Saiba di

I am about to have an anxiety attack because this computer is being so frustrating!!! I have downloaded all of my photos onto a disk and therefore should be able to upload them onto this here blog, but to no avail. I may have to download them onto my facebook account and post the links here... Another day of teaching at the SOS school here in Luang Prabang. Apparently SOS Children's Village is a worldwide organization created to support orphans and troubled children all over the world. (There is one in Greece that I will look into and see if they need an English teacher, though I'm fairly positive it will be located on the mainland which is not as appealing to me as the islands...) I had a younger class today than yesterday and the head master asked me to teach my own class because I was so successful yesterday! The rest of the group worked together in another classroom of older children. I had a wonderful time with the children and they are all so sweet and smart. They have the most incredible manners and bow to you and greet you with "saiba di" whenever you pass them by. If they walk past you, they lower their heads as a sign of respect. I don't think that teachers around here ever do anything silly because the children were unbelievably amused when I made animal faces and noises during my animal lesson. Today, the children learned animals, colors, body parts, opposites, the head and shoulders song and the itsy-bitsy spider. One of the school's English teachers (none of them can actually speak English) came into the classroom to observe at the end of the day and I was trying to get the students to read the lyrics of the itsy-bitsy spider off of the board for me. The children were perfectly capable of learning how to read by themselves, but the teacher answered every single one of my questions before the children got a chance! It was very frustrating. I think he was just as excited to practice his English as the children were. I have decided that I never want an assistant teacher because they are nothing but a pain in the ass and a distraction to my lessons. I am on my own for the rest of the day and will probably grab a quick supper and do another quick sweep at the night market. Last night was quite successful. You will be amazed at the amount of Laotian crafts that I will bring home! I am perfectly content to have the evening to myself because dinner normally consists of the couple (Audrey is french, Christopher is from New Zealand) and the journalist competing over who has been on the most exotic trips. I appreciate Amar (the journalist) for his dry, British sense of humor, but he could easily help steer the conversation away from business to something a bit more entertaining if he wished. Fortunately, there is enough all around me to keep me more than entertained and I'm fairly positive that I'm having a lot more fun than any of them! I'm not sure when I'll be able to write next because we head north tomorrow to a more obscure part of Laos. After that I return to Thailand for a homestay and then a dive trip--neither of which will provide internet access. I'll write again as soon as possible and hopefully provide a link to my photos soon. Love to all!