Byebye Caitlin!!

So, after almost 11 months, it's time for me to say bye bye to my project partner, Caitlin, who left to spend a week in Mae Sai before her flight home on Tuesday!

As we are not leaving at the same time it proved quite difficult to organise a leaving party, but we managed to have two parties (one for teachers from NaKae Pitt. and one for friends) and a meal with teachers from St. Jo. The first happened on Wednesday 13th July and was organised by us with the help of our friend, Thitima, for our friends in Na Kae who aren't involved with NaKae Pitt. We thought that teachers from St. Jo would be coming, but instead they decided to have a meal with us instead. About 15 people turned up at a BBQ restaurant called Pilein, and we had a great time! Some of our friends brought us presents which was really sweet of them. It's amazing how many people know each other in Na Kae - we invited friends that we had met from all over the place, but almost everyone knew almost everyone else although we hadn't known that they were friends! This was brilliant because we were slightly concerned that if some people came not knowing anyone they may feel awkward, but of course in Thailand this never happens! After the BBQ Caitlin and I went to a bar in Na Kae called the Albian along with Tony (a teacher from the other secondary school) and his friends Yai and Yui, and Ruth and Laura who volunteered in Na Kae last year with Project Trust and were visiting. Again this was lots of fun - Yai brought his guitar and despite the fact that it was missing two strings we still managed to have a really fun sing-a-long with him playing, Caitlin and I singing and Tony rapping.

The next day Caitlin and I didn't teach and Caitlin was busy packing and we both wanted to spend time with each other before she disappeared. Somehow she managed to get all her packing done in one day - I now realise that this was possible because she left me with all her junk!! That afternoon we went to St. Jo to have lunch with the father and sisters of the school, and some of the teachers in the English department. As always the food was delicious, but there was so much of it! For some reason whenever Caitlin and I eat there they seem to think we need enough to feed an army! In the evening we had a party at NaKae Pitt., to saw goodbye to Caitlin and I as well as another teacher who was leaving, and to welcome two new staff to the school. We had a huge blessing ceremony and got blessing ribbons tied round our wrists by all the other teachers - my mission to to keep them on until I get home, but I don't know how possible this will be! We had lots of lovely food and got some of the teachers to sign our friendship books which was nice. After this, Yai invited us to his house to continue the singing session with a guitar which had all it's strings, so we went there. His house is huge, and his sister can speak very good English. She went to NaKae Pitt. but managed to take part in an exchange programme to Florida while at university in Sakhon Nakhon. The next day we headed to Ban Phon Sanuk in Yai's car, stayed the night there so that Caitlin could say goodbye to everyone, and headed to Ubon on Saturday to see the Candle Festival. Luckily Caitlin could leave her bag in the bus station.

The Candle Festival was brilliant and I really wish we'd been able to stay longer as it was much larger than we realised. There was, of course, a huge market, but in the evening a huge art show was set up with installation art, puppet shows and stalls along with a parade of giant candles sculpted to look like amazing dragons and Buddhas. Several people were doing questionnaires and surveys and as we are white we got asked to do them all. We found out pretty quickly that the art exhibition was huge and had been going on all month, so it would have been nice to be able to see more of it. Later on in the evening people started to set off lanterns which were beautiful - I managed to get some photos of them and they don't look too blurry which is good, and there were also AMAZING fireworks! Really huge ones that exploded several times in different colours, I wish we had ones like that in the UK!

When I arrived back in Na Kae after saying goodbye to Caitlin, the mice in our house decided to rebel and show their protest at Caitlin leaving, along with their obvious dislike for me, by dying. In my rucksack. In my rucksack, which was packed with all the things I'd bought from markets and wasn't going to use in Na Kae. He didn't even die at the top, he died in the middle of all my things! The only reason I found him was because I went to put on a DVD after getting back from Ubon and was near the rucksack which stank so checked through everything. While I was checking everything I was also smelling things to see if I really could smell dead mouse, and all that was going through my head was: "No... it's not dead mouse I can smell. It's not. Nope. No, no, no. Wow that's getting stronger, but I am still reasonably convinced that I can't smell dead mouse. Stay positive. Reasonably convinced. Reasonably convinced. Reasonab- oh. Hi mouse." This lovely discovery was made at about 1am, so, while on the phone to my mum and sister VERY annoyed, I upturned the rucksack releasing the dead mouse so I could dispose of it (also releasing a lovely aroma of death into the house...), left my things on the floor in a heap and went to bed. The next morning I got to work bagging up everything that could be washed into bin bags to take to the laundrette, and called Tony who can with Yai to help me take these items to be washed. For some reason I wasn't feeling well, and felt dizzy and sick so got taken to Yai's house to sleep. I managed to sleep for most of the day, then went to Tony's house to spend the night. I could have stayed at Yai's, but I thought it would be better to be with a native English speaker as I still wasn't feeling great. Later on that evening my muscles started to ache so I went to the hospital in Na Kae. After running the most technologically advanced tests of "weight", "blood pressure" and "heart rate", they announced that I was fine, gave me three packs of free drugs ("This one good for sleep. This one stop you dizzy. This... same same paracetamol?") and sent me on my way. Thankfully the next day I felt much better and, with encouragement from both the in-country rep and my Desk Officer on Coll, began the process of moving everything I owned out of my house as it was decided that it was probably best I don't like there anymore. I may have forgotten to mention that the rucksack mouse was the 5th dead rodent we'd found in a few days due to the school janitor putting down piles of rat poison, despite the fact that Caitlin and I had both said to our host that we really didn't want the poison anywhere near us. This moving process took 2 days, but now, finally, all of my things except my jewellery which I have just remembered is hanging on the window, the fish and the turtles are safely at Joe's house. Next years volunteers are getting a new house, so the school janitor/handyman is taking everything that doesn't belong to me out of my house to move it to the new house. So far his contribution to the moving efforts has been to move the mosquito a grand total of 8 steps, leaving them halfway down the stairs. Hopefully he will speed things up...

Now that I have no house I am having to stay with my friends in Na Kae and of course in Ban Phon Sanuk, meaning that things like where to keep washing, where to keep clean clothes for each day and where to keep toiletries is proving slightly difficult. And I have just remembered that I have left my bag of clothes for wearing in Na Kae in the smaller rucksack (with the lit and all possible entrances firmly closed), so I'll have to retrieve that and find somewhere accessible to leave it! Only 1 week left of teaching before I leave Na Kae, I really am going to miss so many people so much.

Wow time goes fast!

I know I say this a lot, but I honestly can't believe that this year has gone so fast. I didn't realise that I had so little time left in Na Kae until it hit me that today was Caitlin's last ever day teaching at St. Joseph primary school!

However, before thoughts of how close our leaving date was actually started to hit home, Caitlin and I took part in an English camp in Loeng Nokta, organised by two of the other Project Trust volunteers, Anna and Fleur. Loeng Nokta is about 3 hours away on a bus, so it was nice and easy to get to and we had a great time. Caitlin spent the weekend before it in Ubon which is a city a couple of hours away from Loeng Nokta, butI decided to stay in Na Kae and meet Caitlin in Loeng Nokta on Sunday afternoon/evening. When we arrived we met Anna and Fleur and were taken to their house - it is lovely! Smaller than ours, but with more rooms and lots of storage space. Plus it has no mice or rats which is nice! We spent Sunday evening watching Glee and chatting to the other volunteers who arrived - Clara and Chess from Kutchum, Clem and Rachel from Si Sakhet and Billie and Rosie from Phanaa - before being taken out to a buffet BBQ by one of Anna and Fleur's Thai friends. Actually Billie and Rosie arrived while we were at the BBQ, but unfortunately had got off at the wrong stop on the bus. Apparently there are two places called Loeng Nokta - old and new - and they had got off the bus at the wrong one which is a few km away from where the project is. Thankfully the guy we were with was able to phone someone and get them to pick them up, so they weren't lost for long. The BBQ was nice, I really love them. It's not like a traditional UK BBQ, instead you sit at a table with a hole in it and a bucket fire is placed in this whole with a funny shaped pot put on top of that. The pot is shaped like a wok but with a large hump in the middle. Soup and veg is cooked round the outside of the bump, and meat, which you collect from an all-you-can-eat-buffet, is cooked on the hump itself. Surprisingly I haven't given myself food poisoning yet, but I don't know if I should thank my cooking skills or the fact that I'm used to meat being slightly more than overdone thanks to my father :P


The next day, the camp started. There were 8 categories to teach (shapes, body, clothes, personal info, animals, numbers, fruit and directions) so everyone chose one, except Anna and Fleur who teamed up with Chess and Clara. I decided to do shapes which went quite well, although I sometimes found it difficult to fill up 30 minutes teaching only shapes, especially as the kids all came from different primary schools so some were very good at English. It's amazing how meaningless the word "triangle" can become once you've said it for the 200th time! It was fun though - I got the kids to draw robots made of different shapes and then label each body part with what shape it was, as well as getting them to create different shapes as a group (getting them to stand in a circle, in a square, in a triangle etc.). There were 8 groups of kids and the groups rotated round the lessons throughout the day - 3 on the first day and 5 on the second. In between the lessons we playes games like Musical Statues and a group version of Rock, Paper, Scissors which I'd never seen played before. It was great fun and a really nice break from organised classroom teaching. On the evening of the second day we were taken to Anna and Fleur's host's house for food and karaoke which was great - I hadn't done karaoke for a while and I actually missed it, so it was nice to have it again! Wow, I never thought I'd say that! Throughout both days all of us volunteers were constantly stopped by large groups of primary kids (all the students were about aged about 10 or 11) wanting us to sign their books, asking for our facebook names and email addresses and taking photos of us. It's lovely and they are all really sweet, but after signing books for 20 minutes I found that my name became shorter and shorter...


Last weekend Caitlin and I decided to head to Nong Khai. I went there during the holidays only meaning to spend a couple of days and ended up staying for almost a week because I loved it so much, and I wish I could have stayed longer this time too. We only stayed one night and went to see the Sculpture Park, which is amazing. The sculptures are all very abstract and quite weird looking, but really beautiful too. Unfortunately the artist died in Laos while creating a second sculpture park by falling off the top of one of his statues. We stayed in the same guest house that I stayed in - Mut Mee - and again had a brilliant experience. The people who own it are really friendly and the whole place is just like a giant group of friends. It's busier in the hot season when the schools in Thailand are on holiday as it's a place that a lot of foreign teachers go to get a nice break, but it was still buzzing with people. When I come back to Thailand I am definitely going to try to spend a long time in Nong Khai because there are so many things to see around the city/town and just outside it.


Yesterday and today were Caitlin's last days teaching at St. Joseph primary school, and I only have two and a half weeks left teaching in Na Kae! The pupils at St. Jo are extremely bright and very talkative and friendly, and poor Caitlin had to spend at least 20 minutes at the end of every lesson signing books! Actually, not just signing books - both of us got asked to sign bags, pencil cases, books, textbooks, Scout hats, bamboo poles, ping pong balls... I'm sure that most of these things don't actually belong to the kids, but hopefully the teachers won't mind! Friendship Books are big in Thailand. They are lovely hard-back notebooks and on each page there is a small "about me" section, and then lots of space to write in. The pages all have things like "I Miss You" and "I Love You" written on them, the idea being that you get your friends to sign each page. Caitlin and I have both bought these, and the kids love signing them! I haven't got any of the pupils to sign mine, I'm waiting until my last days teaching there, but it's been great to watch them sign Caitlin's books and has given me a few ideas on how not to get crushed by children trying to sign it - always put a table between yourseld and the army of 50 10 year olds! We got given several drawings and notes saying that the kids loved us which was really nice. Next week I'm not teaching there as it's Caitlin's last days in Na Kae and I plan to "help her pack" as well as try to get started on some of my packing, so the week after that will be my last week teaching at St. Jo. The week after that I'll be teaching at NaKaePit. secondary school but not at St. Jo as I plan to stop teaching on the Wednesday and spend until Monday in Ban Phon Sanuk staying with Pippa's family.

At the moment we have two main parties lined up - one organised by us and one of our Thai friends, Thitima, at a BBQ Buffet place in Na Kae for all our friends, and one organised by the teachers at NaKaePitt. for all the teachers there to say goodbye to us. Thitima was one of Pippa's best friends at the New Year party we had, and is absolutely lovely. She speaks very good English as she has an American husband and two Thai-Farang children who are also adorable.

Oh, another piece of news - we now have pets. Yes, with only a few weeks to go, we have aquired three turtles fromthe market (Morris, Constance and Mowgli) and two Siamese Fighting Fish (Morvin and Marvin). We had been planning to buy turtles for weeks but for some reason they were never at the market although we'd seen them there before, until last week when we finally found some! At the moment they are living in our wok because the other bowlhas floor cleaner in it, but they seem to like their new home and as long as we don't need to use the wok they canb stay there. We may have to find somewhere else for them to live before giving them to the new volunteers though, as I doubt that Kru Nid would be too happy at us turning our cooking facilities into reptile houses... The Siamese Fighting Fish were taken by me and Caitlin from a group of Thai men who were betting on them. It's horrible - animal fighting is a "sport" here and it's something that I loathe. We did have three fish, but unfortunately one of them didn't survive long after we brought it home as it had been fought the most. He was called Borris. We've asked our friend, Joe, if he'll take the turtles after we leave until the next volunteers come and he said yes, but we haven't told him that he's also agreed to take the fish :P