Waikru

Waikru is a festival that occurs all throughout Thailand, once every year. It is an incredibly thoughtful day in which students celebrate, thank and worship their current and past teachers. Even teachers give thanks and celebrate their past teachers from many years ago. It was an amazing experience to both witness and be a part of. The whole day was very moving, and was full of smiles and tears. Tears, that is, of joy and memories, of giving thanks and celebration, and of the past and Thailand's future.

The morning opened with the usual assembly, but took place on the actual field. Jacqueline, Howard and I performed, as usual on Thursdays, but this time we did a skit on different ways to respond to "How are you?" We are tired of hearing the monotonous, homogenous response of "I an fine, thank you, and you?" So, Jacqueline was the Emcee, and Howard and I acted as students, with backpacks, entering a classroom. We gave different example responses, such as "Awesome!", "Fantastic!", "I'm hot!", "I'm tired!", "I'm bored!"... etc. We informed them that for the rest of the day, we did not want to hear the traditional response of "Fine", and it seemed to work, as most students used different responses throughout the day.

Waikru took up the first 3 periods of the day, and occurred in different buildings, depending on the grade level. I went to my Mattayom 1's Waikru. Amazing! All the students lined up in their sections, and by student number. Despite some chair confusion in the beginning, I was quite impressed by how well and how quickly the students got organized. An older, female student (probably an M-6) led the beginning introduction, for which I have no idea what was said. Then about 10-15 teachers, including myself, sat up front on chairs. Students came up to us one-by-one on their knees and bowed to us, giving thanks and giving us these amazing floral arrangments. Each student has spent the last couple of days working on these arrangements, for which some won prizes for the best design. For these, you must just look at the photos.

After a few rows had gone, we switched out with another group of teachers, for which the procession continued with the other M-1 sections. Because I am the special foreign teacher, they put me on twice! So, I ended up with a huge pile of flower necklaces and arrangements, draped in the smell of jasmine. Many of the teachers touched the students' heads and whispered encouraging words, which often brought tears to the eyes of the students. The ceremony closed with a long-winded speech from one of the four vice-directors. I asked one of the Thai teachers what he was saying... and she said something to the effect of "... as Thailand's future, they must study hard and listen..."

Even though the formal part of Waikru had ended, the festival actually continued throughout the entire day. I have four classes on Thursdays, two back-to-back right in the beginning (which of course were cancelled due to Waikru), and then two back-to-back the last two periods of the day. And, my second to last class, where I am supposed to be teaching M1/10 was cancelled because all of Mattayom 1 goes to the temple after the initial ceremony. By the way, this means that my M1/10 class is now two weeks behind, because their class was cancelled last week due to Cleaning Day! Again, we were heavily forewarned about this during orientation, so I just have to go with the flow.

In any event, I had the whole afternoon off to witness this amazingly moving day. Throughout the school grounds, in classrooms, in building hallways and in our office, students came both individually and in large groups to kneel down at the feet of their current and past teachers. Students were embraced by the teachers one-by-one, and shuffled away in tears (and smiles). Even teachers were giving thanks and worshipping their old teachers. One of the older Thai English teachers in our office was headed, after school, to go see one of her teachers from decades ago! Many former students, who had graduated and/or gone off to technical college, came back today to celebrate their former teachers at Sri Racha school. Younger teachers (specifically, Bee) in our own office were embracing and kneeling at the feet of the older teachers, whom had taught them in the past. After the embrace and kinds words, Bee sat at her desk in tears, but with a smile.

Other than my above attempt at describing Waikru and the photo album, it is impossible to capture the true emotions and feelings that this day conjured up in every Thai citizen. And having been a part of this truly incredible day, I am sad and sorry that America does not have anything like it (other than our obscure "Teacher's Day").

The head of the Department of Business, whose nickname is Ood, and a teacher from Home Ec. took Jacqueline, Howard and I to Bangpra for Lunch. Bangpra is a fishing 'suburb' of Sri Racha, about 10 kilometers from the school. Ood and the other teacher (whose nickname I forget) always sit with us at Lunch in the cafeteria, and really enjoy speaking with us... as her English is so-so, but gets better each day. They took us to this amazing, fresh seafood restaurant on the beach in Bangpra! Afterwards, they drove us up one of the mountains a bit to view the lake/ damn/ reservoir (we're not sure which). We had all seen signs for this supposed lake throughout Sri Racha... billboards that advertise property on the lakefront, in which a white/ western family is portrayed having a picnic by the lake. So, it was interesting to finally see what all these billboards were about, and it was much larger than I had imagined. There were kayaks and canoes for rent, as well as a lot of fishing.

When we arrived back at the school, Ood took us on a mini-tour of her classroom, which is one of many in a part of the school that I had never even known was there! She showed us photos of her and a man from Germany, informing us that they "lay together"!! Hahaaa...

Last period (2:50 - 3:40 pm) finally rolled around. It was my M4/3 class - full of attentive, fun, well-behaved, eager and smart students. Although, of course, due to Waikru, almost half of them were missing. But we did Family Tree presentations today, so it worked out that half the class was gone, as they can just present next week. Plus, due to Cleaning Day last Thursday afternoon, this class is already one week behind all my other M-4s.

Please see the photos both below and in the album -- it is my sad attempt to capture this amazing day full of emotion, and really a celebration of education in life, of growing up; a day of acknowledging life and all that one has learned, and paying respect to all teachers, in any manner, on one's life path.

Getting Ready for Morning Assembly: Cleaning the Field of Excess Grass?

Kick (M1/1), one of my favorite students!

Some of my M1 boys... so cute!

So perfectly organized! This is M1's Waikru Ceremony

Some more of my M1 students!

Mrs. Ood keeping them in line

Me with the M1 winner!

Some winning designs...

H, J and I with some of the Foreign Language Dept. Teachers

L to R: Piow, PiBen, Madam (Thai English Teachers)

Where we ate Lunch in Banpra with Ms. Ood

Notice the dramatic tide out again...