Who Am I?

You know, it is interesting how others see you as opposed to how you see yourself. I remember when Sylvia had a procedure done at the hospital and the doctor came by in the recovery room to say good-bye and good luck and casually mentioned that the procedure was quite normal for middle aged women. Sylvia and I both looked at each other in amazement. We had never been called middle aged before and even though Sylvia is older than me, not enough to make me comfortable with the middle aged moniker.

The same thing happened when we were taking Daniel home from the hospital 10 years before that. Nurse Greenberg said to us that two of you better sit in the back seat. Sylvia and I furtively glanced at each other both wondering the same thing. Who was going to drive the car?

The same bewilderment just happened to me again. I was the star specimen at an interview at a prestigious international school and the Headmaster said he was looking for a senior manager to be part of the team. As I was sitting there, I actually wondered why on earth he invited me to come to the interview if he was looking for a senior manager? I still see myself as a first year teacher at Bayview Secondary dancing on tables in room 208 and just getting a big kick out of playing with kids. I can’t imagine myself being a senior executive or being invited to a table of four interviewers all asking my opinion on marketing, standards based education and so on. I guess what is interesting is that I had no problem answering any of their questions and pontificating on any number of educationally related topics with specific examples from my career. Now that is truly scary.

Tomorrow I am off to Mandalay to fill in for a principal. The school has over 1000 students, yet I have no trepidation that I can handle all aspects of the job from speaking with parents, speaking at the morning assembly starting Thursday or dealing with any challenges teachers or students bring to me. (it is Myanmar, no student will be bringing problems to me!). As for the parents, I will have an interpreter who, no doubt, will say whatever is appropriate no matter what I say anyway so why worry?

Near the end of May, I also got invited to meet with four board members of Mahidon university, one of the best universities in Bangkok. I guess it is part of the colonial mentality, even though Thailand was never a colony, that some old white guy with white hair has more to say that the local expert. I feel like such a sham, In Toronto, I would just be some old white guy retired teacher with nothing to say of any value. Here people with Dr. before their name actually think I have something worthwhile to talk about. It is very hard for me to get my head around this concept because in truth, I am not sure I have anything worthwhile to say about anything, especially education!

It will be a pity when I actually have to decide on a job. This job ride is quite exhilarating and I am sorry it is coming to an end. I remember when the Ontario Ombudsman came to my class at Thornlea and told us a story about working on a case for three years. When she finally phoned the complainant to tell him he had won his case after a three year battle she could not understand why he didn’t sound all that excited. I now know; he had nothing more to look forward to. Job hunting is probably a lot more fun than actually working.

Anyone know anything about second language teaching for my May interview?

'Retired' Life...Bits and Pieces!

As retired people like Michael keep telling me, it is amazing how long it can take you to do the little things once you are no longer working. For example, a few days ago I took my new computer to H-P repair service (don’t ask) and discovered a whole new Bangkok. After they spent about one second showing me how to lock the keypad so the cursor would quit jumping around I spent the rest of the day walking around a Bangkok I had not seen before. It was great seeing how the ‘real’ Bangkok operates. Instead of walking up and down Sukhumvit ( Yonge Street), I walked up and down Silom and saw the ‘Bangkok” prices for things. After eating at an outdoor stand ( the woman kept bringing me more and more food) I finally, in embarrassment, asked for the bill. It came to 32 baht ( about a dollar). When I gave her a fifty (1.50) she did not have change so I got up to leave allowing her to keep the change. She quickly ran to a neighbouring stall, borrowed money and rushed back to give me my 18 baht. She refused to take a tip.

I then passed a flower shop a few doors away and bought her 12 beautiful lotus flowers, which I find to be the most beautiful flower on earth. They are spectacular and for 50 baht why not be a big shot? I returned to give them to her and when I saw all the mouths drop at the few tables around her stall I knew I did something terribly wrong. Lotus flowers, it turns out, are only for the Buddha! She graciously took them and told me she would offer them to the Buddha the next morning to bring her good luck. (Another lesson in cross cultural understanding, or lack of it)

Another day I spent at the Myanmar Embassy. Let me explain. I am going to Mandalay in a few days to spend a few weeks as a fill in for a school principal who had to return to Singapore to attend to the funeral of her mother. The school has 1000 kids so it should be a good experience for me, but I am getting ahead of myself. You cannot get a work permit in Myanmar, so you have to go in on a business visa every month. I am going in as an educational consultant. Anyway, back to the story. I was the first guy in line at the embassy at 9 am. There was a little non descript sign up on the door which said come back at 1. Can you imagine going to the Canadian Embassy and seeing something like that? If fact, had I not been there before I never would have found this place. There are no signs, no flags, no guards in special outfits…only dull gray and drab.

Back to the story. I came back at one, somehow getting in line behind a bunch of journalists trying to get into Myanmar for the referendum on May 10. I don’t know what they were thinking trying to get a business visa as opposed to just lying and going as a tourist, but what a mistake to get behind them in line. It was amazing seeing them all turned away. Their reaction was all the same…hopelessness.

I have to go back Monday to pick up my visa so that should be fun spending the day there again. Who knows what I will see? When I did leave the embassy at 9 and went for a walk, I saw the most interesting Hindu Temple. It was so colourful and intricate. Mobs of Hindis were buying flowers and entering. As I continued to walk up the street, there was a mosque filled with men praying and the women sitting outside. Here is the amazing part. The Buddhists walked by both of these religious institutions and stopped and prayed. I saw it a dozen times. When I asked my Thai teacher about it, she said sure, the more merit you can get in this life the better!

I also saw a bunch of handsome black men walking around in Caftans. They did not enter the Mosque and they were not speaking English. For some reason, I did not get the opportunity to speak with them mostly because I did not recognize their language but who were they and what were they doing in Bangkok? The Thais are such gentle people though, it is a great place for any group to live in peace.

For example, last night the sky opened up and it poured. When I say it poured, I do not mean heavy rain, I mean it was like you were standing under someone spraying a fire hose at you. All of a sudden, it is impossible to get a cab and I needed to get to a mall on Param Sam, sorry Rama three, and it was impossible to get cab to actually stop in the rain. A Thai guy ,standing beside me, pulled me into his cab when he got one to stop and asked me where I was going. His car was parked around the corner and he was just taking the cab to his car. He insisted on driving me to the mall, about 20 minutes out of his way. I am beginning to expect this as normal Thai behaviour. Thais are just continually doing everything they can to be helpful.

It looks like it is going to rain again and I have to go for a suit fitting. I caved in and bought myself a suit where all of the American business people and diplomats go. His wall is covered with pictures from all of the celebrities he has served and the food and drinks are delicious. I know it is costing me about 100 dollars too much, but as Daniel said about his suit made in Thailand, the experience is well worth it. Hopefully, mine will fit better than his.

Floating Market

What can I tell you? The extraordinary in Thailand is becoming quite the ordinary for me. As I was in my elevator yesterday morning, going to buy the morning paper, I started to talk with my elevator partner, practicing my Thai as usual, when before you could say ‘Jackie Robinson’ I was in her car speeding down the highway heading to three temples and the famous floating market. The generosity of spirit of the Thais continues to overwhelm me. I can’t imagine this happening to me in Toronto or any other place for that matter!

What has not changed is my sense of direction. I keep looking at the sun to try to find out where we are or where we are going, but because the Chao Praya River winds it’s way around the city, you are never going in a straight east -west or north- south direction. In fact, I thought we were heading towards the east coast and it turns out just the opposite was true.

The first place we visited was an elaborate Temple or Wat (you can see the pictures on my picture site) which had wonderful frescoes on the walls and ceilings. The thing that was amazing about this Wat was the veneration for its’ dead leader who had died twenty-twenty two years earlier but was still present in his waxen image. Actually, I thought it was him a la Mao, Lenin or Ho, but it was not, even though supplicants were praying to the image. I do not quite understand the veneration of individuals in Buddhism, including the Buddha himself and my guide could not explain it to me.

We then visited a series of three homes which I was told were at least two hundred years old. They were on traditional stilts and looked exactly like the other homes I have seen in Bangkok and elsewhere… you walk up about twenty stairs to get to one level and there are about three rooms. The floors are beautiful teak, the windows are all open air and of course, there are no bathrooms or electricity.

The third Wat we visited was a rather modest structure which was being held up by the enormous tree roots surrounding the building. Daniel, there may be a use for the tree in front of your house after all! Look at the pictures to see the size of these roots. In two hundred years, the roots in front of your house might actually look like this.

By the time we actually got to the floating market, it was just before dusk. The market was huge, with hundreds of stalls scattered on both sides of the canal. The’ kanomb’ or snacks were absolutely delicious. I never had the nerve to try them before, but when someone else is ordering for you, it makes it all that much easier. I never bothered to ask what was inside and I am not sure I would want to know ( especially since I know it is Pesach. Maybe if I don’t know, it is not such a sin to be eating leavened food.)

We then took a motorized launch down the canal under the full moon ( which I guess is why the Seder was celebrated to-night). We saw twinkling fireflies on both sides of the canal. It was quite spectacular really. It was like Christmas without the snow. As we cruised slowly down the canal and around the river, it was great seeing the giant ferns, people out on their verandas of their homes doing their laundry or just sitting talking. You could actually see into their homes since all the doors and windows were totally open. I just can’t imagine this way of life in a large urban metropolis like Toronto. We are too busy playing on our computers or doing whatever. The emphasis is on the whatever. People here were just sitting in the beautiful evening weather presumably also watching the fireflies and talking with each other.

Back in the same elevator I left 12 hours earlier filled not with memories of fireflies or Thai delicacies but the kindness of the Thais people. (Did I mention I was invited into the home of a retired teacher who lived by the canal who had to show me her picture with the king?). If I was a Thai living in Toronto, would the same things happen to me as a foreigner? We both know the answer to this!

Songkran-Thai Style

Songkran is the pagan water festival here in Thailand and everyone from the little kids to the farangs seems to be having a good time. As you can see from the pictures, everyone is out of the street in full force; that is, those Thais that are still in town. The taxi drivers love it because no-one is here and they zip around like they probably did in 1960 when there were few cars. Everyone seems to go home to their province, but those remaining are out making the streets flow with water.

I just donned my raincoat and camera and was immediately plastered with talcum powder from the Japanese living in my building. By the time I got to Sukhumvit, I was drenched from the passing trucks filled with 'shooters' of water cannons or little kids on the street who saw their waiting prey.

By the time I got downtown, Nana was hopping. I came home, dried off the camera, and to-night plan to don my bathing suit and tea shirt and find out what is happening on Khao San Road. I don't know who is having a better time, the kids or the parents, and/or the Thais or the farangs.

Getting the Royal Treatment!

For those of you following my trials and tribulations, you probably I went for an interview in Myanmar this week and traveled between Yangon and Mandalay all on the company’s dime. About two weeks ago, I went for an interview in Bangkok thinking I was applying for a teaching job but they ultimately ended up offering me a job as superintendent for their 10 schools in three different countries and director of institutional development. Needless to say, they were impressed with my answers. They flew me to Yangon to meet the managing director (known as MD) and I gave a few workshops to 20 of their staff in Yangon and about 30 in Mandalay. The rest of the time I was visiting their schools, talking with various office staff and eating one meal after another with MD. I learned a lot about Buddhism and he probably learned a little about Judaism. We spent a lot of time talking about basic human characteristics and virtues.

Going for an interview for an executive job, I have discovered, is a little more intense than I am used to. I am now typing at 4 am because I am finally just settling down. I have been in intensive discussions, observations and air flights for two solid days at the moment and looking forward to two more. The first day I flew to Yangon at 8 am, met with MD for three hours, then had lunch with him and his chief executive. In the afternoon, I went with his driver and personal assistant to visit his 4 schools in Yangon and sit in on classes, speak with the managers and have discussions about the nature of education in his ‘centres’. Yesterday morning I presented a 4 hour workshop to all of his teachers and managers in Yangon about how to use the Singapore curriculum they are using, then lunch and a quick flight to Mandalay to see his large comprehensive international school of 1000 students. It turns out that part of my portfolio may be to run this school for a few months while the present principal is off to visit her sick mother in Singapore. Other parts of the job are to be the director of institutional development which is to oversee schools in Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar and possibly Thailand, and look for other business opportunities. Is is edupreneurship, as he calls it, at its best.

Now, about Yangon. I certainly have not seen much of it, but my first impressions when I came in from the airport is how much I appreciate Thailand. Every time I leave and I get to see other countries, I appreciate how rich a country Thailand is. For example, the cars in Myanmar are literally all old. It appears as if it is impossible to import a new car. The men wear a long skirt called a Longyi, not just the doormen at a fancy hotel as in Bangkok. The women are all wearing some sap from a tree on their faces in huge round gobs which apparently acts as a cooling effect and moisturizer.

The tourism infrastructure is obviously lacking, as the electricity apparently goes off at least five times a day, the buses are squelching black fumes and the passengers inside are filled to the raptors literally sticking out of the windows and doors. Mandalay is very similar. In Mandalay, I saw farmers actually moving down the road with their oxen and wheelbarrows, people cycling by the thousands and farmers tilling the land as they have been doing for millennium. From my short view of the last Myanmar’s king’s palace, it is extraordinary. It is huge, surrounded by a river and everyone is now preparing for the water festival or New Year next week. Viewing stands are going up along the river bank and cars will be going by with everyone spraying water on each other. A kid’s dream!

Myanmar seems rather scary in a sense. There is censorship of telephone calls and Internet, articles are cut out of foreign papers that have anything to do with Myanmar, electricity goes off about five times a day, the transportation system is archaic and it is very difficult to travel anywhere. You also need wads of cash because there are no money machines anywhere and you can only use cash for everything, but the bills have to be new. They will not accept old looking money. Since I did not bring any money and there are no atms’s MD handed me a wad of 100,000 whatever the currency here is called, but I have not had a chance to use it yet since I have been with him full time for the last two days.

I think I will try to go back to sleep now but can’t turn off my brain.

Chaing Rai-The Golden Triangle and Cultural Tourism

The big attraction in this area are the hill tribes, the Long Neck Karen Tribe, the Palong with the big earrings and the Akka tribe with their interesting head gear often seen for sale 0n tourist Khao San Road in Bangkok As we drove in to the tribal area, there was a big road sign that said, hill tribes… this way( in Thai, of course). My first feeling was that this was a zoo and my last feeling was, what have we done in the name of tourism? If we did not visit these tribes and spend our money to enter as well as buy their goods, would they survive?

Of course, the answer is yes, since they have been surviving for hundreds of years without us. However, would they have their television sets, cell phones and other modern gadgets? I almost felt that I was entering a movie set with all of the ‘players’ playing their roles. As you can see from the pictures, they are in their huts (homes) cooking, weaving, and creating tourist ‘stuff’ and in the common areas, as soon as there is even a whiff of a tourist they beat their drums, do their dance or pound their bamboo sticks. When we tourists leave at 6 pm, I can almost imagine them packing their nightclothes and off they go to the modern village down the street where they live with running water, indoor plumbing and TV as opposed to a bedroll, a picture of the king, and a pot in their village home. However, I know this is not the case.

If we weren’t there, would they be in a modern village home? Would their children be going to school in the village with ordinary dress? Would they be better off? Are we, as tourists, perpetuating these historical practices whichm to the modern world, make no sense? Are we helping them or holding them back? Needless to say, I think we are probably doing a bad thing. On the other hand, who am I to say that wearing a 5 pound ring of chains around your neck and knees is a bad thing?

Of course, I wonder about the same thing when I go to Burma tomorrow. Do I want to support a corrupt regime with my tourist dollars (or more precisely my Singapores’ company’s dollars ) or go anyway and ensure that some my tourist dollars go towards supporting a few Burmese, however modest it may be?

Now, I know, by the way, why this area I visited is called the ‘golden triangle.’ From a vantage point in a restaurant high above the confluence of two rivers, you could see Burma to the north and Laos to the east across the Mekong River. We had just come down from a bustling border town, Mae Sai, in the north where people seemed to be going freely in and out of Burma as you can see from the pictures. I actually like the town quite a bit. It had a jostling feel to it with a very active market. We did not go into Myanmar actually but I later read it had a few casinos. Again, in retrospect, I wonder what we are doing for the Burmese people as the Thais cross the border to gamble. (Remember, gambling is illegal in Thailand) The same thing in Laos. We decided not to take the boat over to Laos because they had a casino and, what else, another market.

We drove through many dusty villages with not much in the way of modern amenities, but up in the hills we could see many fine looking homes, obviously of the war lords or drug dealers who do not seem to be suffering. As an amazing coincidence, Sylvia left a book behind called the Burma Effect which I am reading now. Don’t know where the book came from( I presume Alana) but isn’t it amazing that I just happened to find it and I am within minutes of Burma now and will be going in tomorrow. What a strange world.

I now have to take off my tourist hat, review my pedagogical ‘stuff’ for tomorrow and pull a tie out of the closet as I change roles and become a consultant. Ain't life grand!

Still Looking

Let me start at the end of the day and work backwards. I had two important things to accomplish today. I went for a job interview at the most prestigious public school in Thailand and I had to get a visa for my trip to Burma. Both were intersting. I have had experience before looking for embassies. For some reason, in Bangkok anyway, they are non descript and hard to find...probably on purpose. When I went to the Vietnamese embassy it was virtually impossible to find and the Mynamar embassy not far behind. The treatment in both was the same. Lousy!

I was there before the crack of dawn and waited until it opened at 9 am. I filled out the papers, affixed my pictures with the glue they provided and passed them over to the clerk. Since I am going Tuesday morning(and Monday is a holiday in Bangkok) I needed the visa with express service today. Even though it says this is possible in on the web and in my books, I had to plead and beg for him to do this. For some reason, when I told him I lived in Bangkok and was a school principal, he seemed to cave. When you are in such a bureaucratic atmosphere, you are absolutely at their whim.

After that experience, I rushed to an interview at a local public high school downtown for a 10 o'clock appointment. Apparently, all of the key government officials send their kids there and it has a wonderful history. It reminded me in many ways of Jarvis Collegiate since Jarvis has the Rosedale crowed yet is a public school.

When they saw me, they said I was too old, overqualified and didn't want me to go home June 5 which is the first thing I told them since school starts May 1. I spoke with them for a few minutes, then was about to leave since they told me I had too many things going against me. The head of the department walked in and talked for a few more minutes and when I was really getting ready to leave again, said anything was possible in Thailand and was told they were going to invite me back to do a demonstration lesson. It is actually very appealing to me to finish my career back as a teacher ( albeit with 50 kids in the class) but kids all the same. I am frankly energized just thinking about it.

Then back to the embassy to pick up the passport. The area, Sathorn Road is really interesting and I spent a few hours walking past a number of interesting things. There was a fascinating Hindu temple, very colourful and busy. I noticed that everybody who passed prayed. I wonder if Buddhists pray to all Gods? Would they put their hands in submission and pray in front of a synagogue or church like the bus driver who stopped the bus and puts his hands in a prayer position?

Finally, when my feet were getting sore I hopped on a bus and just went. Bangkok is so huge I simply had never seen this area before and was absolutely fascinated. This was the 'real' Bangkok as opposed to the Manhantinized Bangkok I know in the Sukhumvit area where all of the foreigners live.

Tomorrow I am off to Chaing Rai, as far north in Thailand as you can go, Tuesday to Burma for a week of presenting workshops and the thirteenth or fourteenth off for a Songkran holiday with teacher friends. I am also considering going to Australia for Pesach on the 18th if I do not have a job so have passport and travel.Isn't life great?