Reflections - Part 2 Lessons learnt

Meanwhile, back in Phichit ...

Within a week or so, my documents from the school were ready, and time for me to go to Laos for a new Non-B visa.

I'm going to digress a little and explain the employment conditions, visa, work permit and teacher's licence processes which were in place at that time. Not much has changed.

In order to be offered employment, candidates need at least a Bachelors Degree, and in those days it could be in any field of study.  Known as NES teachers, most jobs were for the purpose of teaching Everyday English or Conversation English.  The Thai teachers taught grammar.  A bit of a disaster really.  In order to obtain a Non B (work visa) candidates provide their degrees and transcripts to the school, their TEFL certificate which was usually obtained in Thailand at one of the many institutions that provide the course.  It's a month long course including all aspects of teaching English as foreign language, focusing mainly on classroom techniques and management of students.  It includes some cultural do's and don'ts, and most importantly practice teaching to volunteer students or at designated schools.  A further requirement for non NES (Europe etc), a TOEIC test done in Bangkok or Chiang Mai at the testing centres.  TOEIC requires a minimum of 700/990 to qualify for teaching positions at any level.

Once the employer has received all of the above, they provide a stack of documents giving information about the school, financial records, maps and size of school, offer of employment to candidate etc etc.  Armed with all these documents candidate then toodles off to Laos, or Penang in Malaysia to the Thai Embassy.  The most commonly used location was and still is Laos because the visa process is faster  - next day as opposed to Penang's 3 day wait.

Because of the enormous language barrier, and newbies simply cannot make themselves understood, Visa agents are the popular choice  although they don't  do a run to Malaysia.  The agents leave from a designated place in Bangkok, check all documents, accept your money, and do an overnight trip to Laos, arriving at the border shortly before 6am.  It's plain sailing for the most part since they speak Thai and your payment includes the 1 night accomodation in the van (lol) and 1 night accomodation in a hotel in Laos, Laos visa, Non-B visa for Thailand and meals at the hotel.  If there are any problems, the agents speak the language, and can usually sort it out in Laos, almost ensuring that if you are on the van to Laos, you will return with your Non-B.

After passing through the border, it's directly to the Thai Embassy where more documents are completed for your arrival details in Laos, and then in the queue to present yourself and your pack of documents and passport to the officials.  This process doesn't  take too long when the agency is involved.  The solos tend to wait a lot longer.  Shut off time to submit docs is 12 noon, and all going well, your passport containing your Non-B will be collected by the agent after 10am the next day.

Off to the hotel to do the sleeping you couldn't do on the van, and then transport is provided by the hotel (for a small fee) to take you to the market, bars, restaurants or wherever you wish later in the day or evening, and to the morning market the next morning if you so desire.

You don't have  to appear at the Embassy again,  you have lunch at the hotel, are transported to the border and can do some duty-free shopping at the Vientiane border.  QED.  All goes well, and by 1pm, passed through the Nong Khai border in Thailand, and on your way back to Bangkok, usually arriving at about 6pm.

It's a pain in the ass, only because the trip to Laos is so very long, in a 15 or 16 seater van with little or no leg room.  Won't discuss the drivers and the thousands of prayers you mutter silently along the way.

The next pain in the ass is then getting back to the dorp you are living in, and Phichit is a 6 hour bus trip from Mochit bus station in BKK.  

Okay, so I went to Laos - my trip explained.  Got my Non-B and then application for the teacher's licence followed.  At that time one was allowed 2 teacher's licences with a duration of 2 years each.  If you did not complete 2 years on 1 licence, tough luck, the balance of  the time on that licence did not (still doesn't) get carried over to the new licence.  Each visa and licence is specific to the school or institution that you are working for, and too bad for you if you leave.  The school applies for the licence to the MOE, it eventually arrives if all is in place, and then the application for work permit happens.  Once you have this work permit (you appear in person at the Labour Office), you are then legally allowed to work ONLY at the school whose name is on the visa and work permit.  In other words, you cannot accept any part-time or private work - you could be subjected to complete cancellation and blacklisting, a 500 000 THB fine and imprisonment, or all of the above.

Needless to say, I didn't have any problems, and within about 6 weeks after returning from Laos, all my documents were in my hands.  You are allowed to work whilst waiting for the Work Permit, provided you have the Non-B.

Teaching in Phichit was okay provided expectations were not too high, and I actually enjoyed the little town.  The landlord was great when she wasn't in a bad mood, and life was good.  Daughter and partner had finished up in Chiang Mai and joined me in Phichit.  We did a few road trips on the motorcycles, explored a little of the province and went further afield to Phitsanulok for a change of scenery.

During our stay in Phichit, we were invited to the ordination of the landlord's son.  He was turning 18 and was being ordinated into the monkhood for 3 months.  There are various times, durations and ocassions when this happens, and I think it's an individual choice about the age.  The party started on the Friday night (roads outside the apartments were closed to traffic), a stage had been set up in the road for the singing and dancing girls, food and drink flowed freely, and everyone partied very hard.
Headache, hangover or not, Saturday night was a repeat of Friday with the exception of the birthday boy, who had to simmer down and wasn't permitted to drink, smoke or party - only his presence was required.  Bright and early on Sunday morning, the birthday boy was shaven, blessed and robed and we left to the temple, went through the traditions of walking around the temple about 7 times, danced around, everyone jolly, and then entered the temple for the serious side of the ceremony. I won't go into the whole process except to say it was very long and somber, followed by a lunch.  It was a privilege to be invited, a great experience of the culture and the tradition, but of course there was a motive behind it.  Having farangs attend such an event was a big thumbs up for the Thai family. Win-win situation.  

During the October school holidays, I went  to Malaysia on holiday.  I spent a few days in the beach area of Batu Ferringi in Penang, bussed it for about 4 hours from there, and spent a few more days in Kuala Lampur.  I enjoyed Penang immensely, hated KL, but it was another tick on my very long bucket list.

Returning from Malaysia to Phichit, it was time to submit grades.  I will mention here that one has to keep accurate records of attendance and grades, do lesson plans, teach and write reports - all in all a lot of work outside of the normal 18-20 hours of teaching per week.  I was (still am) very diligent about grades, and submitted my grades to the Head of the English Department, but I had a few questions about students who had never attended any of my classes.  She disagreed and I was instructed to give them an average grade, which I reluctantly did.  No choice, no argument, just do it.

When the grades were submitted by the Head to the Administration Department, it came back with the question of how I could give grades to students who were not registered for my classes.  Exactly my point to the Head of English.  The Head refused to take responsibility and called the students into the office, and they agreed that they had not attended my courses, but had been taking the French course instead.  Now, "losing face" is very real among the Thai people, and under no circumstances would the Head accept that she had been wrong.  I'd kept my original grades as proof, and still she argued that I had been wrong.  I got the mutters with her attitude, and the fact that she blamed me, when it was her duty as Head to know exactly who was registered in the English courses.  And so the gossip began again, and I wasn't about to get into a verbal boxing match with her or the other gossip-mongers.  I advised my agent that I was leaving the school, didn't get a response, but I cleared out my desk and took leave of the school.

As mentioned in Part 1, she was subsequently demoted, so I guess more of her mistakes came out in the wash.

Besides becoming better acquainted with the routine proceedings here, I learnt a lot about "people" here.  I won't generalise, but as years have passed I learned that it is a fact that there are not so nice people who don't like foreigners.  It's not worth crossing swords over, you can never win a battle as a foreigner. (Foreigners never obtain citizenship in Thailand).   So, the only way is to brush the dust off your shoes, look ahead and move along.  Thai people do not like to be questioned and do not like confrontation under any circumstance - right or wrong.  It's a good thing I learnt that lesson in my first year.  On the other hand, there are also absolutely fantastic people who welcome us with open arms and are kind and generous and very helpful.  

I was about to learn my second most important lesson in the form of an offer from another "agency". It's no secret that agencies are notorious for stuffing you around, and they live up to that reputation far too well. Again I won't generalise because there may be one or two that are "real", but for the most part agencies are selling white skins who speak English to the education facilities.  Agencies rarely look for teachers, they pick them off the job websites, then send hopefuls off to all corners of the country at a moment's notice without so much as a meeting or an interview.  Their cars are their offices and cell phone numbers change without any notice, emails are never acknowledged or answered - you are completely at their mercy.  Money is really all that matters to them.

Once placed at a school or any other education facility, for which the agencies receive handsome payments, the teacher is forgotten about - some agencies "forget" to pay salaries, pay late, and deduct random amounts of money for unknown reasons.  There are way too many sharks in the employment waters, and the little fish get gobbled up very quickly.  Admittedly, this didn't all apply to my experiences ... but some did.

Case in point - based on the offer from XYZ agency, we packed up in Phichit, and left a few days later to Ang Tong as instructed.  The director of the agency would be waiting for us at the bus stop, accomodation had already been arranged for the 3 of us, and we would be be employed at 2 different schools in Ang Tong.  Now there were 3 of us, and each with an equal amount of too much luggage, but we paid our extra dues and took the bus from Phichit.  First sign of disaster was that the bus didn't stop in Ang Tong, and we were off-loaded on the highway to Bangkok, with too many bags to lug around. Many attempts at calling the "director" were in vain and things were beginning to look more than a little bleak.  A very nice couple loaded us onto their pickup, and dropped us in Ang Tong near the taxi rank - there isn't a bus station there after all.  No answered or returned calls, no accomodation, no jobs.  Oops!

Anyway, we spent the night in a very shitty yet overpriced hotel, drank beer and made the most of a rather crappy situation.  The next day we managed to get a van to Bangkok and headed down South where there was a big demand for teachers.  First stop was Trang, a complete waste of time, but we hung around for 2 days and then headed further south to Hat Yai.  On the 2nd or 3rd day I was invited to an interview at a private institution, and offered the job the next day. By this time we had scouted the area, been to Songkhla beach and got the "dirt"from a couple of locals who spoke English.

The demand for teachers was because no one actually wanted to work there, due to the close proximity to Yala, famous for bomb blasts at schools, particulary aimed at foreign teachers.  They were fighting other wars down there as well, and we weren't about to take any chances.  In Hat Yai, not far from the hotel where we were staying, there had been a bomb blast in the basement parking of a shopping centre.  Bells were ringing and alarms were sounding in my head, so I declined the offer and we went to drink beer and play pool to figure out our next plan.

That plan came to us in the middle of a good game of pool which I was winning, when my original agent called and asked if we were interested in working in Nakhon Sawan.  She'd finally heard the truth about what had happened in Phichit, but also she was in desperate need of 2 teachers - me 1 and my daughter 2. 2 out of 3 didn't sound too bad, so we left the next day, 16 or 18 hours on the bus, arrived in Rangsit, met the agent, signed our contracts at Mc Donalds at 6am, managed to get a van early enough to be in Nakhon Sawan in the afternoon.

And that folks, is where living life in Thailand really began.

I must mention that, despite the shaky start, I never once considered leaving Thailand.  Yes, money games are played to perfection, corruption and bribery is a game every country plays, grumpy people are everywhere, and nothing is ever promised. But, one thing I did know for sure is that I was very happy here.  Nowhere is Utopia, but this is about as close as it's going to get.  I don't give up easily, I roll with the punches and learn from them.  Despite the few knocks along the way thus-far, I still had faith that this is where I belong.  Regardless of where we'd been (yes, even in the deep south), it's still the safest place I know, and life is good.