Another week goes by...

BOYS WILL BE BOYS

Bin, Pop, Kung, Bia, J and Kit. These are a few of the nicknames of the boys from the school. (Most of the Thais that I've met have first & last names but the names are long so they go by nicknames to each other - not just for us foreigners).

The largest chunk of my mental energy in the last week has been spent thinking of ways to teach English lessons & games to help the boys learn AND to always be prepared for a twist. I'll use one of today's activities as an example: It was a continuation of one of yesterday's exercises where we had given the boys a worksheet with Thai words & English translations & a pencil drawing of each word for clarification. The words were ones like: palm tree, sky, river, grass, flower, etc. We had told them (with some translation help by Su, our female Thai translator) to take 5 English words from the worksheet and to draw them in a picture with pencil or crayons (they absolutely love to draw & I think some of them designed the tatoos that are on their bodies). When their time was up, write the 5 words in English on the back of the page, and if they could, to write a sentence with 1 of the words. Our plan was to have them read their words to the rest of the group and they would get a candy if they could write and say a sentence (some of the older boys can come up with very basic English sentences though not typically pronounce all the words. To this, we volunteers give them great credit and admiration since we can't create many full Thai sentences!). The boys got into the activity right away - but -surprise! - we didn't seem to notice that Su had left after about 15 minutes. So we attempted to communicate in a combination of a little Thai (we have some phrase cheat sheets) and a fair amount of English, what we wanted them to do. "Khian bon gradaht." (write on paper) "Haa" (5) I held up the paper with the vocab and pictures, pointed to the back of the paper, interjected a smile, wrote the names on the back and wrote a sentence, showed the class (about 12 boys this morning) and ended with "Khao jai mai?" (do you understand?)

Gratefully, Bin, one of our older boys who both knows some English and is willing to take the risk of trying to speak it, said he did understand. So, we asked him to tell the others. Which, I think he did, but only about 5 of them started to write the words and Bin didn't understand it was to be on the back of the page. (Back or front side of the page did not matter - yea! they're writing the words! I'd given up on the sentence goal by this point.) James, Evan & I start walking around the 3 tables the boys are at, checking spelling, asking them to repeat the words after us "Phuud taam khruu" (speak after teacher) and encouraging them that they'd done well.

About this time, Su returned and was able to help us again with what we asked the boys.

Next we switched to working on numbers 1 to 100 - pronounication, writing both "1" and "one", we gave out a worksheet and then tested the boys by having them come up to a dry erase board to write the answers. We had two more games - Bingo (which many past volunteers say the boys love) and a "The Price is Right" kind-of game where two teams would compete to match items to cost amounts in baht. Both of these we didn't get to & we'll save for another day. (Tomorrow we're going to help with an English camp in the city of Trang - about 200 students participating.)

We typically reward the boys with affirming words, candy and stickers (Kristi - these are the girly-looking stickers that you left with me! Amazing how much they like them and they like to use them to decorate their nametags! Thank you!!!) When we first arrive in the morning the boys come over right away to sit at the tables, they take their nametags from us and they wait to hear what we're going to do. We've learned that if we (or another group - there's 1 group that comes one morning each month for an hour or so) don't come then they boys don't have a lesson during the day.

A quick word about Su: I'm very grateful to have her help though we often don't understand what she's saying and when she doesn't understand us, her answer is always yes, with a smile. Often, I ask her to say something to the boys, she says yes, and turns away, saying nothing. Other times, I ask her one thing to say and she says a long paragraph and the boys begin a variation on one of our lessons. She still knows infinitely more English than we do Thai and we desperately need her help if we want more success - so, thank you to Su - I will not take you for granted!!

In a funny note, Evan, James & I laugh that Su seems less comfortable talking to either of them than me. It is always, "Becky, you teach now", "Becky, you tell boys lesson", "Becky, I need to go". James and Evan have sometimes felt invisible and I've not wanted to feel in charge again. Is it because I'm the oldest? I'm also a woman? Who knows! Doesn't seem to have happened with past volunteers. Today we adjusted our tactics - when Su addressed me I looked at Evan, asked for his agreement & then did the same with James. Thursday will be good - I'm not going to the Boys' Home but with Dana for her last day at the Daycare Center - so Su can have lots of direct communication with the guys!

* "REST?" & OTHER THOUGHTS OF REFLECTION

Many of you know that I have looked at my time in Trang as a possibly restful time for me to pray through pieces of the future, maybe be a little less structure-oriented (yes, I believe this is possible for me through the power of God!) and chill-out a bit. Is this happening? Well, the first two days I felt like that was happening - I read a book in the evening, watched a movie the next night with the other volunteers, it was great. THEN, we started volunteering. Of the 3 of us, I'd say I'm the most planner-oriented, James is a very close second (and I'm very grateful that he likes having a plan b/c we'd be dead in the water if we didn't come prepared to the Home - it's hard even with a plan!!) and Evan is, well, not operating on the same mindset in terms of planning. He's content to go with the flow with what we come up with. This, I tell myself (over & over again!), can be great since, in some ways, I'm working on growing in some areas to be more like Evan. In this area, though, it's stressed me out. I've felt very concerned for when James leaves and I might be doing a lot of the planning solo or atleast have to use some coersion so we plan together. Finding a balance in all of this is part of my learning curve for Trang that I feel convinced is part of why I'm here so I'm pressing on. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance. Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

Likewise, I've run the gammet of feelings and emotions about the successfulness of what we're doing and all the frustrations associated with the lesson planning and execution...feels like we're reinventing a wheel that's been figured out decades ago and could be much simplier. I took some time to write out my thoughts in my journal last night and pray about how I was feeling. This morning I prayed through James 1:5-6, asking the Lord to give me wisdom about what to do. I was headed for a day of being grouchy and impatient. Praise the Lord for how He met me in my place of need. By the middle of the day, I decided to skip out on the activity for tonight so I could have some time to myself (time for this introvert to recharge!). I was feeling behind on the blog, too, and also knew that the extra time would help me in that area. Saying no to the activity, I'd say, triggered concern on our director's part so I had a long conversation with her about my thoughts. It was productive and she didn't take it as complaining (which I'm sensitive to not wanting to do - we're here to help, right?). She encouraged me about comments from the staff at the Home and the value of our work there and I was able to suggest ways she and the other staff could help us more with our Thai skills and lessons.

* YES, THERE ARE SOME PERKS

Just when I was ready to chuck my Thai phrasebook off a cliff (no, there aren't any around me) last week, the other volunteers & I did go away for the weekend. We went to Koh Phi Phi Don island, a destination that James had researched and really wanted to go to. In all fairness, I do need to mention the trip in this post. Koh Phi Phi has 2 island - a larger, Phi Phi Don, and a smaller, Phi Phi Leh. Koh Phi Phi Leh is where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. Both islands are beautiful with long-tail boats, snorkeling, beaches, monkeys and of course, mosquitos! I'm grateful for a weekend trip while Dana is here (she leaves this Friday) as I've enjoyed her company & there won't be another gal volunteering here for a while. I had my second round of stomach sickness over the weekend so I was in bed by 7:30pm on Friday night. All in all, it was a fun weekend that came at the perfect timing.

Since I still don't have any Boys' Home photos to share, I'll add a few from Koh Phi Phi!

who says a cat doesn't like the beach?

"Oh Huckleberry....time for a trip!"

This post has been long - thanks if you made it to the end! Let me know if you have something you'd like to hear more about. I'm still leaving LOTS of stuff out!

I miss you, Becky