One month to go. The rainy season is coming to a close, and you can definitely tell. These days have been some of the hottest so far. The flash floods could be quite intense. Almost instantaneously, the entire lower area of the school would flood. This includes the area where the puppies grew up before they could walk. I’m just glad that there weren’t any flash floods when they were still living in the hole under the office. It was really cool to witness, but flash floods meant that you were stuck behind the rapids of an uncrossable river. This meant getting supplies from the nearby Nai Soi was quite difficult. Sometimes it was crossable by foot but definitely wasn’t crossable by motorbike. There was more than one occasion a student fell in while trying to cross with a heavy jug of drinking water. We almost lost a pig once to the rapids, and even the dog Jurrey fell in once or twice but always managed to swim to the bank before it was too late. One time my students were back at the refugee camp to have a debate with the basic course students. I was free to go to Pai for the weekend, but the night prior to my departure there was another flash flood. I was worried I’d be stuck alone at the school for the weekend. I knew it was going to rain a lot that night, so I got up extra early, at 5 a.m., to see if I could get my bike across before it was too late. When I got to the crossing, I realized the river was far too rapid to get my bike across alone. Luckily there were about 10–15 locals also trying to get their bikes across. Usually you drive across, but due to the intensity of the rapids, about 4 people would help push one bikes across at a time. I stood for awhile, looking a bit desperate. After a few minutes, a local approached me and offered, with his friends, to help push my bike across. I offered him money, but he refused. Even though it was quite dangerous they were willing to help and expected nothing in return. It has not rained for about 2 weeks now. Despite the annoyances the rain caused, especially regarding the lack of mobility, it definitely made the air a lot cooler. One week there was a holiday in Mae Hong Son, so all the Karenni people from camp and Nai Soi went into town. It was a lot of fun seeing them dress in their casual clothes and buying snacks and playing games. Shar Reh even got banned from a game after winning too many prizes. All that training really paid off.
Some days have been difficult lately. I think I’m mostly feeling homesick. Knowing that I’ll be back in Asia for the spring school term makes it a bit harder I think. Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather go to school in Singapore in the spring than UVIC. It’s an amazing opportunity, but still, you can’t help but to miss home at times. The idea of being away for 4 more months is a bit daunting. I will have spent nearly a year in Asia by the end. It’s an inevitable feeling, especially during times like Halloween weekend, when you see all your friends go out and you are somewhere else. During those times, it’s important to remind myself to live in the moment and know that I have plenty of time to do the things I love at home when I’m there. I may not have Halloween with the friends I have at home, but my students and I watched the conjuring and ate lots of candy. It’s a very special memory; I’ve never heard any group of people scream so loud watching a scary movie before except maybe my mom. I have many years to go to Canadian Halloween parties, but it’s rare I get to celebrate in such a unique way. I am excited to go home, but at the same time it saddens me knowing I’ll have to say bye to all the friends I’ve made here during these last few months. I’ll have to say bye to the kittens and puppies I’ve raised since the days they were born. One of the puppies Tony has returned for a visit, which was so special. I never thought I would see him again, yet here he is. Though I think his sister Nugget is jealous of the attention that she now has to share. Waking up in the morning and seeing kittens pawing under my door in anticipation of a morning snack, aways having someone to sit with during meal times, even the little things like the drives to and from Mae Hong Son and seeing those beautiful views. I say I’m missing home now, but when I return, I’m sure I’ll miss this place just the same.
I am definitely having the experience of a life time over here. I’ve seen so many things that none of my other friends will have come close to experiencing at their accounting internships or whatever else. I was teaching one day, and in came the puppy nugget carrying something in her mouth. I paused what I was saying and went over and saw that it was a chicken. We took it from her mouth, it was still alive but could barely move on it’s own other than its head. I let the students continue their work while my student Fray Do and I took the chicken to the kitchen. There are many chicken that roam the premises. They often kill them for their meals. I asked if he would put it out of it’s misery, as it was clearly suffering and was not going to live much longer. To my surprise he refused, said he would do it later. I never really understood why not do it now, when I asked him he said he didn’t want to. I couldn’t let it suffer so I offered to do it. He was quite surprised, “are you sure?” he asked. I guess I was. I’ll spare the gory details but I doubt my business friends have to kill any chickens at their accounting internships.
The students will be busy with workshops and internship preparations for two of the next four weeks. This means I will have a lot of free time on my hands. How will I spend this time? I am not quite sure yet. I have done quite a bit of reading since coming to KSDC, perhaps I will finish the books I’ve been reading, participate in some of the workshops and work on my capstone project. I will try and make the most of the time I still have left. As I write this blog, my students are writing their English exam. It’s weird to think that will be me in 2 months time, though when I write my exams I doubt I will have the sounds of a pig and chickens outside to distract me. Maybe now I can empathize with my future teachers a bit more. It requires a lot of patience to be a teacher. I really value this position. I understand how much this opportunity for education means for them, so I try and give it my all. Even on days I am feeling unwell or there is no power and it’s so hot my clothes look as though I have just finished a swim, I still show up to teach. It’s an honour to be a part of their story, and I hope to devout some of my time in the future to continue these relationships and be there for my students if they ever choose to reach out to me. Whenever I go on a visa run or trip, I am bombarded with messages from my students asking where I am and when I’ll return. It’s nice to feel missed and I always miss them.
I have finished my second visa run. I went to Cambodia, where I was able to meet my beautiful girlfriend Lindley, who volunteered her time and stayed to help me teach for about a month and a half. She went to Chaing Mai alone for a week before meeting me in the airport to fly to Cambodia. We spent just under a week there, and it was an incredible experience. Initially I was underwhelmed. Other than pub Street, the streets of Cambodia weren’t much to write home about, especially after being in so many unique places. The food wasn’t nearly as good as what I experienced in both Thailand and Vietnam. However, we did some fun things initially, like a pottery class and visiting a rat museum where we met some HERORATs, who were trained to uncover the over 4 million landmines left in the ground as a consequence of three decades of war and conflicts. The rats were from Tanzania and the biggest rats I’ve ever seen. The highlight by far was visiting the temples of Angkor Wat. We bought a three day pass and went all three days. The first we did a tour with a guide to some of the more popular locations; the second we rented an electric bike and drove around to some of the other temples on our own. On the last, we spent a lot of time with the monkeys. One even stole the small stuffed banana Lindley had attached to her bag. We should’ve known better.
I look forward to the adventures to come during my last month. I’m spending as much time with my students as I can. Yesterday we played card games, badminton, and I even went chicken hunting with a few students using a slingshot. Chicken for dinner! You definitely feel a lot more connected with nature and the food you eat here. You aren’t buying it in a grocery store but actually hunting and killing the animals that you plan on consuming yourself. It’s easy to feel disconnected with these things at home and it really makes you think about the food your eating and where it’s coming from being physically present during that whole process. Me and my students both agree that this month we are going to make the most of the time we have left. “\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\i]]u”, this is what the kitty tiny Tina wanted to contribute to the blog. The kittens always sit on the table as I work or like to chime in with ideas of their own as they so gracefully walk across the keyboard. I’ll miss their supervision. I’ll miss a lot about this place. Here’s to the rest of the month.
