Thailand is an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, with 98% of the country claiming it as their religion. But what does that mean? During Pre-Service Training we hear from a well respected monk on the topic of Buddhism in Thailand and after being in the country for five months I have certainly noticed what it means to some of the Thai people I know.
Teachers are among the most respected professionals in Thailand. Every school year, there is a day called Wan Wai Kruu, which loosely translates and “Day to Pay Respect to Teachers.” The students spend days practicing, preparing the school grounds and creating the small offerings they give. On Wan Wai Kruu, the students gather in an assembly, and each student, class by class, comes up to the teachers on stage, kneels and wais to the teachers. They give them the flower offerings they prepared and the teachers give them blessings and encouragement for the coming school year. Check out the video to see what Wan Wai Kruu looked like at my school this year.
After observing my co-teachers and how they teach for a bit, I finally agreed to make my way to the front of the classroom and work alongside them this week. But I didn’t get started teaching just yet. First, we needed to set some agreements for the classroom.
I have a lot of time to spend thinking and I think about a lot of things: when will I have a meal that doesn’t involve rice, where will I take my vacation to, how many mosquitoes are there in my village, how can I kill all those mosquitoes. But one thing I was thinking about recently was how much my life has changed since this time last year. And there are a lot of big things that are different (I’m not in the U.S.) but I think it’s the little things that are different that make life interesting, to say the least.
I live in a pretty rural part of Thailand. While there are some local shops around, most of them only have shelf stable food items. Fresh produce is available at the market, which is only there two days a week. Curious what this market is like and what’s sold? Check out the video!
School started about three weeks ago here in Thailand and I have spent my time at the school observing. (I wasn’t at school for the second week of school because of the student and teacher camps that I had.) Here is a collection of my initial reactions and observations.
I want to start this post with a moment of gratitude for my younger sister, who gave me her Kindle before I left. It has gotten me through unbearable hot days and provided more entertainment that I could have asked for. Thank you, Katie. And with that, I would like to review some books that I read after moving to site that give some insight into Thailand.
Thai people are exceptionally friendly and once they find out that you can speak Thai, the questions start flowing. It can be kind of overwhelming at times, but luckily, nearly everyone wants to know the same things. These are the top five questions.
True to Thai form, I was told that I was going to be hosting a teacher camp for matayom teachers just over a week before the scheduled dates at end of day on a Friday, with no further information other than maybe 50 teachers and four days long.
In Thailand, a bpai tiao is a trip of any length. I’ve written about some of my more significant bpai tiaos to tourist destinations here, to be used as travel ideas and tips.
So after nearly 5 months in Thailand I finally made it to Bangkok for more than a couple of hours. I spent an entire long weekend in the capital city in fact. However, this was one big farang trip. There was no sight seeing done on this excursion. There was an unspoken ban on eating Thai food. And it was a nice chance to rejuvenate.