Katie and Amanda Go Back to School (And, Consequently, Thailand)!!!

Hello once again! As previously mentioned, we are attempting to catch our blog up to real life time, so we thought now was as good a time as any to tell you all about Melissa's village!

For those who do not know, Melissa is our friend who is a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. She works as a teacher in a rural village, Ban Kadad, located in the northeastern providence of Surin.

Say hello, Melissa!

Melissa is living with a family that consists of her Yaai Lee (grandma)

The sweetest woman you will ever meet.

and Melissa's "brother and sister", both teenagers. However, the whole community is so tight knit that they all consider Melissa part of their family. After living in Thailand for about a year, Melissa speaks fluent Thai, as well as some Khmer (a Cambodian dialect), and is well integrated into ebb and flow of the entire village. We are so proud of her!

We arrived in Ban Kadad late at night and had two full days to spend with Melissa. On our first day, she took us to one of the two schools at which she regularly teaches. As this part of the country is much more traditional, we wore conservative clothing to cover our legs and shoulders. Just like American schools, Thai school starts with morning announcements and a pledge of allegiance.

Despite the uniforms and the initial morning lineup, Thai schools are actually fairly casual, something that Melissa must battle on a regular basis. Very rarely do the teachers prepare lesson plans, and the students are not graded on their performance. There are days when a few of the teachers won't even bother to show up! The particular day that we visited was right before a community wide festival, so that school day was even more casual than normal! Some of the students skipped lessons to rehearse their dance performances for the following day.

There was also plenty of physical activity. Can you find Katie?

However, the students were fascinated to meet us and practice their English! Some even followed us into multiple classrooms. For most of them, Melissa is the only farang (westerner) that they get to interact with on a regular basis. We basically stood at the front of the room and let them interview us.

Thai Press Conference

A captive audience

 They asked hard hitting questions, such as "What is your nickname?" and "What is your favorite fruit?" We had a few faux pas while being interviewed. Katie told them red was her favorite color, which is a political color in Thailand. And Amanda, while trying to speak in Thai, told them her favorite Thai food was green poop soup (instead of green curry). The kids LOVED that and repeated it the rest of the morning.

Not pictured: Feces

Afterward, we went around to the students in small groups and spoke with them in English. It was helpful to have pictures to point to, as sometimes things were lost in translation. The students were very shy, as most of us tend to be while learning a new language, but we tried our best to encourage them, as speaking English is a huge advantage in these countries.

Just add "teacher" to our long list of credentials!

 In our last class of the day, the students performed an adorable song and dance for us in Thai. The lyrics are about grilling a dead chicken and it was just so much fun to watch. These kids were fantastic!

Spot the camera hams!

Amanda's mini doppelganger

That night, some of Melissa's coworkers at her other school invited us out to a big dinner celebration, complete with karaoke and dancing!

Lots of arroy (delicious) fish in this part of the country.

Law-aw (beautiful) ladies

The whole gang.

This woman would not let us sit down!

We had a blast! It was so much fun to experience a night out with young locals rather than the usual array of western backpackers. The best part is we were able to turn in at the very reasonable hour of 10pm. Don't judge us, we had to rest up for the next day!

Because, you see, we have the most amazing timing. Without planning it, we were in Melissa's village for a huge cultural celebration that only takes place once each year! Villages and communities from all around Surin come to perform cultural dances and sell their wares.

Famous Thai Silk

A loom for making the silk

Every single one of these things were made of plastic straws.

It's hard to tell, but we are eating crickets. Yum!

While wandering around the grounds, we found a station that demonstrated making kanome tian, one of our favorite coconut desserts, literally meaning "candle treat. The girls were nice enough to show us how to make them.

Pre-steaming

They found us trying to fold the treats just hilarious!

It is kind of surreal being a farang in this particular part of Thailand. You are constantly being stared at and everyone wants to take a picture with you. It is really like being a celebrity. However, it made us feel a lot more comfortable taking pictures of them as well.

It was a nice long day of being exposed to plenty of Thai culture. We learned many things that we were not privy to during our previous three weeks in Thailand. It was a nice way to close out our time in that amazing country. Thank you so much Melissa!

Thank you for reading! Soon we will be able to update you on our Cambodian adventures!