Cremation, some thoughts on photography, and a pantomime File/Save

11/6
There is a chess board at the boat dock, sometimes I see some young people gathered around the chessboard, I think that is cool.

There is a difference between looking at photographs for content and looking at photographs. When looking at photographs for content, the photograph is just a container for information, who was there, what were they feeling, where are they know. The lighting and composition and even relationships within the photograph are not important except as it reveals content. When looking at photographs the lighting, composition, message, and emotion are important. When looking at photographs people think about the photographer and the subject. As I watched people looking at my photographs at the funeral today, they were looking at content. I am not sure about the depth of this idea, but it seems important to me.

I have many pictures to post, but I will need to take a break to edit and choose what I want to post.

Today was the cremation ceremony for Oowon. There was a rainstorm at 4:30, thunder, lightening, beautiful light, the storm was over by about 5:15. We could hear the rain coming on the roof or the Wat. The casket was carried around the crematorium three times with music and drums, then people gathered and dropped flowers on the casket. There was some people sharing there feelings. I took many photographs that I will need to edit and get printed. I have to edit and print photographs from both cremation ceremonies.

After the ceremony I looked up, there was a beautiful cloud with the sun reflecting off it, there was slight smoke from the crematorium chimney, the visual effect was unforgettable, I did not take a photography. We went home.

It has been a very long week. Tomorrow we go to STOU. I am looking forward to it.

11/7
I organized some files in my USB memory drive to take to STOU, my Excel lessons and curriculum material.

Sometimes something is not memorable until I think about it late at night. When we were visiting the Abbot at Ko Kred we were talking about computer skills. The Abbot did a perfect pantomime of searching and finding the print command in Word. I could "see" the whole process, the looking for the Print command, the finding it, and the surprise and satisfaction when the document printed. It still makes me smile to see his pantomime. The whole experience reinforces the ideas that I always tell me students, you do not have to remember anything, you just need to be willing to explore. When you are using a computer pose a question and rummage for the answer. Every time I visit the Abbot I have a memorable experience.

Ton, Jit's nephew is registering for a computer course at the Non-formal education center in Phra Pradaeng. We will visit the center soon, although this week is very busy. We have our meetings at STOU through Wednesday, then we have the adult education seminar, and then we go with Moi to a Kathin ceremony in Kao Yai. If it all happens it will be a pretty dense week.

It look like the Loy Krathong ceremony at STOU will be in the evening, maybe we will try to rent a room at the conference center. I am worried about getting caught in traffic, especially after our four hour experience Friday.

At STOU today I had a wonderful meeting with Tuk and Nun. I also got my haircut. I looked at ATutor, an open source course management package from Canada. I was impressed with its look and organization. One thing that is confusing to me is the role of the faculty at STOU. To me, and this is just an impression, faculty are divorced from the ongoing process of teaching and creating and modifying course content. I know I am missing something, but activities that I take for granted are not done by the faculty at STOU. This is just an impression, and I will be exploring the faculty role in greater depth. Comparing faculty roles is very helpful in understanding what we do at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

In our community we have a Motorbike taxi driver named Ooy. She is respected in the community and is very responsible. Once we needed to catch a ride on Sunday morning at 5:30 and she was there right on time. She transports people everywhere and also does shopping and picks up tools and building materials. We ride with her when we catch the boat or the bus. Both Jit and I get on the back of the small Honda motorbike. Ooy pays 2,000 Baht a month payment for her Motorbike. That is about $50 dollars, she had 5 more payments. She makes 20 Baht per trip for taking each of us to the dock or bus. She works hard. Even Jit's dad says she is a good person. The people in the community depend on her.

Coming home today the Taxi driver was crazy, driving way too fast and following cars too closely. I am going to have to only take newer taxi's. Maybe I am just more anxious because of the funerals, but I think I am also being realistic.

Tomorrow STOU again, I will get to share what I do at TVC and UAF. I like my new placement at STOU.