Children’s Day

Saturday, January 12th was Children’s Day in Thailand. So, naturally, Watmethang celebrated it big time on Friday. Initially we were told we would have to teach during the morning and then our afternoon classes would be canceled for Children’s Day activities. It slowly became apparent that none of our normal Friday routines would be occurring. 

The day started off with the usual morning assembly, which then led into the unusual visiting of a slew of monks. About ten monks came to our campus, draped in their fabrics of orange, in order to bless the children with chants and in return receive offerings from the kids. So instead of teaching my first period, I watched all the students line up and unload bags of snacks and gifts into the bowls of monks. This ritual went well into second period. It was adorable, to say the least, and quite the time killer. 

By the time my next period rolled around, many of the English teachers had already returned to the office with bags of goodies from the students and stories of parties occurring in their classes. To be on the safe side, I planned a lesson anyway and went with supplies in hand to my 4/1 classroom. When I got to the room, the desks were pushed aside, the kids were having a feast on the floor, and everyone was singing along to Thai music videos playing on the oversized TV in their class. The students invited me to sit, gave me a plate of food & a drink, and attempted to get me to sing along. A Thai teacher then came in and rigged a microphone to the setup, turning the room into a Karaoke frenzy. The kids took turns singing their favorite songs in the mic as students from other classes peered in the doorway making for quite the audience. The Thai teacher who brought the microphone--normally a stern woman with a knack for rule following--was singing each song louder than the kids, and when no one would take the mic readily she jumped on it. Though she doesn’t know much English, she was insistent on getting me to sing. She kept telling students in Thai to tell me in English to sing just one song. Sadly, I don’t speak or read Thai nor do I know any of the tunes to the songs. She didn’t believe me and continued to offer the mic anyway. 

After partying it up all morning, the kids went outside for an afternoon of carnival activities. There were booths of darts (with actual darts, too dangerous in America, but here it’s ok for elementary schoolers), balloon popping, eating races (This one was gross. Kids had to stuff their mouths with powdery sweets, run to a dish, splash water on their faces, eat more food, and then run again. I thought everyone was going to barf.), ring toss, “Thai golf” (students had to tie an elongated gourd of some sort to their waists and then thrust at a ball until they got it across a line, it was a really phallic game that only boys wanted to play), and of course a singing competition. At the singing competition, it was mostly students singing snip-its of songs in Thai and teachers dancing off to the side. But, at the very end of the day, an itsy bitsy boy shyly took the stage, whispered something to the temporary DJ, held the mic with two tinny hands, and started belting out the 70’s hit “I Will Survive.” And he was GOOD. Granted, he probably didn’t know what he was saying. Regardless, the crowd went wild and all of us English teachers couldn’t help but to sing along. After that success, more students emerged with their best versions of English songs. One humorously jolly 5th grade boy even busted out “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic. Turns out Thai ladyboys make for excellent Celine Dion impersonators. 

Once the day was done, the kids came away with armfuls of carnival prizes and us teachers came away with bags of Thai snacks. The extravaganza may have been more exhausting than a normal day of teaching, but it was also 100x more entertaining. 

Christmas at Watmethang Karawas

Christmas is usually such a beautiful, blissful time of year. The weather turns to a state  requiring boots & scarves, the lights comes out on houses at night, people grow friendlier each day as the certain vacation time approaches, and general merriment fills the air. 

Turns out that state of bliss is a cultural thing, not a global thing. 

In Thailand, as Christmas approached, the weather stayed hot enough for me to sweat through all my clothing, there aren’t really houses to put lights on, and the teachers surrounding me grew more and more anxious as the days until Christmas dwindled. You see, as teachers from English speaking countries, we were required to take on the task of presenting Christmas to a school of Buddhist Thai children. 

Initially, we were told we would not have to teach classes on December 25th. That moment of relief was quickly replaced by stress as the next sentence was, “Instead you will put on a day of Christmas activities for all the grades.” In true Thai fashion, we all put off planning the day until the week before. The result: a Christmas carnival of chaos. 

Before the chaos, on Christmas Eve, I received a very special present; my sister Nicki came to Phrae! Nicki was visiting Thailand for 10 days, she would spend three days in my town, and then we’d hop on a bus & a ferry to vacation on the glorious island of Koh Samet for five days. But she really had to earn that vacation before enjoying it. Since I’m such a good sister, and because she’d taught in Thailand before, I roped Nicki into helping out with the Christmas Carnival on Christmas Day. 

The day started with the usual morning assembly, but with the addition of all of us English teachers singing Christmas carols in front of the whole school with the special appearance of Santa Claus (one of the older American English teachers had a Santa suit made for the occasion). Then we split off into our stations at the Christmas Carnival. Nicki & I manned the Santa Sack Races. I came up with the idea for the station...and I’m not too proud to admit it was a total flop. The idea was to have five lines of 24 students, each with a sack (pillow case), and then the student at the front of the line would hop in the bag, run to grab a present (wrapped empty box) about 5 yards away, put the present in their sack, and hop back to pass off the sack to the next student in line. Turns out this is a very dangerous game. Students were tripping left and right, smacking their bodies on the ground, and fighting to continue to complete the race. Nicki pointed out that the students didn’t have the good sense to put their hands out when they fell, rather they held tight to the sacks and let their bellies and knees take the brunt of the fall. It was horrible and hilarious all in one. After a morning of 1st-3rd graders racing their hearts out, the pillow case sacks and empty presents were absolutely destroyed. During lunch, all the English teachers regathered, haggard and beaten, to discuss the morning. Most of us decided we needed a revamp. So for the afternoon of 4th-6th graders, Nicki & I hosted a Christmas carol singing and dancing station, which really just meant we spent the allotted 20 minutes per group splitting the kids up into circles of 10 and then individually explaining the rules. This was also a bust, but it was a great station in terms of crowd control, which counts as a success in my book. 

At the end of Christmas Day at Watmethang Karawas, we were all exhausted. Attempting to teach a Christian holiday to 1555 Buddhist students in a language that is not their own was more than difficult. But somehow, through a Christmas miracle, we managed to survive the day and truly earned our five day beach getaway.

Oh! I completely forgot the best part of this chaotic day. After nearly 6 hours of Christmas Carnival-ing, everyone was tuckered out and even the kids were losing steam. The solution: a school-wide dance party to Gangnam Style. Literally everyone was dancing--students, Thai teachers, English teachers, Nicki--and loving it. It was a redeeming moment in an overall chaotic day.