On the move

I finally moved in to my new place yesterday. It is only about three houses up the road from where I have been staying, so it was fairly easy to shift all my things from one house to the other, especially as I don't really have very much stuff. The house is furnished, and Chandanie had left some bits and pieces, so I don't need to get very much, and I have been able to get settled in there pretty quickly.
I have a new selection of noises to get used to. Across the road are two of the yappiest yappy dogs I have ever come across. My house is squeezed in between the two neighbouring houses, so on one side in particular I can hear everything going on. And I seem to have a resident Tokay Gecko right outside my bedroom window. I think it must be a young one, as it doesn't seem to have got the mating call quite worked out yet!

On Wednesday I went with my landlady to the Immigration Office to register my new address. As with any official process in Thailand, it required multiple signed copies of various documents. Saving paper does not seem to be high on the agenda here. Next week I am going to try to get my Thai driving licence. I have an international licence, which I obtained before I came here, so in theory I think it should be relatively straightforward, but you never know... Once again, I need copies of passport, visa, work permit, international licence and a medical certificate. I went on Thursday to get the medical certificate from one of the little street clinics in town. The procedure goes something like this:
"I need a medical certificate for a driving licence"
"Passport please"
Name is then copied from passport onto medical certificate, which is duly signed.
"30 baht, please"
Done. No examination, no questions, nothing that might in any way ascertain one's level of health and fitness. What one might call a "formality", I suppose!

On Friday, we went back to the school we have been working in, after a break of about two weeks when we were doing other things. I wasn't feeling very enthusiastic about it. I thought after such a break, things might have gone back to square one. When we went in, some of the children came running up to us and started hugging us and singing the songs we have taught them. The morning actually went very well. The teacher has been using some of the ideas we suggested for developing a routine and better class control, and she said that she feels that things are starting to go better. I think it will be a slow process of change, but I came away feeling much more positive than when I went.

Next time - new house photos!

P.S. For the more mature reader:
Just retired and wondering what to do?
It's never too late to try something new!
VSO are looking for retired professionals
http://uk.vso-international.org/q/1NkhJcPtuwc2R7/wv

My neighbourhood

Bit of a breakthrough at aerobics tonight. I actually felt as if I knew what I was doing for more of the time than I didn't (if that makes sense!) and I didn't feel quite so utterly exhausted at the end of it. I still ended up facing the wrong way a few times, and I always lift the wrong knee on the mambo-cha cha cha- knee lift sequence.

I had hoped to be in my own house by now. However, the landlady, having had over a month when the house was empty to sort out the jobs that needed doing, left it all till the last minute, so there have been some delays. Hopefully I can move in this weekend.

This week we have been visiting the first of the four Child Care and Development Centres (CCDCs) we will be working with. It is a fairly large centre that takes children from about 18 months to 4 years. We will concentrate our efforts mostly with the 2 1/2 - 4 year olds. We had a very good chat with one of the teachers, who is very passionate about early years education and already has lots of ideas about how she would like to be able to do things differently. If we can support her with that, and encourage similar development throughout the centre, that will be really rewarding.

At the weekend we had some lovely sunny weather, so I went out and did something I have been meaning to do for a while - took a few pictures of my neighbourhood.

The little shop at the end of the street where I get my drinking water from. Purified water is sold in large barrels for about 25p. I'm not sure how many litres they hold, but I am only just able to stagger back to the house carrying it!

 

The laundry where I get the clothes washed that I want ironed. There is always a lovely fragrance of spring fresh fabric softener when you go past one of these laundries!

 

 

The wash-your-own laundry where I do the rest of my washing. There is just time to go and do a weekly shop in Tesco while the programme is running!

The little mechanic's shop where, for about 5p, they will put air in your bike tyres for you.

 

  

My street. My new house is on the left.

This patch of waste ground between my street and Alice's was completely dry and dusty a few weeks ago. Now, with the rain, it is a lush field, complete with grazing cow!

Alice's house and beautiful garden - all her own creation!

 

If this were a multisensory blog, I would also at this moment be able to share with you the sound of the dogs howling and barking in the street outside, and the rather unpleasant drain smell that has started to appear at this time of the evening for some reason, probably to do with the rain. Or maybe it's for the best that I can't share those things!

Busy week

On Monday and Tuesday I attended a workshop organised by IRC (International Rescue Committee) on "Mainstreaming Protection Principles", which, in a nutshell, means ensuring that human rights, safety and dignity are safeguarded across all activities and sectors of a development project. It was very interesting, and there were several areas that were particularly relevant to the project that I am involved with, including identifying barriers that prevent individuals or groups of people from accessing particular services.
One of the aims of the VSO Early Childhood project is to increase the access for migrant children to early years education. However, the reasons why some migrant children are not attending school are many, varied and complex, and this was one of the many questions that I discussed with the MoI education chiefs in our follow up meetings on Thursday and Friday. The purpose of these meetings was to begin to discuss the project in a bit more detail, and to find out some more about the background situation. In both sub-district areas where we will be working, there already seem to be some very positive initiatives going on in terms of supporting access to education for migrant children, and they are very supportive and welcoming of our project, which is all very positive. The next month will be taken up mostly with initial observations at the centres that we will be working with, to assess strengths and areas of need.
I am feeling quite frustrated with the language situation, as I have made very little progress since our initial language training. In fact, I might even have gone backwards! I have wondered if I should get some more lessons, though I'm not sure if that would help me develop the sort of language that I need. In some ways, having my coordinator to translate probably makes me a bit lazy. If I was thrown in the deep end and was forced to try and communicate on my own then I might get somewhere a bit faster. I will be getting a lot more exposure now that we will be spending most of our time in schools, so I'm hoping things may improve.

Thought for the Day 4

There seem to be lots of people going round with inspirational sayings on their T-shirts. Here are a couple that struck a chord with me that I thought I would share:

We make a living by what we get
We make a life by what we give

Experience is not what happens to you
Experience is what you do with what happens to you

Of course, there is no T-shirt saying quite as inspirational as my own:

Keep Calm and eat TIFFIN!

Looking at that photo I've just realised how much my hair has grown! I must find a hairdresser soon. I wonder if I will manage to communicate that I just want it trimmed, or if I'll come away with something more drastic?! I will keep you informed...

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Good Curry

In order to be able to communicate a bit better with the children, I got my coordinator to teach me some useful, basic phrases in Thai. (Slightly pointless in some ways, as part of the challenge of teaching these children is that many of them do not understand much Thai, but it makes more sense for me to try and communicate in Thai than to be introducing yet another language i.e. English)
So I now have a handful of phrases, mostly to do with behaviour management, as that is the main focus at the moment:

• Listen to the teacher
• Look at the teacher
• Sit down
• Stand up
• Sit in a circle
• Sit in your group
• Variations on the theme of Don't hit/ punch/ kick your friend
• Don't run around the classroom
• Speak quietly
• Well done
• Very good

We were practising them in the office yesterday, much to the amusement of any Thai speakers within earshot. I'm finding some of the pronunciation quite difficult. My coordinator keeps correcting me, but the problem is that I can't hear the difference between what he is saying and what I thought I said.

So today in school, a child came to show me his work and I said what I thought was Very Good, except that due to some subtle vowel change that I have yet to understand I apparently did not say Very Good, but curry. So to the children who came to show me their work after that I smiled broadly, gave a big thumbs up and said in English "Good Curry!" After all, tone of voice, facial expression and body language are so much more important in human communication than mere words!!

(P.S. Apologies to anyone who was anticipating a post on a mouth-watering culinary theme!)

Space Monster

It came from outer space, a hideously deformed creature with luminous orange skin and hunched back, its head far too big for its body, causing terror on the streets of Mae Sot....

... until one brave person dared to unmask the terrifying beast, to discover beneath the cunning disguise...

... a VSO volunteer, somewhat over-protected for motor biking in the rain!