Sunday, March 14, 2010

Friday, March 12, 2010



















NATKON SI THAMMARAT
Our day began with visits to two very different types of schools. The first was a vocational school that prepared students for careers in a variety of fields -- accounting, MIS, the travel industry, etc.
Although the translation was a bit difficult for me to understand, it seemed to me that student enroll in the school at age 15 and were assigned a field of study, which they pursue for four years. After four years of study they either go directly into that field, or go on to college. Although this seems very much like our own high school path, I found it difficult to understand how a young student's entire future can be completely mapped out for them at such an early age. Still, the opportunity to have a good paying job is certainly an acceptable alternative to not having one.

The second visit was to Walailak University. This is the largest university in Thailand in terms of the size of the campus -- 3,600 acres (almost 6 square miles) -- yet it had a student population of only 7,600. The campus had several beautiful new buildings and we were taken to a building that housed the library, an exhibit center which currently had an excellent photographic exhibition of the works of both students and faculty, and a theater where the students could relax and watch movies.

The woman in charge of the center told us that she used the movies as a lure to get some of the students to the library. As I said, I may have lost some of the subtleties of what was happening at the two schools because they were lost in translation.

We next were taken to two museums, adjacent both to one another, and also to the spot where we would have lunch.
The first museum was a collection of historical and cultural treasures collected by the proprietor. Inside the museum we were decked out with precious necklaces and phtographed with the proprprietor, who obviously enjoyed showing us her collection. One object that I particularly enjoyed seeing was a Chinese "Happy Buddha", which I thought bore somewhat of a resemblence to myself.
After lunch we visited the second museum which, in sharp contrast to the carefully collected objects of the first, was a hodge-podge of items ranging from wooden mermaids, rows and rows of weapons and many, many clay pots which had been recovered from the sea. They were obviously quite old and, I am sure quite valuable, yet they were all just piled upon one another, as though in a discarded heap. There was no explanation as to what the objects were or what they were doing there, so we all sort of wandered about what amounted to a warehouse rather than a museum. I wish that I knew what we had seen, for I am sure that an explanation would have been interesting.
Our final stop of the day was a pottery manufacturing facility. "Manufacturing facility" may be somewhat of a misnomer, since the "facility" seemed to be the owner's front yard. Yet the quality and beauty of the pots and vases was undeniable. Two women took turns sitting at a potters's wheel, carefully crafting the spinning pottery between their hands and fingers. From globs of clay, they produced literally hundreds of items, ranging in size from perhaps 6 or 8 inches high, to some huge pieces that stood over two feet tall.
After showing us how to use the wheel, the women allowed some of the team to have a try with the results that were, while no where near the caliber of the women's, actually quite pleasant.
The team all carved our names and "GSE 7570" into one of the ports for the women to keep as a memento of our visit.

2 comments:

Ernie said...

Yep, I can see the resemblence. May we address you as Happy Buddha when you return?

Ernie

Grace said...

Hi John! Great to see all the amazing pics! Hugs, Grace