So tells me that a month before they left for Canada, at the beginning of the rainy season, they had an ant infestation as well, except that theirs was worse. They woke up to millions (Ramsey says thousands) of ants marching across their room and through their mattress. They just do this every now and then. No one seems surprised except me.So and I take all the bed sheets and blankets outside and dust off the mattress. We sweep the entire floor of ants. Out the door they go.
When I return later, Ramsey is marking papers on the floor of the library, and I see a new trail of ants leading from the door, across the room and around Ramsey's foot. I despair a bit that the ant infestation problem might be a continuous thing. Ramsey shows me something cool, that you can disrupt an ant's sense of direction if you just drag your finger across their pathway. This removes the scent trail they depend on and they become disorganized at that point, and then they stop marching because they don't know where to go. They just mill around in a daze. It's kinda fun confusing them. He tells me to sweep them all out the door again. I tell him they will just come back, and he says they won't if they continually feel like they're not being successful. Hmmm...do ants feel demoralized? I begin OPERATION ANT DEMORALIZATION. Every time I see a trail of them I sweep them out the door and after a while I see less and less. Ah yes...I am tyrant of the ants! Muuaahhhh. The question as to why they showed up in the first place is answered when we find a remaining swarm of them clustered around a bag of squishy-I-don't-know-what, probably some sweet fruit. I think one of the students must have brought it into the library during Baraka and sat on it and then forgot it.
At breakfast I try So's dish of "naturally sour fish". I don't taste the sourness but the saltiness is unbelievable. I decline eating any more, though I do go for the yummy fried garlic garnish.
For the knitting lesson today, they will need two needles, but there isn't enough to give each student two. I think that maybe I will need to do two sessions of teaching, but then So tells me they can figure out how to make their own needles today and that I can teach them how to knit tomorrow. This seems miraculous to me. She instructs the students to make knitting needles, and when I see them, they are hard at work making them. I tell them two needles for a bag and four needles for a hat. I go to the "Dao" woman's store to get them some g'da sai - sandpaper - and tell them that they need to make their needles as smooth as possible, especially the tips. This is the knitting needle maker's toolkit. Bamboo, machete, glass shard and sandpaper no.360 (fine grain).
Some of them produce needles as good as the ones that are machine made and sold at Romni's or Lettuce Knit. They seem to be able to make whatever it is they need. Farming people seem very versatile with concrete problems. Their lives involve a lot of problem solving and building things to serve different purposes. They are strong and contain a spirit of curiosity and ingenuity. I'm probably romanticizing things, but I am impressed. Perhaps this is a measure of how ineffective I feel I would be in a similar situation. These are ready for sandpapering.
At one point, I am holding some student's knitting needles and Ramsey asks to see them, but he just came back from the well so I worry that his hands are wet. I say "are your hands wet?", he says "no" but I don't believe him so I withhold the needles. Then Ramsey forgets himself, and he pushes his hand into my face to push my head back. In front of all the students! I am in disbelief, what about this whole thing about not touching? I don't care anymore, I can't let this insult pass, so I get up and punch him in the arm and kick him. Later on we both tattle-tail on each other to So. She thinks we're both at fault and I think the students must be confused. I am a bit worried at what conclusions they've drawn from our mock fight.Along with the students at the school, kids from the village come in the evenings to learn more English with Ramsey. Tonight is the first night they show up. Ramsey hasn't decided if he would like to resume teaching them because a lot of adults in the village have expressed a desire to learn English. As well, he's been on an intense teaching schedule since the school's been open. He teaches morning classes, afternoon classes, and then these additional evening classes. He never has free time and I can see this leading to exhaustion and burnout. He's thinking of putting evening classes on hiatus for the summer or just doing one evening class a week.
Ramsey goes to greet the evening kids. They are different from our students at the school. Their families have a bit more money and they all go to school as well as help out on their farms. They are all ethnically Lao. I immediately sense the difference when I introduce myself. They are less shy than our students and they are more expressive. They need no prompting to practice their English with me and they have better English than our students because they learn it in school.
I decide to do an impromptu lesson with them on Canadian vs. Lao greetings and in modes of expression. Ramsey and I teach them the differences in how you greet people and different types of handshakes. I show them the Gunshot Handshake that Chad taught me and they all like that one. At the end of the lesson, I tell them that they need to come up with their own greeting that contains four parts. One girl steps up to the plate and begins to create her own greeting.
Part 1. make a gun sign with one hand and draw the index finger of that hand across your forehead.
Part 2. transition that hand into forked devil fingers (pinky and index extended and other fingers folded down) and extend the hand foreword slowly from your forehead.
Part 3. quickly snap your head back with a look of distain.
Part 4. grab the lapels (or imaginary lapels) of your shirt with thumb and index finger and flick them forward quickly, also with a slight look of distain.
Okay...yes...I should have gotten a video, but this belaboured description will have to do. Try doing this greeting...it's wicked kuul.
When the evening students leave, I decide to extend the lesson to our students. I think they understand now that in Canadian culture it's okay for women and men to touch and have it not be romantic in nature or taboo. I do the gunshot handshake on both the guys and the girls and they all think it's funny too. I don't go so far as to get the male and female students to come into contact with one another though. Ramsey gets two of the male students to demonstrate the basket-ball chest bump and he shows them the finger signs for the Bloods (gang sign). I demonstrate the double air kiss on So and the girls. I jokingly approach one of the boys to do the same and he skittishly backs away when my face nears his, and nervously reflexes into "How are you?". Everyone laughs. I also give them homework to come up with novel greetings of their own.
At night we all gather at the library again to finish watching Baraka. Ramsey makes it voluntary since some of the students felt very dizzy watching it the other day...that the images were moving too quickly. Now for those of you who have seen Baraka, you know it's not the fastest paced movie, so I wonder why some kids would get this vertigo. Lack of exposure to the moving picture format? I dunno...theories anyone?
At some point in the movie there is footage of Nazi death camps and ovens, the Killing Fields as well as atrocities from other cultures. Despite the attempt to not explain things during the movie last night, there is a lot of explanation of things tonight. I hear the students make this characteristic Lao sound that expresses "that's impossible". It can be used in either situation where they want to express that something is horrible, or that something is fantastic. The sound is similar to the tsk tsk tsk sound of scolding a child. They make this sound throughout Baraka. I can't imagine what they must feel and think as they see aerial photographs of burning Iraqi oil fields, or watch the Masi of Africa jumping in their beautiful costumary, or witness the massive industrial farming of baby chicks.
I find myself coughing intermittently throughout the movie. I have a bit of headache. I hope I'm not getting sick. I wonder if the ants will get me this night. I feel positive that they won't. I am very tired. Good night.
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