I much catching up to do as we were without internet for a week & tonight I have free wireless internet!
Karen Language:
One of the older girls gave me a lesson in their language. They have 44 letters with many have two or three syllable sounds. Most of their words are several one or two consonants followed by one or two vowel sounds. If they put a consonant at the end, it’s usually ng, k or t. Also, the words have what sounds like a melody--often I think they have started a song! Most of the kids know Burmese and are learning Thai and English at school. And I still stumble on some English words!!
Massage:
I found out what the teacher here is teaching besides some English & Thai: massage…with her as the teaching tool!
Clean Up:
There are no toys to pick up around here as all the toys are the ones they’ve picked up so dropping them anywhere is no problem.
A day in my classroom:
Sometime during my morning lesson, Christmas, Johnny or Cireo pulls down his pants or not & pees. Today it was right on my foot. Rog’s lesson in the library came to an abrupt stop after Christmas poop right on the floor.
Polio:
Had visitors today--the polio vaccination truck pulled in and ten minutes later pulled out after giving each of the 8 kids on site a dose of polio vaccine, marking it in their book & taking off to find the rest of the kids at school.
Discipline:
How do they do it?? All these kids & never have I heard any adult yelling or scolding. No one says be careful or don’t get dirty or get off the top of that rugged rock. There are no protective gates--even where little one year old Cireo could fall 4 ft--no electrical plug covers. The only yelling is out of 3 yr old Christmas who shouts his demands & orders to everyone--and they obey or he gets louder!!!
Stubbing toes:
As some of you know, Rog has always hated having anything around that he might stub his toes on. Well he’s found stub toe hell. Stumps & rocks everywhere. Everyday he goes out with a sledge hammer to eliminate several. It’s an endless job but he can’t bear not to work at it.
Washing:
One day I joined the washing clothes party. Truly it was a party as the girls & women seemed to be having so much fun. Though I could not understand a word, their belly laughs had me laughing which made them laugh even more. It made me wish I had such a fun social group to spend time with everyday. And all over a pile of laundry that they were so diligently working on. Honestly, I can’t imagine scrubbing that hard on clothes that I just saw the kids in as they rolled around in the dirt. Here’s the process: scrub with soap, wring, scrub again this time turning them inside out & scrubbing, wring, rinse, wring, rinse, wring, rinse & wring again before hanging on the bamboo to dry. And I remember yelling at my kids for getting dirty and all I had to do was throw them in a machine.
Mind Game:
Since often I can’t communicate much to others, I find myself silently talking to myself. Sometimes it’s like I’m talking into a tape recorder so I can remember things I am noticing. Not talking aloud gives me much more time to ponder which is a real luxury. Maybe I should try to talk less at home!!!
