Long Trip South Pt 1 of 3

Just got back from a long trip. I Ubon late April and arrived back in Ubon a couple days ago.


1st Leg of the trip



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Ubon-->Phuket-->Hat Yai-->Penang (Malaysia)-->Kuala Lumpur


Phuket:
The bus was about a 22 hour ride, but it was a super nice bus, and I do love riding on long comfy bus trips. I had the front seat on the second floor so I saw everything. I got a guest house room in Phuket Town so I would be able to visit several beaches cheaply and easily. 


And I did. Here are pictures from around the island.

When I saw that island in this picture I thought Sean should be here so he can swim to it.

I also went scuba diving which was pretty AMAZING. All the wildlife and colors. There's like a whole other world down there! There was even this little bright blue fish that would constantly rub itself against my legs cleaning itself. And I saw a sea turtle! And clownfish! And yeah. But my camera doesn't go under water so here are some amazing above ground pictures.

And then there was this picture, which does not do the experience justice:

On the mountain in the middle of Phuket.


Hat Yai:
I wanted a direct bus from Phuket to Penang, Malaysia, but instead I got a transfer at Hat Yai, one of the biggest cities in Thailand. I walked around with my extra hours and took a few pictures.

 Very Muslim area of Thailand.

Tuk tuks change so much in Thailand from place to place.

 Yes, those yolks are...red.

For anyone keeping score, that's Thai, English, Chinese, and Arabic. Wow.

Penang:
Got here and really didn't expect much. The food was amazing, the India town was amazing. The old religious buildings were amazing too. A few good pictures.

 For wudhu. Ritual washing before Muslim prayer.

 I thought this was...interesting.

I went up Penang Hill by cable car. It took half an hour. I think they need some help with the meaning of the English word "hill."

At the top:

 There's a city down there...somewhere.


Kuala Lumpur (KL):

 Chinatown

  This is a...peeing terrace?

 Cranes are a sign of robust present and future economic growth. I'm not sure how long it's been since I saw this many cranes on one skyline.

 This is the garb I needed to wear in order to enter the national mosque with shorts on.

 Friday school.

 The Petronis Towers are really stunning, and no picture does them justice for how awesome they are in architectural beauty or as an architectural feat.

 Doesn't that look tasty?

 We were lucky enough to see some sort of LARGE Buddhist holiday parade. Here are my favorite pictures from it.

 The previous picture's float was so massive that it took the following picture's battery to power it.

 In KL Tower.

KL was great. And the trip was great. And there's still more! Part 2 with pictures is coming!

Pictures at the end of the school year in March.

Gift, a determined and stubborn student

Pim, probably best English pronunciation in the school of any Thai, student or adult.

Mint, center front, is the best student in the class.

 Sigh, just an average day of learning English.

The boy with his mouth open is not the top of the class by any means, but when he knows the right answer he's the first one with his hand in the air.

 San Kaew, all smiles. Sarah and I realized she was squinting at the whiteboard so we sent the message through the grapevine that she should have her eyes checked. Sure enough, a few weeks later she had a nice new set of specs. Her grades improved as well.

 Bake.

 Minnie. Very smart kid.

Pim again, too smart for her own good sometimes.

 Judo. Has the biggest vocabulary of any student. He probably has a learning disability such as Asperger's syndrome (which in a country like this would probably go untreated), but he is one of our top performers English-wise. He was Sarah's favorite student by far.

San Kaew. I do not have any by-far favorites like Sarah, but she is certainly one of mine.

Don't ask me what they're doing, but no one is getting hurt.

The center-front one who doesn't seem to be noticing what's going on is Can. He was the most confident, energetic students I had. Always enthusiastic for attention without being a disruption; always wanting to participate even when he knew he didn't have the right answer. Great personality.

 Front and center is Feel. Very hesitant to participate, but as you can see he is no loner. Garfield (as is on the grade sheet) or Gafeel (as he spells it on papers and pronounces it) has his arm around Feel. Gafeel is another really smart kid. He sits next to another smart one and together they were unstoppable in group learning games.

 Er again.

 Pictures of campus. No grass on campus, but not a totally ugly campus either.

 From left to right this is Ni (girl), Mean (girl), NaMo (boy), Can (boy mentioned earlier) and Chai Yo (boy). Chai Yo's name is funny because it translates to "Hooray!" in English. Ni is the exceptional student that sits next to Gafeel. She always does her homework in class and wants to give it to me 5 minutes after I assigned it.

 Standing: Boon, Feel, Copter (yes, as in "helicopter" it's English), Pleum, Kla Keng (the troublemaker of the class, though a born leader), and Mean.

Teacher John. Lived in UK, USA, France, Germany, and Thailand.

 Teacher Don. Former electrical technician. Has worked in Thailand and Burma.

Teacher Steven. Former commodities trader and entrepreneur. He is the other 3rd grade teacher.

Flag Assembly. Roughly 30-45 minutes every morning. All 3000 students stand for most of it. Sitting, you can get a feeling of how many there are.

A REAL Thai conflict

I don't know everything that is going on, but me and Sarah had asked to take a few of our "personal days" to on a trip to Laos with my Uncle Marty who lives in Bangladesh. This was the only time he could do it.

I understood personal days to be effectively vacation days. You let the boss know ahead of time, ask if it's okay. We did. And we got approval. But apparently that wasn't enough.

The people that cover us when we are out are our Thai teacher's assistants. But they are rebelling against us now in the way Thais do. I got out of there when I heard they were so upset (the correct Thai response). Sarah unfortunately got attacked Thai-style and I'm not sure what happened. I just know that they might make it their business to make the rest of the time at this school as difficult as possible.

Sorry to give such a cryptic blog entry. Don't worry, things will work out and be alright in the end. I'll try to give more specific details as I get on top of this.

Conflict in the Office!

Introduction: Cultural Context

In Thailand conflict is looked down upon and losing your cool is looked down upon. All problems are solved through subtlety and going through other people. It's because a lot is based around the idea of losing face. When there is an office problem, you can't negotiate directly because that would be confronting the problem, and confronting the problem is conflict. In conflict someone has to lose face. Things are much better off and everyone will feel better in the end if they trust that social moors and the social system can fix things over time with patience and indirect communication. And a lot of gossip.

The Conflict

So there is something called English Camp. It is basically three days and two nights that are in a retreat area for the whole English Program grades 1-6, teachers included. We are responsible for students from sun up to sun down and for planning everything to a fine detail. In reality it isn't that bad, partially since we are promised a bonus (of an undetermined amount). Two years ago the bonus was 4000 baht ($133, or an extra 13% of our monthly salary). One year ago the bonus was 1500 baht ($50, or an extra 5% of our monthly salary). This year we have finished the English Camp and the rumor is that we will get no bonus for it this year.

This is generally considered a good school, but I have been hearing a lot of bitching. Me and Sarah are BY FAR the most inexperienced teachers here. The average number of years of experience teaching English here is about 6 or 7. People have been saying that though this place was a "10" in terms of how they treat the foreigners in past years, this year has been a "6." This is very interesting stuff.

The Facts:

The main problem that occurs at any Thai government school is a large amount of monetary skimming that occurs. The lowest teachers make around 8000 baht a month (A little more than $250). But the white foreign teachers often start around 30,000. Higher people on the administration ladder have unknown salaries, so they probably go pretty high. Foreign teachers, especially more experienced and loyal teachers, have been asking for a raise (for all of us). And consistently there is no answer or the answer is a comparison answer. For example, "But in SiSaket they pay 25000 baht/month." In reality in SiSaket they consistently run the same ads over and over again and never get someone at that pay rate.

Earlier this year the department planned a trip to Chiang Mai (a trip we all WANTED to go on). They canceled the trip, saying that they would use they money for a trip to Vietnam next year. Some people think that this is another skimming thing.

This semester we have had very little teaching time due to so many trips and events that foreign teachers have to participate in (in addition to their other duties). Some people say this is another skimming thing. (The idea is that you allot X amount of money for an excursion or event, pay less than the amount you allotted, and then pocket the remainder. The more excursions and events, the more chances to skim.)

The school year was lengthened by another week or two without much notice.

Some time we were told there was going to be no school (about 10 calender days) was canceled and we held school.

In the same week that exams are due (a very frustrating process) they added a lot of new duties that we had to do for the week.

Commentary and Analysis

There are other things, but this is the list. It's very interesting both as a study of Thai culture but also as a study of when two cultures collide. Some people say we should not stand for a lot of this because if we let it go then other schools in the city will pull some of this too (they say this for good reason). I personally am not all that mad over everything. It's a job, I get paid on time. Sure it's unfair, but I get away with a lot too, and I am expected to. The employee and the employer in Thailand have different rights and powers that are separate from each other and balance each other out more or less. The employer says to do this that and the other; the employee drags his or her feet or calls in sick or say "I didn't know" when they didn't do something they needed to do. And all employees--Thai and foreign do this. But because we are foreigners we have a hard time expressing what we want and need, but they also let us get away with a lot of things that bother them. Some foreigners just don't like playing the game, or don't recognize that it's there.

Anyway interesting stuff. I thought I would let you know.