Volunteer Stories  |  Marie

On Thursday I had to be at school for 8am (trust me that’s not good). We had been informed that there was some type of national day going on in schools but were not sure what it was about.

It turned out to be a teacher appreciation day. The sight in the hall was amazing. Every single child had a small bunch of flowers with incense sticks and candles. I didn’t understand what was being said but there was a lot of singing and a few speeches. Then we (all the volunteers) were asked to go and sit on the stage with some of the other teachers - we didn’t have a clue what was going on but did as we were asked. (Sorry just to explain there isn’t really anyone who speaks good English at the school so all communication is a little vague so we don’t always know what’s going on).

There were two rows on the stage (we sat in the back on). Teacher’s names were called out and they went and sat in the front row. Then two kids from a class, one boy and one girl, would come onto the stage pray in front of the Buddhist alter, then go over towards the teachers on their knees. Each child carried flowers (very pretty styled like they would be for a table decoration - sorry its hard to explain) and would bow to the teacher’s feet and present the flowers to them to say thank you. The flowers were then displayed on a table. We all sat there amazed by what was going on. Then to our surprise it was our turn. I felt very privileged and lucky to be taking part such an event but it was quite strange to have someone bowing to my feet.

When the final teacher had received flowers we though the ceremony was over. However they had added an extra bit this year. The school had wanted to say thank you to us for teaching there. There was some talking in Thai accompanied by our names and one by one we were presented by the headmaster (equivalent of head governor) a basket of flowers for us to keep. It was so sweet.

After the ceremony the children were to give their flowers to a teacher. Unfortunately for the other teachers they gave nearly all of them to us. Kids just came running from all directions and handed me flowers with the standard Thai wai (bow). My arms were full and they kept bringing more. I now know what a celebrity feels like. There were also lots of photos taken by various people and we took lots of the kids - they just love having their photo taken. Its so hard to describe how I felt at the time -it was a bit overwhelming, I was in a strange state of shock, happy, sad to think of leaving and for the rest didn’t have time to think as all these flowers were coming towards me.

Well sorry to go on for so long. I'll try not to get carried away with the rest I write.

Well, the rest of the day we had off (another part of the thank you). We had so many flowers and didn’t know what to do with them so I suggested we take them to the local hospital- after we removed the candles and incense (oh we kept our baskets).

It's not a normal thing to do here in Thailand - people take flowers for loved ones but nobody donates. We took Poo a Thai girl with us to explain as we handed out bunches to flowers to the people on the wards. There were quite a few confused faces though everyone said thank you to us and bowed. There were a few smiles as well which was nice. On Friday afternoon I went to teach in the Wat again. Teaching novice Buddhist monk is so different to the kids. Their English is amazing and their questions can sometimes stump me, especially when about verb tenses -I was never taught them!

In the evening a few of us went on the riverboat cruise at sunset. Ok the sunset wasn’t amazing as it was a bit cloudy but we did get to see part of a sunken chedi and views of Thailand that you cant see from the land. And the food was nice.

Marie Nichols, 20