Another Atypical Day: Delivering Letters.

9:00 am rolls around and I stare out my window hoping, eagerly awaiting the glimpse of a car, or a motorcycle, ready to whisk me off to school. Does this sound a little too industrious? maybe, but the past two weeks have been littered with class cancellations for a variety of (not entirely legitimate) reasons (as usual). This means that I have had minimum class time with my students. This means, that I haven't had much time to review our semester material, especially with the 6th graders because March marks the end of their academic year. Fail.

Granted, I was more excited by the fact that I had made these cards for my 6th graders that had a group picture of all of us, than the cumulative semester activity I had in mind, but still. I think this still qualifies as a sound reason for wanting to go to school.

Once Trisha was dutifully picked up, I huffed and puffed and resolved to ride Zoom!Bella (my red bike, perpetually out of air) all the way to Baan Na Bpong, which is the village where the school resides, in order to deliver the cards to the sixth graders that I won't see again. The morning bike ride was quite lovely actually, despite the tropical sun, as the cool winds were to my favor (perhaps an omen from the universe concurring with my wholly impulsive decision?).

I pulled up into the village, conveniently as one my 6th graders walks out of his house. Promptly, I delivered the card I had made the afternoon before, and asked if he could show me where all the other 6th graders lived.

Feeling like somewhat of a celebrity again, the Na Bpong students traversing around the village proceeded to follow me around as I delivered the cards. It was really nice being able to see where the students lived, and even meet some of their parents.

A crazy, crazy thing: when I was a child, I used to climb trees in order to get these berry-like fruits. We called them "aratilis" is Tagalog, and how fitting must it be, to see this tree, a relic of my youth, among a throng of Thai school children. A village student helped me, oddly enough, reclaim a forgotten berry of my childhood. I think this symmetry is quite poignant.

Now that my camera is fixed (800 baht later), I took some pictures. Definitely enjoyed my day off--it was well spent glimpsing the everyday experiences of my students, and being able to see them beyond the context of our classroom.

Me and some of the students who joined in on the parade:

Showing off their cards:

A student of mine, with her nong chai ai (shy little brother):

My two resident troublemakers:

More card deliveries!

Khan, my day's helper (and no, he wasn't on stilts all day):

(a slightly more formal picture)

(don't tell, but Paw is one of my favoritest students of all time)

I loves them.