Journal #1
Monday July 18th, 2005
(Nongwaeng Sowaneewitayakom School, Bannamtang School, and Bansang Yai School)

Today started off just like every other day. The alarm rang at about 6:45 am to start the day. Getting up, rolling into the cold shower, and then into some clothes waiting for the truck to pick me up for my day's work.

Driving to the school, which was located in Nong Waeng Village, took just about an hour to arrive there. In order to arrive at the school we had to drive under some rough terrain such as unpaved roads. When arriving at the Nongwaeng Sowaneewithayakom School our truck was greeted very kindly by the children and the teachers. From that point, we were brought to the teachers office in which I fully explained my cause of coming to the school. From there, all the children were gathered in the school's equivalent of an auditorium. It was then told to me that on that same day they were also conducting a traditional ceremony for the school, which I was invited to stay for. Then I was to speak to the children about myself, my book drive, and answer any lingering questions that they may have had. For about 30-45 minutes, I made my speech to the children and talked about the importance of understanding and learning English. After answering all of the questions that they had to ask, I proceeded with bringing in the boxes of books. Due to the size of the school and amount of students, I compensated for the amount of boxes I gave them. With many happy students in the audience, for many the first time they were able to see a "farang" first hand, I took pictures with them.

A "farang" in Thai is translated into a "guava" in English which has to do with describing the white skin of me and the color of the fruit. While finishing talking to the students, we exchanged songs. In this I mean that they sang a traditional Thai children song and I sang a traditional English children's song - my choice was Eensy Weensy Spider. Then was picture time with the newly donated books. With some of the students and teachers we all took pictures together and some of the students personally came up to me to thank me for the books. Next was time for me to sit back and relax. For awhile there was the first set of Thai dancers on the stage and proceeding that was a prayer done by one of the village elders. Although I understood not one word in which the prayer said, I did still respect their custom and did figure out, partially at least, the reason for the ceremony. When the prayer was finished the preacher passed out white strings in which each of the on looking children and adults took a few pieces. My translator, Mr. Villard, told me that these pieces of strings, when placed around someone's wrist was a sign of good luck and prosperity. I never figured that I was such an idol to the children and that so many wished good luck for me as the strings for my wrist came pouring in. By the end of the tying the strings, which took about 40 minutes in itself, I believe just about every student had placed on around my wrist. I truly did feel special for that one moment in time which was not to end. Soon after, with on looking Ubon Ratchathani council officials, I was also rewarded pillows in which the school gave me as thanks. Other donations, from the Ubon officials, and my donations were placed near each other and all in attendance were pleased to have us there as many commenced in taking pictures. As if that was enough for one day, we were soon fed lunch - traditional "Issan" (term referring to all of N.E. Thailand) food. Some of this included fresh fish from a local river, mushrooms from local grounds, rice from local patties, among various types of meat and spice. A truly large and very nice meal in itself which was enhanced by more Thai dancing in the background. Upon finishing lunch, with the knowledge that we needed to visit two more schools that day, we tried to leave. When I say tried, I am referring to the massive amounts of students that wished me to stay. I was about to leave until one brave young lady, about my age or so, asked for my phone number. I kindly gave her and her friends my phone number on my business card. I was then soon being asked to write down my name and number on hundreds of small pieces of paper ripped out of books (their school notebooks). A long story short, after about over a hundred signatures handed out and a dozen more photo's being taken, I finally left.

It was only a short distance away, about 2-3 kilometers on a dirt road that we arrived at our next school, Bannamtang School. When arriving, you can hear that the word was quickly spreading from room to room. Children were running around, still for many the first time a foreigner had ever visited their school. I was then brought to the teacher's office, given refreshments, and signed the school's visitor book. After exchanging information, I was set and ready to go down to the other part of the school, in their cafeteria, and proceeded in talking to the children. Similar to the previous schools, I talked to them with my translator, Mr. Villard, in the importance of English in their school. With few questions asked after my speech, I helped them with their English alphabet. After hearing myself and the students rehearsing the alphabet a few times, I was confident that they had it down. With the help of a couple of young men, I unpacked the truck filled with books to give the children. I was then personally thanked by the teachers and administrators and they reasserted what I had said in my speech to the children.

We were then on our way to the final school of the day. Upon arriving at Bansang Yai School, I was quickly greeted by the Headmaster. She was a very nice lady, no older than 50, which lead me to her room to discuss my mission at her school and others. During that time, the children were moved into the bottom floor of the school. I was able to exchange information with the headmaster as well as sign her guestbook. To my surprise once again, there had never been a foreigner in her school before and she told me that the students were very anxious to meet me. They sure were as I was greeted with smiles and hello's. I proceeded to inform the students of my arrival and the reason for me attending their school. With listening ears, they heard what I had to say with them. After a couple of questions from a few of the students, I was ready to have a few of the young men again carry out the remaining books from the back of the truck parked about 20 feet away. With many of the children personally coming up to me for pictures as well as handshakes, I was very pleased that I had made a difference in that school.

Upon finishing the pictures with the students, my day had finally ended in another successful manor. With 903 students and 46 teachers talked to, among many thousands of books donated, I feel that the day could not have gone more smoother for myself. I then preceded in my drive home, about 60-70 kilometers away in Ubon Ratchathani.

Journal #2
Tuesday July 19th, 2005
(Banpuay School, Kokhuana School, and Ban Nongkaw School)

Starting to get into a groove of things, I started my day nice and early, again at about 6:45 am. After another brutally cold shower this morning I got ready for yet one more day of visiting schools. The end to the previous day called for preparations for the next and it is like this everyday. In preparations I mean that all the books for the next day's donation must be gone through and opened to ensure that they are on the level of the children being dealt with. This is due to the fact that some other subjects and reading levels may have been mixed in. Soon enough, the truck came down the road and we packed the truck with the days books. Then we were off to the Si Sa Ket province, the Three Musketeers. Everyday it is the three of us - my translator Mr. Villard, my grandfather and the truck owner Paw, and I.

The journey to the first school, Banpuay School, took about one hour from leaving my house in Ubon Ratchathani. Upon arriving, as with the other schools, we proceeded to the headmaster's office to talk over my plans. I signed their guestbook and talked over a cup of instant coffee. It was only about 9:30 and yet it still was starting to heat up quickly and the humidity in the air did not help at all. Due to the lack of funding in many of the schools, they did not have a fan in the room. After talking with the teachers and headmasters, the children were to head down to the bottom floor of the school. By this time, the word had already spread that I was at the school and many of the children were nervously waiting for me to enter the area. I was told that many of the younger children, mainly the kindergartener's who had also attended my speech, were very afraid of me due to my height above, not only them, but their teachers. After talking to the students about my situation and after all their questions were fulfilled we headed to singing. Many of the students, especially the older ones, were able to sing a few English nursery rhymes in which I was very pleased to hear. It was then that I had helped teach them another one, Eensy Weensy Spider. In no time at all, the donated books were placed near me on a table. The children, row by row, were able to come up and look at the books. Then we proceeded in taking pictures with the students, the teachers, I and the newly received books. With many thanks from the students and the teachers, we were soon on our way to the next school, Kokhuana School.

Being only a few kilometers away, we were there with time to spare. This school, knowing my arrival before hand, had prepared for me. While I was taken into one of the teacher's office, all of the students were placed in the auditorium next door. In their finest school attire, the students patiently awaited for my arrival to the front of the audience. Every single one of the students was in their school shirts and pants, red tops and black bottoms. Unfortunately without a microphone on hand, I made a speech to the few hundred students seated. With the help of my translator, many of the students questions about me, my school, my book drive, and the United States in general was answered. I received a various array of questions, everything from weather in New York to the food I enjoy and even to the amount of students in my school in Oceanside, NY. Being a very curious lot of children, I enjoyed myself in answering their questions and inspiring their minds to what life is like in different areas of the world. After my speech, I was helped by a few of the students in placing the books in front of the seated students on a table. After the pictures were taken with the students, teachers, books, and I we were back off to the teachers room. During that time in the room, a few of the students had rode off on their bikes to fetch lunch in town. On their arrival back at the school, we proceeded to the cafeteria where I was sat down with other teachers and administrators to eat lunch. Everything from eggs, soup, Sum Dam (a very spicy mix of Papaya and peppers), rice, various pieces of meat, and even fish were placed in front of us. I was very grateful to the school for conducting themselves the way that they did on my arrival and very appreciative of their kind hospitality during my stay. After lunch, knowing that we still had one more school to attend, we said our goodbyes to everyone and we were off.

We soon arrived at Ban Nongkaw School. It is truly amazing to me that these schools are where they are. Many of them being in the middle of a rice field filled with patties waiting to be harvested while others being in the middle of almost nowhere off the paved road. When arriving at the school, I was happily greeted by the closest teacher and brought to see the headmaster as well as the English teacher in the school. After signing their guestbook, we talked over a glass of cold water. This is very nice due to the fact that it was currently just past midday and the temperature had risen to well over a hundred degrees plus the humidity in the air. Unfortunately, it has not rained in the past week or so and the humidity in the area is most uncomfortable. As soon as we started talking, as it seems, I was lead to the English teacher's classroom in which all of his students were working hard in their books. I was surprised in the way that the students conducted themselves as the teacher was in a room a few doors down. The average class in the United States, or at least all the ones that I have been in, would have been out  breaking in conversations. During the time I spent with them, I talked to them, helped them with the work they had, and then followed them down to the bottom floor of the school, where the rest of the school was awaiting my presence. I talked with the students and made my speech to them about the importance of learning English. Listening very well to what I had to say, this school was much more shy than the others and they had much less questions than other schools except for one of the young girls. She probably came up with about 6 questions, one after another, and the answering of each of her questions gave birth to the presence of more as she became more and more interested in what I had to say. At the end of answering questions, the boxes of books were loaded until the bed of the truck was empty. With many shocked faces still in the audience about the amount of books, they stood up and placed themselves around the boxes for a few pictures. It was at the end of these pictures that more conversations between the teachers ensued and by the end of that my day was over.

Mr. Villard, Paw, and I started our way back to my house in Ubon. Another successful day in which 528 students and 34 teachers were visited and talked to. The trip home took just under an hour. It is then that I prepare for the next day's work knowing that tomorrow will be my last day for the week. This is because the school's all across Thailand close down to celebrate the Buddhist Lent day or the "Festival of Candles" to many foreigners. It is during this span of 4 days that I will be taking my trip to Cambodia to view the temples of Angkor Wat.
 

Journal #3
Wednesday July 20th, 2005
(Ban Mao Nangruer School, Latai School, Yangnoi School)

It was necessary that today I had to get up earlier than the days before.  The reason for this is because I needed to catch a 3:00 PM flight out of Ubon Ratchathani to Bangkok.  Due to this, I woke up at around 6:00 AM, only having about a half hour to get ready until the truck showed up with Paw and Mr. Villard. 

Once again, we set off, the three of us by 6:30 AM to arrive at the first school, Ban Mao Nangruer School, by 8:00 AM the latest.  Upon our arrival to the school, the children were in the middle of a band practice for the next day traditional ceremony in the town.  Due to the lack of funding for the school, there was only a minimal amount of instruments among the children.  Since it was still early in the day, the temperature was very comfortable with a slight breeze.  We sat outside and exchanged our information with the administrators while the teacher’s fetched all their students in preparation for my speech to them.  Since the school was fairly small, the children were ready to hear what I had to say in a short amount of time in which I proceeded in speaking with them.  As I have come to see, as with the previous small schools, the children are much more talkative to me rather than the larger schools which tend to be much shyer towards me.  Nonetheless, we exchanged words and I helped teach them correct pronunciation of certain words in English such as the month’s of the year as well as the days of the week.  After just over 45 minutes of speaking with them, I had the help of a few students to unload the boxes of the truck of their newly donated books.  With many smiles all around, we took pictures.  With most all of the children waiving goodbye, we departed their school. 

The next school, Latai School, was just a few kilometers away down a rough dirt filled road.  This school was larger in size and population and I was greeted very nicely.  After talking with some of the teachers and the school’s principal, I headed to their equivalent of an auditorium.  The children were nicely dressed as I believe they knew of my arrival on that day.  After waiting a few minutes for a working microphone, I proceeded with my speech to the students.  Being very receptive as listeners, they also asked a few questions.  As I proceeded to the back of the room to help the young men move the boxes of donated books, one of the students put their hand out to shake mine.  As I shook the ones students hand, I was approached by herds of his friends and peers to also shake my hand.  I finally managed to reach the truck in the back of the room after about the span of 5 minutes – moving past the children while shaking hands.  When the books were all loaded on the table, we took pictures.  Driving away from the school also proved difficult as many of the students wished us not to leave.  Despite our wanting to stay, we knew we had to move on to our last school of the day in order to make it to the airport in time. 

After another few kilometers passed, we arrive at Yangnoi School.  Being outside of the village, this school seemed to be placed in the middle of a lot of open land.  After exchanging papers and information with the teachers, all the students joined me in front of their school to speak.  At this point, as it was still early and before noon, the air was humid but had a cool breeze.  After helping the students pronounce the English alphabet, among other English phrases, I proceeded with giving out the donated books.  Being most grateful for their newly acquired gifts, they all posed for pictures with me.  After more conversations with the teachers and many prayers of good luck in my future, we finally left. 

Over the past few days, I have received more and more initiations to stay with their schools and become a teacher there.  The wanting of these students, as well as teachers, to increase their vocabulary and learn English is very promising for their future studies.  I can only hope that the books I donate can make a difference in these students’ lives.  Although we only had a short amount of time to visit these schools, we did manage to visit all three and met with 462 students and 26 teachers.  Now, with the next four days off, I will journey out of the country and visit different sites around Cambodia.  I am very excited and cautious of what this new country has to offer.  The totals of this half week are as follows: 9 schools, 1893 students, 106 teachers, and over 21 hours of work.

Journal #4
Monday July 25th, 2005
(Bankok School, Tam School, Ban Phung School)

Today I awoke with the sound of raindrops hitting the roof outside.  The rain brings two consequences with its arrival – good that it reduces the temperature during the day but bad that we have to pack the truck a special way under tarps to prevent the rain from entering and ruining the books.  As the schools that we drive to are about an hour away, we have to ensure that the books will not get ruined before we arrive. 

Today was also the first day back from my trip to Cambodia which was a truly amazing vacation.  Flying out to Siem Reap, Cambodia from Bangkok on Thursday, my guide that I met there took me around the sites of the former Khmer civilization the same day.  Seeing Angkor Wat and the other temples were something that will I never forget until the day that I return to view it again.  I stayed two days in Siem Reap until Saturday which I flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia – the capital.  This stop brought new meaning of the term “third world country”.  The poverty in the capital along with the Tuol Sleng Museum was much more than I was ready to bear.  I was very happy to leave after seeing one day of the town as it was not a very nice place to stay for much longer.

Paw and Mr. Villard did show up in the truck around 8:00 AM this morning.  After packing the truck, we went on our way to have some breakfast.  We stopped around the central town of Kanthararom where we ate some noodle soup on the side of the street.  The one thing I will miss when I leave Thailand and this area of the country is the easy ability to buy food.  There is always an available stall on the side of the street in which great home cooking food is served for a fraction of the cost it would be in the United States.  For three people, the breakfast which was served with filtered water, cost me 60 baht (about $1.50).  After finishing breakfast, we made our way to the first school of the day, Bankok School.  We were happily greeted upon our arrival in the truck.  Teachers and students came out of their classes to come and greet me.  Many of the kindergartener’s, which were up and about, took great fascination when I arrived as their mouth’s dropped at my movements.  We were then lead to the administrator’s room where information was exchanged between everyone.  I then met all the students on the bottom floor in a room.  Upon my entrance into the room, every one of the students proceeded in standing up for me.  After our “Good Mornings’” were said, I told them to be seated.  This is one thing that really makes me feel confident of what I am doing, when I enter the room one of the students say to the rest of them “Please rise”.  It may be just me, but the respect that the children show for someone, even slightly older, is quite remarkable.  I proceeded in informing them of why I was at their school, my goals, and how I can help them.  With a little amount of questions, I helped them with their pronunciations of certain words and the teachers gave me the chalk to the board to teach.  Spending a decent amount of time there, I feel glad that everyone was able to leave the room with a least learning something today.  I gave the children their books and talked more with some of the teachers.  After saying our goodbye’s, I was assured by some of the teachers that we would stay in contact with each other and hopefully add them to my list of stops for next year.

Our next school seemed to be across town.  We went a few kilometers through villages and finally arrived at Tam School.  We were escorted from our car to the administrator’s office upon our arrival.  Most of the teachers and headmasters were in the middle of their meeting which quickly ended when I arrived.  I was quickly invited in the room where I met all of the teachers.  I was asked by the headmaster to sign the school’s guestbook.  It was discouraging to see that the teacher had to “find” the book among a pile of papers and other books.  When finding it, she had to blow off some dust and wipe it down.  It seems that they did not have many visitors at the school which was one of the reasons that I figure the children were so happy to see me arrive.  When finishing exchanging information, I was surprised to see that all of the students were waiting for me on the bottom level of the school for me to talk to them.  Similar to the school before, I talked to them; answered questions they had, taught them some words in English, and just had some fun.  I was glad to see that there were some strong young men among the crowd which would be able to help me load the books on the table to donate the books.  After taking pictures, we proceeded with talking with the teachers and administrators, while a few students set up the lunch table for us.  We were invited to eat lunch with them which we kindly agreed.  We were served an array of traditional Thai food such as Som Dam (Spicy papaya salad), fish, eggs, rice, soup, among other things which I have no idea what they were.  Delicious, filling, and very healthy just like all other Thai food.  Being very gracious for the hospitality that they had just given us, we left with full stomachs and smiles.

The third and final school was located down an unpaved road about 3 kilometers away.  This school was the largest of the three that we visited today, with just over 500 students.  The school, Ban Phung School, was very nice indeed.  The teachers were dressed very nicely in their uniforms as they were told of my arrival late last week.  We were lead up to the second floor of the school and given glasses of water.  After talking with the principal, I signed the guestbook and we exchanged information.  I was then lead downstairs where I met the children.  To my great surprise, there was no microphone.  I had to speak to the children over the loudspeaker in front of the school.  Very weird situation indeed as I suppose that the whole village heard my speech.  This school was much more helpful in making my speech to the children smoother as they were more interactive then other schools.  What I mean by this is that they brought certain students up, such as the president of the school and a fairly well taught English speaking student.  I liked that fact that this was also a Secondary school as there were older students among the crowd, closer to my age, in which paid attention to what I had to say carefully.  I was asked a few questions by the older group of children as well as the teachers.  With everyone having a good time, I continued in wrapping up my speech to them as it was getting late and the school day was about to end.  After taking pictures with the students, I was walked around the rest of the school.  I personally saw the library, which had very few books, and they thanked me greatly for increasing the size of the students’ choices of what to read.  With many happy faces and smiles, I left the school with many of the children waiving goodbye.

Visiting three schools today was tough as it was the first day back at work.  I feel that I spent a fair amount of time at each of the schools that I visited and hope that the books donated to them will help further their studies.  Today alone, I was able to talk with about 782 students and 46 teachers.  The day was over for me and we started our ride back to Ubon Ratchathani.  While leaving the school, it started to pour again as signaling our perfect timing.  It is time to get ready for tomorrow’s visiting of schools.
 

Journal #5
Tuesday July 26th, 2005
(Keelek School, Ban Mad Kururat Song Krout School, Ban Gea School)

Just as the day before, today looked like a day that it was likely to rain.  All night long the rain did pound outside, varying in intensity throughout the night.  Nonetheless, I woke up at about 7:00 AM, took a shower, and got ready for the truck to pick me up for our day’s work at donating books to the schools.  The truck did arrive and we were off to Si Sa Ket, with the truck fully loaded, by 8:00 AM.  Along the way to the school, to my surprise, it did not rain.  Just after filling up the truck with gas for our day’s run around of schools, we stopped to eat breakfast.  Just like the day before, we stopped along the side of the road to eat.  For the sake of another 60 baht ($1.50) we ate enough breakfast to fill ourselves up.  To my likings, next door to where we ate, there was a small shack-like stall where I could purchase a freshly made ice coffee.  Costing a mere 10 baht ($0.25) it made me reminisce of coffee drinking in Oceanside, my hometown in USA, where a similar tasting cup of coffee from Starbucks would cost about $2.00.  It always makes me smile after I leave these “restaurants” from the different actions that those working there make.  The questions that they ask Paw and Mr. Villard when we are eating, the interest that many take in my movements, and such.  All this does not bother me in the least because I sit and think that some of these older ladies cooking have been working in this same spot for twenty plus years and yet I am still the first foreigner to eat there.  It seems that I spend my whole day, one way or another, making people’s day.  It is due to this that I am very grateful that I am doing this book drive because I am not only making an impact on the students and teachers I meet, I am making an impact on the local population.  Being an American, it is still a very unusual feeling for me to walk out of these small eating areas without leaving a tip.  Mr. Villard and Paw always catch me when trying to leave a tip and they tell me to keep it in my pocket.  But when I do manage to throw down a whopping 20 baht ($0.50), those working there tend to look at me with deep confusion of why I am paying them more.  I guess it must just be an American thing.

After leaving breakfast, we made our way to the first school, Keelek School.  Now, visiting schools on a daily basis, I have come accustomed to these schools being in the “middle of nowhere”.  This was a school that definitely fit the criteria.  Even with a map in hand, I would not be able to find this school as it was off the beaten path.  I did manage to find the school and upon our arrival was greeted very happily by one of the teachers.  I could tell that she was awaiting my arrival as all the words of English that she knew came flying at me.  Answering her questions on my way up to see the principal we arrived at her office.  I was given all the coffee and glasses of water that I could drink as it just kept being replenished despite my thirst being quenched.  We did proceed to exchange information and I had to wait for the guestbook to arrive.  This was due to the fact that they had not had a guest in a long while and it had to be searched for.  After signing their book, we made our way down to meet the students.  Patiently waiting for me on the bottom floor of the school, I was again welcomed by gazing eyes.  I have come to see that the information sent to each of the schools was very brief and they were unaware of who exactly was visiting their schools.  Some of the teachers, in the past days, said that they were expecting an older man and were shocked when a 17 year old came to visit them.  Mind you that this “shocked” expression is not out of disgust as it may seem through the writing.  As with many of the other schools, we continued with my speech to the students with the help of my translator.  For a small school such as this one, much of the funding in which it receives does not allow it to hire an actual English teacher, but rather have a teacher teaching multiple subjects.  This is the reason in which my translator is so vital in schools such as this one.  After finishing my speech to the students, I answered all questions that they had for me and finished with some more talking.  With the help of a few students, the books were pilled up on the floor and we proceeded with our pictures.  Just before my exit from the school, I was presented with a few gifts from one of the teachers.  Some candies and sweets were given to me as a gesture of their appreciation.

Not really knowing what type of “candies” these were, I decided to try some when I left the school and were on the way to the second school which was about 10 kilometers away.  The first batch of candy looked, smelt, and felt like soft wax candles with designs.  I decided to try one and was told that it was a type of been curd pastry in which I had a bit of trouble swallowing it.  Rather than being disrespectful and spitting it out, I swallowed it without incident.  That deterred my chances of trying the other candies which we were given and by that time, we arrived at the next school, Ban Mad Kururat Song Krout School.  I was very surprised at the name of the school when they wrote it down as well.  This school proved to be one of my favorites in the past weeks due to the reasons that I will explain.  Upon our arrival, we were met by the headmaster.  He heard that we were on our way and had waited for us.  He brought us to his office in which we proceeded in exchanging information with each other.  Teachers, one by one, each came in and introduced themselves to me.  I was very happy with the kind hospitality and kindness of each of the teachers that I met.  I was given a cup of coffee and some water for my duration of talking with the headmaster.  After we finished, I headed downstairs to the open bottom of the building where all of the students were waiting for me.  Since it was still overcast, the temperature at this time was very comfortable with a strong breeze.  Similar to most other schools, I talked with the students about my reason for visiting them.  As the speech went on, I was asked many questions and we went over certain parts of the English language.  What was different about this school was our exchanging of words.  I talked to them about different animals in English and they told me about different ones in Thai.  It was amusing for me to hear the different English pronunciations of the students as well as me entertaining them with my pronunciation of words in Thai.  This was a learning experience for not only the students, but for me as well.  I came out of that school with a better Thai vocabulary than I went in with.  This is the reason that this school has been one of the most memorable since my start of donating books.  After carting the books from the truck to the area where I was talking, we took pictures with some of the students.  As yesterday, we were invited to stay and eat lunch with some of the teachers.  I happily accepted this offer and was presented with another array of food.  On the table was a very similar option of food as the day before – Sum Dam, fish, eggs, pork, soup, rice, fresh fish eggs, among other foods.  After this filling lunch supplied by the school, we left to visit our third school of the day.

Leaving with full stomachs and smiles, we made our way down the road to the next school which was located in the same village.  This school was about 3-4 kilometers away.  We quickly arrived at Ban Gea School.  This school was visibly a much larger school as we were to find out while we exchanged information.  I was lead into the headmaster’s office by a few of the teachers and sat down.  I was given a couple of cookies and coffee when one of the teachers suggested that I place the books on the table by the auditorium as she believed it was going to rain very soon.  Taking her advice, we did so with the help of a few students.  Making our way back to the office, her prediction was correct.  It not only rained, but poured.  I watched from the office feeling bad for all of the students that were caught when the rain poured making their ways to the auditorium.  After finishing our exchange of information, I was escorted under an umbrella to the auditorium.  I was told that the school was a primary and secondary school in which some of the students were very close to my age.  This always makes me happy because this means that the students are seeing someone similar to their age from another part of the world.  Even more, they have been learning English for years in school and this is the first time in which an English speaking peer is talking with them.  It helps provide some momentum for the students to continue to learn English and strive to speak it more fluently.  I did speak to the students over a microphone connected to a boom box.  I talked for a long while, explaining the importance of English, helping them with their teaching, giving some tips of learning the language, among other activities.  After some questions, we took some pictures with the students and the books.  Many of the students were so gracious for me donating the books that there was a long line of those wishing to shake my hand.  It was long enough in which two lines had to be formed, one for each hand.  After the students exited the room, which at this point the rain had ceased, we continued to talk with the teachers and headmaster.  I answered any lingering questions that they had about schools and how they were conducted in the USA.  After about a half hour of talking, we left the school with many of the children looking on and waiving.  It was back to Ubon Ratchathani where the day began and ended.  We had a successful day without any time problems and managed to visit 663 students and 38 teachers.

Journal #6
Wednesday July 27th, 2005
(Ban Muenghoi-Nongmuk School, Nongnamtao School, Nonghai School)

For the third day in a row, I woke up this morning with the sound of rain falling outside.  It has been raining on and off for the past few days and has been quite annoying due to the fact that you need only to step outside for a couple of seconds to be drenched in rain.  With that in mind, I got up out of bed at about 7:00 AM to take another cold shower and get ready for the truck to arrive.  When Paw and Mr. Villard did arrive, we needed to take the right steps in order to keep the books dry on the bed of truck.  We packed the truck, with the covering tarps, and were on our way before 8:15 AM.  With quite a few days behind us, we have got into a groove of the daily ritual of moving about the schools.  Our timing at the schools, our speeches, our driving is all calculated to ensure that we can stay the maximum time at each of the schools.  After getting packed, we headed off for breakfast at one of the stalls on the street.  Being delicious as ever, I was very pleased to stop and eat.  The cost for the three of us this time around was 80 baht ($2.00).  On the menu, which was very basic, was a bowl of soup which contained a freshly made broth, noodles, bean sprouts, chili peppers, meat, among other greens.  What always amazes me at these food stalls is the amount of time that you receive your food.  In America, even at McDonalds, you need to wait for them to make the food, pack it, etc.  It takes moments from when you order the food for you to receive it.  Upon finishing breakfast, we made our way to our first school which was about 7 kilometers away.

We arrived at Ban Muenghoi-Nongmuk School very soon after leaving the food stall.  We were greeted by a nice young teacher and were brought to meet the headmaster.  I figure that he was not a morning person and I do not hold that against him.  He greeted us with the lack of excitement as many of the other teachers had, but I took it in stride.  Rather than talking to him, we talked to one of the other teachers and we exchanged information with her while he left the room.  My translator tried to tell me his story and I only caught a part of it due to the difficulty of translating the Thai to English.  There was something about him catching a red eye flight from meeting someone in Bangkok or something along those lines.  We talked a little with the teachers while the students gathered next door to us in preparation for my entrance to speak to them.  Without wasting any more time, I met the children.  Every single one of their heads turned to see me when I walked by and I saw many eyes wide open.  One of the first things that I noticed about the children was the difference in their uniforms.  The youngest of the children were not wearing any uniforms, the primary school, for the most part, was wearing old white uniforms, and the secondary students were wearing what looked like “scouts” uniforms.  I was informed the difference were due to the lack of funds from the government and the lack of money from each of the students’ families to pay for their uniform.  As with every other school I attend, I continued with my speech to them with the help of my translator.  Many of them were very surprised of my age when I told them as many of them are just about my age or a little younger.  When I finished my first part of the speech, some of the older students came up to talk to me and ask questions.  I was very happy to answer any questions that I was asked and the conversation went well.  After they were all answered, I continued to load the books on the table that was put right next to me.  We took our pictures with the students, teachers, and the books.  With many happy students, we left the school to go to the second one.

I was told that we were not in a rush at all, but Mr. Villard needed to be back at his house at 2:00 PM due to a previous obligation in which I had no problem with.  To make for any time that we would have lost, we just quickly went from school to school rather than taking our time.  That is when we arrived at Nongnamtao School.  It was a very short ride from the first school and we were making good time altogether.  I was greeted very nicely at the second school and met the headmaster right away.  He brought us to his office to talk, sign the guestbook, and have a cup of coffee.  We accepted very happily and talked about my presence at their school.  They were very happy to have us there as they have not received many guests in the past.  The headmaster was very interested to learn about my book drive and thought of it as a very wonderful idea that would help generations of students that would enter the school in the future.  By this time, all the students were placed in their cafeteria and awaited my presence while the teacher was practicing for my entrance of what the students were to say.  I was greeted very nicely by the students with each one of them standing up and asking me how I was.  I answered very nicely and had to talk very loud due to the fact that they did not have a microphone to give us.  Without that deterring us, I continued with my speech to them and helped them with their English pronunciation.  For their amusement, as well as my translator, I proceeded with telling them the words that I knew in Thai and they corrected me on most of them.  I am still very confused due to the fact that Thai is such a tonal language and I do not hear the differences in the sounding of the words.  Nonetheless, I continued with answering any questions that they had and they did not have many so I moved onto giving them their books.  After a few pictures with the students, we were on our way in no time.  There were many happy teachers and students when we left the school as we gave them some of the first decent English books that they have received in awhile.

Now, like I said previously, it has been raining constantly for the past three days or so.  I am sure that you can imagine what happens to rough dirt roads when gallons of water are poured over it.  Yes, you are correct, MUD.  I have never had so much fun driving, not even during a snow storm in an empty parking lot in New York, than I had today.  I felt like a real “Indiana Jones” driving my 4x4 off road truck in and out of puddles and through the worst conditions of driving possible.  It was exactly the situation that you see in those commercials for Land Rovers – through mud and water in the middle of the jungle.  How any supplies get to this third school is beyond me, but we arrived after about 10 minutes of constant bumpy and water logged roads.  We pulled into Nonghai School.  As I could tell from their faces, all of the teachers were very happy to see me arrive as well as the children.  Many of the kindergarteners that were playing in the front of the school ran for cover when I walked by to go to the headmaster’s office.  We sat down and awaited his arrival in his office.  When he arrived he served us some water and we joked about the roads to his school.  After a few minutes of exchanging information and writing in his guestbook, we went to see the students which gathered in the cafeteria.  Our timing, as I could see, could not have been worse as it was right before the students were to have lunch.  To my amazement, they waited patiently until I had finished my speech to start eating.  They were a small bunch of students and were very kind to me during the speech and asking questions.  After we exchanged nursery rhymes with each other, theirs in Thai and mine in English, I gave them their newly donated books and we took pictures.  I was then asked if we would stay for lunch and was very happy to accept the offer.  The students received their lunch and so did the teachers.  Similar, once again, to the days before, we had the basic rice, fish, soup, and meat course.  It was by all means very delicious and I enjoyed it very much.  After finishing lunch, we got ready to leave the school.  Thanking all of the teachers, the headmaster, as well as the cook for their generous array of food, we left with full stomachs.  Lucky for my translator, Mr. Villard, we finished before 1:15 PM and were on our way back to drop him off at his house.  After dropping him off, we left Kanthararom district and started our way back to Ubon Ratchathani.

My day had officially ended at my arrival at my house in Ubon.  It is starting to seem that as the days go on donating books, the schools are getting further and further away.  When I say that, I mean that they are moving out away from the main towns into very small and secluded villages off the beaten path.  Even if that is the case, if tomorrow is similar to today in the idea that the roads will be muddy, I do not mind this at all.  I am enjoying the driving experience that I am having over here in Thailand – even though I am driving a manual transmission with my left hand rather than the right and driving on the wrong side of the road.  After doing my calculations for the day, I have visited 588 students and 31 teachers.  Hopefully tomorrow will be as fun as today has been.

Journal #7
Thursday July 28th, 2005
(Ban Kwow School, Nong Tao School, Ban Punlum School)

It must be quite easy for a meteorologist working at a Thai news channel on TV due to the fact that it is the “rainy” season and the weather is ever most predictable.  As with previous days, the rain was falling when I awoke this morning.  Getting up around 7:00 AM, when the alarm on my phone sounded, I proceeded to take a shower.  After getting dressed and ready, the truck arrived to pick me up at about 8:00 AM.  We packed the truck and set off like always.  Breakfast was the first stop on the list of things to do and we did so at another small food stall in Kanthararom town.  More noodle soup for the three of us, which cost me about 60 baht ($1.50).

To get to the first school on the list, we needed to travel further than the schools yesterday, but in the same direction.  After about 15 minutes from leaving the food stall, we arrived at the first school, Ban Kwow School.  I was told at the beginning of the day, back at my house in Ubon Ratchathani, that the schools we were visiting today were not of significant size but rather were very small primary schools.  Traveling down these dirt roads, way off the main road, I can see why they are so small due to the size of the villages.  When we arrived, I was asked to sit down outside to talk over what we were there for.  Obviously at this time, it was not raining and was quite comfortable outside.  It seemed that this school did not even have a headmaster, or at least I didn’t recognize a difference between the teachers.  It seemed that all seven adults at the school were teachers and one of them may have also been the headmaster.  That didn’t bother me at all, but I did see a difference from the other schools on the teacher’s knowledge of English.  It seemed that the smaller the schools, the less English that the teachers knew, I guess that is why I am there to help.  After signing the guestbook, exchanging information, and talking with the teachers, I was to meet the students.  Due to the small size of the school, all the students were able to fit in one of the large kindergarten rooms.  The conversation with the students went very well and they were a very friendly bunch of students.  I allowed them to recite the English alphabet to me and I corrected them on their pronunciation which was understandable but incorrect.  After all questions from the students were answered, we sang a few songs together.  They sung the Thai version of Happy Birthday to me and I sung them Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  With some help, I brought the books into the room where the students took a look at their newly donated books. While they were searching through the books, we took a picture with them.  After taking pictures, we said our goodbyes to them and were on our way.

The second school of the day, Nong Tao School, was not to far down the road.  But in this instance, “not to far down the road” does not mean much as it was a difficult road to travel.  We did manage to get passed the roads and arrived at the school.  I am not sure what the Thai view on cigarettes are, but when you see a headmaster greeting you with a cigarette in his mouth, it makes you wonder what he is trying to portray to his students.  That did not bother me that much as my mission still stayed the same.  He may have smoked cigarettes, but he was a nice and welcoming man.  He took me to an outdoor auditorium where were sat down to talk.  During our meeting with the headmaster, the students from the classrooms gradually filled the small outdoor auditorium.  This school was slightly larger than the previous school, but still pretty small.  We talked over my book drive and gave him a notice of what I was about to tell the students.  I always like to clarify what I am about to tell the students to prevent any of the teachers taking offense to anything I say.  The last thing I want is an ultra conservative teacher who doesn’t want their students to take up English in fear that too many of them will leave the villages with the knowledge of this language.  I highly doubt that this situation will occur, but rather prevent it before it happens.  So after talking with the headmaster, I gave my speech to the students.  I was quite surprised at the knowledge of English of these students.  When the time came around for me to tell them some of the words that I know in Thai, they responded with the correct pronunciation as well as its equivalent in English.  I did manage to stump them when I told them the word “camel” in Thai in which they did not know how to say it in English.  This is always a popular learning project with the students as they get a laugh out of it while still remembering the words.  After all questions were answered, I had some help from a few of the students to move the boxes from the back of the truck to the front of the room.  They were placed on a table and we were ready to take a few pictures with them and the books.  After a few pictures, it was time for lunch.  The teachers had invited us to stay and eat with them.  We accepted and waited for the food to arrive.  Today’s selection of food seemed to be more “home cooked” so to speak because we had fish that was taken from the pond no more than 20 feet away from us.  Along with some rice, soup, Sum Dam, and a cucumber and meat dish, we ate together.  After filling our stomachs up with this delicious array of food, we were ready to depart and leave for the last stop on our list for the day.

This last stop proved to be the highlight of the day.  As I mentioned in yesterday’s journal, due to the heavy rain that we were receiving, the dirt roads turned to mud.  It seemed that yesterday’s fun quickly turned around to be a dangerous situation.  The normally easily driven dirt roads today were a long stretch of mud and water.  With me driving, I had to make my way through this.  Throughout the whole stretch of road, I was hardly able to leave first gear it was so bad.  What was dangerous today was the fact that I only had a few feet on each side of the car to drive through.  If the car was to slip, as it did quite often due to the soft mud, we would fall down the steep hill into the paddies of rice, which reached heights of about 10 feet at certain areas.  Realizing the dangerous situation as it occurred, the car slipped once it hit a very soft patch of mud and we were stuck.  With the wheels spinning in place, we could not move.  I was unable to dislodge the wheels and rather than making it worse and digging a deeper hole, Paw and Mr. Villard had to get out and push the car.  It was not until the generous help of two young motorcycle men came by and helped us push the car out.  What was the scariest of the situation was the fact that the wheels were less than a foot away from the edge of the road.  Carefully and skillfully, we made out way out and moved on.  If it wasn’t for the four wheeled drive car as well as the ability to change gears, we would have still been stuck there.  After making it out, we continued to our next school.

Glad to be out of the mud, we made our way to the final school of the day, Ban Punlum School.  At this point, it was about 2:00 PM or so and the sun finally made its appearance.  Rather than it raining, the temperature and humidity of the air increased and it was very sticky.  As I have quickly come to realize, the more humid it is outside, the easier you lose your energy.  It feels like someone is siphoning out energy from your body.  That still didn’t deter me away from my reason for being at the school.  We sat down outside, under the cover of a tree, and talked over my goals.  I was given a few glasses of water to replenish myself and helped me to keep cool from the increasing temperature.  During our meeting, the children gathered inside their form of an auditorium.  After signing their guestbook, exchanging information, and taking a few pictures, we made our way to where the students were.  Right away, I sensed something good about this school.  I am still unsure why I had this feeling, but the atmosphere of the school and students was one that I did like.  I was received very nicely by the students in which they heard out everything that I had to say when I spoke to them.  They asked a couple of questions and I proceeded with teaching them some new words in English.  I talked a little about the months of the year, the days of the week, as well as some numbers.  We talked a little more with the students in which I then asked for some help with unloading the truck.  At my request for help, just about every single young man in the room stood up.  After setting up a table just outside of the room, we loaded the books on the table.  We then took a picture, with all in attendance in it, with me sitting down next to a few of the younger students.  Barely being able to cross my legs like I used to, it made me remember the time when I was their age at elementary school.  With many happy faces, we headed back into the room.  The headmaster explained to me and the students that I was the first foreigner to have ever stepped foot in their school.  He was extremely pleased with the donated books and was happy that there was someone from outside their country that realized their situation and was doing something to help them.  I only wished that there were more hours in the day because when he said this, I felt the urge to go out and visit another three schools for donating books.  This really did boost my confidence and I hope that it carries over until tomorrow.  After wishing them well and good luck, he shook my hand and asked me to visit them again in the future to check their progress in learning English.

Journal #8
Friday July 29th, 2005
(Epad School, Ban Thung Mang School, Prasanmit Wittaya School)

It is at this point that I do not even look up the weather anymore online due to the fact that I can predict myself what the outcome of the day will bring.  As usual, I woke up today at about 7:00 AM once the alarm rang.  Taking a shower and getting ready did not take too long as the truck arrived at about 8:00 AM.  We packed the truck, which at this point it had ceased raining, so we did not have to use the tarps to cover the books.  I was told by Paw and Mr. Villard that we did not need to use it because they believed that today was going to be fine.  Today we stopped at yet another food stall on the side of the street.  Along as if you have money, you can survive anywhere in Thailand because there are food stalls all over the place.  Straying away from the traditional noodle dish that we have been having for the past few days, we tried something different.  I had some “Kow Pat Moo” which is fried rice with some cooked pork.  Paw and Mr. Villard had some white rice with cooked meat on top.  We also all shared some “Tom Yum Plaa” which is Tom Yum soup with fish inside.  Luckily, due to the amount of time spent in Thailand, I have become semi accustomed to the spicy food but it still does bring a tear to my eye when the heat filters throughout my whole mouth and throat.  I am still amazed at how some of these locals can just eat a whole pepper raw without showing the least bit of pain.  The cost of the whole meal was just around 120 baht ($3.00).  It was at that point in which we left for our first school for the day.  I was happy to learn that all of the schools today were off the main road, just further down from each other.  This meant that we could keep the car clean today and would not have to trek through all the mud.

We drove for just about 20 kilometers before we reached our first school, Epad School.  I was greeted nicely by all of the teachers and headmaster.  I was brought to the bottom level of the school where we sat down to talk.  It seemed that within minutes, a few students brought in a table to sit at along with chairs and drinks.  I then proceeded with giving out my information to the headmaster while the teachers gradually came with their students to prepare for my speech.  I signed their guestbook with the students looking on.  It looked as if most of the students were ready for me to speak.  The one thing that I always love is when I mention my age.  Most of the students are expecting me to say that I am about 25 to 30 years old, but when I say 17 years old their eyes light up and conversations break out all over the audience.  They usually get settled down pretty quickly to listen into what I have to say.  Along with my translator, I told them the reasons for learning English and how it can impact their lives.  I teach them some important words while telling them how they can learn English easier.  They did not have many questions for me to answer, so we did not take long before we were giving them their new books.  I gave my phone number and address to some of the teachers to allow them to contact me in the future in help with their English teachings.  With the help of a few students, I was able to move the books from the back of the truck to the tables lined up in the front of the room.  I had to conserve some of the books from the start because I was told that the third school we were going to today was quite large.  After taking pictures with all of the students in attendance, along with their teachers and headmaster, we got ready to leave.  We waived goodbye as we left and the headmaster asked me to make plans to stay longer next year in hopes that I will help teach English in their school.

With the first school finished, we made our way down the road to the second school.  After traveling about 7 kilometers, we arrived at the next school, Ban Thung Mang School.  I was greeted by their headmaster who was a short and very polite man.  We were taken to his office where we talked over some of my goals that I was trying to accomplish.  He was very interested in the book drive and was very open to my ideas of helping teach his students.  The whole time that I had talked to him his smile did not leave his face.  It seemed that he was truly glad to have me there.  After talking to him awhile about my school and such, the English teacher walked in the room.  I learned that she was a university student in Ubon Ratchathani, about 3 kilometers away from where I live, and was learning to become an English teacher over the weekends.  I was impressed by her ability to speak English as she answered all of my questions as well as asked me a few of her own.  At that point, I had signed their guestbook and the students started to enter the room in front of me.  Within the span of about 5 minutes, the whole room was filled with students.  I quickly learned that this school was going to take my presence into their own hands and help me with my presentation.  They started off by having a couple of their students stand in front of me and talk about themselves.  The first young girl, who was about 10 years old, told me her name, age, where she lived, about her family, their occupations, who she lived with, among other information.  I was shocked, to say the least, at the knowledge of her English.  Even if she has been planning to say this for weeks, which I doubt, I was truly amazed at her pronunciation and grammar.  The second student did very much the same thing but had a little trouble with her speech due to the fact that she was so nervous in front of me.  Even with having a bit of trouble, I was still amazed at what they each said.  It seemed that my presence was not really to teach the children but to encourage them to continue learning English.  At the rate they were going, along with the professional guidance of their teacher, I can imagine that they are going to be great at speaking English in the future.  I will hopefully continue to keep in contact with this school and those couple of students to view their progress over the next year.  It was then I fell into my routine of telling them about my book drive, the importance of English, among other information.  By the time that I had finished answering questions the English teacher appeared in the room with a large laminated book.  She asked me if I could help teach pronunciations of different objects to the students.  I am starting to think this was a way to show off as there was no problem at all.  I even have a feeling that some of the students were pronouncing some of these items better than students my age in New York.  The two students that talked to me in the beginning knew every single item that I pointed to.  It was really exciting to see a school that had a good education in English which was obviously due to the teacher and headmaster alike.  After this, it was getting close to lunch, so some of the students helped me with brining in the books.  We put them on the table in the room and took pictures.  We were asked to stay for lunch in which we did.  Today’s lunch menu included rice, egg omelet, chicken curry with coconut, Sum Dam, and some raw vegetables.  It was very good to say the least and I did enjoy staying and talking with the teacher and headmaster.  They were very curious about the USA and about my school.  After this, I asked for their e-mail addresses to stay in contact with them and we proceeded to leave from the school.

For the third school, we had to head back the other way about 2 kilometers.  We passed the school on our way to the second one today and realized the shear size of it.  I did not know what to expect when we arrived at Prasanmit Wittaya School.  It looked quite large to me and so did the students.  It was when I arrived and talked with the headmaster that I found out it was a secondary school, the American equivalent of a high school.  That is when I got quite nervous for some reason because I was talking with students that were my age and a year older.  Within a few minutes I was greeted by the English teacher of the school.  I was very happy to find out that she was fluent in English, enough to hold a conversation.  She told me that she was finishing her master’s degree in English at the university.  She explained to me that she was very glad to have me at her school to help her encourage her students to learn English because many of them did not really enjoy learning English.  She told me that her students find it very difficult to learn English and hoped that my presence will help them.  I told her that was one of my reasons for visiting her school and in no time we headed off to see the students.  I signed their guestbook and drank a glass of water before I was ready to talk with the students. Still being nervous for some reason, I managed to talk to over 300 secondary students.  It went very well and Mr. Villard had some time off because the English teacher knew enough of what I was saying to translate some of it to the students.  The students received me very well and I believe that they enjoyed my presence at their school.  I talked to them for a little while, trying to keep my cool.  I bypassed the pronunciation parts of my speech because I had hoped by this age that they could at least say the English alphabet without a problem.  As for questions, I answered everyone that came to me.  Each person with a question walked to the front where I was standing to ask it through the microphone in which I answered.  I answered questions about my school, its size, and some personal questions such as if I spoke Thai and if I had any brothers or sisters.  After having some help unloading the books, I took pictures with a couple of the students.  Due to the size of the audience I was unable to fit everyone in the picture, but only took a small portion.  It was then that we were ready to leave the school.  We wished good luck to the students in their studies and they had hoped to see my again in the future to come and visit them once again.  I told them to keep in touch as I may come back next year to visit them.

It was at this point that we left to go back to Ubon Ratchathani.  I was very happy that the whole day went without a drop of rain.  For a few hours in the middle of the day, the sun actually came out and showed itself.  Thailand would be the perfect weather for everyone only if the humidity was not a factor.  On our way back to Ubon, just about 15 minutes away, it started to rain for a little bit.  I was happy that it held off for this long.  I am very pleased with how the day went and believe that today was more of an encouraging day for the students rather than a day of teaching.  I am very happy to see that even if these schools are far from any large cities or towns, the students are still learning English to the degree that I saw today.  I can only hope that with the guidance of my books, they can continue with this strict learning of English and it can only do well for them in the future.  I ended the day with visiting 597 students and 31 teachers.  Now, after this 5 day week of visiting schools, I have the weekend off in which I can relax until Monday when the fun starts again! This week’s total is 15 schools, 2944 students, 171 teachers, and over 35 hours of work.

Journal #9
Monday August 1st, 2005
(Ban Kham School, Ban Buanoi Nonpor School, Ban Tern School, Ban Waeng Nonpue Nongsang School)

Today started out just like every other day.  I had to wake up at 7:00 AM in order to do my daily showering and getting ready for the truck to arrive.  Today is my first day back to work after a well deserved and well needed weekend off.  Although nothing special happened over the weekend, it proved to be a relaxing couple of days to take off of driving back and forth to Si Sa Ket to the schools.  My usual highlights of the weekend were going out to get something to eat.  Besides that, I got myself a haircut, which proved to be quite interesting trying to ask for and getting some photos developed.  I developed the photos of the past few weeks at the school as well as my vacation to Cambodia.  For the sake of about 3000 baht ($75) I made two copies of every school photograph, one copy of my Cambodia trip, and some enlarged photos of nice pictures from Cambodia.  In all, there are over 750 photos that were developed and it was all done with in the span of about 2 hours.  For every school picture that is taken, one copy needs to go to the Si Sa Ket Education Center for either their use or distribution to the schools.  After looking at my schedule for the rest of my vacation, I have noticed that this is my last full week of donating books to the schools.  I must say that this is nice to know because the amount of books that are in the house at the moment is starting to dwindle.  My first shipment of books is almost fully complete and distributed.  The second shipment of books is due into the Bangkok port on August 9^th.  I am currently in contact with the Si Sa Ket Education Center for a place to store these books as I am finishing my rounds at the schools on August 10^th.  My plan is that the teachers, from the schools I have gone to already and have not gone to, can personally come and pick up some books at their leisure.  Regrettably, I will not be able to continue with the donating of books as my vacation is starting to come an end by this point.

Today, it seemed as if I waited a long time for the truck to arrive.  Paw and Mr. Villard are usually at the house between 8:00 AM and 8:15 AM and have been pretty good about keeping this time.  It was today, when the truck arrived at about 9:00 AM that I realized that something was wrong or out of the ordinary.  When I was called down from my room on the second floor, I realized it was not that of Mr. Villard but of Mr. Phi Boom.  Mr. Phi Boom is the teacher from Banlerngfaek School which helped me out on the first day with visiting the Si Sa Ket Education Center and organizing my list of schools in which I was to visit.  Although he is a very nice man and tries his best at speaking English towards me, I immediately realized the problem that was going to occur today.  I was made aware that the schools that we were visiting today were small schools and were far away from the main road.  This meant, as I was to find out, that the schools did not know English to the extent of understanding what I was going to say to them.  I was to quickly learn how vital Mr. Villard, being my translator, was in my donating of books and talking to the children.  When approached by Mr. Phi Boom, I walked outside to the truck and looked around to confirm my worst fears.  I inquired where Mr. Villard was and he told me that he had a meeting to attend and was very sorry he could not make it and insured me that tomorrow he would be back.  He said that he would be accompanying me to the schools today in replacement of Mr. Villard.  I acknowledged this and began helping Paw load the books onto the truck.  I was very surprised today that it was quite clear outside.  The sun was shining after a long weekend of overcast skies.  It looked as if we were to have no problem with rain today, but rather with humidity and heat.  By about 9:15 we were on our way to Si Sa Ket Province.

After driving about one hour, we arrived at our first school of the day, Ban Kham School.  We did not stop for breakfast today, as we were one hour behind.  At this school, we were greeted by not only children but the English teacher.  As with most schools, the teacher was quite young and was very friendly.  It was when I opened the door to the truck and stepped out that you could hear the word spreading, “farang”.  I was quickly watched by students peaking their heads out of their respective classrooms with smiles.  I was brought to their version of an outdoor auditorium.  We sat down and exchanged our information with the headmaster.  I did understand that today I had to flow with what was going to happen as we had a new member to our team, Mr. Phi Boom.  He was and still is unaware of our normal ritual, if you will call it, of what happens when we visit schools.  Nonetheless, I proceeded in doing my best with talking to the students.  I made the best of the situation that I could have.  I talked to them and read from my sheet in which I had translated into Thai at the beginning of the vacation.  This was so that the teachers could inform the children of what I was saying.  The time it took for me to complete my presentation was very quick and Mr. Phi Boom had already proceeded with taking some of the books off the truck.  We talked a little and answered very few questions due to the difficulty of translating.  After taking a couple of pictures of me and the students with their new books, we were on our way.  At this rate, I told myself, we were going to be finished by 12 PM.  It was not until after the third school that I was to find out we needed to make time because we were visiting 4 schools today!

I was very fortunate that this weekend brought little to no rain due to the location of these schools.  There were no paved roads what so ever to be seen and the water and mud would only enhance the bumps and curves.  It was about 7 kilometers to the second school of the day, Ban Buanoi Nonpor School.  I was told not to be shocked at the size of the school and to conserve the amount of books that we had on the back of the truck.  With just about 49 students, this school was small indeed.  Their English, I was told, came from one of the teachers who also taught another subject.  Due to the size of the school and their funding from the government, they could not hire a full time English teacher.  The kindness of the teachers and headmasters remained the same though.  They were very welcoming and so were the students.  The time at this school was very short because I was left by myself to translate what I was saying to the students by using what little Thai I know.  I finally had help from one of the teachers to read my short story to them in Thai, while I read the English version.  After a few words from the teachers and students, we gave them their books.  With the help of a few students, we placed them on a couple of tables that they had outside.  With all of the students in attendance and teachers, we took pictures.  We were on our way within no time at all and left for what I thought was our last school of the day.

It was only about 3 kilometers down the dirt filled road that we had to travel to arrive at Ban Tern School.  We were immediately greeted by the headmaster who brought us to their outside auditorium.  This school was a little larger then the previous one and I started to wonder if they had an English teacher.  We sat down and exchanged our information.  After writing in the guestbook about my visit, the students started to show up.  I found out that it was not only a primary school that we were at, but a secondary school too.  It was not until I thought all of the students were there until the last class of students came, in which was the English class.  They did indeed have an English teacher in which did know a decent amount of English.  I talked to the students, with much more ease due to her help.  She translated a lot of what I had to say to the students and told me that they had a few questions that they prepared for me.  One by one, I answered an array of various questions that they had about me, my family, my school, and the United States.  It was very nice to see that the students were learning English to the degree that they could have a conversation with you.  It was then that we proceeded to play a game as suggested by the teacher.  She asked me if I could teach them “Simon Say’s”.  I quickly thought over the situation and then told the students how to play with the teacher’s help.  I had everyone stand up and we played for about 15 minutes.  Gradually, most all of the students were eliminated.  By the end of this game, the teacher was told by the headmaster to wrap up my presentation as lunch was starting to be served.  I had a lot of thanks from the students and teachers.  We unloaded the books from the truck and placed them on the table provided.  After taking pictures with the students, teachers, their new books, and myself, I was asked to stay to eat lunch with them.  We then sat down, myself, Mr. Phi Boom, Paw, and all of the teachers to eat lunch.  Today’s menu of food was rice, Sum Dam, boiled fish, cooked and raw vegetables, meat soup, and something I didn’t dare touch due to the overwhelming amount of peppers.  Just eating the Sum Dam and cooked vegetables brought a tear to my ear from the spice of it; let alone what the other dish had in store for me if I had tried it.  After finishing our meal, I gave my address to the English teacher to keep in contact with me about her students and English teaching.  It was then that we were ready to leave.  At this point in time, I was told that we were doing 4 schools today, out of the blue.  At first, I thought there was a translation problem and he was talking about tomorrow and visiting schools until he assured me that today we had another school.  We left the third school with about 6 large boxes in the back of the truck, sufficient enough for a moderate sized school.

We started to drive to the last school of the day until I looked at the sky.  The day of sweating and sweltering heat was about to come to an end.  I saw that about, I would approximate, 5 kilometers down the road a “sheet” of rain layering the earth in front of us.  It was at that point that we all jumped out of the truck and ran to the back.  We quickly unwrapped the plastic tarps and placed the books inside them.  We were just in time as at that moment we went back into the truck, the rain started to come down in a downpour.  If we had not acted in a timely manner as we did, the books would have undoubtedly been ruined.  We drove for about 5 more minutes until we arrived at Ban Waeng Nonpue Nongsang School.  Again I was greeted by all that saw me drive in.  A few teachers made me comfortable inside one of their larger rooms.  I was talked to, with difficulty, by a few of them while exchanging information.  It was a couple of minutes later that the headmaster walked in.  He was an aged man, but a very welcoming one.  The students started to arrive and sit down in front of me.  By the time I had finished getting the schools information and giving them mine, the students stood up to greet me.  They welcomed me to the school and asked me how I was.  I responded to them and asked them and they were very shocked, as it seemed that I understood them for some reason.  It must be a great feeling that they have accomplished enough English in which an Anglophone, such as myself, is able to understand and respond to them.  By looking at the guestbook and talking to the teachers, I was the first foreigner to ever step foot inside their school and I was a real pleasure to have to talk to the students.  I talked, with the help of the translated paper, and finished my presentation quickly.  There were not many questions again because of the language barrier that could not be breeched since Mr. Villard was not available.  With some help, we were able to get the books off the truck and into the room.  By this point, the rain had ceased.  I took a few pictures with the students and then with the teachers and headmaster.  After saying our goodbyes, we departed from our fourth and final school of the day.

I finally thought to myself, we had no more books so we couldn’t do anymore schools.  It was definitely the end of the day and I was to return home.  It was then we had another stop to make.  I managed to find out that we had to visit the Province Department.  Over the weekend, Paw had lost his identification card.  Unlike in the United States, every person, starting from a fairly young age is issued an identification card in which they always carry on them.  We went to the office, which had all the characteristics of a common DMV, Department of Motor Vehicles, in New York.  For those who do not understand what that means, let me explain.  Long lines, frustratingly slow passing of time, forms to fill out, picture taken to be done, and issuing of a card.  I was expecting worse when we were finished in just under an hour.  It seemed that we were placed in front of the line with the help of Mr. Phi Boon because of his rank as a teacher and local official.  After my nice nap in my chair waiting for Paw to be finished, I realized that I had been the special entertainment that everyone needed.  I awoke with many people staring at me and smiling.  It is a real pleasure for some of these people to see that a “farang” as myself has traveled out of his way to visit a Province such as Si Sa Ket.  Realizing the situation and being used to it, I didn’t think anything of it.  We finally left on our way back to Ubon Ratchathani.  We had to stop one final time on our way back, just off the road in a gas station to drop Mr. Phi Boon off at his car.  We discussed the remaining list of schools that I was to go to.  I told him when I was leaving Ubon Ratchathani, and he told me that we were to go to the Education Center together on August 9^th to say goodbye to those in charge as my flight back to Bangkok is on the 10^th.  I thanked him very much for escorting me around the schools today and he said that he would see me next week.  It was then that Paw and I set off for Ubon to my house.  I finally arrived home at about 5:45 PM.  I said my farewells to Paw after a long day of donating books and everything else that occurred.

Today proved to be an interesting day indeed.  I never really view any day as bad but just out of the ordinary.  It seemed to be an endless day with obstacles to overcome.  It started with Mr. Villard not being available, no breakfast stop, having communication problems, the disruption of presentations at the schools, the rough roads to drive on, the spontaneous rain, the extra school that I was unaware of, the stop at the Province Department, as well as the late arrival at my house in Ubon Ratchathani.  Today was a lesson in that I have learned how vital our operation is and how we need the three original “Musketeers” – Paw, Mr. Villard, and myself.  Even with these obstacles at large, we managed to visit 4 schools, talked to 449 students and 33 teachers.  I believe that tomorrow will refrain itself from being as hectic as today was and I am looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.

Upon a little more thinking about the school situation in Si Sa Ket Province, I have come across a small conclusion.  My belief of why the school system has a few problems is due to the shear amount of schools in the Province.  It seems that every village, regardless of the size, has some sort of school.  Too many schools, many of them minute, spread across a large area calls for a lot of disorganization.  It is my belief, by looking at how schools are set up in New York, that these schools need to be condensed into larger schools were they can receive more funding and better education.  Rather than having many small schools, larger size schools should be designed.  I am not saying make one massive school, but increase the population of the schools to a moderate size.  I believe that if you make the schools a moderate size, you can still have the same education that is taught at the smaller schools – a more personalized teaching atmosphere.  This is only my personal opinion on the situation and if anything is to be done, it will take a long time to formulate.  For this to be completed, the government and outside organizations need to help assist the province in building roads to sustain cars.  With easier forms of transportation available, then schools can start to be condensed.

Journal #10
Tuesday August 2nd, 2005
(Ban Nonphung School, Ban Nonsunk School)

What really woke me up this morning was the sun that shined through my window rather than the alarm on my phone.  Today was another day of bright sunshine with no clouds in sight.  It was at this time that I woke up at about 7:00 AM, the same time as days before.  I took the usual shower and got ready for the truck to arrive.  As I was told the day before, Mr. Villard was supposed to be available today to help me do my rounds to the different schools.  The truck arrived at about 8:00 AM, right on schedule, and I thought that Mr. Villard was certainly here.  It was then that a voice called up to me that the truck had arrived, and it was indeed Mr. Villard.  I was very pleased to see him this morning because this means that I could stay at the schools longer and do my intended job better with his help and guidance.  We had just been reunited, the three of us, for another day of donating books.  He had asked me how yesterday went, sarcastically, because he had heard about the trouble that occurred at the schools with the language barrier.  It was then that we headed down to road from my house to eat some breakfast.  This food stall is actually within the yard of my neighbor’s house.  I left ordering up to Paw and Mr. Villard as they know that I am open to eat any local and/or Thai food.  What we had was rice, some meat, small sardine like fresh fish, and “left over” soup.  “Left over” soup is not its real name of course, but is my personal name for it.  In this soup contains the odd pieces of cows and/or pigs that are not normally eaten (at least by American standards).  So along with some broth, you can eat pieces of tongue, liver, coagulated blood, nose, intestines, stomach, and other pieces that I just had no clue of their origins.  Being the adventurer that I am, and not to disappoint the cook watching us, I ate the food willingly.  I don’t really have a problem with food such as this as it doesn’t faze me in the least.  I do know that some people can’t bear to think that what they are eating are spare parts, but it’s a mind over matter situation.  I really don’t know what the contestants on “Fear Factor” are so antsy about when eating these parts.  The cost of the meal, for all three of us, was 90 baht ($2.25). 

After leaving the food stall, we walked down the block to the full truck parked in my driveway.  I proceeded into the driver’s seat to turn the car on and what occurs is that the car won’t start.  Unlike in the United States, people are not worried in this area about people stealing their cars and they just leave the keys in the car.  The car was not properly turned off and I instantly thought that it was the battery.  Paw had the idea to start to push the car and see if it would start.  They pushed the car out of the driveway and down the block with no success.  Paw then went out in search of a mechanic.  The first mechanic came to the car on a motorbike and his eventual thesis was that he had no clue what was wrong and he left.  Without giving us any help to where else to search, Paw went out to find another mechanic.  He then came back with a truck and a couple of mechanics.  The car was attached to another truck by means of a metal pipe and pulled about 2 kilometers to the mechanic shop.  It was there that they searched high and low to find the cause of the problem.  They all eventually concluded that the starter was blown.  The time it would take to get another one would be about 45 minutes to an hour.  It was then that I had walked over across the street where I saw a small shop selling freshly made ice coffees, “café yen” in Thai.  Paw, Mr. Villard, and I sat down and enjoyed our drinks while the mechanics were hard at work.  While drinking our coffees, a man walked in and sat down at a table behind us.  I instantly saw that he was wearing a “BKNY” shirt (a counterfeit DKNY shirt) and it had the words “New York City” across the middle.  I thought of that as interesting that I would see something such as this half way around the world, a shirt about my home state New York.  While finishing our drinks the man who had sat down jumped from his seat because he had just won the Thai lottery.  It was then he turned to me and said “I am lucky man”.  He had just won 3600 baht, or about $90.  After talking with him for a little bit, due to the fact that he knew some English, I found out a little about him.  He told me that he was a retired electrician and knows English because his brother and sister live in the United States.  After talking for about 30 minutes, the mechanics called us over because the car was finished and ready to go.  Since no one but myself carries around money as it seems, I paid the coverage of the car.  Installation and a new starter cost about 3700 baht, or $92.50.  It was then, a few hours behind schedule that we started our way to Si Sa Ket Province, normally about an hour’s drive away.

Since I was behind the wheel, the time it took to get there was a little shorter.  I was told in the car that it was lucky that this happened today as we only had two schools to go to.  The reason for this was because the third school had cancelled our visit due to a district meeting which they previously planned and could not miss.  Unfortunately, there were no other schools on our list close enough to switch spots with.  It was with this knowledge that we arrived at our first school, Ban Nonphung School by about 12:30 PM.  I was anxiously greeted by the teachers and administrators when I arrived.  Once again, you could hear the wave of