September - work and fun

Work and play has been very busy this month as we have been short staffed at work and no supply teachers here either! School officially begins on the 3 October but we went to many last week and no teachers so maybe this week!
I have organised and run 7 school enrolment campaigns and 3 workshops which has been very hectic as well as having a week off for a big Budddhist holiday called Chum Ben. This has meant for 15 days the monks have woken us with thir chanting  and drums fom 3am to midnight!! Since it has stopped we are now woken by rats which are coming in the houses to escape the rain. Although noisy they do at least stay in the space between the two wooden walls.

So here are a few snapshots of us over the past month -

This is the office where I work and this is one of the workshops in full swing. 20 teachers and school directors all making primary literacy resources. Never thought I knew enough about primary, thank goodness for all those lesson observations I did at Finborough.

This was the playground of the first enrolment campaign and things didn't get better.

Water buffalo- the size in the picture is deceiving-it's huge! 

Pigs in the playground -well at least they eat all the rubbish that gets throw away here.

Here you can see we were trying to keep out of the mud, but it is so slippery. Well, I was walking around the Tampoun (an indigenous group) village and it was campaign no 6 and I was doing well. S'reyden the girl in blue gave me a fruit to try and the next thing I am on my bum in the mud! Luckily, nothing was too injured but I was very sore for a week.

Every campaign starts with grouping in the playground, then a march around the village telling everyone through loudspeakers to enrol. It ends back at school and we provide snacks and water for all. My favourite moment was when a mum with a child of about 8/9 arrived to enrol and the School Director told her he was to busy to enrol her as he was busy holding the campaign. I hope she came back!

Holiday time -

Laos was really good, we went with Lucita(Phillipines) and her husband Yasir(Pakistan). We packed a rucksack each and travelled by local bus which was quite an experience. We travelled from our town to near the border on one bus and then got this sleeping bus to the capital city Vientiane. It didn't quite work out and we had to spend one night in the bus station guesthouse - not one to go in Lonely Planet.

We had the top bunk.It was a great experience - just ruined by the horrid toilet, which they then locked so no-one could use!

Vientiane was lovely, but very hot and humid - thought I was used to it by now. This gate was built by the French and we climbed the 200 steps to the top to see the views over the city and the Mekong.





Local transport



So finally, back to Ban Lung and home again, which was nice - we really have a lovely home.