just jump into the river. My boots are still drying today in the sun and khum pc (our lady in Mung chum) who is doing all our washing will have some trouble getting the mud out. But it was an amazing experience and something i didn't think i would get to doLast edited on 15 Jul 2009 04:13 pm by Shirley
|
Shirley
Administrator
| Joined: | 15 Aug 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 54 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: 15 Jul 2009 04:15 pm |
|
Since we last spoke via email, we have been to bangkok. We left at 4pm on a thursday and came back about 8am on Sunday. We travelled down by two large double decker buses. One bus for the boys and one for the girls. We sat upstairs with the boys as it was more comfortable as the seats could recline and we had blankets. It was quite luxurious. One the way down to bankok we stopped off in Chiang Mai for dinner, 49 baht for all you could eat thai food. it was quite nice and we ate so much that we had to leave a lot of food on our plate. On the trip we were given 200 baht back of our 500 baht that we had paid, for food/snacks and drinks. So we only ended up spending about 400 baht for the whole trip (200 of our own) equating to about 8 pounds...silly money. The trip from fang to chiang mai took about 3 hours and the trip to bangkok from chiang mai about 10 hours. It wasn't too bad although i didnt sleep much because i couldn't get comfortable. We ended up stopping at 4am to clean our teeth and faces and put on our shirts for the Grand Palace. The grand palace is the largest temple in thailand and where the kings of thailand use to live... the last one being number 6, we are now on number 9. The trip to bangkok was really good as most of the children at the school would never get the chance to see bangkok or see the places we went too - as it would be too expensive. The government every year pays so much money to schools in the north so the kids can get to go to bangkok. We arrived at the grand palace about 8.15 and at first we were not let in as the army officers thought we were standard furlangs. However, we had a letter saying we were teachers of the school, but the teacher who had the letter had walked on ahead, so we had to wait for 15 minutes...no long though. When we did get in, we didnt have to pay the 250 baht entrance fee and went straight into the grand palace complex with the schools. The children had a tour with a tour guide from the palace while the teachers took pictures. We saw the gun armoury and took loads of pictures of all the different temples. We saw the emerald buddha which is meant to be very special. We also got to go places where normal tourists would not be allowed. so it was really good on that part.
After the grand palace, we got back on the coach and went to the thailand parliament/assembly. On our way we say a rally which I think was for people involved in the milk industry and we saw a graduation ceremoney...loads of people sprawling out onto the streets. It was sooo hot in bankok, even at 4am in the morning it was hotter than fang at 12! So glad we are working in mung chum, as its nice and cool in the morning and evening and not too hot during the day. We arrived at the parliament and had a tour around it, and the children watch a promotional video...lots of civil service people looking like they were army (because their outfits). We ended up going into the parliament and spending about 10 minutes inside while they were talking about their budget. We even got on national tv! After that we ate in their canteen and headed back to the coach.
The journey to the beach and the hotel took about 3 hours and during that time we watched 300, although it was in thai. During our times we ended up watching thai films, sooo many thai music songs and english films but in thai. We got to the hotel and we had air conditioning, a fridge, a tv, and a proper toilet in our room...luxury!! We spent about 3 hours on the beach from about 4pm, the sea was soo warm and we ended up throwing our american rugby ball around with the kids and using the frisbee. we swam loads and mucked about and ended up drinking some beer and wisky with the teachers on the beach, it was really good. In the evening we had a really nice meal all paid for and the kids seemed to have a great time. There was also karoke on the beach and a show which had lady boys...we got a picture with one of them after Khum Pwe forced us too. (she is the teacher at the school who has been looking after us and can speak good english, she is such a legend!. The teachers late at night ended up doing poker, although we didnt. One teacher won 3000 baht, one teacher lost quite a bit...it was good though as we got to know lots of the teachers much better and the school children.
In the morning we had breakfast which was paid for, and headed to one of the markets. lots of the kids got dried squid and other fishy foods, which we cant stand. some of it is nice, so of it not. They apparantely got money from friends and parents to buy stuff, although they did get some stuff themselves. After that we went to another market to buy some more stuff, although we didnt as it was more dried fish - but appparently the only place in thailand to get that stufff. We then went to a turtle sanctuary where they are looking after and raising turtles, the children seemed to enjoy themselves. We then went to a naval dockyard where the kids got to go on an aircraft carrier or a small one, but we were not allowed as we were foreigners and didnt have any official papers to say we could. It was really good having a look at there were loads of other schools there- some kids even wanted our pictures taken with them. during the trip as well so many kids from our school wanted their pictures taken with 'teacher james and jamie',, it was quite funny. We left sunday evening after dinner and stopping off at a service station for a wash and vrush of teeth. On the way back we ended up doing karoke with the boys and finally got to mung chum at 8am. We then ended up sleeping for the whole day before going back to fang with Khum tik for dinner.
This week we have been teaching mainly and unfortunately we have had to move houses as our (wanker) orange farmer landlord sold our house to some lady. sorry about that. all she wants of the house is a roof as apparently it is cheaper than getting a new roof made. so we moved on friday to our new house which is just round the corner. for 2 weeks we will have a house mate, the cousin of the owner who is working on an orange farm. it is a bit werid to be honest because of the security issue and the fact there is no lock on the door. Dont worry in thailand or where we are, as it is a small village, everyone knows us and we should have no problems, theres never any crime here apparently. but we have still given our documents and passports to khuim pwe to look after just incase, so there is nothing valuanble in the house. We have our final date for the school. the school closes on the 20th, and after that we move back to fang to work for ben and jilldou until the 15th april where we then go back to chiang rai to work for paul in an orphanage before leaving to go bangkok on the 1st may. It will be really sad to leave mung chum, as khum pwe and the other teachers like khum jack and khum tik have been so helpful and friendly.
Next weekend we have our own english camp for the children at souncha (the school we teach on mondays) we have organised an english camp with fun activities and sprt games, and treats like donuts. this week at school the kids have been making a banner for the camp and have been helping with some of the flash cards. on tuesday we are going to tesco lotus, the market and other places to buy food. it should be really good for the two day event.
|
Shirley
Administrator
| Joined: | 15 Aug 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 54 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: 15 Jul 2009 04:17 pm |
|
dont worry about us. We are fine in the north. We havent seen or been involved in any trouble where we are. It sounds like a million miles away. But Ill contact Changing Worlds to see what they advise. But I wouldn't worry. Apparently after speaking to the teachers, they say the trouble is not located anywhere near the tourist areas of the city, so we shouldnt have any troubbles....but I realise the situation will change. At the moment, there is the water festival, officially until wednesday but will last probably the whole week. Hopefully, a lot of people have returned to be part of their festivities in their villages, so hopefully there will be less trouble. I really dont think there will be a repeat of the situation back in december as the prime minister seems to have the support of the Government and the military, which was not the same as last time. However, I do realise that the situation can change at any time but I think the government will make sure that the airport remains open. We were not planning on getting to Bangkok until 1st or 2nd may anyway, so have got a bout 2 weeks to see what happens. I'll also speak to Paul from the Khom Loy project when we arrive in Chiang Rai on Saturday to see what he would recommend and anything we should do. But I wouldnt worry, we have experienced no problems and everyone in Fang and Chiang Mai are in the party atmosphere. I do not like Thaskin Sinuwatra though as he seems hell bent on stirring up trouble even when he is not in the country. We have heard he is paying every member of the Red shirts 500 baht a day to protest. Stupid! They are campaigning so Thaskin can get his bloody money back after it was frozen by this government!
Anyway, on a lighter note since the last time we spoke we have been working for ben and dou on their website and facebook group. We have spent the last week writing articles, making information packs and advice for possible volunteers in the future. It has been quite labourious really and we have been constantly going on the internet, on hotmail, facebook and news websites. We each have brand new computers (like the one at home) to work on with a fairly fast internet connection so its pretty good.
On our first week back in Fang, we went to the see the school for their results. We cycled to Mounchoum from Fang. It was soo hot cycling at 9am, we were sweating loads when we got their. Although Jamie was 20 minutes behind me. When we got there everyone was so excited and happy to see us, especially the children who were waving as I rode up the driveway. Khum Pwe and the teachers seemed really happy to see us...it was also really nice being back. Khum Pwe made us a CD for our english camp, which had her pictures on it from the day. It was good to see the pictures of the camp that we hadnt taken.
On the wednesday there was a massive ordination for young boys who wanted to become novice monks. It was such an amazing experience to be part of. Apparently, most people in Thailand will become a novice monk at least once in their life time. Some will become novice monks in order to study at the school, some will become novice monks and then monks for life, while others will only become novice monks or nuns for a short period of time (only up to Songkran) due to the time they have for the summer holidays. We arrived in the morning and as part of the Monk for a Month programme that Blood Foundation run, there was two farangs (foreigners) being ordained. They wore bright clothes, which made them look like alladin, they wore make-up and wore shades too. The main focus of the ceremony is where boys are ordained to become novice monks. The fathers or relatives carry the boys on their shoulders and take them around the temple. Then we left the temple where they were either carried on the shoulders or placed in the back of a truck to be paraded down the main road, round a large local school and around the temple itself. It must have been about 15km that they walked. Im going to put the photos up on facebook this week so you can see. When they arrived back they were carried around one of the temples in the complex and then returned to thee big hall for the ceremony. By their relatives they were given their white robes (to become laymans). The parent or relative sat on the chair and presented them with the robes. They then got dressed into them and then had a blessing given to them. They had to recite the 10 precepts before being given their orange robes. Once this was done they then left the temple after their blessing to be given alms. This where each person places money or food (but it was just money this time) into their bowl. We gave some of the new novice monks 1 baht so 2p to each as did everyone else. The whole ceremony lasted for about 10 hours! It was so long, but there was a party atmosphere and lots of stalls selling food and drinks.
On the friday of last week, we went to buy a water gun as it was the beginning of Songkran. It is a three day water festival which actually lasts offically from Monday to Wedensday of this week. However, it will probably go on for the whole week. On friday after cycling back from tesco, I was cycling down the main road of Fang getting attacked with buckets of water and water pistels. It is a massive celebration where people will throw water at each other, getting as wet as possible. When I arrived back, I filled up my pistol and headed out to get wet and people wet. I got targeted by adults, by young children, some people on the sides of the roads, some in the back of trucks with massive containers of water. It was so fun. We even went round in a truck with the people we knew throwing water at people on the side, and getting attacked in the back of the van. We even had a water fight with ben who took it upon himself to get us soaked with the hose pipe.
On satuarday morning, we went to Chiang Mai with Khum jack and Khum tik, the teachers from MoungChoum. We had the luxury of travelling by air conditioned car, rather than the bus like last time. On saturday we booked into a hotel which was nice, even got to watch a bit of Australia rugby union on it. We had a BBQ all you can eat buffet which I have to say I probably put them out of buisness, donnuts, cakes, meat, everything and everything. You even have to cook your meet at the table, and boil the vegetables. its all pretty good. We ended up going out in the evening to a club in Chiang Mai. Jack new the manager so we got 3 bottles free and just had to pay for the mixers. We danced and drank, and ended up the worse for wear. Jack's girlfriend number 2 was very the worse for wear! On saturday afternoon we also went up to a temple on top of the mountain which overlooks the city - 306 stairs. It was pretty amazing views. On the way back it started to thunnder and poured down. We went to a town and got soaked through even though we were outside for about 20 seconds, it was torrential. On sunday morning we headed to a local market to have a look around before venturing into the city for the real action to begin. I ended up going through 3 buckets during our 8 hours in the city. It has a big moat that flows round the city and with string attached to the bucket you take water from it. There were loads of people throwing water, at me, at people on motorbikes, in vans, it was such an amazing party scene. Everyone was dancing, I got saoked through. I was fortunate to borrow someone (Aaike's) waterproof camera, so I got some really good photos. It again poured down in the afternoon when we left, about 6pm, so got a bit more soaked. They even had a disco in which water (that was clean) was sprayed over you. I got soaked as did my bag, and my wallet (even though it was inside my bag, inside two plastic bags). It was such a good weekend.
We got back to Fang today for the start of Songkran, and on the way to do some more work in the computer room, got soaked cycling down the main road. Everyone was out having a party and throwing water, they particularly liked throwing water at farangs.
So other things that have happened, we went to Fang hot springs to have a picnic, played in the river and saw the massive plumes of steam shoot up. Smelt of eggs due to the sulphur. I also fell off a motorbike, stupid me. But dont worry I wouldnt be going on one ever again, I prefer a bicycle or a car. I wasnt hurt, just scraped my hand and bruised my ankle. But Im fine now, it was soo funny, I wasnt even going fast, just practising in the street. We have been out to restaurants and cheer pub quite a bit, and drinking a bit, as people buy us drink as we do not have long in Fang.
Last edited on 15 Jul 2009 04:19 pm by Shirley
|
Shirley
Administrator
| Joined: | 15 Aug 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 54 |
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: 15 Jul 2009 04:21 pm |
|
We have arrived in Bangkok safely, we are staying in a guest house which seems quite nice. Expensive though compared to what we were use to Fang, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Its 650 baht ber night while in Chiang Mai it was 320 baht and even cheaper in Fang (500 baht for 7 weeks). So we arrived at 7am in the morning and got a taxi to our guesthouse. It was a really good trip, better than the bus we took with the school trip. We got tea and coffee, a food voucher for a bowl of jok (rice gruel) and got sandwishes and cake with a bottle of water. The seats also reclined so I actually got a fairly good nights sleep. When we arrived in Bangkok it was cooler than we expected it was going to be. Apparently, it has been raining in Bangkok for the past two days. We had some breakfast and are just in the internet cafe, catching up on emails and facebook. Check facebook as I am uploading the pics! In the afternoon we plan to go to the shopping centre as hamley needs to buy some new t-shirts, we need to get toilteries as it will be cheaper here than in Australia. We also hope to get a guide book at the shopping centre or even at the airport. Tomorrow we hope to go to the floating market, China town etc etc, get up at about 5am and visit the market. We plan to get to the aiport at about 1pm even though our flight isnt until 6pm, because it takes about an hour with the traffic to get anywhere. We will get some food and just relax, and then start planning our time in Australia.
It was sad to leave the orphanage. We heard so many stories where one boy (Moses) was born to a 15 year old girl who was raped, and she hasnt been back since. or another case where a boy's parents (Bobby) were murder and the grandmother was also killed trying to save him. Thre were also a girl with HIV there (gia) who spoke really good english, but obviously has a limited future and in the past was very close to death. They children were so nice and friendly, and they worked so hard, each had there own jobs to do around the place like helping to wash the younger children, to cleaning up after dinner, to cooking etc etc. And there was one women (Ami) who was looking after 55 children but the older children like fon who was 19 helped out too. It was such a sad situation but the children were always happy and helpful but had limited resources and it was good to build a classroom for them. In two weeks we only managed to do the structure and the outside so there is still work to do inside like the walls and decorating it. but hopefully it goes some way to making their lives better.
|
Current time is 01:07 am | |
|
|
|