Valentines day is the day of HIV/AIDS education

OK, so if you have visited my blog since January you will know that I just did my HIV/AIDS education camp. Well, this is the follow up blog to that camp. Today is valentines day...which as my co-teacher says..."is the day of love"....thats why it was the perfect day to teach about AIDS. A few of the schools have already had their camps, but 4 of the schools had theirs today. I visited two of them. Some of the schools did booths, like at a fair, but the ones I visited did a day camp. These are just a few pictures of the students teaching their fellow students. The pictures at the first school taught their peers in their own grade and the students at the second school taught 7th grade. Both schools did a great job. Becky and I were really excited about the second school. This school didnt have money to put on the day camp, but the community liked the project so well that they funded it. We also found out that this paticular school liked the project so well that they are going to do it every valentines day. Im really really happy that not only did this project have a positive effect, but it is also sustaining for the community;)

.... so the one funny thing that happened...I guess when Thai kids think about AIDS they think sex...and there must be no better way to portray how people get AIDS than home made drawings of people having sex..The students at the second camp had made posters about AIDS education and posted them on the trees. Most of the pictures basically looked like Japanese anime porn. Well, at least along with being educated about AIDS they get to develop their art skills as well;)

Good Bye from the Rajhiphat gang!

Last night I went to have a dinner with the gang I always see at the Rajhiphat university in my town. I have gone to Rajhiphat since I moved here to do projects for them like English camps and teacher trainings. I also go there to use the internet and upload my pictures onto cds to send home. Bom and three other teachers from the English education department are leaving at the end of this term, as well as me next month, so we went to a buffet place to have a big good-bye dinner. It was really fun and also a little sad to start my good-byes already.

Resume Building/Philosophy of Education

A few weeks ago I did a project with my friend Bom at the Rajiphat, which is like a community college. Bom and I designed a workshop for English education majors where we showed them how to make a western resume in English and how to make a Thai resume in English. The difference between a Thai resume and a western resume is a Thai resumes put a picture on it and tells personal information like religion, sex, and hobbies. Its basically not as specific either...which made it very easy to teach. The students were shocked to learn that on a western resume you wouldnt put personal information. Ive learned that a lot of people in their older years here often have trouble finding a new job as they have to put their age and picture on a resume, and employers will often want younger people for many jobs.

I also taught about philosophy of education. This is something they didnt know about and is something the schools here are really pushing. If you walk into any school here you will see a philosophy of education posted on the wall. I basically wanted to teach this to them to make them more marketable as a teacher. This is because if they have a personal philosophy of education they will have something that will set them apart from other applicants. We also helped them to translate this into English.

I couldnt have done this project without my friend Bom. He was really amazing and is a really great teacher!

Photography by Jamison Litten

These pictures were taken by Jamison "Jamie" Litten. He is a Peace Corps volunteer in my group and is planning to go to photography school when finished with his service. These are two pictures he had taken with me in them....arnt they really awesome?! Both pictures were taken right before Christmas in Lampang. The first picture also has Katie in the background and the second picture is of me in the back of a truck...I was hiding from the wind;)

The Poop Conference

So you will all be glad that there are no pictures involved in this post. Right now, my Peace Corps group is having what we have dubbed the poop conference. The poop conference is where all of group 117 has been sent to Bangkok for three days so that we can poop in a cup everyday. This is so that they can check and see if we have any parasites before we go home. I have gained a few pounds in the past couple of months so unless there is a fat parasite...I dont believe I have one. They have given us all a bag full of three cups, three popsicle sticks(to collect the poop with...you only need to put a bit in the cup), three plastic bags(to put the cup in), and three paper bags( to put the see through plastic cup in...even though we all know whats in the paper bag). This is the first day of the poop conference. We are all sitting around the head quarters volunteer lounge talking about....none other.... but poop. Some volunteers are talking about how it was easy and they had their regular morning poo, while others are talking about how they are having poop gitters and cant seem to squeeze one out on cue....we have to have had a poo by noon everyday, so that they can send them to the lab to be checked....yet others are talking about their techniques of how they got one out, or even their catching of the poo techniques. I have to admit that I had a little bit of the poop gitters...but, I went to McDonalds and had a cheese sandwhich, a super sized fry, a large coke, and a hot coffee. Like clockwork, an hour later I had to go to the restroom. This had to be one of the happiest poos of my life. I rushed out of the bathroom, paper bag in hand, and shouted success! I think this is the first time in my life I have ever announced that I had a poo. I then rushed it downstairs to the nurse who tole me.."just in time, we are sending them to the labratory now". There are some volunteers who just havnt been able to get one out yet...cross your fingers everyone!...My friend Jamie just came upstairs to announce "if you want to turn in a poo, 5 minutes left"...then my other friend Christina got up and headed to the bathroom with a depressing "Are you kidding me, I dont need this kind of pressure". All I have to say is....one day down, two days to go;)