Leaving Thailand
To understate the obvious, this post is overdue. I made an
outline and chose pictures months ago, but never sat down to compose it until
now. Resolving to finish “Leaving Thailand” before year’s end, I
eliminated half the pictures and condensed
the narrative. If you’re on Facebook, you probably saw some of these pictures
last spring.
It’s not easy to leave a country as hospitable as Thailand.
There is a plethora of farewell events – lunches, dinners, parties, speeches – which
are mostly a lot of fun, though it was sad to leave my school. The teachers and
students gave me a going-away party that lasted all morning. The two teachers
with whom I co-taught English had organized a program with performances by what
seemed to be about half the school’s 250 students. The short video below is an
excerpt from a traditional Thai dance performed by three 9th-grade
girls.
I loved this performance because it was about the dance
without the traditional Thai costumes (which are very beautiful, hot and
uncomfortable). The students are in Scout uniforms, so it must have been a
Wednesday.
Some of the other performances came from lessons I had
taught – a play based on Goldilocks and the Three Bears (grade 5), a recitation
of The Gingerbread Man (grade 9), and the Phonics Song (grade 6).
As you see, the girls had the job of singing, with the boys
wearing masks that I think were supposed to match the words of the song (e.g.,
O is for octopus), but that aspect is more difficult to detect. The students’
Thai accents prevailed throughout. My favorite example is: “We is for wan, w,
w, wan” – “W” being one of the letters of the English alphabet that usually
needs to be “translated” for Thai students. If I spelled “v – a – n,” most students
would write nothing until one or two class stars called out “we, we” – so that
the others could recognize the letter as “v.” Thai student solidarity in
action. And, so much for phonics.
A brief excerpt from a student performance unrelated my
teaching is the following:
“Take me to your heart” is one of the English-language songs
that most Thai people seem to know, probably from karaoke.
After all the performances came speeches and gifts. In the
photo below, I’m receiving a gift from the school principal, Ms Orn-Anong.
The red blob on my head is a rose stuck by its stem down the back of my shirt. The gift is a heavy glass bottle containing a scene that Ms
Orn-Anong created herself. Inside are two people (one female, one male), trees,
and flowers on a bed of bright-blue grass or sand (hard to tell). I don’t know
if the scene is part of a story. Raised letters at the bottom of the bottle say
“Jas Hennessy & Co Cognac France.” Other colleagues and some students had made
gifts for me as well. I was very touched by so much time and effort on my
behalf.
The next item on the program was my surprise to my
colleagues. I presented individualized homemade certificates to each of them, based on
a quality or habit of theirs that I had noticed (e.g., most generous, most
hospitable, best selfies, etc.). In the photo below, I’m giving the 4th
grade teacher, Kruu Thanyakorn, her certificate for “Best English Student.”
Kruu Thanyakorn always stayed in the classroom during her
students’ English lessons (twice a week). At first, I thought it was to protect
the students because they might not understand – she translated what I said into
Thai and prompted students to answer questions. After a few weeks, I felt
comfortable enough to ask her to let them try to answer on their own – and she
did. When she started giving answers in English herself, I smiled and said,
“No, please don’t tell them the answers.” She smiled back and replied firmly: “I
am student!” – A stealth learner! What more could I want?
Finally, each student and colleague gave me roses! It took quite a while. Here
are just two pictures of students filing past to give me a flower.
The students in the picture on the left are first- or second- graders, I
think – not students that actually had classes with me. The students in the next
picture are 5th graders – the little girl in the foreground was
Goldilocks in the play. I can't remember who had my camera, but he or she took about 30 pictures with the hand holding a rose in the corner.
Finally, after all the students had filed past, there were
more farewells to colleagues. Here I am with my host sister Wit (on the left)
and Kruu Pailin, who has the job of assistant principal in addition to
teaching.
And here’s my co-teacher Bussara holding some of the roses!
The last school-related farewell party was a VIP dinner at a hotel
in Kanchanaburi, the capital of the province of the same name. It was organized
by Ms Krongthong Pothong, the Supervisor of Kanchanaburi District Education
Office 2. In the photo below, you see me with Ms Krongthong (seated, left), my
co-teacher Kruu Jidtrakan (aka JK, standing), and Ms Krongthong’s assistant
(seated, right).
After dinner, it was time for karaoke, with Ms Krongthong taking
the lead. She sang, among other songs, “Sad movies always make me cry” and
“Itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot bikini.” Yielding to pressure to sing
something too, I tried one of my favorites, the Beatles’ “Ob la di, Ob la da,”
but the karaoke machine got stuck, bringing my performance mercifully to an
end. Other people sang too. If you want to see any videos, send me an email.
Of course, there was also a farewell event hosted by Peace
Corps. It combined the official COS (Close of Service) ceremony for my group,
which began our term in January 2013, with the Swearing-In of group 127, which began in
January 2015. Each PCV could invite one teacher or community member we had
worked with. In the photo below, you see my co-teacher JK receiving a
certificate of participation from the Country Director, Kevin Quigley, the
deputy director, and the Teaching Program director.
In addition to the officially scheduled program, we
volunteers performed a flash mob dance, which one member of our group had
choreographed to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.” Our performance had to be
cleared with Peace Corps leadership in advance, which somewhat diminished the
flash-mobbish spontaneity aspect, but it was fun. Sorry, I couldn’t take a
video because I was dancing. Instead, here is a photo of our group
(incomplete) during part of the program, looking glad that we made it this far.
The very last Farewell to Thailand gathering was at the
airport. My amazing colleagues, and one student, got up at 3:00am to drive to
Bangkok and see me off at the airport for an early flight – actually, they got
there before I did, calling me shortly after 5:00am: “JC, where are you?” (Me: “I’m in a taxi!
I’ll be there soon!”) Once there, we
checked me in, sent my luggage on its way, and then hung out for an hour or so,
drinking coffee and taking photos until it was time to go through
security. Here is one of the photos. By
now you will recognize some of the people from other pictures. Nattarika, the
student, is standing to my right.
So there you have it, my story of leavingThailand. Of
course, leaving physically took less time than leaving psychically. Peace Corps
leaders had cautioned us to expect stress with re-entry into American culture,
and indeed, they were right. I felt like a fish out of water for many weeks.
But I’m very happy to be here in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana, in my own
home. You’re welcome to visit any time!
December 23, 2015
