A message from a monk

I gave out my email address to a few of the monks on our last day in Ban Phe, and one of them sent me this email (the subject line was “i am sumit”):

hi
how r u ?i am sumit.i feel happy when u come this school because i speak english.i miss [...]

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Ban Phe

Sunset in Ban Phe. How artsy is that?
If you want to picture Ban Phe, just multiply this by about 10,000. The entire city is basically a giant fish market, with a few flower shops and assorted market stalls thrown in. Aside from the internet cafes, the occasional 7-Eleven, and a few restaurants down by the [...]

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Our local convenience store

This is our favorite convenience store here in Ban Phe. It’s right at the end of our driveway at the Condo Chain. The woman who owns it clearly makes at least 95 percent of her livelihood from TEFL groups, as does the woman who owns a similar little shop on the other side of our [...]

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More of the monks

Apparently my lesson wasn’t very exciting that day. I didn’t realize one of my students was dozing off until the lesson was over and a friend showed me this picture.
That’s Tom (one of my fellow TEFLers) with a group of monks outside the school building. I didn’t know what they were laughing about at the [...]

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Teaching the monks

I’m not sure how many sports writers from Bethesda can say they’ve spent a week teaching monks in Thailand, but let’s add another name to the list.
I have now taught four full English lessons to the monks-in-training at the Temple School in Ban Phe, Thailand and I can honestly say that I’m getting the hang [...]

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