Today was Friday, and the students planted flowers and shrubs at the school in anticipation of World Environment Day, which is celebrated tomorrow (in Thailand, that is). I have only been here for a day and a half, and already I feel quite at home. I learned to count to ten in Burmese, I talked to the kids about how to sneeze and cough properly (into your shoulder or elbow!), I supervised the children as they colored during afternoon activity hour, and the others seem comfortable enough with me to let me pitch in on the easy work (like making lunch bags for the students’ parents, washing dishes, etc.).
But I have not even described the school yet! Let me backtrack…
I arrived in Mae Sot (pronounced Mae Sod in Thai) yesterday at 5:00am, by bus from Bangkok. It was raining, and Mr. Min Lwin picked me up. We got to Parami (the old campus) in about 5 minutes by car, which is where I will be staying for the rest of the time. The female teachers and the boarding female students all live here; the boys, male teachers, and 4 other female teachers live at the other campus. My roommate is a lovely young lady named July who teaches science classes. I will be teaching science to the 7/8th grade class Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 9 to 10am, and leading an English class for the teachers Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays 4:30 to 5:30pm.
The students here are all very polite and friendly. They seem fascinated by us foreigners, but we are nothing new- they’ve had volunteers here at Parami for at least two years now. I suppose I am the only volunteer that rooms at the old campus, so perhaps I am around more than they are used to. The Bishop’s University volunteers live together in a house about 10 minutes by bike from the campus, and teach at multiple schools. Their volunteer this year is Skylar LePoidevin, who I discovered one day last month when frantically researching (ie. Googling) information regarding the Parami Learning Centre. He will be teaching English 4 days a week to the same 7th/8th grade class at Parami. I also asked him to help me teac the teachers, as there are 20 of them who have different English levels.
The old campus is a nursery and preschool/kindergarten campus, whereas the new school is for grades 1-8. They have 8 classrooms, 300 students, and 9 or 10 teachers at the new campus; I am not sure of the specifics for the old campus, but there are about 80 students in nursery with 4 teachers, and four small classrooms for preschool and kindergarten classes. The children are aged 3-17.
I’ve been slowly trying to learn Burmese; today I learned to count to ten, and make the proper number combinations following. Thap! Is drink, sa is eat, gaun de is good, chai de is like, yue is leaf… As you see, my Burmese lesson time typically coincides with meal times, so I suspect I won’t be able to say much more useful information until later. The students seem to be talking about me now (“she-amat” is female teacher, and it keeps coming up in their conversations), so I know it’s time for me to learn more Burmese, quick.
We are sitting downstairs at the boarding house (this room is used for nursery classes), and since it is Friday night, the children are drawing and reading picture books (it’s a Pooh animal encyclopedia!) as I am trying to blog coherently. You see the thing is, there is so much that happened today alone that I can hardly put the right words together to describe what it is that has happened before, even though I am only one day behind in blogging. I suppose it is because I am so desperately impatient, but I cannot bear to leave anything out, for I feel like my writing efforts are the least I can contribute to these students. They have endured so much, they are so resilient, and they are so kind that any word I leave unsaid is unfair to them.
But I digress. Let me continue to talk about the logistics of this school. Tuition costs 210 Baht per month per child (~$6.50 USD), school is 9-3 with a one hour break at 12 for lunch and a free period from 2 to 3. Two trucks with benches and thick tarp roofs installed on the truck bed serve as the school buses, which take students to school and home every morning and afternoon, for those who live off campus. Mr. Min Lwin and his wife live at the old campus, and there is a breakfast of noodles provided every (school) morning for 5 Baht. The HWF (Help Without Frontiers) provides clean drinking water and lunch every day to the school, as well as dinner for the 20 boys in the boarding house. Their work is amazingly generous, and I cannot express how amazing it is that their services are provided to the children.
You see, these children are refugees from Burma, most of the Karen ethnic minority, and though the school treats them well and they are well looked after, they and their families are the victims of the violent attacks by Burmese militias (including the SPDC and the NKBC, who were originally on the side of the Karen). After reading the KWO’s (Karen Women’s Organization) annual report on terror, I tried to be as sensitive in choosing my topics of conversation as possible, but I remained unprepared to hear of the atrocities firsthand. Min Lwin’s wife, Tri thi, was orphaned at a young age because her mother was raped to death—not raped and killed, but simply killed by the sheer violence of relentless raping. This was told to me by her great-grandmother, whose English has a beautiful—almost European—lilt and is very good; this is most likely thanks to the help of Church volunteers, for she told me that she felt it important that the children know of the importance and significance of Jesus.
I typically am a little suspicious of religious appeals, but given the fact that she is still able to find comfort in Christianity despite her history, I feel that in this case religion may indeed be beneficial to those who are receptive.
Tit, nit,do, lit, ngah, chap, kun, shit, koo, tit-set…
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