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.












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Teaching Program Volunteers Share

Volunteers arrive with volumes of knowledge to share. Here we were broken into groups to brainstorm different aspects of teaching. After some time each group comes to the front to share their input. What a wonderful way to learn!


This is a group of people in the teaching program. Ideas on a specific subject raised by the whole group are written on the large sheets of paper being held aloft to share with all.



Experiences and ideas seem to be endless as you can probably tell from the long list of items seen on each
large sheet of paper.





Here is Lacey sharing her experience and training on the assessment aspect of teaching. Oh, so much to learn and so little time!

Grand Shadow Play at Wat Sawang Arom

Tonight we attended a shadow play. After the play we were allowed to handle the shadow figures. Here are Dale and Megan each holding one. The play depicted an ancient epic about the Battle of the ten-headed demon. We all had a really good time and had a chance to see more of the wonderful Thai culture.



Here are two of the pros. This was taken mid-step for the players during one of the battle scenes. All of the players were young and strong. That is with the exception of the opening three men. John spoke with one of them and he said he is 82! Amazing!


Some of the scenes depicted are of battles. Here are two of us trying to re-enact what we saw the performers do when there was a battle going on.


Although all of the "official" players were male that didn't stop some PC ladies from trying their hand at holding one of these heavy figures high! At least long enough for a photo.


Some of us tried to duplicate the dance-type steps used by the players while moving with their figures held high. This is a pretty good idea of what it looked like. Not as easy as you may think! (if you would like to see a larger version of any photo please just double click on the image.)


Pretty good coordination in the foot movement wouldn't you say? But I think the professionals are still safe from any PC people taking their jobs. Huh?


We were told that the average figure weights about 15 pounds. The players accompany the carrying of each figure with what looks like definite elaborate almost dance steps. It looks pretty hard. But here is Bill and he seems to be having no problem holding this figure up high!


Each figure is held high by a different player. Here you can see some of us trying to mimic the movements of the players. Mock battles are fought with the winner (of course) being the figure that represents good.


Tucker is holding one of the heavier more elaborate shadow figures. Each figure is made of leather that has been meticulously colored and carved out with the results being a wonderfully detailed character or scene.


Of course John had to try his hand and holding a figure up high with one of the younger volunteers. He said "it was not too heavy (for the first 4 minutes or so!).

Practice Teaching - Valentine's Day

Why do we come all of the way to Thailand to teach? This is why! What an absolute delight to work with these 7th grade students. They are anxious and happy to learn English from a "native speaker".


This is the host country teacher and she is G-R-E-A-T! We team teach. There are three of us. This is a perfect number that allows each of us to give individual attention to the students. And they blossom before our eyes.


Each group of students would come to us one at a time and request a supply in English. Scissors, glue, pink paper, red paper and so on. And they actually enjoyed learning these new words in English


As you can see from this photo each student pays rapt attention to their work.


Here is our whole group. On the left is Tucker. He is practice teaching in the same school we are. Kim is in the middle. She is the role model I am trying to emulate. What a teacher! Great ideas and the students love her.

More Shots

Guess you can tell from these photos that everyone pays rapt attention to all lecture sessions. We each take a turn though to have any innoculations that may be scheduled. And to make the shots a sweeter experience you can see the reward we received for being a good patient. Smiles all around!(Except maybe for John.)

Sports Day!!!

We are all studying as hard as we can. So many things to learn and so little time! We have hands on work as well as theoretical information. Whew! PC decided to give us a change of pace so we had Sports Day yesterday. We all loaded on to various vehicles and ventured out to a different village in a more rural location. Sports Day was located on the grounds of a school that has a total of 50 students. We were treated to some wonderful music provided by the students. They all were spic and span and dressed alike in lilac pants and white shirt. We ultimately found out that all of the students in the school can play all of the instruments we saw. And they were so very good!

We were divided into 6 teams. Each team was a different color. You can see in the photos we wore our colors proudly!


In this photo you can see a PC staffer trying her hand at one of the instruments. They all looked very difficult to me!


John tried to pick out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but with no success. These children are really talented!. The instruments look hard to master.


This game has a Thai name but to me it is Bocci Ball very much like that played in Italy. In case you cant tell - I was on the green team! Go GREEN!


This is a photo taken during our soccer game - termed "football" in Thailand. The interesting part is that for our game the only rule was you could not touch the ball with your hands. So us Greenies decided to have 5 people be goalie. Well, our opposition also decided to have 5 goalies so no points were scored during the game. But fun was had by all.



This game is strictly Thai I believe. It is called the snake game. Two teams with five players each. The team color is placed on the back of the last person in a line of all team members. The opposition's goal is to grab the color of the other "snake". This was lots of fun to watch but I don't think it is suitable for a 64 year old woman. Do you?


This is part of a relay race we had. Megan is trying to hurry up threading a needle. Not as easy as you may think. We also had people racing to blow up a balloon until it bursts, dig through a plate of flower to fish out a coin - with their teeth and no hands, carry a ping pong ball with chopsticks as well as others.

Yep, Chris was elected for the find the coin in the flower part of relay. And this is after he cleaned up!

The next few photos are of a competition making Som Tam. It is made with a mortar and pestle. The ingredients include Papaya, tomato, onion, green beens, sugar, salt, a garlic clove and some HOT peppers if desired. Actually each cook makes Som Tam to their own liking. It can also have shrimp, crab, fish, fish sauce, peanuts, etc.

Members of the PC staff were judges of the resulting Som Tam. My team, the GREENS, came in third (I say proudly). The pink team won. I think Roxy must have had some secret lessons when we weren't looking.