Snapshot of Service is an ongoing series dedicated to showcasing the reality of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand. Featuring the small moments, captured in a single image or a series of photos, that may make up the routine and mundane in our daily lives, but are also the essence of what it means to serve.
Lilly Hromadka, 135 TESS
I am one of 25 teachers at a school of 250 students (kindergarten to 9th grade) in Bueng Kan province, a very rural area of Northeast Thailand close to the border with Laos.
While every school starts term off differently, I wanted to share a little bit about what the first day looks like at mine! I hopped around to my younger primary classrooms, first through third grade, and ended by visiting with the secondary students, who I don’t teach.
Our school started at 8 AM(ish) on May 16th, a dreary Friday. When it’s raining, or threatening to rain, the students line up in front of their homeroom classrooms for morning assembly. I stood with my fourth through sixth graders, facing the flag pole for the national anthem and morning prayer.
As first period officially begins at 8:30, students introduce themselves to their classmates and new homeroom teachers, even though they usually all know each other.
Afterwards, teachers and students work together to decide on and assign classroom duties, set classroom rules, and discuss expectations for the year.
Next up was supply distribution. Every student is provided a new notebook for each subject they study, while the classroom gets a new supply of pencils, colored pencils, and rulers. As Thai schools require uniforms, families have the opportunity to order new ones each school year, embroidered with the students’ name.
Throughout the morning, the Assistant Director (aka the Assistant Principal) was walking around to all of the classes, saying hello and welcome back, and encouraging the students to behave and study hard this year.
Finally, the students review Thai language so the teachers can gauge where they are. They write their name and the subject in every new notebook, copy down a poem they recite at morning assembly every day (writing what they hear), and complete a worksheet that is then given to the Thai Language teachers. My students often do not speak Thai in the home, and instead use the Isaan (Northeast) dialect, which is a combination of Thai and Laos. They have been out of practice for over a month, so these exercises take some time!
Right before lunch was served at 11:30, the secondary students gathered with their homeroom teachers to take a group photo.
Since the school schedules haven’t been finalized yet, the afternoon was designated as free time. Once teachers had finished their administrative and organizational tasks, the younger students watched movies and colored in their classrooms while the older students helped clean around the school. The jury is still out about whether or not we’ll be teaching Monday, but no one is complaining!
Sticky Rice 
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