TM Volunteers – Karen’s Week

Karen, our volunteer at Ban Thataeng School, writes about her past week in Thai Mueang:

Every night when my head hits the pillow I am grateful for another successful day. After six hours at school, an hour Thai lesson, a bit of lesson planning and socializing, I am kaput. Everyday is exhausting, but the kids are learning and they still seem to adore me, so hopefully I am doing something right. The kids are quite resourceful and find it highly entertaining to shout out random English words and phrases that they have learned outside of class. During class they act shy and cute, but during my break I can’t seem to get them to be quiet. At least they are practicing their English!

I can even say a sentence or two in Thai, so between their gibberish and mine, we communicate quite well. Except today; I tried to tell another teacher that I was happy and enjoying teaching the kids, when a few minutes later a random plate of food appeared in front of me. I realized too late that I had confused ‘happy’, with ‘hungry’. I ended up having to force down an unusual assortment of food.

The kids seem to really enjoy learning English, so I hope that there will be another volunteer to replace me in the coming months. Already I know it will be very hard to say goodbye to my students in one and a half weeks.

Great start to the New Year for TM Volunteers

The New Year has started off very busy here at Thai Mueang Volunteers. Our first volunteer of 2008 started her placement with us at Ban Thateang Primary School on January 12. Karen from Canada writes about her first weeks with Thai Mueang Volunteers:

So far, so good here with Thai Mueang Volunteers. It definitely helps having a nice quiet house to go back to after a rowdy day at school! The house is 1.5 km’s out of town, surrounded by rubber tree farms and is very picturesque.

Teaching has so far been very challenging, but also very fun. I may be learning just as much as the kids! I think that over the next two weeks I can refine my teaching skills and help the kids to improve greatly; the older kids are especially keen and quick learners. The highlights of the day are definitely the enthusiastic responses of the kids when they see me, and the daily visit from the ice cream man at lunch. Ice cream was a major part of my diet here for the first week, as the restaurant menus (written in Thai only) are a lot more daunting. Good thing for my Thai lessons three times a week!

I am greatly enjoying the simplicity of my life in Thai Mueang; teaching and eating are the only requirements of any given day and I look forward to the coming weeks.