More to Life ✔

Chapter 17 Orientation

Rialoves2cook: I'm making dragon fruit smoothies to celebrate surviving my first day of work. Although surviving may be a strong word with how adorable my kindergarten camp kids are. For this sweet treat, I enlisted the help of our local smoothie lady, Peach, to blend my market produce since I live in a kitchenless apartment (though I have a hotplate), but I did the rest myself. With the dragon fruit's vibrant purple colour, a smoothie seemed perfect. I combined it with bananas, honey, yogurt and a fresh mint garnish along with Sweet-Tooth sugar substitute to create a healthy yet delicious drink you can enjoy for dessert.

#smoothie #dragonfruit #Isurived #sweettreats #Sweet-Tooth

Posted October 15th, 4:30 PM

***

In the morning, Emma led Maria to Khwām c̄hlād school, whose name translated to intelligence or cleverness. Despite the early hour, the air was thick with humidity and warm on her skin. Maria yawned, wishing she'd slept over four hours. When they arrived at the gate to a modern, imposing three-storey building, Maria's chest tightened. The school must have erred in offering her a job. How could such a professional organization hire her as a teacher?

A colourful play structure dominated the left side of an immaculate oval lawn while a soccer field occupied the rest. She and Emma strode through tall, metal gates alongside parents and kids riding in expensive black cars. She tensed. Affluent people would balk at her teaching their children and smell her inexperience a mile away.

Thai staff in bright, white uniforms swept and tidied the entryway. There were no double sets of doors to keep the weather and cold out like in Canada, just a front wall and an open doorway on either side. In the atrium, a large, gold-framed portrait of the king of Thailand stared down at Maria and Emma.

"Whatever you do, don't insult him. It's a crime," Emma whispered.

Maria knit her eyebrows together. "Seriously?"

"An activist was arrested and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for sharing an honest news story about the new king on social media." Emma's voice was more serious than yesterday.

Maria's jaw dropped. "If I remember one thing today..."

"I don't mean to freak you out. Thailand has a few issues, like most places, but overall it's a decent country."

At least Maria learned something to avoid, but she could make countless other mistakes. Emma led her to the right, and they passed the English department's administration office. At the end of the hall, behind blue doors, was the air-conditioned English department staff room. Thank goodness for small miracles.

In Canada, Maria's teachers had desks in their classroom, but Emma explained because most primary educators taught two groups of students and shared the space with Thai staff, teachers had their own staffrooms to complete prep work. Since the school was large, the English and Thai department rooms were separate.

Emma showed Maria an organized desk with various supplies and books. A printed letter welcomed Maria to her position and spelled out classroom routines and Daniel's rough plans for the upcoming term. Maria flipped through the Math, Science and English textbooks, relieved someone competent had created the curriculum. She hadn't clue what to teach.

"We'll worry about those classes later. We have two weeks of October camp with the K1 to 3s before most of our regular students return from holidays, and the real teaching starts."

"What's a K1 or 3?"

"Thailand has three levels of kindergarten. The three-year-olds go to K1, the K2s are four, and the kids we consider kindergarten-aged back home are K3s."