Ketchup Chips

They have those in Canada.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. This whole free time thing is a little difficult.

Last weekend Lesley, Rachel, Renate and I went to Nong Khiew just to get away from the city and see something new. We left Saturday morning, arrived in the afternoon and then left Sunday afternoon. There wasn't a whole lot to do there but it was really beautiful. Sadly I got sick that night and felt icky until later on Sunday. The ride back was interesting, we were packed in with a bunch of Lao people who brought quite a bit of baggage. Lesley and Rachel were especially crowded because they sat in the back which according to the Lao is meant for four people rather than three. The ride is about three hours plus the time we had to wait due to some construction. By the time we got back we had missed the Sunday meeting and I was really tired.

The icing on the cake was the bad news I got at the meeting. Instead of being in level 3 at Xayadeth like I had been they put me in level 1. In the morning I would be teaching with Tricia and in the evening I'd be teaching with a Lao teacher as my helper of sorts. The evening level one class is so large that they decided to split it. That pretty much meant I'd be teaching the class by myself. I was pretty horrified. On Monday, we just gave back exams( to those who actually came to class) so it wasn't to stressful. The evening class was also a manageable size so we kept it together. Tuesday got a little rough. I was horrified that I'd be teaching on my own and told Sam, this was when she decided to inform me that a decision had been made to keep the class together. So we went in to class with one Lao teacher, started doing our thing and then Sam came in, with another teacher. I didn't notice her at first but the moment I did things got a little out of hand. She started making corrections to our teaching, giving the students activities we didn't plan and so on while we were teaching. It ended up
making our class really chaotic. By the time class ended I was really pissed off. That wasn't a good way to go to class at Pasaviet but they never fail to cheer me up. Stacey also gave me cake.

I thought things would be okay the next day. Everyone had decided to do a text because attendance levels were low. Instead, GVI Tricia decided to come to class and be the extra distraction. It was better than with Sam but it made me realize that someone needed to be spoken to. Volunteer Tricia even made an appointment to speak to GVI Tricia about it. This problem keeps coming up but no one ever says anything. I hope that it helped and if it didn't I'm going to have to say something myself. There's no excuse for coming in and ruining someone's class.

Thursday went really well without any outside interference and Xayadeth classes were canceled on Friday. When they told us about the cancelation you could tell every one of us was trying so hard not to look like they'd just given us a thousand dollars. It's such an unenjoyable school.

Pasaviet had its own challenge this week. Renate got sick and could not attend class which meant I was on my own. Pyret came with me one day but I decided to try Thursday and Friday on my own. It seemed as if my students knew that something was off. They were so extra peppy and awesome on Thursday. Friday the older ones got a bit silly but you know, it was a Friday. They are just the most awesome group of students ever.

Also, if you haven't watched the video I posted, you really should.