What a great Saturday, so much happening in one day.
After breakfast all the children helped finish off the base painting of the playground walls and the fence posts we put in yesterday.
With help from a couple of the boys I attached the chain link fence, finishing that early afternoon.
In anticipation of the afternoons music session the children got everything ready for Freds arrival and got into some practise.
For a while I joined in with Gu , Tai and Jack with them playing drums and keyboard and me playing flute.
For a while it was sounding sweet and I’m sure we will be doing much more of that in the future.
A little after 3pm Fred arrived with Ally and Li Li Tan.
Its been a while since we’ve seen Li Li and the kids were all very happy to see her.
While the music lesson went on Li Li did some work on one of the unfinished Murals, ably assisted by Som. Jor , May and Nu also joined in after the music had finished.
It was another great lesson by Fred, with the children working on the Beatles classic “Let It Be”.
Saturday was a very special day. All the children knew was that we were due some visitors in the afternoon. In the morning they all pitched in as usual with continued garden improvement work.
Then at around 3pm our visitors arrived; Ally, Li Li, Ann, Fred(who will be doing music workshops in the New Year), and Adam Sandaver and his lovely family.
Adam had responded very quickly to our recent appeal for a Trumpet for Gu, our eldest child.
Saturday was presentation day and it was great to have been able to keep it as a surprise. Gu was so happy. And the rest of the children weren’t left out either. The Sandaver children kindly donated many toys for the enjoyment of all.
Gu explained that all his friends at school play music in the band and he dreamt of joining them but didn’t have the instrument he most wanted to join in with. There you go Gu, dreams can come true.
We want to be careful not to spoil the children here at Stratton House, but sometimes, when a child has shown the sort of effort that Gu has shown, in every aspect of life here; helping out around the house and garden, trying his hardest at school, always showing respect and appreciation, and rarely asking for anything; the they deserve the reward.
Once again a huge thanks to Adam and all his family.
And for those who were here, the tears came on Sunday, as I watched all the children playing so happily together with their new toys and Gu proudly cleaning his Trumpet after attempting a little practise.
You do your best, hoping that you’re doing the right thing. You battle both the doubt of others and self doubt to. And then you get a day like this.
All I do here is designed to lift the self esteem and confidence of these children; to help them discover and develop both their own characters and any latent skills they may have.
Yesterday I was suffering the after effects of a touch of food poisoning, ( too much dodgy nam pik), which had meant no sleep the night before and I really wasn’t up to much. Being Saturday the children needed occupying as always. With all the recent Mural practice I decided it was time to give them a free hand.
Given brushes and paint and told to get on with it these wonderful children did me proud.
I would like to say a big thanks to all those who have helped to give the children the confidence to do this all on their own, including Li Li Tan and all the guys at Art Relief International.
I would also like to add yet more thanks to my good friend Ally for all her support and helping me thru those moments of self doubt.
All we need now is much more paint. So if you are as impressed as I am with the children’s efforts , and want to help them keep at it, please feel free to drop by with any odds and ends of outdoor emulsion paint you might have lying around:)
I make no bones about the fact that I am an emotional man. The truth is I’ve shed enough tears of pain in my life to believe my self truely blessed to have shed the tears of joy that today brought me.
It can be a lonely road, doing my best to make sure that this Foundation succeeds and goes on to help as many children as possible. So when people like Li Li Tan and her friend Jessica start getting involved I can but glow with hope that something really good is starting to happen.
Words cannot express my gratitude enough.
Today our friend, and webmaster, Ally arrived with Li Li and Jessica about an hour before lunch. Li Li came with a whole load of art materials for the children to use. Jessica, came armed with rocks and minerals to give a very interesting lesson.
Jessica needed time to set up, so it was art with Li Li and then lunch.
After lunch Jessica held a wonderful session, teaching the children about how minerals combine to form rocks. What may seem like an advanced subject for children so young was very successful with the methods Jessica employed.
Using coloured flash cards and samples of minerals and rocks, and her own very engaging character, she soon had the kids hooked.
One of the highlights of the day, for me, was watching Jack.
Jack often has problems with learning and concentration.
Today I saw a boy absorbed with what he was shown and I have not seen so many genuine smiles on this boys face in a long time. Jessica, thank you so much.
And a big thankyou to Heather, (Bpaaa Bonnie), too.
Shortly before lunch the postman arrived with a big parcel containing a late birthday present for Jack and other toys and stuff that all the kids get to use.
Jack deserves more days like this.
Even Tai, who can often be reluctant to get involved with events involving the “little kids”, got drawn in.
Indeed, all the children let it be known that they enjoyed the lesson very much.
When our visitors left, mid-afternoon, a bunch of happy children got back to more art work.
Any one else who may feel like donating materials, please contact us as it looks like we need a constant supply to satisfy the childrens enthusiasm.
See the gallery below and for more photos visit our photobucket album here.
Also check out the videos below the gallery.
At last I am starting to get somewhere with the Thai Schools English project, aimed at helping to promote English language learning in local schools.
With help from my friend Ally I have been learning to use the Moodle learning Centre software in order to set up courses for local children to follow via the internet.
These courses will include multi-choice questions, speaking practice, using videos of both myself and the children themselves, speaking English and much much more.
Just this weekend we managed to get some very good videos of the Stratton House children practising basic introductory conversation.
Some of the videos will soon appear on Thai Schools English as a practise aid for other children in the community.
Another productive day yesterday, partly due to the school in Banthi still being part closed due to Teachers being at some event elsewhere.
This meant I had much more time than I expected to work on filling the ‘shelves’ in our online shop which I hope to have truely online by the end of the weekend.
I have a meeting with webmaster Ally on Friday.
As with all this computer technology it will take me time to acclimatise to using the software to its best potential so you will no doubt see continual changes, hopefully for the better as time progresses.
Thursday saw me having my first lessons, from my friend Ally, in how to operate the online shop that she has been setting up for us. I would ask you to bear with me as it often takes my brain a while to become acclimatised to these technological advances.
Hopefully it won’t take too long as Ally has managed to find a very user friendly software package.
So, no hard and fast promises but I hope that we may be able to officially ‘open’ the shop at the beginning of Xmas week.
Too late for those Xmas cards I know, but hopefully we’ll have a decent range of interesting products that can help us boost our funds.
As well as the childrens handmade art and craft products, greetings cards, postcards, etc , we will also be stocking other items such as wood carvings, Thai silks and the like in the hope of optimising the shops potential for fund raising.
Any ideas for popular items to have in the shop will be very welcome.
