Monday, November 4: Everyone experiences their first day of teaching at Santisuk English School (SES). Most of the Northwestern students have never been on the other side of the lectern before and there are some jitters and a lot of prayer. But this is what we came for. Everyone will teach two two-hour classes, Monday through Thursday, for four weeks.
We arrived Friday evening and
jumped into a whirlwind weekend of church service, teacher training, cultural
orientation, Bible study and cell groups (in pairs we are assigned to 7 of the
cell groups that make up Peace Fellowship Church). We are staying at a small
guest house run by Thai Christians. It’s pleasant, though a bit of a squeeze
for the ladies, ten of whom have to share one bath. Because land in Bangkok is
so expensive, the building is one room wide, two rooms deep and five stories
high. It is only a ten-minute walk to SES.
The Thai people love to eat (a
common Thai greeting is “Have you eaten?”), and there are small restaurants,
food stalls, and mobile carts everywhere. There are more than 25 within 100
yards of SES. Most are small enough that we can see what they are cooking and
just point to order, but Santisuk has helpfully provided us with key rings
containing 20+ cards with pictures of the most common food items, the names
written in both Thai and English. There is also a supermarket nearby, so no one
has gone hungry.
Monday ends, and most of the
Northwestern team has found that the teaching went better than expected. Many
of them have found they even enjoy it.
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