As I am trying to settle into my new life and job routine, I am also going for 6am runs with another keen runner and friend Nicole who is the Primary Teacher for Year 1-2. We run for 3km down a track that follows from behind the school towards a T junction and run back towards the Staff village. I do enjoy these runs and I do find that they wake me up ready for the day. The views in the morning are stunning as shown in these photos with sunsets and dramatic landscapes. (Taken on my iPhone). We get up this early to run in the morning as this is coolest part of the day and you would not want to find yourself to run in 30 degree plus heat in the afternoon after school. The afternoons are also a normal time of day when the heavens just open and pours for an hour or so. The company is great too and we run and talk at the same time (This just makes our runs harder I guess), which makes the time goes by.
As much as I am enjoying the runs I am so tired at the end of the day and I am wiped during the evenings, almost next to useless. Our days here at school are so long and you find at times not finishing till 5pm if you have clubs and if there is a sporting event you will not stop till 6pm. So unfortunately I am having to limit my runs in the mornings especially if I had a bad nights sleep. Another factor are the dogs that are in the area that can be very territorial. I can never run around here on my own as the dogs are likely to attack you. I am taking myself away from the equation and to only run twice a week with Nicole which would make it more manageable and therefore I can focus on swimming more lengths. It is a shame really as the views are so beautiful and I enjoy the challenge of running in the heat.
Thought I'd put together a small video of the school and where we are staying. The house that is filmed is our temporary accommodation and we have now moved to a bigger house with a rat, a small Tokey gecko and some ants to welcome us home. We've managed to get rid of most of the these pests and rodents and now learnt to keep all of our dry food including rice and bread in sealed plastic boxes. This was also the same for all of our plates and bowls as we've been finding Gecko poo all over them. Not very sanitary and of course why would we expect the cupboard doors to actually close properly? We found a way round everything and have every pest repellent and rodent removal facilities at out disposal, this is now including gaffa tape to seal up small holes in the walls.
We like our new home and its very clean its just not entirely sealed off to all elements and to all critters. It is hardly surprising that we've decided to book into a 4 star hotel called Chillax near Khao San Road in Bangkok over the weekend for a little bit of luxury.
The school is a huge building and it was originally designed for a lot more students that we currently have enrolled, so it takes a while to get from one place to the other. All of the facilities are used by both students and staff as the school is very active and come together at least once a week to play a sport. For example we are playing some Touch Rugby with the other staff with some students this afternoon. There are many sports facilities available such as a football pitch, tennis courts, a pool, an indoor gym, some table tennis tables and a 9 hole golf course.
Olly and I are swimming a lot as and practicing to get in as many lengths as we can in one sessions. The pool is around 25 metres and I can comfortably swim 20 there and back lengths (40 lengths in total). I am not very fast but like my running I find that I am able to swim for longer.
The school has club everyday for the students to attend between 4-5pm. Olly is runs an Ultimate Frisbee club on Thursdays and I run a Primary Art Club on Mondays. I thought it was cool that the Ultimate Frisbee runs on a Thursday like Red Ultimate back in Leicester so I like to join Olly in that club too, however we don't have the right frisbees to play with so we practice with the discs we do have (they are ok-ish) between students and play with the ones we bought from British Thumber Time. So if you find that you have some discs lying around going spare we would be grateful if you can send them over to us or give them to someone who is heading our way.
The last activity for Amnuay Silpa School Bangkok was to make paper out of Elephant dung at the Thai Elephants Conservation Centre Khao Yai which is not far from the school and on the way towards Khao Yai National Park. Elephant dung paper was previously made by the conservation centre to sell to the visitors and locals to raise money toward conserving the elephants. Tony thought it would be an idea for the centre to address this product and use it for the students to learn the process. This also gave the students a chance to learn about the elephants and the conservation project. The process is not that much different from other handmade paper making techniques. As the elephant dung is not as digested as some other animals poo, the fibres are used to make the paper.
The students were separated into groups to do various stages of making the paper as this can be a lengthly process. A group were selected to collect the elephant dung and to break them down into smaller pieces to be be washed. Another group at the same time were asked to collect wood to boil the dung for several hours. (Tony had done a batch earlier for the another group to start the paper making stage). Another group had then had to squeeze the fibres into balls of any moisture and to be put into a bath for the paper to be made on wooden frames with some metal mesh. A couple of students were selected to make extra frames for more paper to be made. As this was still a learning curve for both Tony and the student we were not able to see the final product as we have been told that it would take several days for the paper to dry. Once they are dried they would be sent to Bangkok to the students. This paper would not be suitable for writing on but having done this as a trial we thought that it would be an idea to find some other way to break the fibres down to a finer state and to have some rollers for the paper to be even when it was made. Hopefully the whole process can be improved however the students learnt a lot from working together through all of the processes. We also received a presentation from the Thai Elephant Conservation representatives covering their work as whole to protect the Thai elephants and of all elephants in South East Asia from the critical situation of their fast decline of their population. Fortunately there are still some elephants left out in the wild in the National Park however if the elephants are rescued from tourist keepers that train elephants for tourism which you find that they are over worked, they are rescued to be domesticated so they can never be released back into the wild again. However they are used for the conservation breeding programme but sadly they are too running out of families to breed without running into breeding with the same families. This is why the work at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre and at any conservation programme in any part of the work is so important. As funny as it is that the visiting groups that come to St Stephens International School end up making paper out of elephant the importance behind this work is also affective to raise awareness of keeping these beautiful majestic animals from going into extinction. I found out through many discussions of the project that many locals in Thailand are still not aware how critical it has become through the ridiculous reason of ivory and medicine. I was standing before the two elephants at the conservation centre and I could not understand why anyone would want to kill such an amazing animal. There are not enough reasons in the world for me to understand why this intolerable act is an acceptable choice for some people.
I put a little video together of the students from Amnuay Silpa School Bangkok working together through the processes of making paper out of elephant dung.
On Tuesday a visiting group of 30 students from Amnuay Silpa School, Bangkok came for 4 days and I was fortunate to join them to go kayaking for the afternoon at Lam Takhong dam.
Tony runs the activities and he organises for the students and the kayaks to get there by the school mini buses. Instructions were given to the students by Tony for the basic skills to kayak. We built a raft using all the kayaks join them together. The students learnt a range of skills in order to navigate the themselves which was a good team building exercise as the students had to work in pairs to one kayak. It was a lot of fun and the students enjoyed it.
Unfortunately our course had to be cut short as there were thunder and lightning in the distance. The students were then instructed to go back to shore. However the storm never materialised so the students went for a swim in the reservoir. You might think it would be cold but it was just like swimming in a warm bath.
I was not able to get more photos of us whilst we were on the kayaks however I am now looking to get a Go Pro camera for activities like this in future. I have brought a waterproof bag so I could risk taking my camera next time.
Tony asked me to get involved with the Big Mountain Outdoor Education Centre Facebook page so I made a short video for the school to enjoy alongside some pictures. I think everyone here is starting to learn that I love using my camera and to record everything.
The first week of work was hard work but so much fun at the same time and now finally have some time to reflect on whats happened. This is also following the week of preparation before the students arrived which was on Sunday of which a Parents meeting was held. With everything that has been going on at work we have played so much sports including Chairball and Touch Rugby with staff and students, so it is very much like a small friendly community and it is very easy to be involved with everything thats been going on. Of course this is including some cheeky beers on porches which is all very nice too. I am not pretending to lead an all round active and healthy lifestyle but we do have some solid session on the Leo beers here too.
There is also something that I have not fully revealed yet because it has been so busy as I have been trying to adjust to a working in a new environment, a new role as well as a new life. When I first heard that I was moving to Thailand I knew I would be working with the Outdoors Coordinator Tony with The Big Mountain Outdoor Education Centre as a part time assistant to help with the activities as a part time role. This would normally involve rock climbing, kayaking, arts and crafts, conservation work and so on.
Now I have a new opportunity to be the next Primary Art teacher replacing Mr Luciano who will be leaving in October of which I will need to learn how to teach his 3 lessons a week to the Kindergartens, Year 1-2's and Year 3-4's. So far I have been helping Mr Luciano with planning, observing and helping him in his classes which has gone well so far and the children seem to like all the projects we set for them involving the subjects following the curriculum.
Everyone in the Primary team are all helping me including the Secondary school teachers. I am using every chance I get to observe everyones lessons so I know how I can apply this to the primary art classes. As it is a small school I am starting to know some of the students and their abilities.
This week I have been going out for a 6am runs with Nicole the Primary teacher for Year 1-2, she is a keen runner and very motivated to run pretty much every morning. I have managed Tues, Weds and Thurs. Not only a lovely new friend she is also trying to help me to adjust with Thailand in general and with the school. Everyone's advice on teaching has all been very valuable and I just trying to do too many new things all at once. Not only teaching I am also trying to learn the language and to cook Thai food with all thats available to us. All very overwhelming but great fun at the same time.
After coming home from dinner with some friends we turned the lights on in our hut and heard a very loud scuttle across the walls. I thought at first it was a bat or a bird but it turns out that this was a Tokey Gecko. Normally in the UK we would find daddy long legs or the house spider, so we did not know what we were dealing with. So both of us decided to phone our Australian friend Robert (who lives a few huts down so we should have shouted) to come to our rescue. Luckily we found out that the Tokey Gecko's are not dangerous and they are only active at night. Amusingly he forgot to tell us about these creatures. However they do make a great noise which is a there loud mating call during the night. At first we did hear them and only thought this was a bird.....outside our hut, we were too jet lagged to investigate. Unfortunately Olly is a little sleep deprived and he is determined to get them out and they can get in through the vents in the kitchen. Just for the record we did not turn the oven on and we just left them to it. So far no mating call tonight.
Whilst sitting on my porch with my Singa beer I spotted this little white squirrel making a great racket clambering from one roof of a hut to another. Just been enjoying their company and they seem to be quite tame. They are very cute and they are loads of them around so I was happy to sit there watching them. So if you hear a rustle in the trees you know its one of them, especially if they drop seed pods that might just knock you out. Trust me they are not small.
The Rambutan fruit is a well known Southeast Asian fruit very much like a lychee/grape. It's deliciously sweet and enjoyable. Don't be too intimidated by its prickly red shell. Due to the lack of confidence in buying anything from a busy night market in Pak Chong and of course with the language barrier, we ended up buying a kilo of this fruit which costed us 25 baht (50p).
A video demonstrated by Olly of how you would eat a Rambutan fruit. All pretty straight forward really but this is us just messing about.
Our flight to Thailand including our small stop in New Delhi was pretty straight forward and a journey with no problems. The highlight for Olly was to buy a Chicken Maharaja Mac from McDonalds in New Delhi which was the last thing I wanted. We were surprised by how many times our boarding cards were checked by the many members of airport staff. I think 5-6 times was excessive when dealing with very jet lagged and tired passengers. Slow start but we got there in the end and I just slept through everything with the exceptions of food. Flying with Jet Airways was very comfortable and given how nervous I was with flying I felt very comfortable even when there was some turbulence. But I was on medication so it all helped me throughout my journey.
At our arrival at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport we struggled to find our driver, which was arranged by St Stephen's International School, thankfully we found him as we didn't really want to face having to find our own way to Khao Yai. Our journey was very confusing as our driver did not speak any english but through the translation on the phone to someone (Paeng) from the school, it was understood that we would get some food from a 7Eleven and eventually get to the school.
It was a long journey but we were thankful that we got to Khao Yai at 11:30pm (local time) greeted by David (Campus Manager), who showed us to our bungalow which we found out that it was only temporary accommodation as our house was not ready yet. What I've learnt is that we need to lower our expectations to avoid any disappointment and to go with the flow. Following a 13 hour sleep one of the security members came to our hut and told us that the driver (Mr Anusorn) would take us to Pak Chong. But what they meant was the driver would take us to Tesco Lotus. What Olly and I never understood that this might be a good opportunity to get food or stuff generally for the house. We were hesitant to get anything as both of us did not know what to get while our house was not ready and if we got too much we need to move it all. So we just purchased the most random things like a towel, an iron and some pans?! Shopping when jet lagged is quite amusing but not fun when denied by the supermarket to sell us beer. Apparently there is a certain time of day that we cannot buy alcohol and that is why I am typing this on a Friday night without one. We need to look up when we can buy beer. We've not met anyone official from the school yet but thankfully a Maths teacher (Robert) from Australia saved us by offering to take us out for some food and to go to the night market with his family in Pak Chong. We were both happy by his offer otherwise we would still be sitting on our porch. Saw quite a lot and we were both overwhelmed by what was available at the market....some of it was very questionable. Hopefully we should meet someone from the school in the next few days but like I said, just go with the flow.
