Monthly Archives: December 2011

If you’re a new Thai teacher, you work for a massive school system, and you take the position they have for you.  It’s probably in some hard to staff location, of course, not near your family, so you teach there … Continue reading →

Today, realizing this (the title) seems to me the greatest gift from my experience in Peace Corps Thailand so far.  I began to suspect that compassion failure explained a lot and once I had that idea rolling around my head … Continue reading →

The elementary school English Camp last Friday was many things simultaneously, this blog entry is on the joy of having other volunteers come to the house for a day or two.  I haven’t had a house guest who’s an English … Continue reading →

I’m drawn to the zoo and repelled by the zoo.  The animals are fascinating, the displays are educational, the whole thing is thought provoking, I love zoos.  The animals have gone to work for the greater good, helping to rouse … Continue reading →

note: click on the photos to enlarge them…  this post is on the fun of the zoo, next post is on the philosophical complexity of zoo as educational tool to promote environmental concern v. zoo as animal abuse… Five volunteer friends came … Continue reading →

Right next door to my school is a family that does hand weaving.  The pattern is dyed into the thread, at the stage shown in this photo the thread is taken from the dying frame and made into skeins.  When … Continue reading →

… as she executes a graceful, relatively-deep-but-not-ostentatious curtsey in honor of the King of Thailand on the occasion of his 84th birthday is a tribute to my Mom, who taught me. The king’s birthday was celebrated over four days, one … Continue reading →