Angela Killian

I left my house on foot for the temple school around 8:30 am. Just outside of my neighborhood were a couple of mean dogs. They barked at me every morning, so I started walking on the other side of the road to avoid them. Much of my time outside was spent trying to avoid stray dogs.

There was a family owned mini-mart 5 minutes before the school, so I would stop there nearly every morning to grab a water and canned coffee. I also bought bags of sweet popcorn and sometimes candy as prizes for the students.

The mini mart owners were husband and wife. Early in the morning their kids would pass me riding their bikes to school and in the evenings the kids would be sleeping or watching cartoons behind the counter.

Some mornings the mini mart owner asked me in broken English if I could teach all the kids in his village English once per week. I agreed for a fee of 1,000 THB per hour, which was more than fair considering there were 5 children aged 3 to 10. I believe he was seeking a babysitter more than anything and having a “farang” (foreigner in Thai) do it would pass as English class. Luckily for me he never accepted my generous offer and I was spared the headache.

The Bad and the Ugly

There was one evil dog living at the school. I assume he belonged to someone because of the lack of mange / disease. He would chase after me every day when I entered the school premises and bark uncontrollably. My only defense was to bark back loudly and lunge at him. I had never experienced so many dogs’ hatred towards people until I came to Thailand. This hatred resulted in me staging unethical (hypothetical, of course) ways to rid my walking path of these pests. Let me clarify, I am an animal lover and grew up with many different types of dogs, cats, rabbits, mice, fish, ducks, etc. I would never purposely harm any animal, but it’s simply amazing what animosity can cause to transpire mentally.

I taught 4 classes per day for pre-school, kindergarten and primary 1. None of the children or other teachers spoke any English so every day was literally a game of charades. The Thai teachers were relieved to have me there as it gave them an hour break to do their make-up or eat soup. The children were obsessed with applying talcum powder to their faces. Many Thai people do this because it has a cooling effect, but it makes them look tribal. There is literally a full aisle at the supermarket allocated for different types of powders.
TEFL courses teach you that “Asian students” respect authority at a young age. I couldn’t disagree more. First of all, Asia is a huge continent with diverse countries and cultures. Thai students are not any more respectful to their teachers than any other 3 year old. In fact, the children at the temple school were like wild animals. One day I caught 2 children going through my purse and another day a girl sat in my “teachers chair” and refused to move for the remainder of the class. One girl constantly put her hand inside her underwear to scratch her vagina. She would then smell her hand and make a disgusted face. How do you say “yeast infection” in Thai?

The most horrifying of all was the day a naked boy ran down the hall. He was shrieking and crying as if he was being beaten to death so I poked my head out the classroom door. Before me was a 5 year old naked boy with fecal matter on his backside. He was running as a Thai teacher chased him with a stick. I watched as he squatted and shat on the concrete hallway floor. The Thai teacher immediately began screaming at him in Thai and beating him with a stick in front of all the other open classrooms. This was the most brutal and scarring way to make a child lose face in front of his classmates. It was not an isolated incident of the Thai teachers hitting / beating the children either.

The Good

Of course there were happy memories too. I tried to eat lunch with the Thai teachers in the beginning. Eating together is a way Thai people bond and I wanted them to like me. The school lunch was prepared outside by two Muslim women, which I found strange as it was a Buddhist school. The first day I had lunch at the school, one of the Thai teachers made my plate and brought it to me. Unidentifiable meat, yellow apples, soupy vegetables and white rice.

I had already been surviving on fried rice and spring rolls since moving to Thailand so I was sure I could stomach the white rice.

After trying to eat socially for a week I gave in and walked to the foreigner friendly restaurants on the beach for lunch. There was a hotel coffee shop on the way called “Bread and Butter” that served real (overpriced) espresso. Cappuccino cost = 130 THB.

For lunch I would have chicken fried rice with a Coke Light or a regular Coke on the frequent days that I felt totally exhausted and needed sugar. Lunch cost = 150 THB.
Many days the Thai teachers (along with other villagers) would offer me a ride home via motorbike. Some days I accepted, but I mostly liked walking because I was afraid to let the locals see where I lived. My house was about 1,000 square feet and many locals referred to it as a “mansion”.

Everything Else

I was intercepted by a Thai admin guy from the school one day while walking home and he insisted that the school director had to meet me, so I went to his office. I waied and expected the conversation to be 5 minutes or less. He offered me coffee, which I accepted. He asked, “one scoop or two?” He was preparing instant coffee using the NesCafe Red Cup brand, which I despise. I asked for two scoops. At least this meeting would result in a caffeine buzz.

He proceeded to ask about my personal life, family, ethnicity, where my house was, etc. I knew that being social in Thailand is more important than doing business, so I played along. After chatting with him for 30 minutes he told me that all of the other teachers live in his housing near the school and that I should too. I informed him that I already live with my husband in a house down the road. The locals are always asking how much you pay for your car and house with hopes of offering you a better price. Or maybe they’re just making conversation to assess your social status.

He wrapped up the meeting by inviting “my husband” and I over to his house for whiskey and wine, which luckily never happened. I have never been big on networking or schmoozing and the last thing I wanted to do on my day off was a work-related game of charades. Still, it was a very sweet offer and illustrates Thai hospitality perfectly.

Eventually, the Kindergartener’s graduation rolled around. I really didn’t want to attend the ceremony because I was the only foreigner and hated standing alone.

The Thai woman from ECC came to the ceremony presumptuously to check up on me. She told me how nice I looked in my new clothes and we sat together the whole time. Before saying goodbye, she told me to contact ECC again for my next government teaching job. I said, “Definitely” with no intentions of doing so. Like my students, I was moving on to primary school.