Today, January 16, was Teachers’ Day in Thailand. This yearly holiday includes merit-making and fun for educators all across the country. It was our second Teachers’ Day here, and no less interesting than the first.
The merit-making ceremony was scheduled to begin at 8:00, and since we were wearing fancy clothes and hauling two large bags of oranges, our landlord (a prominent local principal) picked us up a few minutes beforehand. We arrived at the school district office and laid out our wares next to the other teachers’ offerings. When the group of 51 monks arrived, they circled the tables, and each teacher carefully placed one of their pre-prepared food items into the alm’s bowl of each monk. Although as non-Buddhists we felt no need to make merit for our future reincarnations, Robert placed our oranges into the bowls while I took photographs, in order to show some participation.
When the monks were finished with their rounds and the white canvas bags were bulging with sticky rice, fruit, ramen noodles and canned sardines, we all moved into the large meeting hall for the next ceremony. To begin, the monks did some chanting and prayers for about an hour, and the crowd of teachers sang a solemn song enumerating moral virtues. This was followed by an awards ceremony. I am pleased to report that both of my co-teachers received awards, one for excellence in teaching social studies and the other for library reading program development, but I didn’t have anything to do with either.
Thais love to take photographs, and the advent of the digital camera has only increased their enthusiasm. Since there was about an hour-long gap between the conclusion of the awards ceremony and the serving of lunch, that time was of course filled with a hyper, crazy photo session. Every possible combination of teachers, principals, teachers and principals, teachers and Peace Corps volunteers, teachers and principals and Peace Corps volunteers, principals and Peace Corps volunteers, and on and on, was duly recorded on memory chips.
Finally, it was time for lunch, and a good thing because I was quite hungry. But oh, disappointment! It was a Chinese party meal of which I could eat nothing (description to follow tomorrow). Oh well. The whiskey was poured, the young hired women in increasingly revealing outfits began singing karaoke, and the atmosphere turned into one of loud revelry. We escaped with my co-teacher at 1pm and I came home to eat a cheese sandwich, but when Robert went to the market just before 5pm to buy our vegetables for dinner, he ran into a few inebriated teachers who were just leaving the festivities. They reported that the party was still rolling.
The merit-making ceremony was scheduled to begin at 8:00, and since we were wearing fancy clothes and hauling two large bags of oranges, our landlord (a prominent local principal) picked us up a few minutes beforehand. We arrived at the school district office and laid out our wares next to the other teachers’ offerings. When the group of 51 monks arrived, they circled the tables, and each teacher carefully placed one of their pre-prepared food items into the alm’s bowl of each monk. Although as non-Buddhists we felt no need to make merit for our future reincarnations, Robert placed our oranges into the bowls while I took photographs, in order to show some participation.
When the monks were finished with their rounds and the white canvas bags were bulging with sticky rice, fruit, ramen noodles and canned sardines, we all moved into the large meeting hall for the next ceremony. To begin, the monks did some chanting and prayers for about an hour, and the crowd of teachers sang a solemn song enumerating moral virtues. This was followed by an awards ceremony. I am pleased to report that both of my co-teachers received awards, one for excellence in teaching social studies and the other for library reading program development, but I didn’t have anything to do with either.
Thais love to take photographs, and the advent of the digital camera has only increased their enthusiasm. Since there was about an hour-long gap between the conclusion of the awards ceremony and the serving of lunch, that time was of course filled with a hyper, crazy photo session. Every possible combination of teachers, principals, teachers and principals, teachers and Peace Corps volunteers, teachers and principals and Peace Corps volunteers, principals and Peace Corps volunteers, and on and on, was duly recorded on memory chips.
Finally, it was time for lunch, and a good thing because I was quite hungry. But oh, disappointment! It was a Chinese party meal of which I could eat nothing (description to follow tomorrow). Oh well. The whiskey was poured, the young hired women in increasingly revealing outfits began singing karaoke, and the atmosphere turned into one of loud revelry. We escaped with my co-teacher at 1pm and I came home to eat a cheese sandwich, but when Robert went to the market just before 5pm to buy our vegetables for dinner, he ran into a few inebriated teachers who were just leaving the festivities. They reported that the party was still rolling.
1 comment:
Sounds interesting as always. I managed to escape this year!
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