Experiensation

※Imagery

First things first. For those of you who have never graced the borders of Bangkok, let me illustrate for you a common, pervading feeling known as Bangkok air. Imagine with me, if you will, that you are in your house preparing to make cinnamon buns. Before you, rolled flat on a table or counter-space is a nice, irregularly shaped rectangle of yellowish-white, gooey sweet dough, its fringes powdered by the downy freckles of flour that you scattered underneath it, serving as a non-toxic pre-Teflon coating, serving as a safeguard against sticking. To the right of this delightful sheet of raw dough is a small glass bowl, pleasantly sitting with a spoon drowning in the browny paste contained therein. The paste, looking like some exotic sand from a volcanic beach, sparkles and glistens with rich yellow streamlets pooling in the paste's random depressions. From the aroma wafting out of the bowl, your nose sings an aria of delight, and the stomach rumbles in accord, eagerly anticipating the final product. The spoon's hands are full as you pull it from the pasty bowl and light it on the pillowy dough nearby. As if desiring to share the wealth, you help the spoon spread the brown sugary mash of cinnamon and margarine over the virgin dough, sullying its pristine, spotless fields with a thick, sticky coating of heavy goo.

In Bangkok, you're that dough and the air's that spoon. Within minutes of venturing beyond the realm of air conditioning, you find yourself covered in a film of humidity & sweat. It’s unavoidable, inescapable & pervasive. I now know what a cinnamon bun feels like when it gets dressed... No wonder all the Thai people are light brown! ;)


※Updatedness

Okay, instead of talking about baked goods, I'll get to the real reason for writing this stuff: what's been happening in Thailand. It has been two weeks (I think?) since my last update, and since then, we've completed orientation AND our first week of classes.

My goodness, you wouldn't believe how much of a difference knowing the material makes when you're trying to teach an upper-level subject! Ha! I was dreading the though of teaching math again for the first month here while the permanent math teacher arrives in mid-July.

Last year, not knowing a stitch of how to teach nor remembering any of the content that I was supposed to be relaying to my students was a horrifying experience. Every day, I was finding myself sweating bullets through each class and every evening I was forced to press my nose deep into that proverbial grind-wheel just so that I could have a slight grasp of what I was to convey to my students during the next day. It was like being a kid forced to eat a bucket of lima beans or else watch the bad guy shoot your parents. Disgusting but necessary.

Not so, this year. The difference is almost like night and day. Switch out the lima beans for jelly beans & you've got something more like what's going down this year. Instead of dreading classes, I'm now looking forward to seeing my students. Instead of fearing what's on the next page in the textbook, I smile to myself, already knowing what it portends. Rather than just trying to communicate the content in any way possible, I now get to spend my time more creatively—like making up ways of how to relate mathematical concepts to real life (who woulda thunk that relations & functions could be compared to notes & chords?). The difference is remarkable. The students are not marauders escaped from the pits of hell, there is sunlight during the daytime & sleep is more than a fanciful luxury! Ahh, it's a pleasant contrast.

Orientation this year was amazing. Much of the time was spent setting the framework of how the school is run, what will be expected from the teachers throughout the year & what we as teachers should expect from the days throughout the months ahead. Whereas last year's orientation focussed more on random theories of how to teach & presented not-so-practical paintings of instructional style (which may have been applicable to certain class settings, but not in my case), this year's orientation focussed more on drawing outlines in which we could paint our own pictures—as long as we coloured within the lines, things would be groovy. This approach, in retrospect, seems to offer a better plan of attack than a general example of what "could be."

Those days whisked by, ushering in the fateful acid test of "Day One." Remarkably, everything seemed to progress quite smoothly for both retuning & new teaching staff. Our schedules came to us very late (The Friday evening before classes began) which posed a bit of a stress, but on the whole, the good ship GES set sail in 2008 without so much as a hiccup. Last year, we had a huge debacle surrounding military school for the high school male students (In Thailand, there is a mandatory term of military service for all able-bodied males, and if that service is offered during "military school" as a student, the male can forego potential conscription / drafting in any potential future conflict) last year, which caused high school classes to be taught on most days until 5pm. With advanced notice this year, we managed to rework the schedule to accommodate this, which means better times for both students and teachers throughout the year (hooray).

There isn't really much else to report on the business side of life over here. I'll be filling in for the Math teacher until mid-July when he is scheduled to arrive, and after that, my duties as "resource manager" will begin, and I'll have the fun job of being able to help every teacher with any of their copious needs—students too.

※How You can Partake

Things to pray for/about, if you're that type of person:

•One of my students from last year, Soda—the drama queen/sensationalist-turned-sweetheart is sitting in through the first few months of school here. She'll be going to Kentucky to study in an American high school over the next academic year. At home, she is an only child, and her father runs a business up in Chiang Mai—several hundred kilometres north of Bangkok—which also ends up meaning that he practically lives up there too. Because of this, there's a marked lack of—and a desperate cry for—a masculine presence/attention in her life. Long story short: she ended up having two boyfriends for the bulk of last year—her more serious one, who went to study in Virginia, and a "fill in" here at GES until he returned. As such things always go, the truth became known to all parties, and now three people are hurting after two consecutive break-ups. Pray that this would be an opportunity for Soda to discover that the emptiness she's trying to fill—the love that she is looking for—can be resolved or accomplished or fulfilled by the wondrous gift of a relationship with Christ. I'm concerned about the possibility of her going to America with the state of mind that a boy can make her complete: its a dangerous position to be in when facing North America's more aggressive teenaged boys... Please, please pray that she would come to know the true Joy Giver and Lover of her soul.

•Pray for the up starting ministries that will resume & begin this year at the school. We will be picking up "Life Group," GES's version of a youth group for those interested in & committed to Christ. I'm hoping to be able to start an after-school/weekend Bible study group with some high school students if there's interest. Pray that the Lord would have his way in this.

•Pray for both the new teachers & returning ones as we try to get a rhythm for the work week—that we would get ample rest and continue to persist in seeking God's face.

Thanks for your time; I've gotta go & get ready for my classes. I'll fire off some phonemes & spit out some syllables again in July. Until then, keep on keeping on!