Pages

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Update

So it Sunday afternoon here at about 3pm, and it's sooo hot 31 degrees (62% humidity).  Luckily at my place I can sit in short and no shirt as being in pants and a T-shirt is really hot (I actually thought I was going to have to take some scissors out, as I could barely take off my shirt).

I finished week one teaching the Monks and the local kids.  I've gotten into a routine and have lots of material for the monks, but the kids are going to bit harder to keep their attention.  I found out now that I only teach the Monks Monday to Wednesday from 8:45 - 10:45, and then I still teach the kids at 6:00 pm Monday to Thursday.  The kids class really fluctuates I guess, on Thursday I only had 3 students.  I think it depends on whether the parents have time to bring them to the Wat.  But it was actually nice having only 3 because I could actually work one-on-one with them to really see where each one is at.  Their parents bring them to class and stay in the back of the room, so I decided that since there was only 3 student, I would get them involved also.  The parents are quite helpful being in the class, as when the students don't always get what I am talking about, so the parents help to explain.  For the most part the class is going well, but I really got to find some games to play with them that re-enforce what I teach them.  Any ideas?  As for the monk, I have a few books that we are working out of so we actually have a set path ahead.

I was going to take some pics on Thursday, but on Wednesday I found out I didn't have the monks and my camera was in my cabin so I'll take some on Monday.  As for the kids, I brought my camera on Thursday but of course there was only three kids there so I'll have to do the same and post some next week.

On Friday, two ladies from Denmark came for a mediation retreat for a week so I'll have some more English speaking people here again.  The only other layperson, Ade (I'll post a pic later), is a Thai lady that speaks both English and Thai and has been here for my time here.  Her house was damaged by the flooding in Bangkok, so she has been staying here helping out with internationals while her kids clean up and fix her house in Bangkok.  We have been the only 2 lay people here for the last week (well before the Denmark women got here), and she actually left today to go back to her house.  She will be back from time to time though so I'll be seeing her from time to time.  So as of next Friday (when the Denmark people leave), I believe I will be the only layperson here (well unless some one else shows up, as there seems to be a revolving door into the wat), and for the most part the only English speaking person, as Phra Nat has left for 3 weeks.  There are still a few monks that are here that speak some English, but none that I have really interacted with on a daily bases (Well except for my students now, and that's only 3 days a week).

The weekend has been pretty relaxing, I made a couple trips into Damnoen for a change of scenery, other than that I just lounged around on my patio trying to keep cool.  I did get my first hair cut today since I've been here which was a bit stressful.  It took me about 30 minutes of standing outside the barber shop before I actually went in.  LOL.  The women actually did a pretty good job, although there was definitely a language barrier.  There was a lot of hand gestures involved and she tried giving me a magazine with different haircuts in it but there was nothing close to how I wanted it cost.  In the end it turned out quite well and cost me a whole 100 Baht (or $3) which was pretty reasonable considering a haircut in Canada costs me around $25.  But there was no hair wash before or after the cut but at least she thinned it out (without me even asking).

Well, I'll try to get some new pics up on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Hope everything going well back home.  Take Care.

2 comments:

  1. I don't know what exactly you are teaching, but I've created games using recipe cards to make memory. ..match word with pictures or word with meaning. Or make up a game jeopardy style. A bunch of questions about what you are learning for various points. It would work great for the class of 3. Otherwise I split the class into 3 rows and ask the person at the front of the row a couple questions and then everyone bumps up a chair. Just a few suggestions :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Jenn for the suggestions. Appreciated. I was thinking about the using the Jeopardy idea as there is lots of sites and spreadsheets out there that do the setup for it and even keep the score for me. I do already split them into teams as they actually asked for it and are really competitive. Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete