Mr Wah, a bike rider who dozes in the shade of my alleyway entrance while his wife drums up riding work for him, has become my rider. They are a wonderful older couple who have taken a shining to me. To make it cooler he looks like a Vietnamese “Machete” (Danny Trejo). I only use the older gents when I get a lift somewhere because of their age and experience, they know where they are going, are much less oppurtunistic and drive much more safely than the younger guys. If stuck for options a good indicator with the younger riders is to check their arms/legs for scars or wounds, I would guess 1 in 4 young men have marks on them from falling off their bikes. So Machete takes me to school and for the first time ever I choke on the fumes of the traffic, it is 6ish and the roads are clogged with bikes, tomorrow I will get a face mask. The experience previously mentioned pays off as we duck down smaller side streets and alleys to get to the school, the trip is about half an hour in peak hour on a bike and I must train myself to sit upright and not slouch otherwise it can become painful.
I spent half an hour on youtube learning how to tie a tie and look very dapper once again. Tessie sits down with me and gives me the materials and runs through it with me for my first actual teaching lesson which will be next Saturday and Sunday. It seems easy enough and I think I will be able to wing it, plus I have a few days to go through it and work it out. The course I did to get my TESOL Certificate was only 5 days and most people I have spoken to here have spent weeks or months doing theirs so I’m taking it as a blessing that I am already beginning with some observation and teaching, experience is the only way I can learn anyhow.
Tonight I sit in on a class with Lizzie, an English lass in her mid 30s with a few years experience teaching here and in other parts of
After the ride home with Machete I go change and head out for dinner and a couple of beers. I did notice on the way back that the streets were flowing with people and activity but did not realise that it is because today is the biggest full moon event of the year, a bit like Ramadan, it is the “Mother” full moon night and a lot of Buddist locals have not eaten meat for the last month so that no animals had to be killed for them to eat.
