These last two weeks of the Mattayom,(High School), level school is a series of days off, half days and tests.
Yesterday all the Mattayom students were in school for the morning, 3 doing exams and Tai presenting his finished Wireless Internet Amplification Project, with his friends.
For the last few days he had continued to work hard on the finished presentation, producing a “storyboard” to display photos and written info on his groups work.
Top marks from me.
Last Wednesday was the official last day of the School term and year for Mae Salaab School that all our Prathom(primary) grade students attend.
Our recent volunteers, Nat and Ip, came along for the end of term show, where Jor received her final year certificate, ready for moving up to Mattayom studies in May.
Both Jor and Nu were also seen taking part in separate dance performances.
All the 6 Prathom classes took part putting on fine displays of traditional dancing. For many, the highlight of the show was an hilarious modern dance performance by 3 boys lip syncing to a Thai female Pop group song. It was a very brave performance and had most of the audience in fits of laughter.
As mentioned in Zaks Birthday post we made a special trip to Muang Mai Market in Chiang Mai, to purchase fruit and also as an English language exercise for the children. As we wandered the market the children wrote down the different fruits that they could see and we practiced the English language versions.
Some of the photos here will be used on boards at home for the children to label with their English names.
So after a busy week and helping out with many activities Nat and Ip have now continued on the travel break.
With all that “bread” making and basically helping out with anything and everything these two friends proved to be yet another great set of Volunteers and will be very much missed by the kids and myself.
We do hope we can stay in touch and that it won’t be the last time…never say “goodbye”…just “See you later”.
Its been a mixed week this week as both Prathom, (primary), and Mattayom,(Highschool), school terms come to an end, with some of the children still needing to go into school and others staying home.
At home there has been plenty going on with the help of our volunteers Nat and Ip.
Following the success of their Rotee class the girls decided to have another cooking class on Thursday, teaching the kids how to make doughnuts.
As before the mornings task was to prepare the dough and doughnuts for rising before cooking them later in the day.
It happened to also be Zaks Birthday, so the whole idea fitted well.
Its a well known saying often proved to be true, but we are very grateful for it too.
For many months we have watched one of trees in our garden grow and grow and grow. I have yet to identify the tree properly but it produces colourful red seed pods that we were subsequently informed are dangerous when they fall and dry as they are covered with hundreds of tiny needles harp barbs that can be very painful in contact with the skin and easily lead to infection.
For this reason we really wanted it felled and yesterday our good friends Des and Jochen; who had also popped in again on Sunday afternoon, kindly donating more food supplies; came to assist with the removal of the tree.
After the storm the night before the air had cleared and the skies too, bringing the full force of the summer sun into play, but this didn’t stop the mad dog crew.
Job well done:) All the wood was given to our elderly neighbour for future use on her cooking fires.
Another excellent day yesterday with our talented Volunteers holding cooking class for the children. The order for the day was Rotee, South American style.
The kids did have work hour in the garden first thing , so Natalie and Ip got started in the kitchen with Nu watching, whilst the rest of the crew were outside digging soil for new vegetable plots.
However, after some sterling effort with the shovels, the work hour was shortened and everyone joined the girls in the kitchen.
Natalie and Ip were great “Teachers” and really got all the kids involved.
It was fantastic to see the children all watching attentively and taking their turns kneading the dough, rolling the Rotees and then folding them and placing them on the tray ready for rising.
Once all the Rotees were prepared the children also helped out with preparing the vegetables for the planned Indian styled stew that was to accompany the Rotees on the dinner table.
The whole exercise was very popular and the kids had great fun and we now have an additon to our menu that I feel sure may become a regular thing.
Great job Nat and Ip.
After the work was relax and play games time.
In the afternoon the girls accompanied myself and Bpaa Zang taking Nu to the hospital, where, after a long wait, we got the good news that her arm is fine and her plaster was removed.
With such a long time at the hospital dinner was a little late as the girls needed to cook the stew when we got back late afternoon.
For me it was well worth the wait. We aren’t too sure how the kids felt about it, it is notoriously difficult to get them to try and enjoy something new, especially when it is not accompanied by rice. That said all plates were cleared.
What was most definitely popular was the sweet ,Rotees with strawberry jam that the kids had for breakfast this morning.
This week we have been joined by our latest Volunteers, Natalie and Ip, hailing from Canada and presently on a break from study as occupational therapists at Uni in Queensland.
We picked them both up from The Parami Guest House on Sunday morning, getting back just in time for lunch.
This friendly pair have again been an instant hit with the kids, pitching straight in with fun and games in the afternoon and chilling with the girls in the evening.
On Monday they joined me on a trip out to The American Pacific International School Campus near Samoeng where we chatted with staff and pupils about our re-cycle project with a view to the children there getting involved( full report on that visit coming soon).
In the afternoon Natalie did a great job giving further piano lessons to May2, teaching her some great new methods to increase her skills. Meanwhile Ip had fun playing card games with the younger children.
Yet another excellent pair of Volunteers, thanks for coming girls 
After two years study at Thaivitchaslip College, my assistant, Boon, is now progressing fast with the building of a Thai language website for The Foundation. With evermore support from the local community I have been desperate to ensure the availibilty of good information on our work in the local language.
Keep at it Boon, and well done on completing College. Sorry i couldn’t be there on your graduation day , and thanks to your friends for getting the photos.
A pleasant meeting yesterday, at Ratchadamneon Coffee, in the old city, resulted in a very kind donation of brand new copies of the first two Harry Potter books, in Thai language, from a visiting Foundation supporter, Rick Carbert.
Rick has expressed his hope to supply the complete set in time and maybe donate further with a view to building up the children’s reading library.
Having always been a great believer in the value of reading I have always done my best to ensure a supply of various books, so this is a very welcome donation
Big thanks to Rick.
