3rd and final teaching week in Khao Lak
Trip Start
Nov 06, 2009
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54
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Trip End
May 28, 2011
Khao Lak, Phangnga, Thailand
Friday, January 29, 2010
Had a very lazy Monday nursing our hangovers on the beach until sunset, followed by Nat's last Khao Lak supper - the Walkers Inn all you can eat Monday night barbecue.
Said goodbye to Nat on Tuesday afternoon - she left for Phuket to meet Nadia. It's strange not having her about now after the three of us have spent 24/7 together for the past 3 weeks, but we're looking forward to meeting up with her and Nadia in Railay in a few days.
This week Tom and Claudio taught grammar to the high school kids whilst Grainne, Chris and I have been teaching the primary kids -'Things in a House' to P3s and P4s and 'Rooms in a house/hotel' to P5s and P6s at Tablamu on wednesday and Fai Tha on Thursday.
For some reason the kids at both schools were a bit rowdier than in previous weeks, maybe because it's sports week/scout camp week season and they're a bit prematurely demob happy, or maybe it's the heat, or they've put something in the water around here. I had to exert a bit of authority and confiscate a computer game from one of the Tablamu boys on Wednesday, and do that horrible thing teachers do - go up to a kid's desk and put them on the spot with a question they clearly don't know the answer to as they've been talking amongst themselves at the back of the class rather than paying attention to the teacher. But despite that, they're all still a lot better behaved than kids back home.
Usually we teach at two schools on a friday - the Moken sea gypsy school at Koh Nok and then at Ban Dok Diang, but the latter was also closed for sports day so we only had the one lesson on 'Things in a room' at Koh Nok this time. It was a lovely one to end on though as the kids are just lovely - I think it's my favourite class of all.
As we finished early on Thursday and Friday we were able to squeeze in a few hours on the beach and I've now got through Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and Colm Toibin's Mothers and Sons.
When we arrived back at Walkers on Friday afternoon Andy was very keen to show us the dead snake on the barbecue. Apparently it had been in the road and hit by a car so he moved it out of the way but it had already been whacked quite hard and soon bled to death. He was going to pickle it in a jar for some reason but didn't in the end as Enya (his 4 year old daughter) didn't like it much, so since he knew all about Nat's fear of snakes he'd kept it on the barbie so we could take a picture of it to send Nat before he disposed of it. How thoughtful!
Good job Nat wasn't here to see it. That reminds me - I got a big fright myself the other night - went for a pee and as I went to flush saw a HUGE spider climbing up the inside of the toilet bowl. It was fat like one of those horrible golden orb ones we saw down by the waterfall the other week, but with stumpier legs, and it looked angry. As you would if you'd just been peed over I guess. Eek! FLUSH! I now check the toilet bowl thoroughly for spiders before sitting.
Anyway, we've been really good and alcohol free since Monday, so were ready for a few drinks at the Everyday Bar on Friday night to celebrate the end of our teaching in Khao Lak and to recieve our Volunteer Teacher in Thailand certificates from Ken.
It's been a really fantastic 3 weeks. We're really glad we've had the opportunity to teach here, the kids have been absolutely brilliant - I hope they've got as much out of it as we have.
Feeling sad about leaving Khao Lak on Monday as it's really started to feel like a home away from home - we've met some great people, made friends here, and it's the longest we've spent in one place on the whole trip so far. But at the same time also looking forward to moving on and discovering more beautiful new places.
