December 3, 2012

  • Kaeng Khoi: Peace and Quiet on a Twelve Lane Highway

    It's been about two-and-a-half weeks since I left Bangkok for Saraburi. It took about a week before things got moving and I moved to a little place called Kaeng Khoi. It is about 11 kilometers from the Tesco-Lotus in Saraburi. We aren't too far from Bangkok, depending on how the traffic flow is at any given moment. To Rangsit, it is maybe just over an hour. After you get through Rangsit, you are practically in Bangkok, but also about an hour away from what you want to be doing in the capital.

    Last week was spent working with some children with their reading and conversation skills. They are students at California Preparatory International School, located on the south side of a twelve-lane highway. I guess it would be more accurate to say it is an eight lane highway with four lanes dedicated to frontage roads. There have been nights when i have been too early to sleep, but too early to rise and rise again in the middle of the night. I don't think I have had a complete night's sleep since coming here. The kids are nice, though. Some are Thai, some are Filipino, and all are pretty good kids in their behavior, if not in their English ability. I have my work cut out for me starting in January.

    Teaching English will be one thing. The bigger responsibility will be taking on the role as dean of the boys dorm, keeping the kids out of trouble in more ways than one. It should be interesting.

    While the school is located well out of the way on a major highway, behind the school is a nice view of some of the mountains. There is a dike behind the dormatories, and a field that will eventually become a soccer field, teacher's housing, and one or two other things. In the meantime, it is a good place for someone interested in the natural beauty of the world to hang out with a nice camera or binoculars and do some serious bird watching. One of the teachers here named Jim is an avid birder, and pointed out to me an Asian open-beaked swan. I got some photos of it, and will post them soon. He has also pointed out a few other birds of interest, including a jungle crow. I need a birding field guide. Looks lke a hobby I should take up while I am here.

    While in high school I took three years of art. I'm going to get back into sketching, and bought some art supplies yesterday to see how I like it. I have 32 colored pencils, a 16-piece oil pastel set, and six charcoal pencils, as well as drawing pads and an instruction book. I hope to stay with it this time. It should also help save money on AA batteries for the Canon A-800 point-and-shoot I am packing. The macro setting and the lack of an ability to take pictures of the moon are the biggest reasons for wanting to retire it. I'm not happy with it, and would either want a DSLR like the Canon 1100D or the 650D, or an upgraded PowerShot with the same capabilities as the A-460. I need a camera with flexibility. The A-800 isn't flexible enough for my needs.