A Fabulous Night in Thailand

I haven't talked yet much about the actual work that I am doing here in Bangkok because I wanted to wait and get more familiar with my responsibilities and the children before I jumped to any (published) conclusions. Now half of my program has flown by so I promise this week I will write all about my work at the daycare center. For now that I just want to talk about how much I love my kids and how freaking adorable they are.

This past week I have been watching 12 kids from my class practice a dance routine. I thought it was for some sort of recital or performance of some kind, but since none of the teachers or administrators at my school speak good enough English to tell me any details, I haven't known exactly what was going on. I was invited attend and was not told much else until the day of the event, which was last night. I brought my housemate Hannah with me and it turns out we were in for a very important night.

I knew as soon as we pulled up and saw a ton of police officers and security that this was not your average day care center party. As it turns out, this was a huge event for the Democratic Party here in Bangkok. Unfortunately no one there spoke good enough English to tell us what was going on, but from what I gathered there was a formal sit down dinner, the Prime Minister of Thailand was the guest of honor (hence the security detail), several school groups gave singing and dance numbers, and there was also an auction of some sort.

First off, we felt pretty important to be invited to an event that the Prime Minister would be at. We saw him come in and everyone stood up as he walked to his table. He walked by us and I did make eye contact with him and I waied and said "Sawadee ka," which he also said back to me. While that was exciting, the best part of the night was being there with some of my kids and the other teachers from the school. There were actually two dance groups from my school, the first one which I hadn't known about was more of a traditional Thai dance and only two girls from my class were in it, the others were from other classes.

Then there was the big number which I've watched being practiced all week. It went along to what I'm guessing is a popular children's song here in Thailand as the kids at my school sing it almost every day in our morning assembly. There were ten girls dressed as fairies/butterflies, and two boys who were dressed as flowers, and they all had makeup and glitter on. Afterwards as a thank you they all sang the Barney song, which I hate much less now that it's not actually associated with the show and these tiny kids who I love so much all sing it so cutely. I cannot even describe how adorable the performance was and these pictures don't really do it justice but it's a start.

The kids are all so sweet and loving, I wish I could take them home with me. They all call me Teacher Amanda and I got lots of hugs and kisses. They were also so sweet with Hannah and excited to have us there, it was so cute. They kept coming over and bringing us roses and shiny paper chain necklaces that they had been given after their performance.

As hard as it can be sometimes to not always be able to effectively communicate with the teachers/staff at the school and the kids, a night like this when there is so much love and appreciation going around is so rewarding. While we are here to teach English, we are also here to help foster the children's self-esteem and give them love and attention which can often be lacking when they are in a classroom with 50 other kids during the day, and who knows what their home life is like. I left feeling so happy and any of the frustrating times I've had at the school these past few weeks have definitely been pushed to the back of my mind.

To top the night off, I can now say I have Thai friends and I had my first girls night out and sleepover! Over the past couple of weeks we have become friendly with Wassana, one of the female teachers at an elementary school that one of the other volunteers who has since left the program was placed at. Last night after the party Hannah and I met up with her and some of her friends who she is in school with getting another Master's Degree in either English or teaching with and they took us out for a night on the town. They were so much fun and at the end of the night we all went back to one of their houses for a sleepover. All in all, definitely one of my favorite nights of my whole time here.