And the Thunder Rolls...and the Lightening Strikes

We experienced another rain storm today. The rain started around 3 pm and at 8 pm, it is still raining. Thunder and lightening accompanied it of course. Misty and I taught until 6 today and then had a meeting with one of the staff members. We decided it was a little too wet to walk, so we waited across the street in the other Mercy building for a songtheaw. The thunder and lightening was directly overhead, and it was amazing to watch it so close. At least I thought so anyways, but I think Misty would disagree. One of the loud cracks was right above our head, and reacting quickly we both screamed and hugged each other, much to the amusement of the children and adults around us.

Last night we were joking around and thinking that we might end up replaying a scene from the Sound of Music when all of the children come running into our room scared. However, I think we would have reversed the roles, with Misty and I running to their room scared.

Being back at Mercy today felt like one of the first days when we first came to Mercy. It was nice to be back. I taught my adult class in the morning. Only one student did not attend but it worked out when we did partner activities. We worked mostly on conversations. I find that the students are really good at reading English and can answer questions when they have time to write down and think about their responses, but are not as quick at thinking on the spot. I cut out magazine clippings of images that could be described, and got the students to use their imagination to tell me what is happening in the pictures. After that I asked them individual questions, such as how do you think the person is feeling? What do you think the weather is like? What happened after that? There were some pretty creative stories, as one student had a picture of a man walking to a house and she said that his car broke down and he was going to the house to call for help but inside was an evil witch who gave him a globe fish, which is poisonous in Thailand, and the man never came out again. This lead to a conversation on globe fish. Apparently these fish are sometimes used to make fish balls, and upon consumption the person swells, their body goes numb and they begin to vomit. So I have been warned: if this happens, I am to go to the hospital immediately.

We also some how got on the topic of the Great Wall of China. I was telling the students that in Canada, when young children dig holes, they pretend they are digging to China. I told them of my childhood dream to see the Great Wall before I die, and they told me that I should just go when I am in Thailand. That might be a nice class trip idea... I wonder if Mercy will fund it, they are the accounting class after all.

We had a meeting after our first class with the new volunteer coordinator, Emma. The British Women’s Group donated some money for us to purchase equipment for recreation. I am pretty excited as it is difficult to plan recreation activities without the most basic things, like balls. Surprisingly, duck duck goose has held up pretty good, and even the older girls beg to play it every week!

Our recreation class did not go on as planned today. We think the children had something else they were involved in. We played with the children on the AIDS ward instead, which was very entertaining. As soon as we entered the ward they all came running up for their hugs. At one point I had children literally all over me; on my back, on the front and trying to climb on my shoulders and up my legs. I think it would have been quite a sight. We were talking to a woman from the British Women’s Group, who has been in Thailand for a few years. She gave us some advice on places to visit when Misty’s mom and sister come. We talked about what to expect with the weather in the coming weeks. We also found out that there is a Canadian Women’s Group! She is going to find out a contact for us. We know it will likely be a group of older women, as most of the groups we met so far were, but it will still be nice to volunteer, chat and meet with other Canadians doing work in Thailand. Not to mention, tea and biscuits might be nice every once in a while.

We took Emma to meet the adults on the AIDS ward. Egg is still in the hospital, so I think we may visit him in the next couple of days. We have good news though; one of the patients who has been there since we arrived is going home today!
We had an impromptu dance party/karaoke with Nancy and some of the other patients. It was nice to see them all smiling and laughing, even if it was at our expense.

This afternoon we taught the Seagypsies. We changed the fruit basket game we have been playing to occupations. It was hilarious to see the children getting the occupations mixed up with the fruits we have been learning, as we have been practicing them so much. The game would end up with “Doctor loves papaya.” This made for a lot of movement amongst the players.

Immediately following class, our next group of students arrived. We will now be adding two more students to our late afternoon class. I taught Pleaw this afternoon, and since she is no longer in the preschool class we teach on Thursday, I decided we could get our own dose of the Chicken dance in our private lessons. She copied everything I did, and I mean EVERYTHING. When the music stopped and I crossed my arms to think, I looked down and there she was, exact same pose. Too cute.

We taught the girls until our meeting and then ventured home. Traffic was crazzzzy and jammed. Police officers were directing traffic as everything was a mess. After hearing how terrible supper was because of the liver and chicken feet, we decided we’d stop at one of the street vendor restaurants on the way home.

Sorry I have not been able to post the pictures yet but I did not have internet access in the afternoon, and it was raining too hard to walk to the internet café tonight. I told some of you in emails that my internet access is going to be even more limited as we were losing our desk space in the office. It was a misunderstanding and we will still have our own computer at work. Also, Mercy has been looking at getting internet access for us here at Soi 40, so we can work from home. The process is slow because the internet and the phone line are different companies, so they are trying to switch it over. However, if this does not work, our boss is going to download and install a modem here so we can have wireless anywhere in the building. Hopefully that works. So to make a long story short, I am not losing internet access, and soon it will even be greatly improved!