Today is Wednesday, which means I spend my morning at the pre-school near my house. When I arrived, the teachers and a few kids were just hanging out. Apparently the school is closed today because they have been painting it and it's not ready yet. No big deal. I decided to stick around for a little bit just to hang out. Eventually some more kids and their moms show up. We were sitting under the shade of some trees and the wind was blowing and it was actually quite relaxing and refreshing.
Then I saw some of the teachers and moms carry this big TV on a cart out of the school. After about 10 minutes the TV came to rest in the middle of the street. At this point, I was very curious. Everyone just gathered around this TV and there was a lot of fast talking. A few minutes later, my monk friend showed up with a mass of extension cords bound in many knots. After much moving about and re-situating the TV cart, the extension cords were untangled and hooked up. Then this random man rolled up on his motorcycle and gave the teachers a DVD. It seemed we were all set for whatever was about to take place. They turned on the standard loud Thai music and they made the kids line up and dance. I'm baffled by this, but then it got even more ridiculous.
In Thailand, there are many lady boys (gatooeys). These are gay men who choose to dress up as women. They are commonly accepted in society. Anyway, one of the moms yelled that they should go get the lady boy (gatooey). So about 5 minutes later, a 9-year old gatooey showed up to help the kids learn how to dance.
It wasn't even 10:30am and there I sat on tree stump - watching a monk set up a TV in the middle of the street while a 9 year old lady boy taught a bunch of 4 year olds how to dance. And that was my Wednesday morning.
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