oh right, we're not in Canada

We had another fire drill the other day, always good for a few laughs. I think the reason why these fire drills are so funny and unorganised is that they don't have fire drills in Thailand...my apartment doesn't even have any smoke detectors! The only reason why our school has them is because the foreign department (aka the English teachers) tell them that they should. So we have them, and they are hilarious. The Thai teachers don't know what to do. They have been told, but when the moment comes, they always go back to the old standby of yelling "RUN!" I feel as though the fire drills are not so much to practice what we should do during a fire, but to show the foreign staff what will happen during a fire, and to help us prepare should one ever occur.

The other funny/scary thing at our school is the lack of fire exits. The kindergarten building, where I teach, is right at the back of the campus. Seeing as the entire campus is fenced in, our only escape route goes right past the kitchen. Since the entire school is basically tile and cement, the only thing that will likely catch fire is the kitchen, where they deep fry and cook Thai-style, over huge open flames. So basically if there is ever a fire, we will probably just stay in our building because it will be safer than going past the kitchen. As we were making our long trek past the kitchen to the front of the building, which is the meeting spot in case of a fire, all of the kindergarten kids were running frantically, of course, in no real lines. Every once in awhile one kid would stop to tie a shoe or look at something, which would result in a pile of at least 10 children who were running right behind and couldn't stop in time. There was nothing that we could do but laugh and try to help them up before more unsuspecting kids tripped and went flying over the pile.

My friend, who is a grade four teacher, told me that it wasn't any better in the older grades. Apparently the head principal/owner of the school was there during the fire drill. Now, if there is one thing that has been drilled into the heads of these Thai children, it is to respect their elders. So these kids were running down the stairs when they saw the principal standing at the bottom. Instead of continuing to run, they kept on stopping to wai her (which is when you bring your hands up to your nose and bow, it is a symbol of respect). She just kept on pushing their hands away and tried to get them to keep running, but a lof of them were very confused and continued to try to wai her. Just when we start to feel like this country isn't that different from home something, like a fire drill, happens and makes us remember how different this place really is. They feel the same way about Canada though...I told my Thai teacher that we don't eat rice everyday in Canada and she said that she would never be able to live in a place like that. and looked disgusted, as though the thought of not eating rice at least once a day was unthinkable!

Another thing that is fairly common at home is bowling. Last night, the foreign department took all of the Thai staff bowling and it was one of the funniest/best evenings that I have spent here so far. I bowled with my Thai teachers, most of whom had never bowled in their lives. (I had downloaded some pictures onto here, but blogger is being tempermental and won't actually show them...) The Thai staff at our school make a lot less money than the foreign teachers do, which is just another frustrating way that they continue to enforce a hierarchy within the school, thus causing a great division between the Thais and the English, and also causing a hatred of the foreign staff by the Thais...but that is a different issue... Anyway, most of the Thai staff cannot afford to go out very much, or go bowling, so the foreign staff paid for all of them to go out. Many of my Thai teachers were quite nervous because they had no idea what to do, but I assured them that I had no idea how to 10 pin bowl either, and after I bought them a few drinks, they were ready to go. I have never seen such bad bowling in my life...and I am including myself in this...but it was the most fun that I have ever had bowling. It was really good to spend time with the teachers outside of the school, to meet some of their boyfriends/husbands, and to just have fun together. It is amazing how much fun you can have with very minimal verbal communication.

This weekend we are not really doing much, just relaxing and staying at home because we're going away for the next three weekends. Hope everyone is doing well at home!