Another crazy day in Pakse

Three things to report... not all actually happened today, but this weekend was full for sure.

First... a two hour assembly at the TTC in the afternoon heat, listening to Lao speeches, enduring the heat, watching the bored students and teacher... that's the way I like to spend my afternoon.

They were apparently addressing several issues or topics (I only caught bits and pieces of the Lao speeches... it is EXHAUSTING work to try and follow long speeches when they speak so fast). One was the opening of the Listening Lab and different changes at the TTC for the students. Another was the dress code. All students wear green ties with their school uniforms. The boys wear dress pants and the girls wear sihns. They also addressed turning off cell phones in class. Some students will actually answer their phones in class and talk for awhile before you get them to hang up (I am glad they mentioned that one although I don't have that much problem in my classes with cell phones).
More pictures of the engaged crowd:

Even the Director was just writing notes... although he might have actually been coming up with what he was going to talk about for an hour:



Second... AND MORE CRAZY... Today (Monday) We were in the office and heard some very loud crackling like firecrackers going off... I thought it was just someone doing construction or throwing rocks. Well, the students started to yell and scream outside our office. The power started to flicker on and off. Suddenly, there were much louder crackling and burning could be slightly smelt. The power went out completely! Teachers and students were all looking beyond our building... I had to go investigate!

AND.. it was an electrical fire! Now the poles are made of cement and rebar so they don't burn (which is good). But a small box on the side (my guess is a transformer of some kind interfacing the main lines and the ones going to the office) had shorted out and caught on fire. It was still burning on the ground when I arrived.





... and because the power went out, I missed the end of "The Pacifier" in Thai that was playing in our office! I still can't figure out if Vin Diesel was the good guy or bad guy in the movie... weird how Thai dubbing will do that to a movie!

THIRD... Wigo is out of his cage!!! He ran to greet me last night leaving a trail of pee again... I think he's learning to control himself better... wait... nevermind. He just rolled over while peeing on himself. Well, at least he's a faithful watchdog!

Vigo in the cage!

So, mysteriously Vigo is now caged to the side of our driveway. I don't know if it was his peeing tendencies, or he was getting into the chickens, or it has something to do with the tick-looking bumps I saw on him earlier this week. Something, I'm certain, caused his damnation to the cage in which he whimpers very early in the morning (making me sad because then I wake only to hear him and return to sleep with sad dreams of his whimpers). The bumps I saw on him looked like they needed to be treated so this might be part of that. Our landlords daughter is a nurse and he might have gotten medicine for it.
Our faithful peeing watchdog is in a sad state right now... although I'm safe for the moment from the stealthy pee attacks!

RAIN! ... bad, then good, then very bad again!

We had a short workshop on Wednesday afternoon about teaching. It was a good review. For those who haven't had formal educational classes, it was a great introduction to Bloom's Taxonomy and the various levels of learning. Basically, there are 6 main levels: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. Most teaching is done on the first two levels peaking at the level of Application (in our case, using English in conversations and writing). The problem is we need to strive for a higher level of thinking (or a "deeper level of thinking" whichever word imagery you prefer). I had just happened to go over these with my students this morning and it felt strange getting it that afternoon (but most teachers haven't been exposed to this so it was really good).

That is not the bad part. That was good. The rain and thunderstorm that started mid-way through the workshop was the bad part. It is just nasty muddy when it rains around here! Basically, count on getting wet and terribly muddy if it rains. Everything gets covered in mud. That's the bad part!

The good part: The weather then cooled off! It felt really great and cool for the rest of the day! OH AMAZING GREAT WEATHER! It was around 70F and even the next morning it was cooler with some gusts of hot air in the wind.

THEN... back to the bad! The next day after lunch, it was hot and MUGGY like it has never been before! UGH! So, back to the heat... and sweating... and general misery of hot season.

I can't tell if I want it to rain again or not?