Every Cloud....

The Cloud:

Chandanie, the lovely VSO volunteer who lives just a few houses down the road from where I am staying at the moment, and who has taken me under her wing, has been offered a job in Bangkok and is leaving tomorrow. I am really sad about that (though happy for her!). I had only just started to get to know her in the last week or so, but already I could see that she would become a really good friend and support. I am sure she still will, but from a much greater distance, which isn't quite the same! It's a feature of life that I remember from my international school days - people come and go and you find yourself in a cycle of making friends and saying goodbye.

The Silver Lining:

I can move into her house! The timing isn't quite right, as I had committed to three months in Sam's house, May to July. We saw the landlady yesterday and she has agreed that I can take it from 1st July, so there will only be one month of overlap. It is a lovely little house, and I am looking forward to being able to make it my home. I was keen to find something in this area, as it is close to work and there are several VSO, ex-VSO and other NGO people who live around here. One ex-VSO volunteer, Simon, who lives just down the road, has offered to give me some motorbike "lessons", which will be very helpful, as I have not sat on a motorbike since my training in Kidderminster back in January! I don't think I'll be wrapped up in so many layers here!!

First full week at work

Because of the various public holidays, my first two weeks at work were both 3-day weeks. This has been my first full week, and it has been a bit busier than before.

 

On Monday I helped out with the first day of the Training of Trainers course. This is a course run by World Education, which is designed for teachers and school directors, to help them develop effective training techniques. When I worked at STEPS PD, we used to run 5-day courses, and our participants were always exhausted at the end of them. This course runs for a full four weeks! The trainers rotate, so they get to rest, but for the participants it must be a real challenge, especially in the heat! No air conditioning at the venue, so it was a pretty sticky day, with over 60 participants in the room.

 

The teachers are all from different parts of Burma; some are living in Thailand and others travelled from eastern Burma for the course. The course is run by a team of young and very talented Burmese trainers. As with all such events here, it started with an opening ceremony with speeches from various key people, including the deputy director of the Ministry of Education here in Mae Sot.

The first day of the course explores issues around cultural and personal values, and why it is important to take these into account when training in multi-cultural situations. The trainers were brilliant at building rapport with the group and getting them involved and the participants were very keen and motivated (I'd like to see them half way through week 3!!)

 

I presented one small session in the afternoon - my first experience of presenting through an interpreter, which was interesting. In some ways it makes it less stressful, not being in direct contact with the audience (though some of them did speak very good English). However, there is also a negative side to that which is that it is difficult to respond directly and build relationships with the group. It is something I will have to get used to for my own training role in Thai schools - either that, or I need to make very rapid progress with my Thai!

On Wednesday we held the interviews for the coordinator role - the person who will work with me to provide logistical and language support for the project. In some ways it worked out well that the appointment had not been made before my arrival, as I was able to design the interview questions and interview the candidates myself, together with a Thai colleague who assessed their Thai language skills and cultural awareness (all the short-listed candidates were Burmese). It is not an easy post to recruit for. The coordinator needs both Thai and Burmese language skills, as well as English, as I will be working with Thai schools and communities and also with migrant families and communities. They also need experience of project coordination, working with communities, financial management, education/training and an understanding and sensitivity towards the issues facing both communities. The main stumbling block was the level of Thai language skills. We have decided to make an appointment with a 3-month probationary period to see how things go.

 

An example of different cultural approaches/expectations: My Thai colleagues were blown away by how professionally I went about it all - preparing written questions and recording sheets, designing simple tasks to test their translation of documents between Thai and English, and following the same procedure for all candidates. I get the impression they would have done something much more informal and haphazard. I was well-drilled in selection and interview procedures when I was a trustee at the Harbour project, where everything had to be done in line with Swindon Borough Council's equal opportunities and transparency policies! I guess things are a bit different here!

 

Early in the week I began to develop a bit of a croaky throat and cough, and by Thursday it had developed into a full blown cold which sapped the little bit of energy I still had in this heat. On Friday I had to go to the hospital to do the medical check for obtaining my work permit, which was an interesting experience. I arrived with no idea of where to go, armed with a piece of paper I had been given which explained in Thai what I was there for. I parked my bicycle and wandered off looking for a nurse to show my piece of paper to, as I had been instructed, when I heard someone calling after me. I turned to see a security guard, who was indicating that I could not leave my bicycle where I had put it. So I took the opportunity to show him my piece of paper! He showed me where to park my bike by the little security hut and then one of his colleagues escorted me right to where I needed to go.

 

Thankfully I had got there in good time (as instructed!) so I was one of the first and did not have to wait around. They have quite a little production line going. First they take your identification (I went armed with a photocopy of my passport, as instructed), allocate you a number and relieve you of 600 Baht. Then you are given a little pot and sent off to produce a urine sample. In order to get to the toilets, you have to go through the canteen. I did wonder what the diners must make of that, all these people trouping past with their little offerings! The experience was made rather distressing by the fact that there was someone being very sick in the cubicle next to me. Made it rather difficult to concentrate on the task in hand!

 

When you return with your sample you are sent upstairs for a chest x-ray. I was all set up in front of the machine and the chap said something which I didn't catch, but I guessed might have been an instruction to take a deep breath and hold it, so I did..... and held it..... and held it..... and then he said: "Now breathe in and hold your breathe", so I quickly breathed out (what a relief!) and started again.

After the chest x-ray, you go off to another room to give a sample of blood. Once again I was kindly accompanied by a member of staff. I must do the "little girl lost" look very well! The blood-taking was uneventful, and then back to the desk again to collect the receipt and be told to come back on Monday for the results. I do hope that the fact that I had a horrendous cold won't affect any of the tests - I don't really want to do it all again!!

 

In the afternoon in the office we had "Happy Friday" - cakes and fruit and soft drinks. I think it is a weekly event, but this one was special as it was also a farewell for three people who are leaving.

 

By the time I got home I was feeling really quite ill with my cold, so took some paracetamol and went to bed, where I lay for a couple of hours feeling as if my whole body was in meltdown. Thankfully the paracetamol kicked in and I was able to get up later and have a shower and something to eat. Today I feel much better. If that's what a cold feels like in this climate, I hope I never catch dengue fever!! 

 

(A little question to the scientists/doctors out there: how come in northern hemisphere countries people catch cold mostly in the winter, whereas here the season for colds and flu is at the height of the hot season?)

 

Things I Learned..... Volume 1

Somewhere among the boxes stored in my sister's attic is a little Peanuts cartoon book (which I think was a Christmas present many years ago) with the wonderful title "Things I Learned After It Was Too Late (And Other Minor Truths)". It is full of Charles M. Schultz's wise and witty observations on life, with sayings like: Sidewalks always win; knees always lose; and When you have to get up at 7.00 a.m., 6.59 is the worst time of day.

I have recently felt inspired to start writing my own version, so here is Volume 1:

• A black bicycle saddle when left out in the midday sun gets very, VERY hot!

• A tofu burger tastes of nothing at all

• Rules for turning right at junctions in Thailand are vague to non-existent. When in doubt, get off your bicycle and cross on foot.

• A cool shower only cools you down for as long as you are actually standing under it.

• There is only so much a travel iron can do with clothes that have spent weeks at the bottom of a rucksack.

• Living in a hot country does not stop you from getting a cold :-(

• Smiling at people cheers you up (especially in Thailand, where they tend to smile back!) :-)

• Skirt + Bicycle + Windy Day = not a good combination!

Little achievements

You know it's all starting to get on top of you when....

.... you find yourself getting all emotional and teary-eyed at the check-out in Tesco because they are playing "Country Roads, Take me Home.." on the radio. Not that I have ever lived in West Virginia, but the sentiment remains the same! Someone please remind me of this in two years time when I am feeling miserable about leaving Thailand!!

It shouldn't be so physically and emotionally draining, moving the contents of four bags from one location to another, but I was exhausted yesterday after moving to my new temporary abode. The heat doesn't help. I found it difficult to sleep, and was most alarmed to be woken at 6am by interminable tuneless music being played over loud speakers just around the corner. Talk about out of the frying pan - the temple chanting was most soothing in comparison. Sam reassured me that it is not a regular occurrence - thank goodness!

I have decided I need to appreciate the little achievements more, instead of fretting about the un-sorted and the uncertain. So, today's achievements:

• locating somewhere that sells coat hangers. My clothes are now hanging neatly in a wardrobe - finally!
• preparing questions for the interviews for my coordinator/assistant, to be held on Wednesday
• being introduced to the Sunday Market by Chandanie, another VSO volunteer who lives down the road and has taken me under her wing
• buying POTATOES!! (and other fruit and veg)
• cooking my first meal for myself in 2 months - an interesting concoction from what I had managed to buy at the market
• Skype call with Mum. I am very lucky that internet access is so widely available here. Once I get my own place I will certainly get it set up if it isn't already. Well worth paying for to be in touch with folk back home!

So, off to bed now and hoping to sleep a bit better. Tomorrow is the Training of Trainers course, so I should probably have a look at my notes before I go to bed!

Dawn Chorus

Things that wake me up in the morning:

• a weird and wonderful selection of bird calls (I would hesitate to refer to most of them as "song")
• dogs barking
• singing/ chanting/ drumming/ gonging from the local temple
• the two lizards in my room calling to each other
• a very loud and persistent cockerel

Who needs an alarm clock?! On Saturday I'm moving from the guest house to my next temporary accommodation - a sub-let from someone who is returning to the UK for a few months. Maybe it'll be a bit quieter?!

Wet T-Shirt

Today is Day 2 of the Songkran celebrations, and once again I got completely drenched. Yesterday I went into town on foot, to soak up (literally!) the atmosphere. I went back to the temple that I had seen the day before where they had been preparing for the festivities. I just wandered in to see what was going on, but I think effectively I gate-crashed their new year celebration! I was the only westerner there, and tried to wander round unobtrusively, but people went out of their way to make me welcome, plying me with food and drink, and one lady tied a little string bracelet around my wrist and said some sort of blessing, which apparently will make me happy :-) There was lots of traditional singing and dancing going on and a very relaxed and joyous atmosphere. It was also a nice respite from all the water-splashing that was going on in the streets.
This morning I set off on my bicycle to visit one of my Thai colleagues. The streets were fairly quiet, most people probably still sleeping off last night's excesses, but there were a few water throwers out and about, so I was glad I had had the foresight to take a change of clothes with me, in a plastic bag inside my backpack.
By the time I came back this afternoon, there was no escape! I was drenched again and again on the 20 minute ride home. Some people use massive water pistols, but most have huge barrels of water that they scoop out bucketful at a time to hurl at passers by.
I would have liked to have taken some photos, but to do so would have been to ruin my camera for ever. Here is one I sneakily took on Friday of a group making their preparations:

And here's what I looked like by the time I got home today. I deliberately chose the darkest T-shirt and shorts I could find - I didn't want everything going all transparent on me!

No, I didn't miss a patch shaving! As well as splashing you with water, they also like to daub you with some kind of paste.
There's another couple of days of this left, so I think I need to resign myself to getting wet again!

Shots of Mae Sot Part 1

I have not taken many pictures here as I have felt rather reluctant to go around snapping away like a common tourist in the place I am trying to make my home! On the other hand, I know that people will be wondering what my surroundings are like, so I made a bit of a start today on a photographic record.

This is Phannu House, the guest house where I have been staying. It is very comfortable and the staff are incredibly friendly and helpful:

Here is "Auntie's" coffee shop that does an all day breakfast. I have treated myself there a few times to scrambled eggs on toast. TOAST! Proper TOAST!!
There is a huge variety of places to eat out in Mae Sot - Thai, Burmese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indian, Canadian, Italian ..........

There are also several temples in Mae Sot. I haven't really explored them properly yet, and I think I could do with a guide to explain a bit about them. I visited this one today. There seemed to be quite a bit of activity going on, getting the place decorated ready for the new year celebrations:

Just a couple of hundred metres across the road from this temple is .... THIS!

This is the small TESCO in the centre of town. There is also a huge TESCO superstore just off the main highway. I know that some Westerners here boycott them. Personally, I am still undecided on that one, not least because I haven't discovered enough yet about the alternative places to buy all the things I will need! The other chain that is ubiquitous throughout Thailand is 7/11, of which I think there are at least four in Mae Sot.

This TESCO store is on Mae Sot's only roundabout:

Not quite on the same scale as Swindon's Magic Roundabout, but then the magic roundabout doesn't have elephants or a clock or traffic bollards declaring "Swindon I love you"! I had not noticed, until I took these pictures, the little pillar in the middle with different religious symbols on. I would have liked to take a closer look, but decided not to risk life and limb crossing to the middle of the roundabout!

First week at work

I have had a very gentle start to work with a three-day week, being sandwiched between two long weekends for public holidays. I have started to meet some of my colleagues, but many people have been away because of the holidays.

My working situation is slightly convoluted, and I think it will take a little while to iron out some of the details. The project that I am contributing to - "In school, in society" - is a VSO project, so I need to report to VSO. However, VSO identifies partner organisations to be involved in the project and to "host" the volunteers. My "employer" organisation is World Education, a very well-established international NGO that has been working in Thailand with refugee and migrant communities for many years. So I also need to work within the World Education context and to collaborate with colleagues there. It is a three-way relationship, with World Ed. and VSO also needing to collaborate to help ensure the success of the placement. Plenty of scope there for uncertainties, ambiguities, miscommunications and much more... So here's an example: I am supposed to have a "coordinator" who I will work with very closely and who will act as translator. Quite a crucial role. There seems to have been a certain lack of clarity around the recruitment process and who was going to do what, with the result that, as yet, there is no coordinator in post.

Putting all that to one side, my first impression is that World Education is going to be a very positive place to work. The Director, who has recently joined the organisation, is an ex-VSO volunteer, so she has a good understanding of the role of a VSO volunteer, which will be very helpful. WE has quite a large staff plus various volunteers and interns, working in teams on various different projects. It will take me a while to get to know everyone's names and roles. Everyone I have met so far has been incredibly friendly and helpful. I will work quite closely with the team that work with Thai schools and the Ministry of Education. One lady in this team has taken me under her wing, and I think she will be a good person for me to practise my Thai with. She is married to a British chap (now here's a story: his sister was a VSO volunteer some years ago. He came out to Thailand to visit her and that's how he met his wife. The more I hear about it, the more I think VSO is a glorified match-making agency! Our Thai teacher is also married to an ex-volunteer who was one of her students years ago.)

Schools are closed for the long holidays at the moment (end of Feb to mid-May), so I won't be able to visit the schools I will be working with for a while. The week after next I am going to join the team who do "Training of Trainers" - training teachers and school directors in effective training methods. Mostly I will be observing and helping out with practical things, but I am going to present one small part. The training will all be in Burmese, so my session will be translated. I spent some time this week working with one of the trainers to prepare the session. It is going to be really interesting to see how I can take the training skills I already have and apply them in this new context.

Changes

They say that VSO is a life-changing experience, and I expect that by the time I return in two years' time I will have changed in many ways, some of them possibly quite profound.
However, here are a few not-quite-so-profound changes that I have noticed already as I adjust to my new situation:

• Walking slowly - I have always been a very brisk and purposeful walker, to the extent that I tend to get irritated by groups of slow-moving pedestrians blocking the pavement. Here, I am learning the art of walking slowly, expending as little energy as possible. You have to - it is simply impossible to rush around in this heat. Yesterday I was overtaken by a Thai lady, which makes me think I am definitely making progress! I wonder if this will turn out to be a metaphor for a more fundamental change - taking life itself at a slower pace and not feeling the need to rush about achieving so much... We shall see.
• Drinking Coca Cola - I have never liked coke, and in the UK would not have dreamed of drinking it. Yet here, it has suddenly become my preferred dinner-time drink. I can only think that with the heat and the change of diet there is something in it that my body needs.
• Calmness in the face of canine attention - I have always had a fear of dogs. As a child, I was petrified. As an adult, I have learned to control my reactions to a large extent, but the fear is still there. I have therefore been quite surprised at how calmly I am managing to deal with the presence of so many dogs wandering freely in the streets. I have been told that they chase after people on bicycles and scooters. Working on the principle that it is probably best not to trigger their chasing instinct, I have decided on the tactic of cycling past them as slowly and nonchalantly as possible, with the idea of making myself far too boring to chase after. Seems to have worked so far! On foot I march purposefully past, staring straight ahead as if they don't exist. This is all quite conscious behaviour, and only really works if I spot the dogs in advance and have the time to prepare myself mentally. If one appears suddenly from no-where it is still likely to set my heart racing! Having said all that, most of them actually appear to be perfectly innocuous, and in the heat of the day they are generally flat out on the ground looking half dead! (Interesting related observation: given the sheer number of dogs, I have noticed here and in Bang Saen that there is hardly any dog mess on the streets at all. Contrast this to Milan, where the pavements were adorned every few metres with generous donations from the pampered pooches of the Milanese!)

Doctor Doctor

I had my first introduction to Mae Sot's hospital today. I had developed a very painful swelling at one of my finger joints, which was making it difficult to carry out simple actions such as opening a packet of crisps or a bottle of water, writing, and using the front brake on my bicycle.
Mae Sot has two hospitals - the General Hospital and the private "Mae Sot Ram". VSO recommends we use the private one. So off I went on my bicycle (the back brake works fine!), armed with a carefully pre-prepared essential phrase: "I need to see a doctor who speaks English." It turned out not to be necessary, as pretty much everyone there seems to speak some English, but I said it anyway - one has to make the effort!
The doctor diagnosed an infection of the subcutaneous tissue, and prescribed some antibiotics and ibuprofen. It was good to have the chance to check out the system there with something that was not too serious. In fact, that's another of VSO's many pieces of advice - make sure you have checked out the local medical facilities before you get ill!
Tomorrow I officially start work - early get up!

Patience is a virtue

We spent a lot of time on VSO training talking about the importance of being patient; we were warned that the beginning of the placement would be difficult, with logistical challenges and unclear work expectations. Despite all this, I am starting to feel a little frustrated that, having finally arrived in Mae Sot after all the preparation and training, I still feel in a state of limbo.

I was met at the airport by another VSO volunteer, Alice, who has been here for several years, and she has been doing a fantastic job of looking after me in the first few days, helping me with opening a bank account, looking for houses and generally showing me around. VSO had booked me into a guest house for one week, with the expectation that I would find somewhere to live in that time. However, the house hunting has so far proved unsuccessful, and with a long weekend now I'm not going to have somewhere by Wednesday. I have been offered the possibility of sub-letting from someone who is returning to the UK for several months. This sounds like a good option, as the house is near where I will be working, and it would give me the chance to get to know the area a bit and look for something without feeling under time pressure. However, I will not be able to move in for a couple of weeks, which means I will have to extend my stay at the guest house. The guest house is perfectly clean and comfortable, but I'm really feeling the need to be in a place of my own. I think another thing that is frustrating me is that I am so dependent on others at the moment to help me with this sort of thing.

Today Alice took me to the office where I will be working and I met some of the people there. They all seem very friendly. The key people in the organisation are away at the moment, though, so there was no-one to introduce me to what I will be doing. I will turn up on Tuesday morning, but I am prepared for the possibility that there will be nothing clearly defined for me to do - this seems to be a common experience of VSO volunteers when they start their placement. In some ways this can be a positive thing, as it means you can carve out your own role, but at the start it all adds to the challenge and the feelings of uncertainty. Schools are closed at the moment, so my job proper won't really get going until mid-May.

I keep telling myself I should make the most of this "soft start" to my placement. Things I could usefully be doing: practising my Thai; exploring Mae Sot; investigating possible social activities. One thing that is sapping my enthusiasm for such proactive activity is the heat. April is the killer month and it really is very uncomfortable to be out and about during the day. VSO keep a bicycle at the guest house, so that is a great way for me to start to find my way around before I get my motorbike. It's sweaty work, though, and apparently the dogs think it's great entertainment to give chase to hapless cyclists, though that has not happened to me yet.

For the first time since leaving the UK I have started to have some feelings of missing home and wondering what I'm doing here. All a perfectly natural part of the process according to VSO and, I am sure, only temporary. Patience!

Pre-placement reflection

I am sitting at my hotel window, looking out over the skyscrapers of Bangkok in the gathering dusk, listening to the calming tones of Bach's Air on a G string and collecting my thoughts on this final evening before I head off to my placement tomorrow. We had the final day of our in-country training today - the employer workshop. It was an excellent day, despite the fact that there was no representative present from my organisation. We explored the three-way relationship between VSO, the partner organisations and volunteers, the expectations of each and possible scenarios that could arise and how we might deal with them.

The workshop was held in English, but I got the chance to practise my Thai a tiny bit during breaks. The language is actually very simple grammatically - only one verb form for all tenses and people; no articles; no gender; no plurals; a simple and consistent sentence structure. It is the tones that make it really challenging. I am aware that I will have to make a real effort to create opportunities to use and practise the language every day. While we were doing the language training I was quite immersed in it, hearing and practising it every day and getting lots of repetition. Already, after a few days with no lessons I can feel it fading a bit.

Bethan and Kozue have left already for their placements. I have another night in Bangkok, as it turned out that there were no spaces left on the night bus to Mae Sot so I am flying tomorrow instead. A 1 hour and 15 minute flight instead of an 8 hour bus trip, and I will be met at the other end by Alice, another VSO volunteer in Mae Sot. The only problem is that I cannot take all my luggage, as the maximum you are allowed to check in is 25kg. So I  spent much of yesterday evening repacking all my bags so that I can leave my big rucksack behind with items that I should not need straight away. The rucksack is going to be put on the bus and I will pick it up from the bus station in a couple of days. I hope it makes it!

One of the things we did on the workshop today was to look at the respective "journeys" of the volunteers and the partner organisations - all the stages that have happened so far to bring us to this point. It was a great opportunity to reflect back on everything that has happened since I sent in my application at the beginning of July last year. For such a long time it all felt so unreal and I could hardly believe it was really going to happen. Even during the language training I felt cocooned in a protective bubble. It is very exciting, after all the preparation, finally to be setting off to start working. I will need to remember everything that the VSO training prepared us for, in terms of having realistic expectations and taking time at the beginning to listen, observe and seek to understand local needs rather than rushing in with great ideas for change.