Abraham

In my earlier blog I stated that Kiwi Roy was the first real teacher to grace our presence. That was not correct. We had several others that had all the credentials; they just didn’t act like teachers or didn't know how to teach. Abraham is another of those.

Abraham as the time of his hire in 1999 was about 55 and had been in Thailand a really long time. He was originally from NYC, could speak Thai, had a Thai wife, drove a car and came to us from a job at a university. His most notable physical feature was his balding head, though he had managed to grow our some of the fringe in the back. This he tied into a small ponytail. It looked ridiculous.

He was hired as the Head Teacher and his responsibility was to coordinate the activities of all the foreign teachers. He was dismissed before the first month of school had been completed and he never coordinated anything except his nap times.

His downfall started when the owners walked past the Teachers Lounge and found Abraham apparently sleeping with his head down on his desk. As any student, teacher, or visitor walking past had a clear view of this area it was not considered acceptable for the head foreign teacher to be sleeping at his desk and I agree. The director explained this to Abraham and informed him that he really shouldn’t be sleeping during the workday.

At this point Abraham informed the director that he had recently had open-heart surgery and required several periods of rest during the day. The director because furious, as Abraham had not informed him of this medical condition prior to being hired. After things calmed down, the director then informed Abraham to please not sleep in the teacher’s room in full view of those passing by. He was directed to find a secluded place in the school and rest there for a few minutes if it was needed.

Note: Abraham had in fact had open heart surgery, but he also had a second job working nights and when he wasn’t working nights he spend considerable time visiting adult entertainment venues. Thus, he was often sleep deprived.

This request was disregarded and Abraham continued to sleep at his desk. On many occasions the director, his wife and other family members of the director would confront Abraham and ask that he not sleep at his desk. Each time, Abraham would augur with them that he was not sleeping and dismissed their attempts to get him to stop or move out of sight.

The last time I saw him, he was standing in front of the director’s desk screaming obscenities at the director’s wife. When my next class was over, he was gone and I was being asked to temporarily act as head teacher, but still teach my 25 classes per week.

I recently heard, but could not confirm it, that Abraham was no longer working having gone off the deep end so to speak. He had lost his family, was living is a slum area of Bangkok and relying on handouts from his friends to exist.