Thailand Trip (Day 21)

Day 21:
Today was our last day of class at Ao Luk elementary school :(. We agreed to have a special class for all of the third grade classes which consisted of 100+ students. It was quite the event. Pi Rai helped us assemble the 100 students outside of the school and they were all excited and cheerful to see us. Pi Rai translated one of the student's question which was "Why are your eyes blue?" I said, "because my fathers eyes are blue." Pi Rai translated this to Thai and all the students clapped. We started class with a game of "Simon says" which went really well. The kids actually got the hang of it easily and began enjoying calling out each other as they made mistakes. I gave the student who won the game a box of markers that I had brought from the States and she was thrilled. After the game we proceeded to teach the kids the "hokey poky." Then the students told us that they wanted to sing "head, shoulders, knees, and toes." The funny thing about this is that we didn't actually know it. Instead, we had several of the students come to the front and lead the class. At the end of 50 minutes (originally scheduled for 15) we ended class and were barraged by students who gave us gum, hugs, handshakes, and even tried to climb us. Exhausted we headed to the base for lunch. In the afternoon we had our last class, forth grade, and practiced higher numbers through games that we had taught last week. The students were grateful once again and it was sad to leave at the end of the day. In the evening GIV had a huge party with music, Thai food, and a giant tent. All of the teachers and all of the students from the evening classes were invited. It was awesome to see so many people from the community there. I had a great time taking to Kitti, a plantation owner about business and the world. I also talked to Nong and he gave me a Thai name "Mak" which sounds a bit like Matt. He told me that it means cloud, which symbolizes freedom. He also told my favorite quote so far in Thailand: "the crazy people, they make the beautiful world." It was an amazing party.