RICHMOND —
During her travels, Terry Ham has visited 58 countries.
Eight of those countries she was able to call her temporary home.
Since 1991, Ham has been teaching music and drama around the world, from Paraguay to Shanghai, to her to current job in Bangladesh.
Ham, who is visiting her parents Dick and Nancie at their Richmond home, traveled with the USO while a student at Western Kentucky University.
“The travel bug bit me,” she said. “I pretty much want to go anywhere I haven’t been.”
Ham transferred to the University of Kentucky and graduated in 1986 with a degree in education.
Five years later, she took a job teaching music and drama to students in kindergarten through 10th-grade in Paraguay.
The job was through a recruitment center that hires teachers for two-year stints.
Ham said she enjoyed the experience so much, she kept taking new assignments.
After Paraguay, she spent two years in Portugal and Tanzania, five years in China and had two-year teaching jobs in Romania, Mexico and Burma.
Friday, Ham heads back to school for her second year teaching in Bangladesh.
“The best part is getting to travel,” Ham said. “All the places are so different.”
While in Africa, Ham said she was able to go on a safari, where she saw baby animals. The visitors’ campground also was raided by a pack of baboons.
She has visited the Great Wall of China, which she called incredible.
In Burma, which she referred to as magical, Ham said she saw more than 2,000 pagodas.
Pagodas are Hindu or Buddhist temples that typically are many tiered towers.
While visiting Thailand, she said vendors were selling fried bugs, such as crickets and grasshoppers.
“People who actually try it say they’re pretty good, but I can’t get myself to do it,” Ham said.
The students at all the schools Ham has taught at speak English, she said,
Students typically are the children of diplomats, aid workers, business people and some locals, she said.
At each teaching stop, Ham has been responsible for leading the students by directing a play or musical.
In China, her students put on a production of “Fiddler on the Roof” with 42 different nationalities represented in the cast, Ham said.
She said her students were the first non-Chinese students to perform in the Shanghai International Arts Festival.
“The kids are just really special,” she said of all her students. “Education is highly valued, especially in Asia. Exams make the difference in what you can do in life. Education really is a way for them to get out of poverty.”
The experience of working and living in other countries has not been difficult, Ham said.
At each school, most of the teachers are new and in the same boat as each other, making it easy to make friends, because there are no previously established friendships, she said.
Ham, who said her non-English language vocabulary consist of speaking “restaurant and taxi,” found a companion in Portugal, by adopting a cat she named Tosca.
Tosca, 16, has been with her since, joining her on her trips around the world.
Her parents also have been able to visit on occasion.
They both visited Paraguay, while Dick spent three weeks in China and Nancie a month in Portugal.
Dick, a retired church music minister, and Nancie, who teaches piano and voice, passed their talents and love of music to their daughter.
“I wish everyone could love their job as much as she does,” Dick said. “Music has always been her first love.”
The school year in Bangladesh begins on Aug. 9.
Tim Mandell can be reached at tmandell@richmondregister.com or 623-1669 ext. 6696.
Local News
Related Photos
-
Terry Ham, pictured at her parents’ Richmond home where she is packing to return to her teaching job in Bangladesh, has taught music and drama in eight foreign countries. Nancy Taggart
-
Terry Ham, center, is pictured with fellow teachers in front of the Incan ruins at Machu Pichu in Peru.
Traveling the globe
Ham has taught in 8 foreign countries
- Local News
-
-
‘She wasn’t just a teacher’ : Lambert retires after 43 years at Berea
Scroll to the bottom of the story to read "Love for Lambert: Berea graduates share memories of their teacher," as well as a list of other Berea retirees this year.
Writer’s Note: Brenda Lambert is the reason I write articles today (Class of 2000).
Years ago, a little blonde-haired girl from Rockcastle County gathered her friends to “play school” in a 10-by-10 foot playhouse her father built.
Even at 12 years old, Brenda Lambert knew she wanted to be a teacher one day.
“I always felt like an old person trapped in a young person's body,” said Lambert, who is retiring after 43 years of service to Berea Community School. -
Special Olympics return for 18th year at EKU
Next weekend, the Special Olympics Kentucky State Summer Games return to Eastern Kentucky University campus. This is the 18th consecutive year EKU has hosted the event.
The games will be Friday through June 2. About 1,300 athletes will compete this year. -
Assault charges reduced, dismissed by grand jury
Two men arrested in connection with serious assaults had their charges reduced, and in one case dismissed, by a Madison grand jury.
Jerry Wayne Edington, 34, of Berea Road, was charged Jan. 19 with second-degree assault after an altercation at the Blue Moon bar on East Irvine Street, according to a Richmond police report. -
Dump of the Day
The Dump of the Day is a recurring series the newspaper publishes to highlight illegal trash piles and push local governments to cite perpetrators and get illegal dumps cleaned up. See Page A7 in Sunday's paper to read a copy of the city’s ordinance related to trash pickup.
-
Paradise Cove open through Labor Day
Opening day of Paradise Cove Family Aquatic Center coincided with a spike in temperatures Friday which reached 90 degrees. The facility, located in Richmond’s Lake Reba Park, will be open through Sept. 3. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday.
-
Dump of the Day
An old mattress, a car seat and other debris sit Friday afternoon on North Street between Fourth and Fifth Streets where it was first spotted Thursday. The “Dump of the Day” is a recurring series the Richmond Register publishes to highlight illegal trash piles and push local governments to cite perpetrators and get illegal dumps cleaned up. See Sunday’s Richmond Register to read a copy of the city’s ordinance related to trash pickup.
-
Undefeated academic team brings pride to Madison Middle School
Madison Middle School 6th and 7th grade academic teams have been undefeated for the last two years.
The 8th grade team also has done well, having some students qualify to compete at the state level. -
Woman fends off burglar with knife
A Berea woman used a kitchen knife to fend off an alleged burglar early Wednesday morning, and police say they were able to catch the man in the act.
-
Man is indicted on additional sex charge involving teen in 1998
A man already accused of sex abuse in November 2011 has been indicted on a charge of first-degree rape involving a child in 1998.
Charles W. Peyton, 63, of East Irvine Street, was indicted Wednesday by a Madison grand jury. He used “forcible compulsion” to have sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl between March 1 and May 1 in 1998, according to the indictment. -
Woman fends off burglar with knife
A Berea woman used a kitchen knife to fend off an alleged burglar early Wednesday morning, and police say they were able to catch the man in the act.
Officers responded to a call in the 1000 block of Scaffold Cane Road about a man trying to break into a home, according to a release from BPD Public Information Officer Jake Reed. - More Local News Headlines
-
UN Blames Syrian Forces for Shelling Houla
Raw Video: Gay Protest Blocked in Moscow
Vatican in Chaos After Butler Arrested for Leaks
Jimmy Carter Endorses Egypt's Election Results
Biden Addresses West Point Graduating Class
Dozens of Children Killed in New Syria Attack
Raw Video: Activists Allege Massacre in Syria
NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz
Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp
Fugitive Penguin Caught, Returned to Aquarium
50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning
Light Show Transforms Sydney Opera House
Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami
Raw Video: Robber Uses Drive-thru Window
Raw Video: Dragon Arrives at Space Station
Calif.'s Coronado Named Nation's Best Beach
CEO Salaries Become Sore Issue in Labor Disputes
