Clinic visits in Thailand

Any building with a green or red cross will be able
to provide basic medical and pharmaceutical care
Photo from Nana Thai Herb

Some of our coworkers have an ongoing joke that Thailand hates us, because Emiliya and I rarely go a week without one of us being injured or sick. The environment here is definitely giving us a run for our money, and at the very least the constant change of 90 degree weather to an air-conditioned room is always giving us colds. This week I've been presented with a new challenge following an inevitable motorbike crash that I had last week. There's chatter in the expat community which says you're not a true expat in Asia until you get hurt from a motorbike, because with more bikes than cars on the road it's just bound to happen at some point. Emiliya has her motorcycle license so in the past she's always been trusted as our chauffeur whenever we rent a bike on the islands or in Chiang Mai, but last week I attempted to prove myself capable, which resulted in my lasting about 2 minutes before crashing into the sidewalk. Overall I walked away relatively unharmed, and thankfully there was a Thai guy who stopped nearby and drove me back to Emiliya so I wouldn't do any more damage. Lesson learned: I'm going to stay away from motorbikes for now. Unfortunately my immune system isn't up to par with Thailand, and the wound on my foot quickly got infected giving me a rather painful and swollen foot, thus resulting in another adventure with healthcare in Thailand.
As I've previously mentioned, there are countless clinics throughout Thailand which seem to be helpful with ailments anywhere from the flu to infections, and it's the first place we head whenever we're having health issues. Unfortunately we've become somewhat of regulars at our local clinic, as we've visited in the past for bad cases of food poisoning, tooth infections, stomach problems and now my foot. I've been pleasantly surprised by healthcare in Thailand, and this most recent visit was no exception. The nurses speak minimal English, but the doctor himself probably has a better vocabulary than myself. He quickly informed me that the wound on my foot was infected, and assured me that I would receive a good cleaning and some meds to help me get back on my feet (pun intended). He sent me to another room to get care from a nurse, but he popped in every few minutes between other patients to help translate and make sure that I understood what was going on. He was also extremely patient with me while I looked up my medical history online with Cleveland Clinic (thank goodness for MyChart) and urged me to get a tetanus shot because my most recent was almost ten years ago. I was also informed that I could come back each day to get a proper cleaning and redressing of my foot, which is awesome and something I will definitely take them up on.
Overall I got an exam, wound dressing, topical ointment, a tetanus shot and 7 days of antibiotics for about $25, which in the end will be reimbursed by my Thai health insurance. I believe that if I go back in the future for redressing that won't be covered by insurance, but it shouldn't cost more than $3-4 each time. Of course following true Thai disarray, when checking out the nurse told me to take the antibiotics twice a day. Later while at a nearby coffee shop I noticed that although the package has a number two on it, there's also a number four mixed in among the Thai letters. Fortunately we've made friends with the barista at this coffee shop and I went up to her for some clarification. In almost perfect English she informed me I have to take two pills, four times a day. Leave it to the cafe worker to outshine the nurse! With just about 6 weeks left in Asia I'm hoping this will be the last of any health issues, but it's also good to know that minus a few translation issues, the clinics have yet to fail us!

Last weeks of school

I was really just hoping for
a yes or no answer.. 

The normal structure of Thai culture often prevents me from really knowing what's going on, and as a result I've been pretty lost and confused at school these last few weeks. I was aware that there would be a lot of testing the second week of March, and beyond that I wasn't so sure if I would continue teaching each day. There would be days I would show up to school and ask a teacher if I would be teaching only to be given some vague answer such as "oh maybe, I don't know. Perhaps the teacher told students not to come today." What!? So I spent each day showing up to my assigned classroom, usually just to play games with the handful of students that showed up to school. It seems that the last day for students was up to the teacher, so there was no official last day for any of my kids. Meanwhile, the ones who have working parents are still showing up to school, even though lessons have been finished for days. This has kind of been a bummer because I never really got to say goodbye to my students, because I was never aware when the last day was.

some of the kindergarteners on graduation day (with faces full of makeup) 

However, last week we got one last hoopla with all of the teachers and a handful of students. Our school put on a graduation ceremony for the oldest students who are done with school (Emiliya's students), and for the kindergarteners who are moving up to the first grade. It was an adorable day of the little ones performing Thai dance and showing off a lot of Thai tradition. It's common practice for the teachers to tie white bracelets onto the wrists of the graduating students, wishing them good luck in their future. So after each kid walked across the stage and received their diploma they then lined up around the teachers to receive a wrist full of bracelets. It was a really fun tradition, and one of the Thai teachers taught us a few Thai phrases to bestow upon the students, like how to wish them happiness and adventure. So although I didn't formally say goodbye to my older students, I still got a last day and a lot of photos with my kindergarteners.

Giving bracelets to each of the graduating kids 

Tiny Thai dancers! 

Although the students are gone the teachers are working through the end of March, so Emiliya and I are expected to be working as well, even though we have no papers to grade or students to teach. As a result we're spending the last two weeks of the month sitting in the teacher's lounge for seven hours each day. It's definitely easy money, and is giving us ample time to plan all of our travel adventures that we're starting at the end of the month, but I would much rather be off doing something exciting as opposed to sitting at my desk each day. 

Some of my travel plans for the next two months

It's crazy how quickly these five months have flown by and it's so nice to see how far I've come since my first day at school. It took a while but I finally gained control over my classrooms and formed friendships with a lot of my students. For quite a while I was toying with staying for another term, but currently going home outweighs the pros of staying in Thailand. I'm falling harder for this country more and more each passing week, but I'm just not in love with the lifestyle I have here. In my small town I eat from the same market each day and am finding it increasingly difficult to have some variety in my food but still stay a vegetarian. On top of that, last week our fruit lady stopped showing up to the market so now we have no easy access to any fresh fruit, which was one of our daily staples. I'm eager to get out of this hot and humid climate and I look forward to spending a day outside instead of always running for the AC or waiting for the sun to go down. I've grown to love teaching a lot more than I was expecting to and am definitely not ruling it out as a future option.
Next week my dad, step mom and step brother are coming to Thailand and they're helping me kick off six weeks of travel. I'll be showing them around Bangkok and Chiang Mai and the adventures will continue from there. I'm also excited for the arrival of my sister who's bringing along her friend and boyfriend, and together we'll be exploring some of the islands in the south of Thailand. From there I'll be traveling south through Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. I don't have the time or money to accomplish everything on my bucket list, but I'm definitely excited to get started on some Southeast Asia adventures!

Special education in Thailand

The treatment and education of special needs students in Thailand is something that has startled me from day one, and it's a concept that I'm still having a hard time understanding. In my school of 1,000 students we have somewhere around 10 kids who should be diagnosed on the autism spectrum, and far more beyond that who have some sort of mild learning disability or behavioral issues, and all of these children go relatively unnoticed with little attention or care from the school. From what I can tell, Thai people as a whole appear to be grossly uneducated on the subject of special education. We have students who are clearly autistic or have some sort of behavioral issues, but in the eyes of Thai people these children are all labeled as "abnormal". There is no category beyond that, you're either normal or abnormal. Out of the 500 students I teach each week I have a few with obvious cognitive impairments and even more with mild to severe learning disabilities. I have a kindergartener who continuously hits himself and myself over the head, and another that sits in the corner for the entire hour I'm there. I have a second grader who is clearly autistic but he has no extra supervision or help, instead while I'm teaching he's either holding my hand, hitting kids, or laying in the middle of the floor. I teach numerous kids who still can't read or write in Thai or English, but are otherwise brilliant. Emiliya teaches one boy who stands out among our 1,000 students as one of the best English speakers, so she was startled to find he can't properly recognize a single English letter. After watching my mom dedicate the later half of my life to teaching and helping special needs and learning impaired children it was so heartbreaking for me to land at this school where countless children need so much more help and attention than they're getting.

Making fortune tellers with my first graders

The school year is wrapping up and the kids are going through vigorous testing to determine if they are qualified to move on to the next grade, and I've been watching the children with developmental delays with special interest. I recently learned that some of the more severe children have parents who take them to the doctor to get a signed note, which gives them leeway in school. I'm not sure what exactly the notes say, as all of these kids are still labeled as abnormal, with or without a note. The children with doctor's notes, such as my autistic second grader, are essentially given a free pass throughout school. They don't have to sit their exams and will automatically move on to the next grade. This explains the majority of the illiterate kids, I'm assuming they have a diagnosable issue that prevents them from reading, but they are still allowed to move up in school. However, kids without notes are held to the same standards as their peers; they're expected to sit their exams and will not move on to the next grade if they don't pass. One teacher is holding back three students this year because none of them wrote a single word on their exam. Out of these three kids I can clearly see that one boy has such strong behavioral issues he just simply has never sat down to learn. He has never participated in a single activity while I'm teaching and anytime I ask him to write something he just scribbles instead. I can't determine if he mentally can't write in English, or if he just doesn't have the patience to sit down and learn. Either way, with the lack of attention he's getting now I doubt he will progress very far.
Our school is very basic for a public school and many of our children come from low-income families. It's come to my attention that there are other public schools throughout the country that somehow have stricter regulations for students, and therefore they have no special needs children. Talking with other English teachers, Emiliya and I have learned that our school has a much higher population of "abnormal" children, and I assume that's because there are very minimal fees to join our school. I'm not sure how public schools set their standards for enrollment, but ours seems very loose.
While researching this subject, I found that since 1975 the Thai government has provided free education for disabled children, whether mentally or physically. There are specific schools throughout the country offering free enrollment for anyone that fits the criteria. So the question has to be asked; if these schools truly exist and run the way they're claiming, why are there so many neglected children at this school? I can only assume the biggest factors are the stigma of sending your kid to a school for special needs, and the location of the schools, perhaps there isn't one nearby. However, I pulled up a few of these schools and quickly realized that schools for the disabled and special needs focus much more on physical ailments as opposed to mental ones. There are countless programs for blind and deaf students but very few focusing on learning disabilities. So perhaps that's another issue at hand. It seems that the ministry of education has a general understanding of special education and are making an attempt to properly acknowledge the difference between students, but in my opinion they have a long way to go before all students in the public schools are getting proper education.

Visa run to Laos

Vientiane, Laos

Because Thailand likes to keep things complicated we've had a lot of run around when it comes to visa procedures and staying in Thailand legally. Most recently, Emiliya and I had to take a trip to the neighboring country of Laos in order to reapply for our tourist visa, allowing us another 90 days in the country. We've constantly been asking why we keep leaving the country and visiting local immigration for visa extensions when we could just get a work visa, but these decisions are up to our company so we're just going with the flow at this point. And besides, each visit to immigration gets us a day off work and we often welcome the break.                

The Mekong River, separating Thailand and Laos

Our trip to Laos took us to Vientiane, the capital and largest city of Laos. It's right on the border of Thailand and Laos, sitting just over the edge of Mekong River. Thailand is deceivingly large, so although we were just hopping the border it was still about an eight hour drive from Bangkok. We went through a visa service so overall it was a really simple trip. We handed over our money at the beginning of our journey and our driver handled all of the complicated stuff for us, which left us plenty of time to explore the city of Vientiane. I've heard from numerous people that there isn't much to Laos, especially in Vientiane, but I was determined to prove otherwise.
Our journey got off to a rocky and tired start due to the weird schedule of our van. We left Bangkok about 9pm and drove through the night, only to arrive at the Laos border at 4am. There we sat in the van for close to two hours, and then at 6 AM we had to get out of the van and line up in the street, waiting for the border to open. As soon as we saw the doors to immigration open people actually started running towards the building. It honestly felt like I was in some strange refuge movie where I was fleeing the country. Needless to say, it was intense. Anyways, the morning was filled with long lines and paperwork, both to apply for our Laos visa in order to enter, and to apply for a new Thai visa in order to get back to Thailand. By the time we finished it was the afternoon and we were running on very little sleep from the night before. Emiliya and I had a decent list of things we wanted to see in Laos, but we were tired and defeated and decided to take a nap, cutting off a lot of opportunity to see the city. 

Once we woke from our nap half the day was gone, so we decided to skip to our most eagerly awaited item on our list: french bread. During the early half the the 20th century Laos was under the control of the French colonial empire, and as a result there are still some French charms lingering throughout the city of Vientiane. We hit a cafe and had some delicious coffee and fresh bread, which we are sorely lacking in Thailand. Well rested and well fed we headed towards the city center to check out the Patuxai Arc, another French influence in the city. It was built in dedication to those who fought for independence from France, and obviously pulls a lot of influence from the Arc de Triomphe, although the detailing is more Asian than French. We paid 15฿ (about 30 cents) to climb to the top of the arc which offered stunning views of Vientiane. The atmosphere of the city center was great, because it's surrounded by busy traffic but the land itself is very calm. We enjoyed a nice Beerlao (Beer brewed in Laos) which we found to be cheaper than beer in Thailand ($1.50 compared to $2). At this point it was almost dinner time (free through the visa company), and I am not one to pass up free food so we headed back towards our hotel. If we had had a full day in the city we would have ventured to at least two other places in Vientiane, first being Pha That Luang. It's a gold covered Buddha stupa which is thought to have been built in the 3rd century. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and a national symbol for Laos. Our other stop would've been Buddha Park, which is a large plot of land home to over 200 Hindu and Buddhist statues. Beyond that, not much else up on our search for activities in Vientiane, perhaps it is a sleepy town afterall!

The next morning we treated ourselves to more coffee and bread and then headed to immigration to pick up our passports, and then it was time to head back to Thailand. 

Even though the visa company handled a lot of the paperwork and logistical stuff for us, we still spent 5-6 hours in lines at immigration within 24 hours. Legally staying in Thailand is so much more complicated than predicted and as a result I've now been to two different Thai embassies, the US embassy and various Thai immigration offices, and I have to go back to immigration next week! I still don't know how to do taxes, but I'm a pro at visa paperwork, so that has to count for something, right? 

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Logistical Info 

-The visa company charges 5550฿ and includes round trip transportation from Bangkok to Vientiane, a hotel in Vientiane, meals, assistance with paperwork, and transportation within Vientiane to all necessary locations (hotel, immigration, the border etc)

- Laos has their own currency, but in Vientiane they accepted Thai baht as payment, however they usually give you change in the Laos currency