Wat Don Chan Finished
My spell at Wat Don Chan School has now come to an end. For those just reading this entry I coached football to 15-18year lads and this school is an orphanage with kids from the hill tribe families - they are very poor. They are expecting me to go back at the end of July but I will not - no real reason just want another challenge. In the last week I did 3 x 1 hour English teaching sessions which I thoroughly enjoyed. The sessions were to years 12, 9 and 7 and the students responded really well. I'm sure a lot of that was me being a bit of a novelty. I took in various day to day objects and created sentences with them. A very well tested method of teaching English, but it worked and was fun. Everyone at the school seemed to appreciate what I did for the month I was there, particularly on the football front as illustrated by Mai, one of the teachers, giving a nice speech before I went. She said they had no money for a present but thanked me for everything I had done. The speech for me was as good as a present. I do have a couple of grievances though.
In the last week a male teacher who is in charge of the girls dormitory stopped the girls from playing football on the grounds that they are should not be mixing with the lads. On top of that he inflicted corporal punishment on them by making them do a number of press ups. I was extremely angry about this, as I hope you, the reader, are and expressed my anger to Thai and Mai, 2 of the teachers who helped with the training. Football is all inclusive irrespective of gender, age, ability, race or disabilities and this was the core of my argument and anger. In England we have many, many faults but this behaviour the teacher would not have got away with under the sexual discrimination act and likely he would have been bought under the full force of the law with the punishment meted out. At least in the UK we have this one right. Thai and Mai did agree with me and a few days later there was a compromise that the girls could do some training first and then the boys. I just hope that the male teacher was shown the error of his ways. My method of showing him the error of his ways would have been to punch his lights out. Not a traditional way of dealing with grievances maybe, but boy it would have been satisfying.
My other grievance was that as the lads came from poor hill tribes they do not have any ID cards. This has prevented them from entering a local schools football tournament which they were very disappointed about. I don't blame them and what nonsense discrimination is at work here. My theory is that the posh, snobby schools were too afraid that Wat Don Chan may have beaten them. That would have been like some Hollywood script where kids from the wrong side of the tracks who have nothing beat the upper class kids who are privileged and have everything. I, like a lot of people I'm sure, like to see the underdog win out. Two of the lads have a real talent for the game but there is no way they will be able to progress as they are from poor hill tribe backgrounds and do not have the ID cards. What a shame and I will be trying to see if there is anything I can do to push them on. The class system at work.
Chiang Mai fashions
I feel quite pleased with myself. Some of you will know I have always been a dedicated follower of fashion (if you understand that statement you are showing your age) and think there are things that people should not do eg. wear brown with black - awful, wear shirt and tie with jeans - never works, wear shirts with shorts - aaarrrgh even worse, wearing baggy cargo pants - so 1990's. Last year in Thailand everyone was wearing plastic crocs but I stuck to my espadrilles, I like my espadrilles. This year very few are wearing crocs and espadrilles have become de rigeur. Having a quiet smile to myself.
Changed my Mind
I have changed my mind about Thai people having a healthy diet. This was brought about after a discussion with the English teacher at Wat Don Chan and the grandma of the orange juice lady I go to most evenings. The average life expectancy of Thai people is between 60 - 65. The factors include smoking and their food preparation. They use a lot of salt and sugar, even though the basic content is healthy, rice, noodles and vegetables when smothered in salt and sugar it negates the goodness of the food. Also, apparently farmers spray with pesticide's in the morning, will pick and eat their crops in the afternoon. A lot of the meals are fried and that has long term consequences especially for poor families who cannot afford decent oils. The class system at work again. Cancer is very prevalent amongst Thai people. Having lived here for a few weeks I can see this problem. All the meals in the cafes and restaurant's do contain a larger proportion of salt and sugar than we westerners are used too. Probably not as much as when they prepare their own meals and I've even seen a Thai person put salt into fresh orange juice. yuck. So maybe this is why you do not see old people around (see previous blog) there just aren't any. Also, with young people eating unhealthy cakes, sweets burgers and drinking coke they are storing up even more problems for themselves.
This may also be why you often see beautiful young Thai girls with older western guys - they do not believe the westerners are over 60. No, who am I kidding its because they think all westerners are rich. I've even met some Thai girls who are deliberately on the lookout for a western guy as they see that as a passport to a more affluent lifestyle - which unfortunately is probably true.
Off to Laos
I have discovered that a tourist can only stay in Thailand for 1 month before needing to get their visa renewed. Plus, tourists can only stay in Thailand for a total of 90 days out of every 6 months. I have been here for about 6 weeks now and have decided to split my time between here and Laos. I want to do some scuba diving in Phuket and the best time is August. So I will return to Thailand from Laos at the end of July which means I do not have to leave again until mid September. I will be leaving Saturday (28th) taking a 3 day, 2 night leisurely cruise down the Mekong River from Northern Thailand to central Laos and from there have a trundle around and possibly slip into Vietnam. Just see how the mood takes me.
Beggars
The other night a beggar came up to me for dosh and I was looking in my pocket for coins when he produced a lighted fag and took a drag. I indicated in no uncertain terms that if he stopped smoking he wouldn't need to beg. He left in a huff. Now, was I being unkind or realistic. My conscience has got to me since this incident as I do not know this man's history and maybe smoking is the only pleasure he has in life and who am I to be so smug and make assumptions about his history and fortunes. Any comments!!!
Plaza
This is one for the football fans. The other day I was in a plaza and came across these computerised machines that people can play football on using some form of PlayStation which, not being 10 years old, has completely passed me by. The football icons displayed on one machine were Robbie Savage and Philip Senderos. Not wishing to underestimate these 2 players talents are they really the type of player that should be displayed as being what football is all about. Not for me anyway.
Storytelling
As a lot of you know I have a love and passion for storytelling. I have not heard or told a story for about 7 weeks now and I am missing it. Maybe I should start a storytelling club in Chiang Mai as the Chiang Mai branch of Shaggy Dog Storytellers. Apologies to those who will not understand this last statement.
Gauntlet
I'm now becoming recognised as a local. People stop and say Hi Alan hows it going? I do not get stopped much when running the gauntlet of market stall holders, tuk tuk and taxi drivers on my way to the food centre for a nosh. That's nice and makes me feel part of the community.
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