Cooling Rain in Isaan Thailand.

Today is Isaan Thailand it was cloudy and eventually wet. It has been hot lately, very humid and for days it has looked like we were going to have a storm but didn’t eventuate.

The rain came early today, usually the storms roll in late afternoon but today the lightning flashed and thunder roared just before 3pm. The skies open and the temperature dropped to a very comfortable level.

When it does rain here, it usually comes down raining cats and dogs. It reminds me of living in North Queensland where it is very tropical and when it rained it came down in bucket loads.

My lovely white rabbit Cola got a little scared with the thunder as it was shaking the house and rattling the windows. He will usually hide under the bed, couch or behind his cage.

Now like always, you wash the car or do the washing and this usually brings rain. Miss Noot had done some washing so she had to hang it out inside. We put the electric fan on and it takes a few hours for it to dry. We don’t have a drier. I don’t know anyone who has one actually. Noot isn’t holding one of her dresses; it is our niece’s dress, Nong Ja’s.

Outside my window I can hear the sound of water as there are two 44 gallon drums that collect rainwater from off the roof next door. These filled up very quickly. This water is used for the plants in the garden.

The rain came down heavily for a short time but still enough to flood our street. Our street is the lowest in the area and all the rain from other streets then runs off into ours.

The water was about to my ankles, in the four years I have lived here, two times I have been flooded in. I couldn’t get the motorbikes out or the car as the water was too high. The water was halfway up my thighs. There are people out netting fish in the streets as they come out of all the drains about the place. I wouldn’t touch a fish from these drains as they are putrid, full of so many contaminants.

The water is always filthy and Miss Noot tells me off, when I go off walking through it. I tell her you need to live life on the edge sometimes.

So today I couldn’t go to the park and exercise, I had been a little lazy of late. My weight is 95.9 kgs. I have two weeks to get to my goal weight which was 87 kgs I set a long time ago when I was 105.3 kgs. I don’t think I will make my goal on time but will be a few weeks late.

I have been able to do some work, getting ready for school in a few weeks. I am really looking forward to getting back to work, of course! I have been to the school the last two days hoping to catch the Thai teachers, who I thought should be back at work by now. There were some teachers about the place but none from my section. This is looking like a ghost town.

A teacher just informed us late last week, he is also leaving as he has found a new position. I want his desk as it is in what I consider a nicer area of the office and I will be able to utilize the space better than where I am now.

So far the teacher hasn’t been in to clear his desk. He has personal stuff still scattered about the place. I want to get things set up, the new shelves I bought put in place and start filling them with my books and other crap I have.

I have bought a printer, my own personal one. The school does have a printer but it can only be accessed by one of the 12 computers. The printer problem has been ongoing for months and months. The computer technician comes and fixes the problem so we can maybe print from 5 or 6 computers if we are lucky, then a day later we are back down to one printer again.

So if a person is working on the one computer you need to access to print from, it can be a pain having to wait, ask them to move for a minute as you need to print something from your handy drive.

For a few thousand Baht I will not have any headaches now, I will place a sign saying “Please do not ask to use MY printer as I do not want to offend you by saying, NO” This might be considered greedy but I don’t mind if people think this. I consider it as looking after number 1, being me. I had an ink stack placed on it so it is easy to refill and also cheap to print.

We have had a long break now, about 6 weeks but when I went to the school the other day our computer room is still a shambles and most computers aren’t working, and guess what; you can still only print from the one computer.

This doesn’t surprise me after being at the school for so long now. Last year at times when the internet was down or the printer wouldn’t work and I was told “We have rang the computer technician yesterday and they haven’t been.

So I would walk the 400 metres to their office and then ask them what was going on. I have stopped being so Thai and just ‘never minding’ everything. Now I do mind and ask for things to be fixed ASAP. Most the time I try and be polite as I possibly can, to not cause what Thais see as a “loss of face.” This can be hard at times.

I know there will be plenty of testing times, there always is in a Thai school. Thankfully with the 4 years of experience now I let almost nothing get to me. I remember the first year, even two years nearly being in a rage at times over things. Now I just go with the flow. You cannot change the Thai system I am sure of that.

The new school year is going to bring new experiences for me, all the new teachers. Getting to know them and maybe offer them some advice if asked, tell them where things are. In all the years I have been asked for advice only a few times.

I am not that outgoing, when I was younger I was of course. I loved going out and drinking and so forth. Now I am a boring old guy and am happy to be at home. I hardly ever drink but we do on occasions venture out to nights with other teachers.
Many times though we decline the offer, this doesn’t always go done well with others but my nose doesn’t go out of shape. Thais cannot say “no” to anything. So if someone senior is having a party or they invite you somewhere, it is like ‘you must go’, not me I just simply say “sorry I cannot make it.”

My night clubbing days are over; every Friday afternoon drinks are over. If this alienates me from the others as the boring guy, then so be it. I am more than happy to be that boring guy.

So sadly now I am counting the days down to when I start work again. I will of course be documenting to good and bad things that happen when teaching and also all the activities that take place throughout the year.

Brunty.