Teaching

Things here are great. I taught at Phuko child care center yesterday and it was the first time I didn't want to strangle the kids. The lesson went amazingly well. Not only did they pay attention (for the most part) but I think they actually learned what we were trying to teach them. It was just me and Ming and two Thai volunteers. I can say what I will about Ming, but his forced planning totally paid off. Hopefully the kids will remember how good it was and continue to behave for me next week. I tried to give blood yesterday, but the hospital was too busy. I ended up sitting on a bench reading most of The Alchemist. Today I taught at Jalae child care and the kids are 100% different than the Phuko kids. We got there and they were sitting in a circle quietly waiting for us. They're amazingly well behaved. Even when they get bored with something, they don't go crazy and start locking each other in closets.

These are the kids from Phuko saying the national anthem.

This is the cutest kid from Jalae. He wears a flower earring in his left ear.

A new group of 12 volunteers started this week. Mirror feels packed with all the new people. Teaching is going to be really light this week because there are so many teachers to fill the spots. I think I'm only going to one school per day for the rest of the week. There's still tons of planning to do though. I teach at my first grade school tomorrow and I'm kind of nervous about it. The little kids are easy because you can just play with them if they get bored. You really have to teach older kids. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, and then I have to go on my own with new volunteers the next day. Ahh! I don't feel like I've been here long enough to be in charge of anything.

Half of the guys that came with me are leaving this weekend. I'm so sad. I can't believe how close you can get to people in such a short amount of time. It's also weird to think that I probably won't ever see them again because they live across the world.

They put me in charge of putting together a video of all of the songs we sing, so please let me know if you can think of any. Kids songs with actions are the best. They LOVE the banana song. JoLynne, if you still have that camp songs book saved on your computer I would love it if you could send it to me. All the volunteers think my songs are horrible because the animals all die (i.e. the bumblebee song, monkeys and the alligator). I just told them we Americans just like to keep it real.