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!