Monday, October 14, 2013

The last few months have been a whirlwind. I had been planning on writing several blog posts along the way, but something more interesting always seemed to come up. A few of the events from the last two months really deserve individual posts, but I've come to accept that that's not going to happen. 

In August I held a sexual education week with my 7th and 8th grade students. We played games, pretended eggs were babies, learned about birth control, using condoms, being a parent, and had a mini concert on the last day. The kids loved the week and even asked me when they could learn about sex ed again. 






The next week I was off to Central Thailand with five of my 5th grade girls for the first annual Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Thailand. We brought 50 Thai youth together from all over Thailand for a week full of leadership, volunteerism, self-esteem, and goal-setting activities. For me, and the two other PCVs leading the camp, it was the long awaited outcome of over a year of planning. The girls had an amazing time and many were crying and clinging to us on the last day of camp. Some of them have been calling me regularly just to say hi and see if I can go visit them. The five girls that I brought are trying to start a GLOW Club at our school and we are in the process of making plans and working with a co-teacher so that the club can be sustainable when I go home. Before the camp my five girls were incredibly shy and self-conscious but they have since become much more outgoing and will even help me lead games and activities at school.

I took six pictures during the camp, so credit for most of these photos goes to Karissa Warner!











 Since Camp GLOW I've been back at site enjoying some time at home where things are never dull. Last week my village had a ceremony at the local temple where we blessed the dead and gave them offerings such as soap, pots and pans, clothing, money, and food. I chose to give offerings for my grandmother, who passed away during my service here. My whole village found out I was doing this and there was a big debate about whether or not she would be able to hear the monk call her name all the way from America, and the fact that she wouldn't understand a word the monk said. I told them "baw bpen yang" and did it anyways.






In other exciting news I was going to borrow a weed wacker from my neighbors the other day to cut the 'grass' around my house when I camp up with the brilliant idea to borrow his cows instead. This scary looking creature and I are now often seen eyeing each other warily across my threshold, enjoying our symbiotic relationship.



Other than all of that I've been working at the school doing life skills activities, teaching some English, entertaining the students on the weekends, and teaching everyone how to make cakes. I've also been spending more time than ever at my host families and neighbors houses as I start to think about how quickly my time here is winding down. Right now is school break for a few weeks, and to take advantage of that time I'll be spending some time exploring Laos and different areas of Thailand. I leave tomorrow for Laos, then heading to Nong Khai to see the Naga fireball festival, taking a ferry to an island to get scuba certified, than island hopping on the Andaman Sea for a few days before heading to Bangkok for Halloween.




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