My New Home

We arrived by an overnight bus to Khao Lak this morning. At 7a, the bus driver told us it was our stop even though we didn’t see the “LG” store sign we were supposed to get off next to. We had passed our stop by about 2 miles. Fortunately, we had been dropped off in front of a tsunami relief volunteer office and there were two friendly Americans working there. The husband of the couple, Dave, had a pickup truck and gave us a ride back to the LG store. Weaw, our Aiesec contact here, arrived just then and we entered our new home for the next 3 months.

It is a two-story “house” without furniture. I say “house” because it feels more like a pristine warehouse when we lift up the metal plated garage door instead of a front door with a handle or a knob. The floor is made of smooth tiling and the walls are white and bare. Jessica, Carrie and I set up 1” mattresses in our room, which has a huge sliding glass door to our ocean view balcony. Weaw says the tsunami went past our house, affected the first floor, and that the water was up to our balcony. We have an American toilet instead of the typical Thailand squatter (see pictures)- thank God! The shower is like most of those in Denmark and some parts of Europe I’ve seen. There is a showerhead connected to a knob- no separation from the toilet and sink area. We have no hot water, but it’s not a problem at all- it feels great since it is hot and humid here.

We helped Weaw hand out new pants to the kids at a nearby school and we visited Ban Lampi, the school in which we’ll be teaching English to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. The kids seem more open and full of love than I’ve ever experienced before. All 40 of them immediately huddled around Jessica, Carrie and I and began speaking all the English they’ve learned so far- “Hello, what’s your name? Where you from?” Some of the girls told Carrie and I “Sit down” so they could show us some of their Thai dances. The school has about 4 rooms with desks, chairs, and a chalkboard. However, the teachers were nowhere to be found. I guess there are 3 “teachers” that get paid to work at the school, but none of them actually teach. The kids are creative and play on their own, but they want to learn. They showed us drawings and some of the things our predecessors have taught them over the past 3 months. They asked when we would come teach. And, something I have never heard from an American student, the kids asked if we could teach a special English program during their semester break.

I am so excited to begin teaching English to the kids at Ban Lampi. I have a feeling I will learn a lot from them too.