Teacher! Teacher!

We are now into our second week of teaching and volunteering with Isara here in Nong Khai.

Pink school

 We are working 3 days a week at a local government school, teaching students from 9 to 13 years old. The school is two doors down from our apartment and is a lovely shade of flamingo pink. On our first day, as we walked down the driveway of our apartment block we could hear children’s laughter, we glanced over and there was a group of  girls playing what appeared to be tag on the roof of the 5 storey building! Lets just say discipline at the school is quite lax.

All together now.... ch!

Saying this, the students are all very respectful and respond well to us (we have not needed the cane that was handed to us on day one). Our lack of Thai and their lack of English hasn’t been a problem and already we have seen progress from the students. Now when we walk down the street it is to a chorus of ‘Teacher, Teacher!’.

Teacher Matt in action!

Ruling with an iron fist. 

Both at the government school and during our afternoon classes at Isara we have mainly been focusing on Phonics. I have found it fun to think of activities and games to  engage the children and Matt is loving his time in the classroom, after years of hearing 'I don’t like children', Matt is a natural in the classroom, and I think it helps that the young adult class all tell him he is handsome!

We also have been enjoying our Thursday afternoon art class. I had the genius idea of making salt dough with the children, it was a great fun activity, although I didn’t count on the most humid weather I have ever encountered hindering the actual drying process, turning the artistic ducks and flowers into a beige mush!  

Not too sure about salt dough.....

clearly loves it!

Lets just hope I can fix the finished products....

If you have time, check out the Isara website, you may even spot a few pictures of us participating in manual labour! 

A little taste of Nong Khai….

Salakaewkoo sculpture park

Let sleeping pugs lie. 

Yummy ice cream.

Take Matt to a sculpture park and he takes photographs of the light fittings!

For Lisa and Dan.

Entering the 'Circle of Life'. It moved us all. 

Transport Nong Khai style!

Dust off the cobwebs

I am going to gloss over the last few weeks pretty fast and dust the cobwebs off the blog (and in the process see how many metaphors and sayings I can manage to mangle into one sentence).

We had all kinds of plans for new year when we left Taiwan but once we were back in Bangkok we felt a bit under the weather and decided to hibernate and recuperate. We really did just eat (mainly Japanese), watch movies and try to get to the art gallery (which we never managed). We did however manage to enjoy the amazing fireworks display that was put on, it put Disney to shame! 

We forgot the art gallery is shut Mondays

Bangkok traffic is nothing if not colourful

On January 2nd we finally located an illusive Thai train, we caught the overnight sleeper to Nong khai. The beds were comfortable and the carriages quiet but we didn't get much sleep as the lights were left on all night, we will be investing in an eye mask before the return leg. Also a mention has to be given to the toilet which afforded a surprising view of the track below flashing by as you peed.

Nong Khai is in north eastern Thailand, its main claim to fame is its position on the Mekong river connecting Thailand to Laos via the Friendship bridge. After a couple aborted attempts to get there we can finally see Laos from our apartment window. After living the luxury life for so long it was hard work scrubbing our apartment up when we first arrived but it is very habitable now, and comes complete with our rather adorable guard dog Toto. 

Toto

We are in Nong Khai to help out at a voluntary project called Isara. Isara started out doing helmet awareness before branching out into English teaching and most recently recycling. In our first 2 weeks here we have painted walls, recycled junk, sorted books for a library and taught a few classes.

Aimee jumped straight back into teaching and has really enjoyed being back in the classroom. I was a bit slower to get going, the little people started as a bit of an alien species to me having only taken the odd class of older students or adults at college. So I attended a few classes of my own, basically I sat at the back of Aimee's lessons and made copious notes, then I got involved helping out with reading and assisting in the class.

This week I took a class and have been team teaching with Aimee. I am having a rather good time it is fun when you can see the children's brains click onto an idea.

The other volunteers are a real mix from all over the world with different experiences and ideas and we have been made to feel very welcome. 

Better sign off, I have to attend planning 101 now, apparently the idea is each lesson builds on from the last one, who knew?

I will leave you with a picture of the sunset from our apartment and we will post again soon.

We don't see many boats on this stretch of the Mekong