First Day of School

Laura, an Elementary Education major, contributed this post about our first day in the Salesian School.

Today was our first day at the Salesian school!  We met for morning meeting at the high school at 8:30 a.m. and we were introduced by Father Smith.  He spoke to both the elementary and high school students about our visit to the schools.  It was very honoring to hear him describe us as "big brothers and sisters" to the students.  We gave both Father Smith and Father Theparate gifts to show our appreciation for allowing us to be a part of their new school year.  All of us were impressed with how well the students followed directions.  When the bell rang, all 8,000 students lined up in straight rows to sing the national anthem, pray the Our Father, and hear morning announcements.   

Afterwards, we were given a tour of the schools.  There are five levels to the high school.  Inside each of the classrooms there is not a lot of technology; however, every teacher is given a microphone so the students can hear.  When we walked into classes, the class leader would stand and invite the rest of the class to do the same.  In unison, they would all greet us by saying, "Good morning, Teachers.  How are you?" The students are very shy and did not have a lot of questions for us but they are excited to have us here.  We saw the library at the high school (organized by the Dewey Decimal System,) played the instruments in the band room and we were introduced to the staff and teachers. 

 

After our tour, Dr. Hartigan gave us an "Introduction to Thai" lesson.  We learned our numbers 1 through 10 as well as polite mannerisms to use over the next 20 days.  Who knew you couldn't point the bottom of your feet at the Thai's?  We also had Jeff, a secondary English teacher, come talk to us about his experiences.  Jeff was born in Alabama and returned to Thailand with his mother when he was three.  He spent ten years here before returning to the United States to be educated.  After graduation from the University of Alabama, Jeff joined the United States Army band.  He retired from the army and returned to Thailand where he found his calling working as an English teacher and choir leader at the Salesian school.  Did we mention he's a fourth generation grandson to the ruling king of Thailand?  Our royal friend has made plans to introduce us to the Thai night life on Friday and after a long week of teaching, everyone will be looking forward to that! 

At dusk, we finally made our way down to the beach!  The water is so warm and there are plenty of beach chairs to lounge on. I'm sure we will take full advantage of them later in the week.  We walked along the beach to a restaurant on the pier and rounded off the evening shopping at the night market.  All in all, our second day in Hua Hin and first day of school was quite the adventure.  We feel privileged to be working with such an amazing group of teachers, students, and Thai community. 

 

 

 

From Student to Teacher

Kelly, who is bound for Medical School this fall, contributed this post about the first day of teaching.

Today was my first time teaching ever.  Some of us are trained teachers so this was only somewhat different, but for me it was completely new.  I had a wonderful time though.  Erica and I taught colors and shapes to first graders and body parts to fifth graders.  We taught the kids the American children's song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and they loved it!  I was so glad that they liked it and the teachers seemed to enjoy it as well.  The teachers have been very nice and accommodating to us. In fact, everyone we have met here has been very nice.  The hardest part about teaching for me was the amount of kids (the average class size here is 50-60 students) and the language barrier.

I think we have successfully broken the ice.  After our introduction yesterday many students were afraid to approach us, but today many students came up to us today even to just say hello.  They seem to be very curious about us, excited that we are here, and eager to show us what English they know.  It feels weird to have the student "wai" us, but maybe I’ll get used to it.  Wai is a greeting in Thailand where you bow slightly with your hands in a prayer position in front of your mouth.  As we are considered teachers here all the students wai to us.  I am still learning all the nuances to waiing, but I love all the cultural things we are learning.  We have a very curious and willing group so I am sure we will learn a lot about the Thai people and their culture while we are here.

Looking Past Stereotypes

Meg, our English/Secondary Education major, contributed this post about our first day in Thailand.

 

“ผ้าขี้ริ้วห่อทอง” –Thai Proverb              

Translation: “Waste cloth covers gold”

                Living in the United States makes it hard to travel to another country without having a preconceived notion of what to expect. The media molds our psyche to feel certain ways towards other cultures. “The French are stuck-up.” “They have poor hygiene in the Middle East.” The negative, conservative stereotypes that our culture nearly forces us to believe. So what about Thailand? How to Americans view the Thai culture and its people? I cannot speak for everyone; however, I was under the impression that Thailand would be unsafe and have an extremely traditional culture. I also thought the Thai people would be extremely judgmental towards Americans and would not want anything to do with us. However, once the waste cloth of negative perceptions was removed, gold was revealed.

                Based on first day impressions alone, Thailand makes sense. Everything is practical, no extra, ostentatious ‘fluff’. The people are overtly kind and do not look down on you for speaking English. And Hua Hin is proving itself to be safer than Erie, Pennsylvania. We are told from a young age to never judge a book by its cover, and there could not be a more useful moral.

                 Hours later, I am still amazed at the dining arrangements.  Tonight we went to eat at one of the local night markets. The night markets consist of different vendors selling food, clothes, souvenirs, etc. We went to a sit-down restaurant type deal inside the night market. I noticed on the table that there were no set napkins or silverware but rather a box of tissues. When we were severed dinner, we did not receive a roll of silverware or a cloth napkin transformed into an artifice of a swan. I ordered fried rice and got a plate of fried rice with a fork and a spoon resting on the plate. But wait, where is my hanky that doubles as a model airplane? I asked Dr. Hartigan, our faculty advisor who lived in Thailand for five years, if using the box of tissues as napkins when being served a meal was customary. He said yes and that people do not put a napkin on their lap during a meal. What a notion, being civilized enough to eat food properly and not need a landing pad for all the scrapings. After working at a hotel with a large banquet facility for about a year, I have realized how asinine folding napkins and setting five different forks for each place setting can be. I am most certainly going suggest to my manager that we switch from rolled silverware with a cloth napkin, to a box of paper napkins and silverware served as needed. We’ll have to see how that goes over.

                While preparing for the trip, Dr. Kingston told us that everything was very inexpensive. After doing my fair share of traveling, I was just like ‘yeah, ok, whatever. I’m going to need to save as much money as I can.’ But oh boy, was Dr. Kingston right. Early in the day, we went to the local floating market. Here a series of shops and vendors framed a pond, hence “floating”. I took out 3,000 bahts, around $100, and brought back a skirt, a pair of pants, a dress, a pair of shoes, two coffee mugs, two bracelets, four little elephant and Buddha figurines, and three postcards. At the end of the day, I still have 700 hundred bahts or $23 left. Even at the night market, you could buy an ice cream cone for 10 bahts or 33 cents. Yes, cents. Now I can join the grandparents club: “when I was young, we could get ice cream for 33 cents!”

                All and all the first day was spectacular. Souvenirs were bought, laughs were had, but most importantly, I was enlightened. Thailand has welcomed us with open arms. It is times like these when I remember how truly blessed I am. I feel guilty for ever judging a place like this. But always remember, waste cloth covers gold.

               

 

We're Here!!

After a very long day of traveling we have finally arrived in sunny Thailand! The plane trips were long but comfortable, with great movie selections. Here we are looking fresh and excited in Detroit:

The whole group joined up togteher in Tokyo, Japan:

At last, the world weary travelers arrive in Bangkok, Thailand:

We were able to grab a couple hours of sleep Sunday morning before heading down to breakfast and English Mass. Our hosts are trying very hard to please us (they're wonderful, by the way). Note the hotdogs at breakfast...not a typical Thai breakfast food...not a typical American one either though.

We weren't done there, though. I will post the rest of our Sunday adventures later today. To be continued...

 

 







 

 

 



This Spring at Gannon we hosted students from Thailand. It was a great experience and opportunity to practice for our trip!

This is the school that we will be working at.  It is a catholic school that enrolls more Buddhist students than Catholic students.  The country of Thailand is 96% Buddhist and Catholics are a very small minority.  The Catholic schools are supported and run by the Saletian priests.  There is also a convent for Capuchin nuns on the campus.  They are cloistered and do not speak.  We will also see the young Aspirants in training as they live on the school campus as well and attend the Catholic school.  They are training and studying to be priests and they leave their families at about age 12 to live with the priests at the seminary at the school.  The belief is that these young boys have been called.  They will not see their families until they are ordained in about 10 years.  At night you can hear them playing their guitars.....

This is where we will be living.  This retreat house is right on the school and church campus.  The rooms are spartan and simple but clean and comfortable.  Each of us will have our own room and private bathroom.  The showers are very interesting and very green from an efficiency standpoint.  The hot water is heated instantly "on demand" and so there is very little waste and no need for hot water storage and heating devices.

Getting Ready

Dr.Kingston’s musings about our upcoming service trip to Thailand

We have our “team” now after many months of promoting the trip and working through the bumps along the road of planning a faculty led trip.  We have met at least five times now with the students who will be participating in the service trip and we now have our second faculty chaperone, Dr. Tim Hartigan!

It is beginning to feel real and the vision is coming together….at least on our end.  Planning with our contacts in Thailand is an amorphous process.  You are never really sure what you will encounter when you get there in spite of the fact that you clarify multiple times in writing, you keep asking questions about the plans, and you check and double check.  I have warned the students that, while I expect that we have a solid plan for the after school and weekend camp programs, we really do not know what we will find when we get there.  How many children will there be?  We said 40 but who knows?  What ages will they be?  We said grades 2-6 but who knows?  Sabai Sabai….don’t worry……….We will keep you posted!

Our student team is awesome!  We have Kelly and Erica as our team leaders.  They are both RA’s and know how to deal with peers in a way that is somewhere between peer and adult.  That makes me happy because, as you will hear repeatedly, I don’t deal with drama and I am not a camp counselor.  The students know it and my own children will tell you that as well!

We also have Kara, who is an English major, and is our media, communications, promotion, and Blogger leader.  Under Kara’s leadership we will be sure to keep you posted through words and pictures about our experiences and what we are learning.

We also have Meg and Laura who are education majors and who will be providing leadership during our many days of teaching English in the after school programs and the weekend camps.   They are both really enthusiastic and engaged as teachers always are.  We are happy to have them and they will be invaluable to us and the teachers as our educational consultants.

Last but not least ---in fact this is the MOST important leadership role—we have Jessica, a Physical Therapy major and Winette, a psychology major who will be in charge of taking care of our social and emotional needs.  They are going to be in charge of----FUN!  We will be working hard every day while we are there however, we will keep a focus on fun and enjoying each other’s gifts.  Our team leaders have already been facilitating ice breakers to help us get to know each other and Jessica and Winette will continue planning celebrations, ceremonies, and the kinds of activities that will keep us connected and paying attention to our social and emotional needs.  I am beginning to think, based on the funny things we already know about each other, that in some ways, “what happens in Thailand will stay in Thailand!”

We are so fortunate to have Dr. Hartigan accompanying us as a faculty chaperone.  Dr. Hartigan has spent five years in Thailand as a Peace Corp worker and as a teacher at the prestigious “Chula” University.  He has many years of ESL teaching experience and is fluent in Thai.  He will be helping us to understand the culture of the Thai people and learn about the real Thailand experience.  He is currently the Director of the ESL program for international students at Gannon.  He is also on the Fun Team!

I am the associate director of the School of Education and travel to Jordan and Thailand to conduct teacher workshops.  I was in Thailand last spring to work with the teachers in the same schools that we will be working in during this trip.  I am very excited about sharing what I have learned and introducing the people and places that I know with our wonderful team of student leaders.

So if all goes as planned, Dr. Hartigan and I anticipate spending most days swinging from a hammock and sipping tea……….

Just kidding of course….. but we will be encouraging our students to step forward in their leadership roles and will be excited to watch them grow as they navigate a new culture.