And We're Training it to Trang

Monday, October 27th

So we have a lot to catch everyone up on and currently we do not have internet. Instead of waiting until we do get internet I am just going to create Word Documents to upload.


On Thursday we left Bangkok for a Resort on the River Kwae. On our way to the hotel we stopped at the Bridge over the River Kwae which was built by the Japanese in 1942/1943. Something like 100,000 POWs and laborers lost their lives building this bridge over the 6 month span. As we were checking out the crowded tourist destination, we discovered that the bridge still has an active train that runs across it. As we stepped on the bridge to walk down it a train blew its horn and the crowds on the bridge split left and right onto very small platforms. I was surprised that the bridge was still active and yet they allow tourists to wondered over it. After exploring the bridge and its surroundings we headed to the hotel to settle in. We took a wonderfully refreshing swim and then had dinner on the river.


On Friday, we started the morning off with some elephant rides and bamboo raft rides down the river.

And then headed to some orphanages to teach some practice lessons. My group started at a small orphanage run by Buddhist nuns. We taught the students in a small one-room structure with a fan and small white board. The students sat on the floor, girls on the left and boys on the right, as we introduced games and activities involving counting, animals, body parts and daily activities. After the lessons, we played outside with the kids. A large game of “duck, duck, goose” was started. Pat started at a much larger orphanage that housed around 130 kids. The orphanage was hidden in a jungle and the buildings were beautiful and scattered throughout the campus. There was a beautiful, wooden auditorium and library along with dorms and other buildings. The orphanage prided itself on being sustainable. It was set up like a “free school” where the students did not have to start lessons unless they wanted to. Grades kindergarten to sixth were taught on the campus and students who were above sixth grade worked on the grounds during the week for a salary and then went to weekend high school. Pat loved playing with the kids. He became a human jungle gym and the kids would run up and hang on him. As Pat headed to the bus he received several hugs from the boys he had been playing with. Everyone really enjoyed the orphanages especially spending time playing with the kids, learning and teaching new games.


On Saturday morning Pat and I signed up for 1½ hour long Thai massages at the hotel spa. For about $25 we had our entire bodies massaged starting with our feet and legs and ending with our heads and necks. The women were incredibly strong and did a wonderful job. We packed up our belongings, loaded the buses and headed back to Bangkok. In Bangkok, we met Daniel, who will also be teaching with us in Trang, and we took a van to the train station. The van dropped us off 2 blocks from the entrance of the train station and it was quite a challenge to drag all of my belongings up and down curbs and across traffic. We met Achanee, our coordinator inside the train station which was full of exhaust and pollution. We found our car and loaded our luggage through the window only to find that not all of our stuff would fit in our car, so we unloaded it back through the window and Achanee and Daniel followed it back to the last car. We had been told that we were traveling 1st class likely with air conditioning. Pat and I were a bit shocked if we were actually in first class and the only air was from the open windows and rotating fan hanging from the ceiling. It did not look like the car was actually a sleeper car and both of us were sweaty and agitated and not looking forward to the next 15 hours. Achanee had bought us KFC (yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken) for dinner on the train. As the train started moving the car cooled off.


Towards 7 or 8pm a staff member came around and pulled down the beds from the ceiling and pushed the seats together to form a bottom bunk and closed the windows because it was raining. For the rest of the night we struggled to open the windows but never successfully did making the night a bit stuffy. We attempted to sleep through the night despite the bumpy rocking. Around 8 am we arrived in Trang. We loaded our luggage into Achanee’s husband’s truck, had breakfast, and headed to our new home. On our way we drove by our school which was 4 main classroom buildings that are probably 4 or 5 stories high. Achanee pointed out the buildings and the gym and then took us to our “one-bedroom house with a small place for a kitchen and a bathroom.” We quickly found that this statement was incredibly accurate. There is a long row of one-bedroom houses attached by carports.

Our one room is air-conditioned and has the potential of having wireless which we are working on. Out the back door you find our “small place for a kitchen” which involves a sink and toaster and then our bathroom that is a sink, non-flushing, western toilet, and shower head.

The house is cozy and should be great as we get used to it. Last night we went to Tesco Lotus which is a Walmart equivalent where we bought everything from toilet paper and clothes hangers to a hot pot and muffins.