Thursday, September 02, 2004

Terminally Ill Thursday

Ok, not quite but since the start of the rainy season is seems that the coughs and splutters are almost a permanent part of my life here.

I get rid of one and a few days later another one starts. Whether its because of the relative cool temperature I am not sure sure - after all 24 degrees would be a nice balmy day back home. Its is the difference in temperature between day and night ? Maybe. Is is the Bangkok pollution lowering my resistance to everything? Maybe Is it because i am around kids who do the usual kids stuff with their hands and dont wash? Maybe. But whatever it is, its a complete nightmare. I started taking these multi vitamin pills about 2 months ago and they dont seem to be making much of a difference - so there goes the vitamin theories. It seems fated that I get a cough about Tuesday/Wednesday just in enough time for the weekend. Its actually meant I have totally stayed in the flat about 4/5 weekends in the last 6 months. In one way, I suppose its quite good as its meant I actually saved a bit of money but its been BORING!

Just saw the first accident in the school for quite a while - how there arent more of them I will never know. Its the usual story, two small kids running full pelt all over the palce then WHAP!! round a corner and into each other. In a way it was actually quite funny as the smaller of the two actually did a cartoon bounce off the other one back onto the floor. Of course it wasnt funny for the kids as they mainly got a big shock and after a telling off for running the big one walked away. The smaller one was crying a bit as he seemed to bite his lip a bit in the collision but was ok after a few minutes.

The day itself as was yesterday was just a complete and total fucking nightmare. I have been trying to help the kids for the exams by giving them mock listening tests - they are bad at everythign but especially so in listening and the frustration levels have just boiled over for me. The ironic thing is that they will not listen to the instructions for the test so they dont know what to do when I start dictating. Its not rocket science english - its what colour is her hair, is Tom dancing, what is her name and so on from a very short paragraph. In one class of 17 kids I had 4 actually write something down. The others just sort of looked around or talked or the usual bs they do. Then they look surprised when I started giving the answers as if to say "when was the test?"

I predict out of 60 kids in my P2s around 10% will get 0%. Very, very sad but true.

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