My Daily Battles

Geez, everyday I battle against sneaky intruders trying to disrupt my peace.

First, it was a suspected mite attack when the gals from my church were here. Lynette and me broke out in a sudden spotty rash on the inside of our arms one morning. Within the next 2 days, it spreaded to our tummies, bum and thighs. Then Wanyi started developing some, followed my Dawn. It took 2 weeks of furious scratching before they started to subside.

Second, were the ants. One rainy day, I found a trail running from the window to a tiny whole through the paint work in a corner of my room. That's fine I thought. I've been leaving with lizards, beetles, mosquitoes, flying bugs of many sorts, (and have even eaten some big mamas but that's another story) I'm sure I can put up with some harmless ants.

Few days later, the ants had formed another trail continuing out of another part of the panel some distance away. This time I was a little more alarmed coz it led to my wardrobe. I checked the drawers - true enough, there they were, not many though, scurrying around trying to look for a new place to settle in. There was nothing much in the drawer except a fuzzy bath towel so I decided to leave them to sort themselves out.

I didn't think much of it ( I'm usually quite nonchalant about bugs) until I decided to use a nice, clean and fresh towel that evening. It was like an ambush. My towel was brown. The ants were brown. Of course I didn't notice them. And boy were they angry and fierce when they found themselves stuck to my wet skin. They started biting me furiously!!!

The nasty welts lasted for at least a week, with me scratching furiously every so often. (Worst them mossie bites in my opinion. The welts were much bigger and persisted longer. But mite rash looked the most scary coz you get lots of little red itchy spots everywhere.)

Next they started attacking some sweets on my table. They worked thorough my entire pack of Halls sweets, tediously making holes in every individual wrapping. Fine. I moved all my snacks to the table in the common area, placed them in a bowl on a plate of water to form a "moat" to keep them off. Never did I expect, their next assignment was to attack my instant noodles. Get this right - they actually bit through the packaging to get to the noodles!!!

The last straw was when they decided to migrate into my Apple notebook. The nooks and crevices amongst the keypads, ventilators, speakers and electronic chips must have appealed greatly to their lifestyle. That was it - I declared war when I saw them scurrying around beneath my keypad. I plug in my laptop to charge hoping to either electrify them or burn them alive somehow. Every ant that I saw escaping, I crushed them to death with my invincible thumb. It took about 3 days for them to finally clear out from my precious computer.

Today, I got hold of a can of Bygone and I attacked their hangouts on the wall panels without mercy.

As I entered my room this evening, I heard a rustling in my bin - something trying to get out. A lizard I thought. Must be a big one for all that noise. I waited for it to scurry out.

Then a pointy nose and 2 beady eyes emerged amongst my papers and discarded chip bag. YES... THERE IS NOW A LITTLE GREY MOUSE IN MY ROOM. Great... Guess I should thank my lucky stars it's not a rat. At least it looks kindda cute.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Here's a taste of my present workplace (or more accurately, volunteer-place) - Rainbowland Child Developement Centre, located in (ulu) Sawang Daendin, Thailand.

It's kids, kids and more kids everyday!!!!! It's actually not as bad as I thought (i've never been a "kids" person), the kids can be rather funny and cute at times. Some will try to speak Thai really s-l-o-w-l-y and LOUDLY to help me understand. It never deters them though, knowing that I can hardly understand Thai. Everyday, they will try again, just in case I get sudden enlightenment in the language overnight and can manage to understand them the next day. Of course it has yet to happen.

Btw, life is NOT a bed of roses here. The teaching can get rather hectic and tough at times. To teach English to totally non- English speaking kids is indeed a challenge. Even when you give simple instructions (like " put up your hand" or "let's read together", you draw blank stares - from both the children and their teachers alike!! At times I feel like I'm standing alone on an island, trying to command the monkeys on the coconut trees to come down.

Just for your info, there are officially no English classes in every first week of school; there are also no English classes every Mon for the nursery and K1 kids (age 2 - 4). Why? Because English is scary. And English teachers are even more scary... Boo!

During my first few weeks of teaching, some kids will just start to cry for no apparent reason in class. Some of the kids from the nursery class will literally push me away when I try to talk to them. When the gals, Lynette, Wanyi and Dawn from my church visited and helped me teach, there was a boy who cried every English lesson for the entire 2 weeks except on the last day. I'm sure in their little heads, they were the scary English- speaking - giants - from- Singapore. Of course it didn't help that Wanyi's built is on the taller side and she wears glasses.

Anyway, things are moving along and the kids are no longer afraid of me, and by the law of association, English has become less scary too. Yay! - for the kids.

Still... God help me please!