Teaching English - Week 3

After we left our homestay on Sunday, we took a field trip to the White Temple, one of the most famous attractions in Chiang Rai. The White Temple is a modern Buddhist temple that is completely white on the outside. Its color makes it sparkle and shimmer radiantly in the sunlight. The temple is the unique work in progress of Thai artist, Chaloenchai Khositphiphat. Khositphiphat is also famous for his bright acrylic paintings, which can be viewed in a gallery next to the temple. A major theme visible throughout much of his work is the clashing of the material world with the austerity of Buddhist spirituality. Inside the White Temple itself is a giant mural showing the steps to nirvana. On the bottom are paintings of modern-day consumerism - everything from cell phones to Neo (from the Matrix) to oil. This is supposed to represent hell, with a giant devil watching over it. In one of the eyes of the devil is a portrait of George Bush and in the other eye is a portrait of Osama Bin Laden. As your eyes move up the wall, materialistic images become scarcer and icons representing Buddhism, such as the lotus flower, are introduced. At the top of the mural is a meditating Buddha. I thought it was really neat the way Khositphiphat uses surrealism to share his message.

The White Temple...doesn't it look like something out of a fairy tale?

Statues lining the entrance of the temple are supposed to represent hell.

Me and Jess, with the back view of the temple behind us.

A close up of one of the statues that guard the temple...pretty freakin awesome!

All volunteers at Mirror are treated to an elephant ride at a nearby village. Leslie, Jess, and I, along with a couple others, went for our ride on Monday morning. I am always blown by how big elephants are when I come in close contact with them, and I strongly feel that humans do not have the right to control such impressive creatures. It makes me pretty sad to see them tied up, especially because they are so gentle and actually quite emotional. Leslie and I caught two elephants nuzzling and kissing!

The elephant was looking for food in my hand.


These two elephants were nuzzling just a few minutes earlier.


The ride itself, although brief, was pretty exciting. Both Leslie and I got a chance to ride on the neck of the elephant, where the guide usually sits. Holding on to the elephant's giant head reinforced just massive these creatures are. During the ride we passed by a elephant being trained. I was shocked by how brutal the training was. The elephant had heavy chains around his neck and the trainer kept knocking the top of the elephants head with a wooden hammer. It was obvoius that the elephant was not happy from the way it struggled and wailed. After that, I wished I had not supported the elephant riding business.

Riding on top of an elephant

The rest of the week was quite slow and uneventful because most schools were closed for exams. We played with the kids at the Chiang Rai hospital for an hour on Wednesday and went to Childcare (preschool) one last time on Friday. I also tutored a couple of the mirror staff members a couple of evenings out of the week. This was the most rewarding for me because I could tailor my lessons to their specific needs, so I could actually see them learning. Also, everyone is there by choice, so I could see that they were very enthusiastic to learn.

Leslie and Jess hanging off the back of our Songthaew

Overall, I am happy that we decided to volunteer at Mirror. I was disappointed by the lack of organization and the fact that I didn't get to teach as much as I wanted to. But I got the chance to really immerse myself in the Thai and hilltribe culture, play with cute kids, take a break from traveling for a few weeks, and meet some really cool people. All these reasons made the volunteering experience really worth it.

Teaching English and Homestay - Week 2

Our second week of teaching was abridged since we left mid week for a homestay and spent a day doing a visa run. More on those later. It seems every day we've been going to different places to teach, never repeating a place. This is unfortunate as opportunities to teach are getting slimmer as the students exam period begins and so do not have time for lessons. Our first day was at "special school," where there are children with mild physical disabilities but are perfectly capable of learning. We went with two Idahoans: Nicole and Karalee, and had a blast. These children were a pleasure to work with as they listened and were able to retain our lessons on colors and animals. We played games such as follow the leader, Color Bingo, and Pick the Animal. The kids were even teaching us some animal names in Thai!

Taking a break at special school

Teaching colors

Limbo time!

The next day we went to another elementary school called Thung Luang, where the kids were purported to be very smart. We went with two new arrivals: Connie, and Nicola. It was a basic review session of the English they had learned that period such as Body Parts, Movements, and Clothing. The students were very smart and able to play our games and understand us most of the time. We split them up into two and rotated them through some learning stations where we would play games to reinforce their material.

Wednesday was the time to do a Thailand tourist tradition: a Visa Run. Since we crossed at the land border of Thailand and Laos, we received only a 15 day visa. This was not enough to cover our stay in Thailand until our flight out to Nepal. So about 15 days before our flight we set out for nearby Burma. We hopped on a packed local bus as it was pulling out of the Chiang Rai station and stood for the majority of the way. Picking up the Thai number system came in handy as we had to figure out how much to pay the bus driver for the 1.5 hour ride to Mae Sai (39 Baht).

Mae Sai is the Thai side of the border, and Tachileik is on the Burmese side. Both have a market area with many random cheap goods. Some people even come up here just to shop. The border crossing is a little strange as you do not have full freedom to enter Burma. Instead, Immigration officials KEEP your passport and issue you a card that allows you to travel only a few towns into Burma. I don't believe you're allowed further past that. This worked fine for us as we just needed to exit Thailand, twiddle our thumbs for a little bit, and then cross back over. While in Burma we walked aroudn the market area and within 10 seconds I was offered a pack of Marlboro's, Viagra, and a pack of cards with Saddam Hussein on the back. When I declined the Viagra the vendor pumped his fist in the air and said, "Oh! You are strong!" I don't think we can really judge Burma from what we saw at the border town, but it did seem to be a little more derelict than the Thai side.

At the Burma - Thai border

We crossed back over the border, and went through the formality of Thai Immigration where we received another 15 day stamp to stay in Thailand. Our stay in Burma was under an hour. It was a fun day trip that turned out very successfully. It was really nice that the border was so close to Chiang Rai, allowing us to do the whole visa run in half a day.

Next up on our agenda was our homestay. We were told very little about the homestay, and this would actually continue for most of the experience. Every month, Mirror gathers Thai volunteers (mostly from Bangkok) to come up and help out at a local village. We were thrown into the middle of this and tagged along for the ride. The moment we stepped into the meeting room, we were surrounded by people speaking Thai, and even the presentation was in Thai. Luckily there were some very kind volunteers there who were able to speak Thai. Mon actually lived in America for 6 years, so his English was superb. He kindly acted as our translator for most of the trip.

We drove out in a huge bus to the village where we would be staying for 3 nights. Men and women volunteers were separated and allowed to stay in villagers houses in groups of 2 or 3. Most of the villagers seemed quite well off, with electricity, running water, TV, and even a fridge! I really liked my host family as they were very welcoming. I was paired up with Mon and we had to sleep in the bamboo house with a mosquito net filled with holes. It was comfortable enough except I kept waking up with new bites all over my body. We had brought our own provisions and cooked our own dinners. Our host mother would make breakfast for us which allowed us to sleep in a little bit. This was hard though as every morning at about 4 am the roosters in the village would go off and begin crowing. I swear there was a rooster less than 10 feet from my head crowing in the morning, making it hard to sleep.

It was nice being able to cook for ourselves though, and we would normally have a potluck with the girls house down the hill (where Rashmi was staying). Breakfast were nice as we would eat with the host father. He actually grew up in China, so we were able to communicate in basic Chinese, although his accent was a little strange. This made me really happy to be able to talk to my host family. The host mother even blasted some Chinese music during our breakfast time.

Our first day of volunteering we went to the local primary school to teach. Most of the Thai volunteers had prepared lesson plans already, but us English speakers were left scratching our heads. Rashmi and I ended up running an English lesson for the 6th graders with another English speaking Thai named A. Most of them were quite smart, but did not have much confidence speaking in English. It was a lot of fun to play different games with them that made sure they had to use and understand English. In the afternoon we played games with the entire school which was great. The kids were a lot of fun and were really cute. Our ride there and back was in the flat bed of a pick up truck. this was a great way to see the country side, but it began pouring on the ride back and by the time we reached our village, we were soaked!

With our sixth grade class

After our wet ride in the pickup

Every night, back at the village, we would meet up at 7 pm in the community center to sing with the village elders and talk about the history of the village. This was all in Thai though, so even with Mon and A translating for us it was still hard to follow everything that was going on. That night there was a local Buddhist ceremony that was followed by a fireworks show. The villagers had made there own fireworks and lit it up in front of the temple. When the fireworks were lit it would emit a shower of sparks up into the air about 40 to 50 feet and the old village men would dance around the falling sparks. It was a little scary but also very thrilling.

The next day was a little frustrating as we worked to strip the paint off fairly new looking playground structures and repainted it. It felt like they did not know what to do with all the volunteers and gave them random tasks. The afternoon was more entertaining as we loaded up rocks into the back of a pickup and threw them into the muddy rain soaked road in an attempt to "fill in" the road. This didn't really work at all and our trucks got stuck in the thick mud. In the end after a large communal effort of volunteers, villagers, and the village children, we were able to push the car out and getting going down the road again.

Riding in the pickup is like being on a rollercoaster!

Overall, the homestay experience was a mixed bag. I definitely enjoyed interacting with Thai people, learning a little about both village and city culture. However, I also felt pretty marginalized and unproductive during our time there as the program was really intended for the Thai volunteers. Most of the time it just seemed like they were making stuff up for the farangs to do. We loaded back into the bus at the end and drove over to the wondrous White Temple, which we'll get into in the next post.

The English speakers group

Bonus! Me slinging fireballs around at a bar in Chiang Rai

Chiang Mai

We went to the city of Chiang Mai for the weekend. Chiang Mai is considered Thailand's cultural center, and is known for its many beautiful Bhuddist temples. It also has a handful of museums that cover everything from the regions history to its textile industry. Unfortunatley, by this point in our trip, Leslie and I were pretty templed and museumed out, so we couldn't really appreciate it.

On Saturday we visited the two most popular temples in the city, Wat Pra Singh and Wat Chedi Luang. They were peaceful, and we enjoyed walking around the grounds just soaking in the atmosphere. In the afternoon we learned a little bit about the history of the region at one of the museums.

Inside Wat Chedi Luang

Hundreds of Bhuddist Flags

On Sunday we had a really good time learning how to cook Thai food at a cooking class. In the morning they took us to a market where we baught our ingredients and learned about how the ingredients were grown and processed. Back at the school, we each got to choose five dishes to cook. We would cook one dish, eat it, and then move on to next dish. Leslie and I each chose five different dishes, so by the end of the day we had sampled ten different Thai staples. Needles to say, we were also very full! We came away from the class with a basic understanding of how to use Thai ingredients and a Thai cookbook with all the recipies we learned. I am hoping to cook lots of Thai food when I am back in the US!

Shopping at the local market

Papaya salad...my favorite!

Looking super pro in our chef outfits

Seafood Coconut Soup

Teaching English in Chiang Rai - Week One

We have been spending the last couple of weeks volunteering at the Mirror Foundation, a non-profit that works on community developement of hilltribes in Northern Thailand. In addition to an english teaching program, they have many different projects going on at one time, including eco-tourism, an online handicrafts store, a tv-show for and about life in the villages, a computer proficiency program, construction projects. When we first arrived, we were surprised to find that no one really welcomed us or told us what was going on. Most of the Thai staff members are busy with other aspects of the NGO, so it is up to the other English-speaking volunteers to show the newbies around. Luckily, all the volunteers are really friendly and helpful, so it didn't take us long to get settled and understand how the system worked. Basically, each day of the week there are different schools to teach at, and it is up to you to sign up for things and make the most of your experience.

Our first teaching experience was an English camp at a high school in Chiang Rai town. It was and all-day event where we worked with sixteen to eighteen year-olds on their speaking and listening skills. It was a lot of fun because the students were really respectful and eager to learn.
There were four of us leading the camp: me and Leslie, our best friend at Mirror, Jess, and another girl named Karalee. We split the students into four groups and each played different game with them, rotating groups every half hour. Their English was quite basic, so we played simple games like Telephone, Simon Says, and Mother May I. In my group we also sang childrens songs such as Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, and Old Mc Donald Had a Farm. This was my favorite part of the day because the students had a lot of fun being silly and singing is a great way to rembemeber vocabulary.

Jess, me, and Leslie with some of our students

Our students were so much fun!

All the Thai teachers at the camp were also really nice. They treated us like royalty, constantly serving us snacks and asking us if we needed anything. At lunch time they busted out karaoke, and we all had a chance to show off our amazing vocals. Thai people love karaoke, and the teachers were all very good at it. It was pretty funny to hear one of the teachers sing the "Poka Dot Bikini" song. After the day was over, a bunch of the students wanted our all our contact information and one girl even told me that she loved me!

Leslie is showing off his karaoke skills

The rest of the teaching experiences that week were not as rewarding because the students were younger, so they were more boisterous and less respectful. On Thursday we went to an elementary school to teach third through sixth graders. The kids who wanted to learn were great, but there were a number of kids in the back of the class who weren't paying attention, kept leaving the room, or just refused to partcipate. It was frustrating because we really had no authority to discipline them, especially because we don't speak Thai.

On Friday we taught preschool children. Actually, I wouldn't say we taught them, we just played games and songs with them because they didn't speak any English at all. Some didn't even speak Thai, only their local hilltribe language. The kids were a handfull, but they were adorable! They really liked Leslie, probably because he looked the most Thai, and all the little boys were fighting to hold his hand. By the end of the morning we were all pretty sick of "Ring Aroun the Rosie" and were relieved when the two and a half hours were over. Leslie said that after that day he has a lot more respect for preschool teachers.

The kids at preschool were so cute!

Playing Duck, Duck, Goose

Overall, the first week was fun, but we were definitely ready to get away from Mirror by the time the weekend rolled around.

Me, Chitra, and Jess taking a Songthew into town after a long week

Luang Phabang

Luang Phabang is a beautiful city that is full of history and culture. The small city is centered around a golden temple at the top of Phou Si hill and is visible throughout the area. There are many active temples in the area and monks are commonly seen walking in saffron robes. Many monks come from the local villages as it is the only way for poor families to educate their children.

Rice wine and whisky with Snake and Scorpion for a kick!

Top of Phou Si Hill

Looking out over the Mekong

The area is also famous for their food, such as orlam, which is an eggplant based stew with many local herbs and is particularly tasty with sticky rice. We enjoyed Laos food so much we wanted to take a cooking class on our last day there, but it turned out we missed the sign up time! We definitely enjoyed ourselves dining by the Mekong during sunset. When we got too tired of Laos food there was always the Scandanavian bakery close by.

An anniversary photo!

We made a day trip from town to the Kuang Si waterfalls. it is a multi-tiered fall that has many pools perfect for swimming. Locals also frequent the area, so it was great to see kids showing off their diving skills as they jumped from rope swings and even some smaller waterfalls. The park also hosts a recovered bear home. These bears are confiscated from poachers who would otherwise sell them for the bear bile market. Bear bile is used in traditional Chinese medicine and is harvested from living bears kept in cages. although the bears were cool to see, it was unclear whether they release the bears once they have recovered, ot if they are kept in captivity. A slippery trail by the side of the waterfall leads to the top, where we got to stand close to the edge and look down.

Jumping off waterfalls

Look how tiny Rashmi is!

Besides being a charming city, Luang phabang also has a number of non-profit based organizations. these range from selling hand made environmentally friendly clothes from the hill tribes, to publishing books to encourage young Laos children to read. Many of the hostel staff in the city are youth from the nearby villages that are taking night classes in the city and working during the day time. Some really like to practice their English! Luang Phabang was a very pleasant city to stay in for a few days, and I would love to return and interact with the community projects. We left by slow boat going up the Mekong for a 2 day ride to the northen Thai border.

A slowboat like the one we were on

Cruising in a slow boat on the Mekong

Because we enjoyed our trekking experience in Sa Pa so much, we
decided to do some hilltribe trekking in Laos as well. This time,
however, we made sure to go with a more reputable company and get a
written itinerary ahead of time. Our guide for the 3 day 2 night
excursion was Kia, a Hmong who grew up in a village 5 hours walking
from Luang Phabang. We really liked his guiding style. He was
easy-going, talkative, and always made sure we were taken care of. Our
trip began 1 hour north of Luang Phabang at a little path on the side
of the highway. The morning hike was fun, with lots of river crossing
that kept us cool. Along the way, Kia would share his knowledge of the
local flora and agricultural practices of the village. He pointed out
Teak, Mahogany, and Mulberry trees which are highly desired for their
wood, and herbs that are used for a variety of purposes- everything
from healing cuts to seasoning salads. The staple crop is rice, of
course. The hilltribe villagers grow mountain rice, which is different
from rice grown in the lowlands because it does not need to be
constantly saturated with water. Other crops include corn and hops,
used in making Beer Lao.

Kia was a great guide

We crossed many streams along the way

We arrived at our first village early in the afternoon. It was a small
village, with only 28 families. The first thing I noticed when we arrived was the many naked children and baby animals running around. There were piglets wallowing
in the mud, peeping chicks, ducklings following their mommy single file, puppies, kittens, and of course human children chewing on sugar
cane and splashing in the stream. They were all so adorable!. There
were very few adults and youth around. Turns out that most of the
villagers go into the fields to work during the daylight hours, and
only the mothers of young children stay home to keep an eye on all the
kids. Village women get married very early and have and average of 6
children! One woman who we ended up giving neosporin to (because her
son got burned by a fire and they have very little modern medicine)
was only 18 years old and she already had 2 kids! We walked around the
village a bit, observing the daily chores before heading out for our
afternoon hike.

The beautiful landscape

Ducklings!

The afternoon hike was not as enjoyable because it was a lot of
uphill, the sun was strong, and there were no more river crossings. But
the scenery was still pretty, with every shade of green imaginable. In the late afternoon we
arrived at the village where we were going to spend the night. This
village was inhabited by both the Hmong and Khmu minorities. As Kia
gave us a tour, he explained to us a few differences between the 2
tribes. The Hmong people originated in Mongolia, then migrated to
China and eventually to Northern Laos in the 19th century. They were
always mountain people and originally migrated south seeking a warmer
climate. The Khmu minority come from Cambodia and are related to the
Khmer. The languages of the 2 groups are very different, so when they
live together in one village they usually communicate in Lao. Luckily,
our guide spoke Hmong, Khmu, Lao, and English, so he was able to talk
to everyone. We were able to identify if the homes we passed were Khmu
or Hmong because Hmong build their homes directly on the ground, while
the Khmu build theirs on stilts, and store supplies or farm animals
underneath. Their religions are also different: the Khmu are animists,
and each family worships one specific animal. The Hmong are
ancestoralists, worshiping the spirits of the deceased ancestors.
Their houses have 2 doors, one for the family and their guests, and
one for the spirits. The tour ended at the village schoolhouse. All
villages around Luang Phabang have their own elementary school. For
high school, students have to hike down to Luang Phabang, a journey
that can easily take 3-4 hours. The primary school in this particular
village was located in the center and the size of a small
barn, divided into 3 rooms. Each room had a few benches and a
chalkboard. Ironically, the bell used to announce the start of class
was an old bomb shell, left over from the Vietnam war.

The school bell, made from an old bomb shell

That afternoon we took a "shower" in the river, the village communal
bathhouse, and relaxed as we observed the daily life of the locals.
Because we didn't speak any of their languages, we had no real way to
communicate with the villagers. And Kia didn't want us helping with
cooking dinner, nor did we end up eating with the family whose home
we were staying at. Therefore, our main interactions consisted of
exchanging mutual curious looks. This was actually the only thing we
were disappointed about during our trip. As there is no electricity in
the village, Kia, Leslie and I played UNO by candlelight after dinner
and then went to bed fairly early.

Villagers milling corn

We were woken up around 4 am to the sound of roosters crowing
competitively. After that it was only possible to doze on and off
because the locals were getting up to start their day. At one point, I
woke up to the ear-splitting squeal of a pig...I think it was being
killed. By 7 am, we had given up on sleep and got up to start our day.
We hiked for 3 hours in the morning to a Khmu village where we would
have lunch. It was an uncomfortably muddy hike because it had rained
the day before. Over an hour of that hike was through leech infested
territory. During that time the trail was crawling with leeches. It
was disgusting! Every time we stopped to try to pick the leeches off
our feet, we would see others inching their way towards us and
crawling into our shoes. At one point my feet were covered with over
20 leeches. Fortunately, most of them couldn't bite us because we had
rubbed our feet with a local boiled root paste that prevented them
from chomping down. Despite this, Leslie got a couple of bites on his
ankle, and randomly one on his chest. The grossest part was when I
slipped off a ridge, and fell face down into the mud. I screamed because I
was scared that I was going to get bitten in all kinds of undesirable
places, but luckily I survived the fall leech-free. We arrived at the
Khmu village just as the clouds opened up and sheets of rain came
pouring down. We watched the rain from the cozy shelter of a Khmu
home, sipping warm noddle soup for lunch. After about an hour the
skies were blue again and we continued on our way. The afternoon hike
was along the muddy tractor road, and Leslie and I spent much of it
kicking mud cakes off the sides of our shoes.

The village which we stayed the second night was much bigger than the
other 2 villages, with 100 families, but everything else was pretty
similar. I spent the afternoon trying to impress the kids by making
silly faces. I was pretty successful with my tuna fish face. We hiked
back on the third day, an uneventful, but pleasant and sunny 17 km hike.
By the end of the trip we were tired and filthy, but very content with
the way it all worked out.

The children get very serious when they are having their picture taken!

At a waterfall on our last day of hiking

Vientiane & Vang Vieng

We arrived in Vientiane, Laos' capital by flying from Hanoi. The 1 hour flight was much more enjoyable than the 24 hour bus ride option. While sitting in the tuk-tuk to the city centre, we noticed the lack of honking by all motorized traffic. This came as a great relief as our ears had been continually assaulted throughout Vietnam by drivers using their horns indiscriminately.

Vientiane is definitely the most modest and laid back capital city in SEA. Traffic is orderly, streets are clean, sidewalks exist. It is also impressively quiet. There isn't too much to do though besides seeing some temples.

Strangely enough on this trip we've been following around the different sites that the Emerald Buddha has been kept. First in Bangkok, now in Vientiane, there is the temple where the Emerald Buddha used to be housed. Soon we'll arrive in Chiang Rai, another place where the little green figure was displayed. Other notable sights include the Asian version of the Arc d'Triumph and Laos' national symbol and pride, That Luang. This is a distinctive temple with golden stupas and spires.

The temple that used to house the Emerald Buddha

Laos' National Symbol That Luang

Vientiane's Arc d'Triumph?

After a day of biking around sight-seeing we relaxed with a meal by the Mekong. The river resembles a very creamy chocolate milk, maybe like what can be found in Willy Wonkas factory. The dinner was a traditional Laos dinner, complete with sitcky rice served in a bamboo basket (eaten with the hands), a barbecued fish stuffed with lemongrass, and a papaya salad.

Our whirlwind journey through Laos continued in Vang Vieng, a natural amusement park with limestone cliffs full of caves to explore bisected by the Nam Ou River. Vang Vieng is an incredibly touristy location that reminded us of Thailand's Ko Pha-Ngan. Each restaurant had multiple TVs playing episodes of Friends, Family Guy, or in one case Seinfeld. The main attraction here is tubing on the river. This has become such a huge industry that they even have shirts that say "In the tubing Vang Vieng," which is wrong on many levels. Tourists all over Thailand, Vietnam, and of course Laos have these shirts proclaiming that yes, indeed, they have been here and done that.

Before sampling what tubing had to offer, we rented some mountain bikes and rode out on the rocky and muddy "tractor roads" to explore some of the caves. The roads are called tractor roads as it is the local form of AWD off road vehicle. It involves a large wooden cart with a small engine tractor attached at the front pulling it all. Locals use this as a pickup truck, carrying people and supplies at a very slow pace. We explored a few caves but since our flashlight was weak when we got it in Malaysia and on its last legs, we didn't make it very far inside.

That afternoon, we rented a tube, piled into a tuk-tuk with other foreigners talking about how wasted they were last night and headed to the put in about 4 km up river. As the tuk-tuk pulls in we are greeted by two different bamboo bars setup by the riverside blasting reggae and pop songs and fueling tourists for their ride. It was a truly surreal experience, to be on the river, floating by majestic and overgrown cliffs, while passing bamboo huts filled with shrieking Europeans dancing and swinging themselves into the river. Did I mention the swings? In order to attract tourists to their particular bar, the bamboo huts each have setup a playground composed of zip lines, high rope swings and even a water slide! For no cost or just for buying a beer you get to go up and throw yourself into the water in many different ways. These are quite professional setups with supporting points and anchor lines so you can step off a platform 10 meters from the water and swing around before dropping into the river. It was definitely a lot of fun. After a leisurely float down the river you arrive back in Vang Vieng, where many tourists then hop back in a tuk-tuk to start the fun over again.

Catching air in Vang Vieng

Rashmi breaking the sound barrier on a water slide