Volunteer Day

To be honest, more often than not I have no idea what's going on at my school outside of my classroom. Generally, unless a piece of information directly pertains to us foreign teachers, memos, announcements, etc aren't translated or conveyed to us. I've learned to be flexible and just accept things as they come up. For example, this week my colleague Ryan and I were asked to coach the English debate team. The meet is next week. We have two periods to prepare three students to debate in their nonnative language.

 

More on that later.

This weekend was one of those events that is apparently a huge deal, but I had no idea about. On Friday I asked my M2 (8th grade) students if they had any fun plans for the weekend, and they told me no because they had class-wide volunteer work on Saturday. That afternoon, James (who knows the most about what's happening on account of his Thai wife and proficiency with the language) asked me if I would be interested in helping out. Although I teach nearly every grade (M2-M6) in the secondary school, I'm the M2 main English teacher (and see them for 6 hours a week including Main and Listening/Speaking class), so I thought it would be good for me to go along.

We took a taxi early Saturday morning to the place where the event would be held. It was one of the princess' initiatives; an annual luncheon for the disabled with job fair booths set up to help them find jobs. The students delivered food and drinks, while the teachers cooked the meals. James and I found some of the other young teachers from our school and helped prepare noodles. I was told to wear a school polo, but I missed the memo about which color to wear. I was literally the only person from our school not wearing yellow. In fact, many of the teachers were wearing the famous "Bunny Shirt" (that Geoffrey always wears to the airport to make himself easily identifiable). Needless to say, I stood out. Maybe that's a good thing. It's always good to be noticed by the school administration at these extracurricular events.

spot the farang

Despite the heat, it was fun to hang out with the other teachers. We stayed for about three hours until the luncheon was finished. I think it sets a good example for the students to see James and me there as well. Many of our students are very privileged, so a day of service is good to show them that not everyone is as lucky as they are. Also, it turns out that I can make a tasty bowl of noodles.