Educating orphans in Ranong, Thailand

I lived at the orphanage, so besides teaching four to five English classes a day, I also ate with the kids and hung out with them after school -- it was all very different from my life as a teacher in the U.S. The kids, many of whom were tsunami orphans, didn't speak a lot of English, but somehow we were able to make it work. We'd sing songs, and I'd read them stories, and I had a world map so they could learn the names of other countries. I also brought supplies like crayons and sticky notes, which they just annihilated. When you live in an orphanage, you have to abandon the notion of privacy. I tried to explain to the kids that I don't like people in my room all the time, but they didn't understand and thought I'd be scared or lonely." -- Holly Graham, 29, Boston, Massachusetts