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You can not but be impressed when one of our Thai children proves he knows stuff in English language that I don’t..
……on waking to a misty morning, testing the kids English, I pointed randomly and said “whats that?”…
……our 14 year yr old, Tai, replied “that is Stratus”…
..” er…no…its Fog..or Mist..”…
……seeing his look of disdain, I went to the computer and looked up Stratus…..from Wikipedia ” Fog stratus translucidus”.……the teacher has been taught 
A direct antidote to mild exhaustion is overseeing a fun filled day for the kids. Seeing so many smiles and so much laughter blows all the cobwebs away, and today has been such a day.
After all the kids had done their bit with the mornings work project of building a shade for the fish pond most of them then set to having fun on their recently serviced bicycles.
Proving their ever growing senses of responsibility I was most pleased to receive several offers of help in the kitchen preparing the midday meal.
However, as I had a simple lunch planned I was happy to hand the kids over to our volunteers Angela and Alexi, who arrived mid-morning.
Shortly after this we were treated to a visit from Li Li Tan and our latest friend Blue.
A friend of LiLi’s , and fellow artist, singer, poet, Blue is a lovely bubbly lady who throws out warmth and was an instant hit with the kids as she and Li Li soon had them all crafting shapes and animals out of special balloons.
It gives me much delight that Blue has expressed a great interest in helping out here on a regular basis and I look forward to meeting up again very soon to discuss this further.
Li Li and Blue left as we had lunch.
After lunch, and a democratic vote with choice between Huay Tung Tao, Huay Kaow Waterfall or San Kampaeng Hot Springs we set off for an afternoon at San Kampaeng.
It was very busy there today but the kids all had a great time; boiling eggs with Angela and Alexi, dipping their feet in the hot springs stream; playing in the playground and doing a “Draw What You See” English language session.
It was an energy boosting day for me with “Small World” magic going on. Whilst enjoying the bustling atmosphere we bumped into other friends doing the same. First there was Ray and Tak with their little lad Mik, who we first met sometime ago at Huay Tung Tao. They very kindly bought Ice-cream for our whole party and also donated extra funds that helped cover the days expenses. They have also extended a generous offer of lunch at their home sometime soon and we look forward to that very much.
We also bumped into Boons friend , Bap, who painted the Winnie The Pooh Wall art at Stratton House.
Wanting to ensure plenty of chill time for the children to make the trip worthwhile we decided to give them the rare treat of dinner out at at around 5pm we popped into the onsite Thai restaurant, finally heading home once everyone was happily fed.
A truely Funday Sunday:)
This weekends English language practice has concentrated on questions, starting of with,”What are you doing?”.
This was after they had all had their goes at spelling their new word for the week.
Saturdays lesson involved some minor role play to help the children understand the language and have fun at the same time.
All the kds did very well and Sundays session went on to deal with how, who, why, what, where and which, as well as future and past tenses.
Again all the children did a good job with what can be very confusing for them.
Our latest volunteer Melissa proved very popular with the children at school yesterday and has popped along for another visit today.
Yesterday evening after dinner she spent time once again, helping the younger girls with English language during study hour.
Its part of our day here that seems to have worked very well.
All the children seem to appreciate that part of being here is about them getting a good education and , as mentioned in previous posts, we have seen some great results in improving grades recently.
Short but sweet may be the words.
Erma and Ayanna fitted so well here at Stratton House and we would all like to say a big thank you for choosing to spend part of your holiday helping out here.
On Thursday morning they held a wonderful art workshop using pistachio nut shells, card and paints.
In the afternoon we took advantage of the hot weather and made a long overdue trip to Huay Tung Tao where everyone had a fine time playing in the water.
On our return Erma and Ayanna then practiced their newly learned Thai cooking skills and produced a very tasty curry for everyone for the evening meal.
Friday was their last day with us. In the morning they both pitched in with the work hour helping the girls with weeding while the boys worked on new vegetable plots.
By popular request they then held another English language class.
After lunch it was time to say goodbye, almost.
I have had problems with my left arm for a couple of weeks now and had determined to go for reflexology to help sort it out. So before taking Erma and Ayanna on to Walai House where they will continue their holiday we drove into the Old City to pay a visit to the Chiang Mai Reflexology Centre, in Ratchadamnoen Rd.
Gu , Tai and May 2, missed out on Huay Tung Tao on Thursday as they were at school, but Friday was a day off and so we took them along.
Whilst Ayanna joined me and enjoyed an hours reflexology, Erma spent time with the three children taking a look around the nearby shops and visiting Wat Chedi Luang.
Feeling much refreshed by the massage we paid a quick visit to Nok Em Ded in Prapaklao Rd. We were lucky enough to catch the shop owner, Teresa, there and had a nice chat. Teresa and her partner sell handmade clothes and jewelry. They have some beautifully unique designs. At present they have one of our collection boxes and we are in discussion about placing some of the children’s handmade craft in Teresa’s shop.
We then took Erma and Ayanna on to their guest house and said a fond farewell with the hope that it will not be the last we see of them.
Thanks both, the kids loved you and I felt like I had old friends visiting….perfect.
As the new School year approaches we have now got back to daily English language tuition and practice. I’m proud to see the “family” working , with the older children assisting the younger ones in practicing their ABC before the afternoon class.
Its been a while since I have had the chance to teach the kids and its been great seeing the improvement in their English language skills since they first came here.
Gus skills have improved immensely although he still needs to work on his confidence as he gets very nervous when called to speak.
May 2 has leaped forward in her ability getting very close to being on a par with our top student, Tai.
Nu is also not so far behind and has plenty of confidence, not afraid of making a mistake; best for good learning.
The younger ones still have a way to go but all have improved by leaps and bounds with their pronunciation and recall of short phrases.
The two new boys, Bong and Zak are also doing well.
Bong speaks very clearly with very good accent and Zak has excellent mimicry skills and recall and, I think, will be very fast to learn.
Nothing sad, just more progress. Yesterday Jack painted over his first mural with a new base coat ready to try again now that his concentration and other skills seem to have improved with the recent help from RICD.
To help towards the eventual decoration of all our walls Zak also base coated his allotted wall, assisted by his brother ,Tai.
It was a bit of a soggy day yesterday morning so there was no other “work” going on.
Lots of sewing, playing with the various toys available and drawing, and our now daily English language practice.
When things brightened slightly, in the afternoon there was lots of bike riding and use of the playground.
Another pleasant day.
This post is dedicated to the late Ernst Jurgen Weber, who went by the name of Ernesto.
Born March 21st 1945, Ernesto died at the age of 64 on September 26 2009 after loosing his fight against melenoma.
At the age of 3 Ernesto and his 7 year old brother Gunter emmigrated to Switzerland with their parents shortly after the 2nd World War.
Ernestos father, Emil, died of a heart attack at the age of 40 when Ernesto was just 8 years old.
Ernesto and Gunter were fortunate to have a very dedicated Mother, Elisabeth, who worked hard to give them a quality upbringing.
At High School Ernesto specialised in Mathematics and Science and later in life earned a Degree in Business and Economics.
During a student exchange program to England, at the age of 14, a love of travel and foreign cultures was born.
Ernesto discovered a love of music at the tender age of 10 years old when he joined a youth music band.
At the age of 21 he joined “The Cotton Pickers” Jazz band in Geneva and later founded “Jazz Burgers” with friends. Fortunate enough to have played with some highly accomplished musicians, such as Oscar Klein, Isla Eckinger, Peter Schmidii and Buddah Scheidegger, Music was clearly a consistent comfort to him. His favoured instruments were clarinet and saxophone.
Based in Zurich, Ernesto spend much of his life travelling the world. With his brother Gunter he travelled to California, Hawaii, Mexico and the Carribean. Further travels for Ernesto included Indonesia, Vietnam , the Phillipines, South America and, one of his favourites, Thailand.
It would have been an honour to have known him.
Like me, he spent his life looking for the true souls of people.
Like me he found those special qualities he was looking for in the peoples of lesser “developed” communities.
“Ernesto was a true free spirit, and world-class musician with additional talents, such as being a good organizer, and a great friend for many, in the whole world.” ……. Gunter Weber
Towards the end of his life Ernesto spent much time visiting Northern Thailand and developed a real wish to help the less fortunate children in this area have a better chance in life.
He developed his own English language course for Thai children that he had hoped to use to teach himself. This course will soon be available on our Thai Schools English website.
He saw education, especially in English language as an important way to help this come about.
Ernesto left a sizeable bequest in his will to be used towards this hope.
In December last year we were contacted by Ernestos brother Gunter and Gunters wife Rose. Subsequently this lovely couple came to visit our Foundation. After they had visited a few similar organisations in Northern Thailand we can only be very thankful that they decided to ask us to use Ernestos bequest to further develop our work and help to secure this young Foundations future, and to do our best to help to give that Better Chance.
Thank you so much Ernesto, your hopes and dreams will live here and we will do our upmost to ensure that they come true.
Wednesday 9th and our American friends Catherine and Grace returned in the late afternoon to spend time with the children.
They came armed with boxes of coloured chalk and soon had all the children brightening up our yard with Chalk art.
After taking dinner with us, they also helped out with homework time and when homework was done got some of the children making bead bracelets,which they also supplied the resources for.
Once again the children enjoyed the company, fun and chance to experience more English language.
Thanks girls and see you again soon.
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.
