Wai Kru Ceremony at Khemmarat Pittayakom School

Khemmarat Pittayakom ("sharp knowledge") (KP) School is the school near where we live at which we are teaching this term.  It includes Mattayom 1 through Mattayom 6 (grades 7 - 12) and serves about 1,700 students.  Much more to come about Khemmarat Pittayakom in a blog post in the near future.

From Wikipedia in blue:  The wai kru ceremony is a Thai ritual in which students pay respect to their teachers.  Many institutions also present student awards and honors during the ceremony.   

We are told it is held in schools throughout Thailand, usually on the second Thursday in June -- June 13 this year.  We were invited to participate.

The wai kru ceremony at KP School started after the morning flag ceremony and lasted until lunchtime.  The students then had the afternoon off.

We began to see it was a special day as students assembled for the flag ceremony -- many were carrying flowers and beautiful floral arrangements they would present to the teachers.  We learned later that the large floral arrangements were made by students from each of the classes in the school and would be presented to the school director, Mr. Paijit, at the wai kru ceremony.

 

The head of the school's Foreign Languages Department (and after several weeks here, our guide and good friend), Mr. Itthiphon, was very busy that day keeping the activities of the day moving forward.  (Teachers in Thai public schools are Thai government employees and wear government uniforms on Mondays and on Wai Kru Day.)

The students walked from the flag ceremony to the school's "gymnatorium" in order by class -- youngest students first.

 

Thai people often sit on flat surfaces (e.g., the ground, the floor, or a flat platform) and the students sat on the floor of the gymnatorium as they arrived -- youngest students toward the front.  (George has a very hard time sitting on the ground or getting up or down if he does.  He would probably be much more limber today if he'd spent more time sitting on the ground as a young person.)

Students carrying the floral arrangements for each class sat to the side of the building.  It must be quite a logistical challenge to get 1,700 people arranged so that they will be able to come forward smoothly at the right time during the ceremony, and a few KP teachers did a great job of organizing that.

 

The students kept coming and the gymnatorium gradually filled up.

And before long a second row of students with the beautiful arrangements was forming.

Some teachers posed with students from the classes they teach.

And, finally, everyone had arrived.  It was quite an impressive sight!

We were honored to be invited to participate by Director Paijit.

The ceremony usually begins with a Buddhist prayer ritual, followed by the students' recitation of the wai kru chant, which expresses respect for and gratitude to the teachers, and asks for the teachers' blessing of their studies.  [Wiki]

Director Paijit opened the ceremony with a prayer ritual, spoke to the students, and gave out student awards.

And then the students rose and sang:

http://youtu.be/RCI9Fo60nSQ

Following this, a select number of students, usually the representatives of each class, present the teachers with offerings of flowers, candles and incense sticks arranged on phan (traditional Thai pedestaled trays).   [Wiki]

Groups of students with flowers representing each of the classes  (beginning with the 12th grade classes) walked across the front of the stage and knelt in front of a group of teachers and the school director.

The large floral arrangements were presented to Director Paijit and then displayed on tables behind him.

Nature is never far away in Khemmarat -- here's the view out the side of the gymnatorium:

and the pond through those trees:

Junior teachers then honored administrators and retiring teachers (teachers must retire at age 60 -- we're over that age limit, but fortunately they don't apply it to volunteers).  Those are students dressed in military uniforms (we think similar to Junior ROTC in the U.S.) behind the teachers; they took all the flower arrangements from the Director and the teachers as students presented them.

Then a monk took the stage.  He is the father of one of the teachers at the school (from a time in his life before he became a monk).  He gave many of the students scholarships from his own funds.

This is usually followed by a speech by the school director offering the students guidance in their academic career.  [Wiki]

Director Paijit spoke to the students about the importance of respecting their teachers.  Displayed on the tables in front of him are all the beautiful floral arrangements he was presented during the ceremony.

We went to the English teachers' office after the ceremony and saw some individual students come to show their respect for Mr. Itthipon (who has been teaching English at KP for more than 25 years, is a very enthusiastic teacher, and taught most of the young English teachers we have met in Khemmarat and Baan Nong Phue) and for Kru ("teacher") Jum.

It was a wonderful day and we were honored to be part of it.

Mother Nature is Thriving in Isaan

Rainy season continues, with heavy downpours at least every other day.  So far we haven't been caught outdoors in any, we're happy to say.  But the flowers and greenery continue to impress.  Here are some recent samples from Khemmarat.

We can't tell you much about this but we found this shiny thing (creature/cocoon?) attached to the bottom of a leaf.  The silver surface is so reflective that one can see the reflection of the camera on its surface.

We saw our first banana blossom.  And we're including a picture of a bunch of bananas on a tree in Khemmarat to show how that flower progresses.

Butterflies continue to amaze us.  The rainy season and all the flowers it produces in Khemmarat must be butterfly heaven.

We made a video to try to illustrate how profuse they are.

 

Mango fruits are ripe now, and George has eaten the raw fruit served with a sweet and spicy dry condiment and found it to be delicious.  We have seen many examples of a mango dish drying in the sun in people's yards.  We think, once dried, these are rolled into tubes and eaten that way, but we haven't seen any of these for sale and, therefore, haven't had a chance to sample them.

And there are plenty of animals in Khemmarat enjoying nature's bounty.  We saw this calf with her mom on a recent walk by the river.

Down on the Farm with Tom

Tom [see second section of previous (May 11) blog post and posts in March] and George continue to struggle to communicate, but each is gradually learning more of the other's language and they continue to have good times together despite (and, sometimes, because of) the language challenge.  Tom is on a mission to teach George about farming in Isaan.  This is George's story, so he'll tell it in the first person.

On May 10, Tom taught me how to prepare a rice field for seeding and how to throw the seed.  Those seeds are left for 3 weeks to sprout and grow, so, when I met with Tom 8 days later on May 18, it wasn't about rice, but some of the trees that are grown on Thai farms.  This time Tom was working at one of the farms of Kru ("teacher") Tong.  Tong picked me up in Khemmarat and drove me to the farm.  Tong grows rubber and man ("mahn") trees on this farm, and Tom and his crew were clearing the weeds away from rubber trees when George arrived.

 

Tom gave me a demonstration and then handed me the hoe.

Then we prepared the ground for new rubber trees.

Yot planted them.

 

Pailin is holding the colorful ribbons that she used to tie the new trees to poles for support.

Tom found an old log with a colony of mushrooms.

Tom showed me the man trees.

Tong pulled up one tree to show me the roots -- "potatoes."

Tong and Tom showed me a tree on Tong's property in which honey bees had established a hive in a branch -- I'd never heard of trees as bee hives before.  Yot was going to smoke the bees out, saw off the branch, and get the honey -- he did that later in the week and I missed the sight.

We visited some of Tom's friends on the way back to his house.  This cute little boy is showing me a baby chick.

We drove by Tom's rice fields that we had seeded 8 days earlier.

This is a picture of a seeded field (foreground) and in the background, one awaiting transplant of the 3-week old rice plants.

I love this scene.  It looks like a lovely place to spend a peaceful afternoon.

This is the field where I'd helped throw the rice seed;  Tom called it "Tom & George's rice."  Those are our shadows over the field.

We visited with some of Tom's neighbors; these are Yaituat and Peng.

Some buffalo walked by.

It was a great day!

On June 1, it had been 3 weeks since we had seeded Tom's fields and now it was time to replant the young rice plants to give them more room to grow.  As I was walking toward the fields where the work was going on, I surprised this buffalo, who jumped up from her rest in the mud.

Tom had hired some 20 people to help with the work.  The first step is to pull up the 3-week-old plants from the starter field.

Bunches of those plants are then placed in the field into which they will be transplanted.

 

And then the workers push the young plants, one by one, down into the mud.

Tom taught me to hold the plant by its roots between my thumb and index finger to protect the roots as you push the plant into the mud.

Tom seemed pleased with the result of his instruction.

This farang was a real curiosity to Tom's workers, who were much more limber and adept than I.  At one point, I heard laughter and commotion as I found myself almost stepping on plants behind me that they had recently placed in the mud as I worked much more slowly than they.  I started looking behind me before I took a step back from that point on.

Tom taught me how to plow a field on May 10, but the objective that day was simply to smooth the mud out before we scattered the seed.  On June 1, we were turning the soil over in a field before the young plants would be transplanted there.  This time the tractor was pulling a  large screw that dug into the soil to turn it over. Tom showed me how to turn the plow at the corners and push it down or lift it up depending on the depth of the mud.

I don't remember the last time I sunk my feet into mud, but it felt good.  I was reminded of a mud party Riley and Bud went to as young children at our friends, the Solomons.  I think they really enjoyed it.

Thanks, Kru Tong, for getting the pictures of me playing the part of a farmer that day.

Runee and Pailin fixed lunch in the shelter.

 

The workers got a rest in the shade while they waited for lunch.

This is Paw Mai, who lives  next to Tom's rice fields and also did some plowing that day.  He also caught a few catfish with his hands in the rice field.

Tom also caught a few catfish as he was plowing.  The fish were jumpin'!

Some beautiful, hard-working ladies.  The first picture is of Mae Po, the Mother of Yot.

Some handsome, hard-working young men.

And some happy children.

This was the view at the end of the day of one of those fields with newly transplanted rice plants.

These plants grow for two more months and then it's harvest time.  That is just about when Mary and I leave Isaan on our way back to the USA.  I don't know how that's going to work out, but I hope somehow I'll get some pictures of the harvest.  Watch this space.