So after 7 weeks of training we finally found out where we would be working for the next two years. Apparently the announcement is a 50 year old tradition that is a bit of a surprise so I won’t describe that here in case any future Thailand volunteers are reading in the future.
But, I found out that I will be serving in the province of Nakhon Ratchsima. I will be working with two co-teachers, one works with the equivalent of 1st-3rd grade and the other works with the equivalent of 4th-6th grade. Seeing as how the school is 1st-6th grade it looks like I will be working with every one of the students. Of which there are over 300. One of my co-teachers worked in the same district as a 122 volunteer and attended an English camp that they had put on and that was what had inspired her to apply.
So, we found out our assignments on Monday and were scheduled to all go and visit our individual sites on Friday. Before that we had to call our counterparts to figure out the best ways of transportation and arrange pick-ups and all of that. Trying to talk over the phone in Thai is super stressful. That is all I can say about that.
On my visit, I stayed with both of my co-teachers for two nights each. I visited the school and helped them get ready for sports day and even was able to go the the beginning of sports day. There are 5 villages that are served by the school, which sounds like a lot, to me at least, but the area is pretty rural and doesn’t seem like there are a whole lot of people. There isn’t a daily market and I didn’t really see any restaurants, except for food cart type things. But the kids seem really enthusiastic about me and I can see myself living there for two years.
