A Week In Floods

from The Bangkok Post...

from the Thai Visa Forum...

Nakhon's Flooding...

The flooding/rain here has not ceased, and it is causing a lot of damage to the city. I am just about ready for it to stop. I was really looking forward to teaching again after the week-long break, but now school has been cancelled until April 4th!- I miss those kids!! Also, my plans to meet my friend from home in tropical Samui may now be thwarted. Tourists have been stranded on the island for the last three days. It may be Bangkok instead. Or possibly the west side, although they've been hit pretty hard too.
The worst thing, though, is many of my friends here have been stranded, evacuated, trapped, and their lives and everything in them has been soaked.

• Fellow teachers have been marooned, literally, on a small beach in Ko Phagnan. The wooden bridges (see my pictures from Ko Phagnan) you have to take to get to and from places on the beach have been destroyed, and as of now, they have no way out of the particular area they are in. We are not sure when they will be able to get off the island, or when they will be able to return home. So far, no one is injured and everyone seems to be okay health-wise.
• A few others have not been able to leave their homes because they are flooded in. One teacher's wall had to be knocked down yesterday as an evacuation route was needed.
• One couple that teaches here in Nakhon was out of town, and a friend went to go check on their house, only to find it waist deep in water. Their cat, who just had kittens, had dragged all of her babies up onto the mattress and was found floating amongst everything else in their house. Luckily, they were all safe. They've since returned home, but obviously cannot stay at their house. Much of their belongings are now ruined.

Also, on a much more minor note, this week I was to begin my "Week in Foods" blog entry, where I took a photo of every single thing I ate for the week. But now I've been reduced to noodle cups, peanut butter, and ice cream. Ice cream does happen to be a part of my daily diet now, but the other items do not, nor do they even begin to reflect some of the interesting things at the school cafeteria that I encounter on a daily basis. Now, it's a "Week in Floods" entry. Obviously, pun intended.

So far, though, while conditions are not the best, people have managed to say safe and together, which is what is most important.

I have been trying to make the best of this time off by responding to friends' emails, getting things together for school, planning and preparing for lessons, dealing with a lot of the admin. stuff that has come up in the last week and a half (I think we may have found a new principal!!), and getting my life and new apartment organized. I have a feeling though, that I am just hours away from cabin fever.

We made the best of it last night by ordering pizzas (It's March, so it's buy one, get one free! This being thus, we each ordered a large pizza and then split one large between the 5 of us- lots of leftovers!) and watching Beetlejuice, probably one of the best cinematic works that I can think of. But then I could not get home because the roads were flooded and it was raining too hard. I waited for a break in the rain, which did not come until about noon today, and then spent over an hour making the usual 15 minute drive back to my apartment.

I am excited for school to start again on Monday so we can continue with our lesson. We just began reading Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day," where a young girl and her classmates, who live on Venus where all it does is rain, are excited to briefly see the sun for the very first time. How very apropos...

The streets are a mess- many are still flooded, including one of the two major intersections. So traffic has to be re-routed onto smaller streets not equipped for such a heavy flow of vehicles. Garbage and sediment is everywhere on the streets that are not flooded and everyone was trying to get somewhere during the break in the rain, so the streets have been very congested. I passed multiple trucks whose beds were packed with black rubber tubes- locals excited to take advantage of this rainy weather and get some good, dirty tubing in. Sirens are constantly sounding. Rescue trucks are constantly whizzing by, and the rain continues to pour....

When it rains, it pours!

Ko Tao

My diving group!

The primary reason for the holiday on Koh Tao- I'm now a
 CERTIFIED OPEN WATER DIVER!!

Since our last day on Koh Tao, the rain has been coming down virtually without stopping. I woke up midmorning to torrential downpour on the island, dreading my fifteen-minute walk down to the beachside restaurant where we had to check out. We booked the night ferry to Suratthani, so we would have all day to relax on the island… except it was raining. So our relaxing day on the beach turned into reading and eating ALL day at this little restaurant. It wasn’t all bad- it was still relaxing. I managed to fall asleep while reading twice- once curled up on the cushions after lunch, and once around dinnertime- at the table. Diving wore me out! And the rain stopped just long enough for us to stay relatively dry while the taxi truck drove us down to the pier.

Not so bad- quite cozy, actually!!

The night boat was an experience on its own- a bunch of backpackers, all in their early twenties to late thirties, from all over Europe and the Americas, piling into this boat, finding their assigned mattress pad and settling in. There were two levels, and Meaghan and I were lucky enough to be on the top. It was much more open, as in you could almost stand up straight. Poor Sean was down below, where the level is split into two rows of beds… more akin to slave trade conditions, although definitely not as bad, I’m sure. I was tired- too much fun packed into one week, and fell asleep almost immediately. I was only startled awake once- when the sea was so tumultuous I slid from my mattress down to my backpack. Many of the passengers were alarmed- as I woke I listened to people letting out surprised little yelps, gasps, and mini screams. But for me, who now rides a motorbike and has jumped cliffs here in Thailand, this was old hat, especially after my Ko Phagnan dingy boat ride, so I simply rearranged myself and went back to sleep. (I’m starting to feel like I’m not so much a tourist anymore- can you tell?) Not speaking from experience, the ride is not generally that rough, but the stormy weather made it a touch more dangerous. I know now the waves were about 3 meters high. On the way to Koh Tao the week before, we couldn’t even get a night boat because of the rough seas, and just to be clear, the ride there was no picnic either.

The view from our mini-bus window

As we got closer to home, all I wanted was to see dusty, dry yet tropical, sunny Nakhon through the mini-bus windows, but instead was greeted with flooded streets and still more rain. I watched as street vendors continued to sell kabobs and noodles while their patrons and their food carts stood in knee-deep, muddy street water; as children ran and splashed, playing joyfully about near the curbs, some pulling big black inner-tubes alongside them. Motorbikes and cars were still driving through with ease, sending wakes to the curb where the children continued playing. It was a marvel, actually- if this was home, the city would be evacuated- streets would be empty, and children would definitely not be playing among whatever was floating (or not floating) in the flooded roads.

One of many, many flooded streets- the water level
is much higher now...

When I arrived at the school to pick up my motorbike (yes, that’s right, the motorbike I am now comfortable driving- very carefully, of course- on a regular basis), the grounds were also flooded, although not as bad as other parts of the city, which I thankfully would not need to navigate through. Upon arriving, it was unbeknownst to me and my travel companions just how bad the flooding was. But thanks to trusty Facebook and the rest of the internet, we were able to see the extent of the damage and be updated fairly quickly. Many teachers, let alone native Nakhonian residents, have had to evacuate their homes, or move everything up to the second floor if they have one. We arrived on Saturday, and it is now Monday night, and the rain is continuing. The zoo has flooded and eleven! (11!!) crocodiles have managed to get loose, and only three have been caught (one has been shot). So now we have crocodiles roaming the flooded city as well. Up to this point in time, there have been seven reported deaths as a direct cause in this city alone, and four other provinces are also affected, although Nakhon is definitely the worst.

Children tubing and playing in the street

For those of you who may be worried about me, don’t be- my apartment is in an area that doesn’t flood easily and I live on the 4^th floor. And I have noodle cups galore, Ritz crackers, bottled water, and peanut butter, just in case. And clearly, if I am posting this blog update, I still have internet. The only thing I am worried about is having to set foot in disgusting street water. I’ve been busy googling water-borne, particularly flood-borne, illnesses and pathogens just to terrify myself, I think. Meanwhile, fellow teachers are taking pictures of themselves wading through water in their homes, tubing with the Thai children in the streets, etc. I had to step out into the flooded street up to my shins to grab some food, and I came back, sanitized my whole body with Dettol, and STILL have some mysterious irritations that appeared immediately after on my legs. Truly disappointing.

We are all trying to stay dry, hoping that the worst of the damage has been done, but forecasts are calling for rain like this until Thursday, hopefully clearing by Friday. School has been cancelled until Thursday, and there is no way out of the city unless you are brave with a car- the runway at the airport is also flooded, and busses and vans have stopped running. I can’t help but wonder about all this weird weather… earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, then the more minor but still queer unusual weather patterns happening all over the world. Today, friend told me about a crazy dust storm in Kuwait a few days ago… what’s going on?

My flooded school

I still went to school today- trying to take advantage of an almost empty school, work on printing out report cards, had another extensive meeting with Dr. Sisawat, the mayor’s wife, and with the director of the school about the visit from the WASC representative (she apparently LOVED my unit plans!), candidates for principal, and new teachers, the forthcoming academic year… I came in with five topics to address and three sheets of paper and left with my head spinning and an entire ream of new papers to read through. Still, I am excited about all these new duties I have at the school- it’s fun being involved in this whole process and development.

I am planning on going to school again tomorrow, but we’ll see what it looks like when I wake up in the morning. Meanwhile, I’ll just be holed up in my apartment, writing lessons, skyping, and eating noodles and ice cream!

Chickens staying dry

Big Changes!

I cannot believe I have been here over two months. When I first arrived, I felt like I had all the time in the world, and now I feel as though it is slipping away from me too quickly! Where is my time going? I always feel so busy- at school and out of school. Especially in the last couple of weeks!

Here's what's been going on...

... in School:

Back in the beginning of February, our principal left to take an administration position at some kind of adult education school in Dubai. We (as in the foreign teachers) weren’t exactly sure what changes that would bring, good or bad. One characteristic of our environment that took a drastic turn was the level of effective communication between faculty and administration. WOW.

I constantly think about just how much gets lost in translation here. The culture of relationships between people, business and personal, is so different than at home. When Thais have news that isn’t good, they simply don’t give it. You are left to find it out for yourself. In the U.S. we have a problem with this, because, well, it simply is not efficient. This, my friends, is where I have had to learn patience. And I consider myself to be a very patient person. Had our principal not sent us an email from his new post one week later, the teachers might never have known, or been left to find out through the students. The principal of NICS, for better or for worse, was our liaison with the Thai administration.

Since the beginning of March, we have also lost the associate director to the mayor’s other school, gained a new director (and the director he usurped was actually demoted), lost a teacher to the mayor’s other school, and just today, in the middle of midterms week, a new teacher began working. Please note, also, that we found all of this out by chance- no one ever informed us of what was happening. In addition, Teacher Meaghan is in Bangkok, gathering resources for our new library, and we have to cover all her classes too. Oh, did I mention it’s midterms week?

Meanwhile, I was asked by the associate director to be responsible for the hiring. At first, I thought he just wanted me to filter through some of the resumes that were coming in. But then, he was asking me to schedule AND conduct the interviews  AND make the final decision (the mayor actually makes the final final decision).  In my meeting today with the director, I found out the mayor has asked that before the directors send the prospective new teachers to him, I need to have given my stamp of approval.  (I am quite flattered by this- last week I interrupted a meeting the board was having with the mayor. He seemed quite bothered by the interruption. It was a completely awkward moment, and I thought for sure I had made it to his “bad” list.) To add to that, I’ve been handed schedules, been asked to attend meetings with the board and mayor, and a HUGE stack of books magically appeared on my desk- I am now to select the textbooks for next year. Seriously?

I am still just working through being a teacher! Figuring out how to balance different instructional methods, make the curriculum relevant to the lives of the students I teach, employ effective methods of assessment… And now I have this. Secretly, though (and I guess it is not such a secret anymore), I kind of like it. It’s a good feeling to be handed a lot of responsibility. It’s a challenge. And, I get hands-on experience with how school outside of the classroom, the politics, the relationship to the community, etc., all works. And it works HARD.  I am not making all these decisions on my own, however. I don’t think I know enough or have the wherewithal to, simply because of lack of experience. I am constantly looking things up online, conferring with the other teachers (there are only four of us, and I have been working there for the least amount of time), and have sent a few emails to people with experience at home. I want this school to live up to its potential!

Today, in the meeting with the directors about the need for collaboration and communication between administration and faculty, I communicated as best as I could, and as diplomatically as I could, the huge disconnect. More than anything, if we are going to meet students’ needs at this school, we all need to be on the same page. And, we also talked about some basic needs- curtains to eliminate the glare on the whiteboards, more than one copy of the books we use for literature circles, giving the students a twenty minute break in the morning instead of working straight through to lunch…I think, although I can never be too certain because of the whole “lost in translation” factor, that we have finally sorted out this issue of communication. Which will lend a hand to sorting out all the other issues…

…And I had no idea I had so much to write about this! I have so much more to write about: a walking tour of my city, a trip to the temple, going on an adventure to a Thai friend’s ranch, and a visit to the local orphanage. I guess all of this will have to wait until tomorrow… or the day after J