Teacher's Appreciation Day at Khuruprachasan School in Chai Nat Province Thailand

		Teacher's Appreciation Day at Khuruprachasan School in Chai Nat Province
e-mail Charlie Jones "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered. The point is to discover them." - Galileo Ajarn Chai and me having a lot of fun and a few laughs. Ajarn Chai lighting his candle for the ceremonies. A little bit of dancing was the order for the evening... Ajarn Preeda from Sapphaya Witthaya School-my gracious chauffeur for the evening's festivities. I hope he enjoyed the evening as much as I did!		I was once again very fortunate in that I was invited to the Sunday evening 'Teacher's Day' festivities in mid-January at the Khuruprachasan School in Chai Nat Province. As you can see from the photos below, it was quite a production, starting with 2 straight hours of song and dance performed by the school's students. To put it mildly, it was quite a show! The dancers and singers from the high school performing for their teachers during teacher's appreciation day. I had been invited to the celebration the previous day after completing a teacher's training session for the English Resource and Information Center (ERIC) at the school. The senior staff of the session were kind enough to extend an invitation to me and after discussing it with Ajarn Anong from my school at Sapphaya Witthaya, she indicated to me she would arrange transportation out to the school for me the next evening. In the middle, Suzanne, on the right, Ajarn Chai , English teachers who actually speak English! Ajarn Chai was not amongst the honored senior guests this evening, he has ONLY been teaching 32 years and is a very young looking 52. At around 5:30 PM, Ajarn Preeda, who also lives in my teacher's compound on the banks of the Chao Praya River in Sapphaya, knocked on my door and a short time later we were on the road to Sangka Buri and the school. Although Ajarn Preeda felt there would be no one there when we arrived at 6PM, we were both surprised to find both many cars in the parking lot and tables full of teachers. Young men dressed in green army uniforms were directing cars to parking spaces and there was a rather large contingent of the province's finest (police) on hand as well. It was long before the sun set and the true mood of the party became apparent as thousands of multi-colored lights came on an a spectacular array of colors and shapes. Combined with the music, dancing and singing on stage, it created quite a relaxing and entertaining mood for a 'winter' evening in Thailand. In Thailand you can't have any event, no matter how small or large, without food. It is more than tradition, it is mandatory and this evening was no different, with plate after plate of food being brought to the tables including two separate courses of fish, a typical spicy Thai soup, a plate of duck and vegetables and of course, a bottle of Thai rum! Looking around me, I didn't notice too many full bottles or dishes of food when we were leaving. It was all particularly good! At 8PM, the official part of the evening began with announcements, songs thanking the teachers and a ceremony for senior teachers. As Ajarn Chai wasn't in the ceremony (as he ONLY has 32 years teaching experience!), one can only wonder how many years of total experience was on the stage represented by the dozen or so teachers being thanked for their many years of work. After this part of the program, there was a candle lighting ceremony where each table of teachers lit a candle for each teacher and after the ceremony placed the candle in sand bowls in front of the stage. It was really quite special and left quite an impression. After these events, the music and dancing started once again and as the evening wound down (at least for me), I suggested to Preeda at 9PM we head back home to which he agreed. It was only 15 or minutes later we had returned to the banks of the Chao Praya River and home amongst what I call, 'The Teachers of the River'. An Asian Mystic - May the Gods be with you.

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