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Published: January 30th 2011
As Kim had said, after many hours of flying, and riding in the back of pickup trucks, and on a motorcycle through a jungle trail on the side of a mountain, we finally arrived at Loi Kaw Wan. Kim and Mryon were off to teach the Medics and I was off to try and find the school. It was about 2 kilometers from the village down a valley and up the other side. The trail to the school is quite steep and and the dirt is very red. The children run up and down these hills, in barefeet, with no problem. The school is built on two levels of ground. The upper level is the main school and the nursery school and down a hill is the some of the older students classrooms and the orphan boys residence. The orphan girls residence is up above the school. (Nothing is flat in this village) I was a big disruption to the classes on the first day. Also had no idea how to relate to these children but we had fun singing "Head, Shoulders. Knees, and Toes" and doing the Hockey Pokey. The school is run very differently from a Canadian school. Cats,
dogs, pigs and chickens roam freely through the classrooms and are largely ignored by the students. The exception was when a kitten caught a lizard and brought it into the classroom and played with it. The lizard ended up getting away from the cat! There are not enough teachers and 3 are away sick right now. I was impressed that students will stay in class all day waiting for a teacher to show up. They want to be educated. The English teacher, Leung Zeung ,aka Terry Brown, asked me if I would like to take over his class but as he was teaching subjective adjectives and I was not sure if I remembered what they were I had to decline! Terry Brown is a great teacher. At lunch time I came across a little girl outside sweeping the dirt. A teacher came out to try and tell me her story. In very broken English she told me the little girl's mother and father had died and she came to school with her 10 year old sister and stayed outside her classroom all day. Later that night we asked the principle about the family. There are 4 children, a 17 year
old boy, a 13 year old girl, a 10 year old and the 3 year old. Their mother had died about 6 weeks ago and their father died 3 weeks later. The 17 year old is working on a construction site that he must walk to everyday and the 13 year old has quit school to work in the tea plantations. The older brother does not want his sisters to go to the orphanage. He wants to keep his family together and support them, but to do this the 13 year old must work and look after the cooking and the daily chores. She cannot attend school. We asked the principle to organize us going to visit the family the next night. The next day at school and the rest of the time I was there was difficult as Kim and Mryon need Terry Brown as an interpreter and I had to take over his class schedule. Next year I will know to bring a power point presentation on Canada and other countries. They are very interested but it is hard when we can not communicate. The visit with the family was very interesting. The older boy does not want
to go back to school and he says his sister must also work. When the principle questioned her she said she would like to go back to school but it is not possible and she earns 1000 a month picking tea ($30) When we got back to the camp we asked the principle to figure out how much it would cost us to support this family, so she could go to school and maybe some day get a better job. Emery's and I decided to help the family with a yearly donation to be administrated by the orphanage foundation. The next day the 13 year old was at school not really fitting in but by the end of the week was acting like a 13 year old should..playing with her friends.
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The "warm" weather in Thailand
A. Moddejonge
non-member comment
Loi Kaw Wan
Hello ladies: Thanks for your update. It's exciting "tagging along" with you all, getting to see a little of what you're seeing. The temperatures may be a bit chilly there os it may "warm" you to know that your home country is in a huge deepfreeze; after over a week of warm chinooks (where we reached +13.6 C, we're -20C (w/o the windchill) and it's snowing like crazy today again. Highways #1, 2, and 3 have no-go orders for tow trucks and emergency vehicles. And since I see green grass in your pics? I'm guessing you're better off there being chilly. :-) Continued success and we look forward to your next post. :-)