Week 8 - Panel in Bangkok (Gruntep)

A group of currently serving volunteers came into town to offer insights to Group 120. Here are some of them attentively listening and soaking in all of the information they can. (to see more detail on any of the photos please just double click and they will be shown in a larger format)



Although the discussion was heavy at times you can see that all were having a good time listening to shared stories and adventures!


This is kind of a closeup. Some of the youngsters quickly learned to watch when a camera was produced and would quickly smile for the photographer.


Later in the day a group of us decided to go out and eat. You have heard about 5 pounds of stuff in a 2 pound bag? Well here are a group of I am not certain how many trainees in a single small-size taxi. (Nothing like sharing the fare, huh?)


We really didn't plan our packing of the taxi very well. Somehow the tallest of all wound up in the front seat with his knees under his chin. But as with all of the young people we met in our group - the attitude was positive and the smiles were ever present!


What a great bunch of kids (from our perspective they were kids). But really it is more accurate to identify them as educated, motivated, wonderful young people.




Another shared meal and more of the beautiful young people we had the privilege to meet during training.

A Visit to the HIV/AIDS Wat

In a province nearby our training hub there was a Wat founded by a compassionate Abbot who saw the need for a safe, secure and loving place for HIV/AIDS patients. We visited one of two sites associated with this mission. These photos are taken from a brochure available to all visitors. An apology for the fuzziness but you get the idea. One campus offers three levels of care - first for those who are gravely ill and almost at the end of their illness. Next is an intermediate level for those taken by a predatory illness that they most likely can recover from. The third is the offer of a safe place to live and work if a person is living with the disease. Medications are given as well as respect and loving care to all three levels. We were impressed with the kindness of the staff.

This photo shows the cremated remains of former patients. Each container is labeled with the patient's name, date of birth and date of death. The remains are kept in the hopes that family will come and claim their loved one. Unfortunately, as you can see, there remain many unclaimed.

The second campus of this facility which we did not have the opportunity to visit - is for the children. Most are left orphaned. Some have the disease while others do not. They are loved, educated and cared for by staff and the monks. The Abbot who founded this revered and rightfully so.

To The States For Us

Hi, We do have many more photos to post and we will once we complete our trip back to the States.

Peace Corps has a rigerous application process. Those who make it through the process and are lucky enough to receive an invitation are not yet a "volunteer." In our case there was 10 weeks of intensive training. It is the end of week 9 and we are on our way home. Not all trainees are fortunate enough to be sworn in as volunteers. The schedule is intense and so is the pressure. Many handle it well but not all.

However, our time in Thailand was magical. Our Thai family will be in our hearts forever. We would not change a single minute of time spent. We are sorry that the photos will have to end at 9 weeks. But each volunteer is about to be dispersed to their various sites and the photos would have become those of only our assignment.

Good luck to all of the Group 120ers. We will think of you often and fondly.

Back from our site visit

We have all returned from visiting our various assigned sites. An apology to those of you who enjoy our photos. Although we have many we do not have the capability to upload them right now. But we do promise to put them in the blog as soon as we can.

Once we were all back we got together to share our adventures with each other. We all seem to have had a "great adventure" in various ways. Buying tickets in Thai, a tonal language, can be challenging. If you say, for example, I would like a ticket to Philadelphia in a rising tone but really wanted to go to the Philadelphia that is in a low tone you can wind up not only in the wrong town but also in a completely different part of the country - like instead of Pennsylvania you wind up in Montana!

Some of our volunteers returned knowing exactly where they will be living for the next 2 years - a specific house. Others of us have not as yet decided on a house as of yet. So we will return to our site and stay with a host family while we continue to look for just the right spot.

Our volunteers are going to live EVERYWHERE in Thailand! From the very north, to the very south, as far east as you can imagine as well as as far west as the eye can see and still be in Thailand -- in addition there will be some of us sprinkled about the inner areas too.

We still have some time to learn more (stuff) before we go. But once we go our separate ways we will definitely miss each other.

This past Saturday the teaching component of PC held a teacher training camp. There were 200 Thai teachers of English in attendance as well as all teaching volunteers. We had a really good time and the Thai teachers seemed to enjoy themselves too. Now they have some new ideas they can use in the classroom if they wish.

Visiting a Current Volunteer Couple

This is Tomi. She is serving in the CBOD role (the same program as John's-CBOD). John went to the office with her today and was able to see her in action. One of the nice things about being a couple is that you can help each other on projects or making teaching materials or maybe an English camp. Visiting current volunteers is a great way to have a window into our future.

Here is one great teacher! Got to visit his school this morning and watch him in action with a 6th grade group. They respect him, like him, and have learned bunches in the process. Boy I hope I can do half as good a job.


Here is a good example of a product from an English camp. Derrick whitewashed the wall the day before and then had Tomi and some fellow volunteers free hand an outline of each continent. The students painted in each continent. You can't see it but on either side of the map there are handprints of each student who participated. They made their handprint using the color paint they used to paint on the map. Below each handprint is the student's name.
For each volunteer assigned to a school there is a Thai co-teacher. Derrick's co-teacher has saved the results of each project from past day camps. They are all displayed on the walls of the classrooms where Derrick teaches. I have taken copious notes in the hopes that I may be able to duplicate some of his successful ideas during my assignment.

This is a conversation board. The words can be put up out of order or just straight. Students can take parts or possibly a full sentence. And while they are doing it they are also having fun. This approach seems to help them remember the material better.

Where Are We Going - Tell us again.

On the floor an outline of Thailand has been taped. The pieces of paper indicate locations of assignments. We had to stand outside of the country line until our name was called and our location revealed.


Anticipation was half of the fun waiting for the announcements. The faces are eager.


These faces show happy anticipation. Each of us was happy for the other.

First absorb as much information as you can as fast as you can and then . . .


Sharing the information with each other is part of the fun. We quickly became a large extended family.



These sweethearts were offering free hugs to any and all - can you read the sign on their shirts?


Can you tell that the young lady in the center with her hands raised in the air was happy with her assignment? She also let out a loud Whoopie!


Someone got a hold of my camera and snapped this of John and me. The pink folder in my lap held details of our assignment.

Here is our safety and security officer. He may be smiling but he takes our safety VERY SERIOUSLY.


And this is Sean. He is our guide on cultural issues.

More cultural insights. Every little bit helps!

Bill is sharing some insights from his practice teaching work. We all share and learn from each other. Each person is having a unique experience. It is fun to hear from everybody else.


Got a cultural question? No problem. Just drop it in the basket.

This map shows the north and northeastern part of the country and where some of us will be living.

The Reclining Buddha

This morning we had the opportunity to visit a wat that is well known in the Sing Buri and surrounding area for having one of the largest reclining Buddhas around. The figure is so very large it took us several minutes to walk from his feet to his head. My guess is that it is about 1/4 to 1/3 a city block long. And it is beautiful. Our wonderful host family graciously took us.

Below are several photos of areas around the wat. One fun experience was when a family with two small children spotted us and realized we were farang (foreigners). They requested that they take a photo with us. It is possible we are the first foreigners they have seen. We can't be certain. But I can tell you that we are beginning to identify with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. After the English camp we were asked for our autograph. And people here and there point to us and say farang.



Ever buy a Pepsi in a bag? This solves any inconvenience of returning the glass bottle. It also encourages you to drink it fast. It can be a little tricky trying to set your drink down - don't you think? Here is John and Kasem. Kasem is our Thai son. He is kind enough to let us live in his house. He and Wan Pen brought us to this beautiful wat for a visit.


This photo is of a beautiful blossom. These flowers are on a full grown tree. The blooms spring from the trunk of the tree and not among the leafy areas. I didn't try to smell it because it was up too high but I bet it was fragrant!

One fun experience was when a family with two small children spotted us and realized we were farang (foreigners). They requested that they take a photo with us. It is possible we are the first foreigners they have seen. We can't be certain. But I can tell you that we are beginning to identify with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. After the English camp we were asked for our autograph. And people here and there point to us and say farang.


Here are Kasem and WanPen - Our LookChai and LookSow in Thailand. You can't meet a nicer couple anywhere in the entire world!


Here is the only part of the Buddha I could fit in my lens. His feet and hands are the size of maybe 5 refrigerators lined up next to each other.

Our First English Camp

One activity we are certain to experience is that of an English Camp. We had the opportunity to organize and execute our very first one yesterday. It was fun! Actually there were two camps at two different schools. The theme for one was Sailing the English Sea (with pirates and buccaneers) and ours was Safari (with lots of animals represented). The CBOD group was asked if they would like to volunteer and participate. John (bless his soul) joined my group. His activity was on rotation 4 and it was called Run, Swim, Fly. The idea was to name animals in English and see if the children could tell if the animal would run, swim or fly. Part of the session was outside and involved lots of running!



My group consisted of three, including me, and we made animal masks out of paper plates, color markers and masking tape. Three animals were offered - a giraffe (Lacey) an elephant (Sherri) and a snake (yours truly). We had a vocabulary list of animal names, parts of the face and the names of the materials we used. We think the children enjoyed themselves during our rotation. They had something to take home with them too!

The students were organized into teams. Each team had a different schedule to rotate through the 5 activities planned. But we also had large group activity. Here you can see Kelly teaching them the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". They learned it easily and by the end of the session they were singing it in rounds!


Here is a photo of our final activity of the day - relay races. Of course being the wonderfully innovative group we are - ordinary running wouldn't do. So the children raced doing the leapfrog (here demonstrated by two of our volunteers), wheelbarrow running and the infamous crab crawl. It turned out to be a great day!

Our Practice Teaching Ends :-(

Kim and I taught our last class on a Monday. Our co-teacher invited us to have dinner with the entire faculty that evening. Much to our surprise each of us received a gift made by the students in the school. We were accompanied by members of the PC teaching program staff. Of course being that we are in Thailand - during and after dinner there was karaoke! The thought of getting up in front of a group and trying to sing the words to a popular song has turned my blood cold in the past. But you know what? It is fun! The Thai people love to have fun! An they do it so very well. They don't care that I can't sing worth a lick. They cheer and clap as though Elvis or Elton John had just finished an encore! Tucker (another PC volunteer teacher) and I got up and sang "At the Copacabana" by Barry Manilow. I am certain that we were not very good but no one seemed to notice. I guess that is why we had such a good time.

We Love Dr. Rit!

Another session about how to stay healthy while serving in Thailand. Oh yes, also another shot day. But (hooray) these are our last shots for a while. As you can see John doesn't seem too thrilled but our wonderful nurse Tanuloc appears happy in her job.

Our talk was about emotional health. Dr. Rit was informative, memorable and warm - his usual self. He let us know pretty much what to expect once we are dispersed to our assignments in the field. He also assured us that he is always only a phone call away and that is so true! Feeling homesick, feeling blue? Dr. Rit is there for you! He had several suggestions as to how to put our spare time to good use -- learn to play the guitar, read a good book or your can -- LEARN TO JUGGLE! Is he a cool dude or what????

CBOD What is That?

CBOD is the second of the two official programs now working in Thailand through the Peace Corps. John is a CBODer. I feel a little guilty about only addressing the teaching aspect of our work. Here are some photos of the CBODers at work. Teams of 3 or 4 CBOD volunteers were formed. Each team was to spend time getting to know the community and various community groups. In these photos the CBODers were teaching local Thai volunteers some English. This proved to be and excellent outreach vehicle. Once the team members had a chance to spend time in the community several proposed projects were launched. John's involved learning about how to make organic fertilizer. One of the farms in our region (called a Tambon)is actually an educational center for teaching the in's and out's of organic farming. Information is shared through classes and hand's on demonstrations. John's group asked if there is any written material that can be used to let the community know of this activity. They found out that word-of-mouth has been the only vehicle. So the group asked if it would be helpful if there were a small brochure describing the efforts of the powers that be to encourage the spread of organic farming. The answer was in the affirmative so . . . a brochure is in the works this weekend and the most amazing part (to me) is that it is in the Thai language.

One of the members of the CBOD team on the organic farming project is living, with his wife, on the model organic farm. A member of their host family very kindly agreed to type up the information for the brochure in Thai.

We have found the Thai people to be wonderfully welcoming and anxious to help in any way they can if a need is seen.












.