Guest Blogger: Mom visits the Baan Unrak school

With such great feedback from her last post, I just had to add some more stories from Mom's recent visit to Thailand!

Querida familia y amistades, esta es la segunda que escribo, no sé por qué insiste tanto Stefanie, dice que lo tengo que hacer antes de salir de Siem Reap, Camboya. Lo que pasa es que a Stefanie siempre le ha gustado mucho leer y le interesa poder tener algo por escrito. Ahora en ingles para el blog de Stefanie:

The day before we left to our planned island getaway (Koh Lanta) was exciting as I finally got a chance to go to the Baan Unrak children’s school in the village. The school is just a 5 minute ride down the hill by truck, that’s how the kids get there, or a 20 minute walk on foot. Stef had to ask permission of the principal, a Didi from Norway, because I was really anxious to see these kids in their classroom settings. We just happened to bump into her the at the evening market held every Thursday evening.

The market is located on the main road on an empty field and about 70 tables were packed with stuff galore – food, vegetables and fruits, dyed baby chicks (pink and blue, why??? Don’t know.), clothes, toys. The entire village comes out. The older kids from the Home can ask permission to come to the market, and they come in groups. It was nice; Stef and I walked around the tables and some of the girls from the home bought some spun sugar confection, similar to cotton candy, which they gladly asked us to share. Everyone was mingling and having a good time.

The school visit was programmed for the following Friday. It was so comfortable for me to be there, I felt “in my element”. We followed the principal into several classrooms. The youngest kids are first graders and I saw them with one of the volunteers in the English class. Cute as can be, sitting in a circle, shoes off, singing with the teacher and answering in English to questions like: What does mother do? and brother? and sister? It was late morning so you could see some kids eating in the outdoor table area, other groups of kids playing tag, some just walking about, boys in a circle kicking a small rubber ball in the air to each other, others rushing to go back into their classrooms.

No room is air conditioned, open windows and fans are used.

All rooms are shoes off areas, even the teacher’s work room. So shoe racks are placed outside each classroom – I should say flip flop racks as these are the only shoes I saw. There was the noise of children everywhere, and kids coming up to hug Stef and me, but the atmosphere was happy. So funny to see the expression on the kids’ faces as we walked into their classrooms! When the principal found out I was a retired teacher she asked me to spread the word about their need for teachers! Imagine what an experience for a new teacher graduate! What a life changing experience it would be to come to a place where children really need you, where your work would be rewarded by eager children who appreciate your every act of kindness, to experience a new culture, and to feel that you’re contributing to making this world a better place!

A few days after this we started packing for the beach. We left on a Sunday, caught a ride to the bus stop on the Home’s truck, which was full of boys going to check out good camping sites in the forest. Yes, it felt sad to leave, some of the kids even asked Stef if she was going back to America. She had to repeatedly reassure them that she was taking me to the beach and to Cambodia, but that she would return in a couple of weeks.

That's all for now...stay tuned for the next leg of our trip, tropical paradise and island getaway Koh Lanta!

Guest blog post written by Cecilia Langley.