Pirniehall visits the Thai/Burma border

Our last day already

2010-07-19T16:37:00.008+01:00

We can't believe our last day has arrived. Everybody has been so welcoming and has looked after us so fantastically well. Say Ta Nar has felt like a home from home. Neeshar has really looked after us and it's been great getting to try so many delicious foods and treats.

Yummy treats to try

Coffee time!

The staff at Say Ta Nar are incredible. All the teachers work extremely hard, we can't believe how busy they are. They manage to help each other out, look after so many children and still manage to have a giggle at the same time.

Happy teachers!

Lovely longyi's - gifts from the teachers

The children have been so enthusiastic and are desperate to show us what they can do. They are very focused and work to a high standard. They have responded so well to us and have impressed us with their ability to work together and to support each other. We hope that they recognise just how much they are achieving.

Eager to learn

When you walk into any school, you know that you are going to be met by children with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. The children at Say Ta Nar just seem to come into school and get on with it even although many of them have been through extremely difficult times.

Supporting each other

Not always so serious!

It has been really special working with Pho Cho and Neeshar. Say Ta Nar provides a safe and caring environment for the children to learn in and they are totally at ease. They are encouraged and supported, being helped to form their own thoughts and ideas and to share their own and views. Everything runs like clockwork but we know that things only go so smoothly because of the handwork behind the scenes.

Neeshar in her teacher role

Everyone mucks in

It's not all just been about teaching. We have learned more about Burma and the Burmese situation. Pho Cho takes great pride in his country's history and is determined that his pupils and visitors understand it's importance.

Team 2010

Working in a different school is challenging and everyone's flexibility and support have helped us achieve what we wanted too. This trip has been about sharing. We have been inspired by what we have seen at Say Ta Nar and are looking forward to going home and trying out new ideas. We hope the staff at Say Ta Nar have enjoyed working with us and that hopefully they'll have some new things to try out too. The children here have enjoyed seeing the work by Pirniehall and the children back home will be fascinated by the work, pictures and stories from Say Ta Nar that we will bring back with us.

Goodbye!

Our lasting impression is how confident and proud the children are and how they are able to speak their minds. You just have to look at the children at Say Ta Nar to see that all the hard work is worth it.

Burmese Martyrs' Day

2010-07-19T10:43:00.010+01:00

We can't believe it's Monday already!

Dazed and confused!!

Wakey wakey!

We arrived at school this morning to be met with a very proud Pho Cho holding a new sign that shows that Say Ta Nar is now an officially listed learning centre. Well done Say Ta Nar to be recognised by the Thai government.

Congratulations Say Ta Nar

We started the day working with the Grade 2's and 3's, continuing our wildlife work. We collected in the cameras from last week and the children assured us that they had managed to take pictures of some animals - fingers crossed! We brainstormed with the children which local animals they wanted to teach the Pirniehall children about and we managed to narrow it down to 8. We put the children into groups according to their chosen animal and they created beautiful diagrams.

Frog diagram

They then used their illustrations to collaboratively create a group talk. They were given a speaking frame to help them. To begin with the children spoke in Burmese but with a little encouragement from us they spoke in English and this was the result.

Preparing to talk

Talking positions boys and girls!

Talking about frogs!

We headed downstairs to work with Grade 1 before lunch and taught a Maths lesson using the whiteboards we had brought last year. We focused on adding 10 within 100.

Not much room

The children were confident with their number up to 100 and were able to work together to write their answers on the whiteboards. It was great to see everyone involved and whiteboards really are great for checking that everyone is understanding.

How many more?

Today we also worked with Grades 4-7 and formed Say Ta Nar's Eco Committee.

Say Ta Nar's Eco committee

We discussed Pirniehall's Eco code and its importance. Then in pairs, the children brainstormed their own ideas for Say Ta Nar's Eco code.

Helping each other to come up with ideas

The children have come up with some fantastic ideas which we managed to narrow down to 5 statements which will form their new Eco code.

Today was a bit chaotic because it was vaccination day. Almost every child at school had to have 2 injections. These injections are vital for their health and were supplied by Shoklo Malaria Research Unit. The children were very brave but there were a few tears.

Pupils had to be measured and weighed

Ouch!

The 19th of July is Burmese Martyrs' Day.

The day is observed to commemorate General Aung San and several other national independence leaders, all of whom were assassinated by a rival political group. Aung San was the father of Nobel Peace laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. We found this poem on Wikipedia which we thought was quite touching, please follow this link to find out more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_Martyrs%27_Day

Aung San Zarni
Born on February 13 was he
Born in 1915 to Lawyer U Pa Tha
In the City Of Blessed Meguay
Mother's name was Daw Su
The year 1947 died he,
On July 19th everyone weeped.
He is the cause of our Independence.
He is the father of this nation.
The blessings he had given us, the words he had uttered.....
How can we ever take those out of our minds......

Pho Cho had worked hard to make sure that the children and us understood the significance of the day. The children acted out what had happened on the day and it helped to make everything clearer for us. All of the teachers got up to speak and the children sang a song about the events of 19.07.47. Everybody sang their hearts out and it was a poignant moment that we won't forget.

Neeshar in full flow

Aung San and his cabinet

Getting to know Mae Sot

2010-07-18T10:56:00.007+01:00

Today we explored our hometown of Mae Sot. It is well known for being a bustling trade hub and also for its substantial population of Burmese, many of whom are refugees who can not return safely. It is one of the most important gateways to Burma with black-market trade between Myanmar and Thailand bringing in the majority of its income. The town has many western visitors who work and volunteer here and also a simmering tourist trade.

For an even better view, click here.
http://maps.google.co.th/maps?hl=en&q=mae%20sot%20&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

Even before we had started exploring, we were tempted by a yummy snack. There is no danger of us going hungry in Mae Sot as there is a huge range of things to eat. We've tried street food, traditional Burmese and Thai food and even Mexican! We are concerned we might not fit on the plane home!!

Bananas with butterscotch sauce - yum!

All week we have come across an array of stray dogs which can be quite upsetting. This dog clearly has an owner who loves it very much and we appreciated its Scottish bow.

Scottie dog

We had a lovely time wandering around the market. There is an amazing array of fun and interesting things to see. The market sells pretty much everything from food stuffs to clothes. We managed to buy a few presents and now our purses feel significantly lighter!

Busy market street

Could you fit anymore on there?

Everywhere we go, we have our teacher's hats on. Were pleased to see that the majority of produce was produced locally. This ties in nicely with our food miles comparison.

A familiar sight

An unfamiliar sight!

We stopped and had a delicious lunch to the great amusement of some teenagers. Little did we know that we were so hilarious! Luckily the owner of the market stall was taking things a bit more seriously.

Preparing beans

Leaving the market we stopped off at Borderline to have a cup of tea and to enjoy the exhibition. Borderline is a rapidly growing collective which supports local women's groups. The money raised supports the goals of community development and women's empowerment. We had a look around the shop which sells beautiful handicrafts made by local artisans. We managed to spend even more money here!

http://www.borderlinecollective.org /

We managed to visit Wat Aranyakyet temple which was stunning. We particularly liked the mirrored effect on the outside which caught the sunlight. There is quite an ethnic mix in Mae Sot with some practicing Buddhism and others Islam and Christianity.

Peace and quiet

It was lovely having time to wander around today and there are lots of sights to see. Some of the sights however are more relaxing than others.

Keeping busy at the weekend

Hold on tight!

We have had a truly lovely time so far in Mae Sot. Its a bustling town that has got something for everyone. Despite being perceived at times in the past as 'unstable', we have felt very safe here. The people are friendly and welcoming and we love Mae Sot's rickety charm.

Typical Mae Sot street

From Mae Sot to Myawaddy (Burma)

2010-07-17T10:48:00.006+01:00

We were a little bit disappointed to see that it was raining this morning but set off in high spirits to visit Burma.

After an entertaining journey which involved a free tour in Burmeese we arrived at the border.

Teddy came too!

Passport control went very smoothly as we were prepared to hand over our passports for the day. We then set off across the Friendship bridge.

Balancing acts!

Once in Myawaddy we visited a temple and had a look around. It also provided welcome shelter from the rain. The rain didn't stop a couple of local children from having fun, as they amused themselves by sliding over the slippy wet tiles. Unfortunately no picture as they were completely naked!!

Temple views

Should have brought an umbrella!

We came across a local market and bought a couple of souvenirs which was great because we really wanted to buy things from the local people as opposed to government-run places.

Local market

Whilst wandering around, we noticed a marked difference between Mae Sot and Myawaddy. There is even a difference between the main street leading off from the border and the side streets. We wonder if this is 'keeping up appearances' or just coincidence.

This isn't whisky - it's petrol

Somethings missing

Streets apart

It was extremely easy for us to pop in and out of Burma today but it's important to remember that it's not so easy for others.

Border crossing

Alternative border crossing

Even although we were only able to visit for a very short time and could only see a small part of Burma, we were still struck by the contrasts and the lovely people that we met.

A day for collaboration

2010-07-16T10:24:00.007+01:00

Today our lessons all contained elements of collaborative learning. We tried to get the pupils to work in small groups with no more than 3 children in each. We wanted everybody to be involved and on task and we wanted different members of the group to have different roles.

Our first lesson looked Pirniehall's local wildlife. The children in Grades 2-3 really enjoyed looking at Primary 4's work.

Primary 4's pictures went down a treat

They used the P4's pictures to help them to come up with different words to describe the animals as part of a group. Each group worked on a different animal and then the pupils became the experts, sharing their descriptions with the class in the form of a short talk.

Learning from each other

For the last couple of years we have given out disposable cameras and the children have come up with some fantastic photos. We have given them out again this year and have asked the children to take pictures of local wildlife. We can't wait to see the results.

The best homework ever!

While working with Grades 4-7, we asked the children to work in small groups again. This time we looked at Pirniehall's food miles. This is links to our Eco Work at home and our environmental theme at Say Ta Nar. Each group created a mind map based on a particular food.

Mind maps

We then did a carousel activity where we moved the food and mind map from group to group so they could read and build on the previous groups ideas. The children picked up the idea of a carousel easily and by the last rotation were moving the mind maps themselves. We need not have worried about the classroom organisation falling apart!

Everyone working in small groups

We then located the origin of each food on a world map and got the children to think about the implications of transporting such large distances. We have asked the children to go home and find out about where their food comes from. We hope that comparing Say Ta Nar's and Pirniehall's food miles will spark of some interesting discussion.

Being experts

After a delicious lunch and a bit of much needed down time we returned to the feelings topic to follow up on Pho Cho's lesson on the Cyclone yesterday.

Happy times across the world!

Our collaborative work continued and this time we tried to incorporate a few more collaborative methods. We randomly put the children into groups, gave the groups names and gave pupils specific roles.

Vanessa trying hard to remember groups and roles!

We think the pupils thought we were crazy, asking them to move around the room and find their friends with the same coloured bit of paper! Putting the children into groups worked well because there was a range of strengths in each. Giving the groups names and the children roles worked very well because it meant that it kept everyone on their toes as they knew they could be called upon to answer at any time.

Everyone has a role

The groups successfully discussed the range of feelings and made short role plays to demonstrate the feelings of the people affected by the cyclone.

Feeling hopeful

Feeling afraid

We reminded them of their targets from yesterday in drama. At the end they were able to highlight what they thought they had improved on.

Pho Cho's chance to observe!

Although we thought that we had perhaps bitten off more than we could chew we found that today went really well. Collaborative learning lends itself to working within the constraints of a language barrier because the children can communicate and learn from each other freely and are not dependent on everything being translated. It also worked well when working with a large class as it keeps everyone involved.

We enjoyed playing games with the Kindergarten and look forward to spending more time with them next week.

Which word?

We can't believe it's the weekend already. We feel tired but really pleased with what we have achieved. We're looking to seeing what next week will bring...

Hello? Anyone there?

Pirniehall hats, the new fashion accessory for the streets of Mae Sot!

Borderline's birthday

2010-07-15T16:01:00.004+01:00

Borderline, the art gallery that was involved in the making our Our Burma Book turned 6 today. They had a birthday celebration holding an art exhibition of Borderline Gallery's member artists. There was a even special performance from the Babymime artists.

It was great to be a part of the celebrations and couldn't help but giggle at the mime artists - proving that you're never too old to laugh at clowns!!

Debating day!

2010-07-15T10:45:00.007+01:00

We started of the day with an old Pirnie favourite, ‘I Feel Good!’ and used the lyrics to explore feelings words. The students worked in pairs to act out different emotions. We then added more feeling vocabulary and the pupils matched the words to actions and pictures. The pupils were already familiar with some of the words but found other, the excited, more challenging to say in English. They tried so hard to do their best and loved acting out the feelings to each other.

'I feel good!' 'I feel mad.'

'So sad, I do'

Which emotion do you feel? and showing 'Excited' at Pirniehall!

Pho Cho the took over to lead "Debate day". This happens very week and the children look forward to it and come prepared to discuss current issues. This week, grade 2-7 were debating how to solve Burma’s problems after the cyclone in 2008. This was a topic that was clearly close to the children’s hearts. Pho Cho had already introduced the topic and the children were aware that those affected need hospitals, clean water, shelter and food.

They moved on to examine the issue of whether or not Burma should accept aid. The children were then split into 2 groups and were asked to carry out a discussion in role.

Group 1 was to have the opinion that Burma should accept international aid and group 2 were to be against accepting aid. Both groups came up with interesting arguments. For example, group 1 argued that Burma needed help at the start to get them back on their feet and then after that they could support themselves. Group 2 argued that people need to try and look after themselves and that they should go out and find the things that they need.

The severity of the situation really hit home when children shared their personal experiences.

‘My family has had to move because there is no work in Burma.’

‘Things need to change in Burma because it has so many problems’

We were amazed to see how engaged the children were in the debate and how confident they were at discussing such a complex issue. The children obviously feel very comfortable in the school and feel free to speak their mind.

Engaged in group discussions

After lunch, the topic continued with a drama lesson and we all helped the children to prepare a short performance based on the cyclone and the immediate aftermath. We were impressed by how the children organised themselves, even when working in such a large group. The performances were fun and the children certainly threw themselves into it. Claire and Vanessa tried their best to assist and be part of the performance!!!

We had a productive discussion after the performances and gave the children positive feedback. When we tried to get then to think of things they had done well it became clear that they found praising themselves difficult. They are very focused on improving and can be a little hard on themselves.

It was great to see Pho Cho in full flow. We were amazed at his ability to give the children the skills, knowledge and confidence to debate. We left feeling quite inspired - Pirnie pupils get ready for some debating!

Enthusiastic productions

Another fantastic day at Say Ta Nar. Pho Cho and Neeshar - what a team!

First day at school

2010-07-14T12:05:00.009+01:00

We arrived at school and were given a Say Ta Nar welcome - a yummy breakfast. It was lovely to meet everybody. The children then introduced themselves one-by-one. We introduced ourselves and answered questions about Pirniehll. To our complete surprise one of the questions was a request for our national song. So what else could we do but throw ourselves into a tuneful redition of 'Flower of Scotland'!!

A grilling from Say Ta Nar!

We were able to answer questions about everything from school uniform to our curriculum and assesment methods. We had an interesting discussion about behaviour management which just goes to show that teachers have similar challenges, no matter where they teach.

As a present to the Say Ta Nar children we presented them each with a Pirnie baseball cap. Suddenly all the baggage issues became worthwhile as we saw how happy they were to receive them.

Anyone for a hat?

Everyone together

The children were very excited and we've never seen so many inventive ways to wear a hat! A huge thank you to Mrs Wilson for being able to source so many hats!

Thinking hats on!

Too cool for school!

In the afternoon we all joined together for some songs. We were so impressed at how well the children had remembered the words and tunes from previous years. The children really enjoyed the singing and there was lots of giggling, especially at our silly dancing and actions.

We then began our environmental theme with grades 4-7. We shared Pirniehall's Eco work and discussed different ways to help the environment. Working in pairs, the children got organised quickly and confidently shared their ideas with each other and with the whole class. Here are some examples of their ideas:

'Move factories away from homes'

'Reduce building to save the trees'

'We want to teach our community about helping the environment'

We hope that we can use some of these ideas to form a Say Ta Nar Eco code. We then went on to plant some seeds. We are all hopeful that green shoots will appear. Mr Fisher would be proud of us!!

Working together and sharing. Fingers crossed they grow!

Our Eco lesson fitted in well as Pho Cho was teaching Grades 2-3 about growing crops to sell.

Happy children

We have had a fantastic day at Say Ta Nar. We were struck by how much the children wanted to educate others about taking care of the environment and their ability to look at the big picture really shone through.

A well deserved drink at hometime

We've arrived!

2010-07-13T15:17:00.003+01:00

Have arrived safely in Mae Sot after a very long trip. We were met by Pho Cho, Neeshar and Geoff. It was lovely to connect with our Say Ta Nar friends again. It was very exciting for Vanessa to finally meet Pho Cho and Neeshar after hearing so much about them. We have met the Campie team and already started to share our teaching stories.

We are looking forward to our first day at school tomorrow. We are already preparing ourselves for the heat in the school but can't wait to meet everybody!

Checked in and ready!

Team Pirnie return for our 3rd year.

2010-07-07T15:20:00.002+01:00

Claire and Vanessa are delighted to be travelling to Mae Sot next week to visit our partner school, Say Ta Nar.
We have again been awarded a British Council grant allowing us to continue our Global Partnership project.
Watch this space for updates about school and no doubt funny tales from our travels!

The final day

2009-07-15T02:04:00.007+01:00

We can hardly believe we have just spent our last day at Say Ta Nar. We have enjoyed every moment with the children and teachers. The children remembered to hand in their cameras and it will be interesting to see their photographs this year.

The Say Ta Nar Get Together was memorable. We enjoyed having our Hlee Bee visitors, Irvine and Fiona, to visit us and with their help we have taken a video of lots of the wonderful singing by children and teachers to show at our first Pirniehall Get Together in August. We loved the Burmese singing as Pho Cho played the guitar and I know he writes some of the songs himself. We are amazed at how many `Fischy Music` songs the children have learned in such a short time and they sang with all the actions. What a performance! We noticed they go around in their free time singing and acting out the songs!

'Get Together' at Say Ta Nar

We inserviced all the Burmese teachers on our Emotional Literacy project with Pho Cho translating and it was great to see how much they were nodding and were agreeing with the philosophy. They felt it was very similar to the work they had done on critical thinking skills and we agreed as we had been to a presentation by Dr Thein Lwin when he was in Forthview school. Therefore both schools are working together in many ways and both have children at the heart of everything they do. We felt happy with this exchange of information and were able to pay the teachers a small amount for participating in the session. We enjoyed food and drinks together.

We were sad to hear that Emily had hurt her foot and was in hospital last night. Pho Cho and Neesha went to the hospital to see her this morning and reported she is improving. We wish her well and know she will enjoy the rest of her time in Say Ta Nar.

Sharing food after the Emotional Literacy In-Service

The children`s etchings from Pirniehall, Say Ta Nar, Forthview and Hlee Bee have now been published and all the schools have their own copies to enjoy with their children. There will be a Burma Book exhibition at Borderline Gallery organised by an artist friend to Forthview and Pirniehall. Pho Cho will speak at the opening but unfortunately it takes place tomorrow evening when other visitors arrive and the Pirnie team will miss it as we will be on the only bus out of Mae Sot that day heading for Chiang Mai. We know the Forthview team will video it and take photographs so that we can share with Pirniehall. There was a similar exhibition of etchings in Edinburgh when Mark Lazarowicz praised all the children for their impressive work.

At Borderline Gallery

Pirniehall children with their Burma books

With a mixture of sadness and pride, we waved our lovely children off clutching their bag of goodies from their Scottish teachers...we think the lollipops and sweets were the most popular! They want us to come back soon and told us in an informal question and answer session how much they enjoyed our visit and thanked the teachers for all their learning.

Our last moments together

I feel that we three made a great team and I have been impressed by Natasha and Claire's skills in planning and implementing dynamic, interactive lessons which have extended the work from the initial visit last year. The children have been noticeably engaged in their learning and have shown enthusiasm for all their tasks which has delighted their Scottish teachers. I cannot praise the girls enough for their commitment and contribution to our Global partnership.

We shared our final end of day drinks and chats. We were presented with our wonderful Longhis which we loved wearing. We shared our own personal gifts and a gift from the Pirniehall community. We discussed Rita, an invaluable volunteer member of Pirniehall staff and her family and how much they admired Say Ta Nar and the great work going on there. Pho Cho and Neesha have sent a lovely message back for them.

Thank you Rita and family.

Leaving a mind mapping resource

We all enjoyed our last hour together sharing thoughts and reflecting on our experiences and knew that this was just farewell for this year and not goodbye and that our partnership would continue to flourish. We got on our trusty bikes and gave an emotional wave as we left the gates of Say Ta Nar and went home to pack, ready to start on the first leg of our journey back to Scotland tomorrow.

We would like to thank Pho Cho, Neesha and family for their outstanding hospitality and for making us feel like a valuable part of the Say Ta Nar family. We are missing you already!

The last journey on our bikes - bye, bye Charly Cho!

Can it be Tuesday already?

2009-07-14T11:00:00.009+01:00

We feel a creeping sadness setting in. We are part of the Say Ta Nar family and are in comfortable routines preparing for school, working with the children and teachers, waving them all off at the end of the day and then sitting with Pho Cho and his family. We are already organised with leaving presents and have bought storage containers to hold all the resources we have brought with us. Tomorrow will be difficult!

There were Italian visitors in school this morning from the charity supporting Say Ta Nar. They were impressed with the school and the Scottish link and were soon admiring the display of abstract art. They observed Claire and Natasha leading maths games with the kindergarten supported by the Burmese teachers. Neesha, Pho Cho and Emily were all teaching this morning.

Neesha teaching

I sat with Pho Cho on the computer and we opened up the blog and talked about all the good work and joint projects that both schools were co-operating on. Pho cho and Neesha both enjoyed the photographs and we agreed that we looked forward to the future and working together for our children. We then talked about our Eco Green Flag and were able to show the North Edinburgh Newspaper article with our flag flying and Malcolm Chisolm and Tom Farmer who joined us for the opening celebration.

Look at the article below at:

www.northedinburghnews.co.uk/assets/pdf/2009/feb09.pdf

This lead on to talking about raising awareness of the Burmese situation and we talked about Mark Lazarowicz and his support of the two Global Partnership schools in North Edinburgh. Amazingly we were able to access Mark`s blog and show a picture of Pirniehall children holding the Burmese book we feature in with Say Ta Nar, Forthview and Hlee Bee. Pho Cho had a copy in school and was impressed to see this. I know Mark reads our blogs and we told Pho Cho that he would be happy to see that a Headteacher of a refugee school on the Thai/Burmese border was reading his blog!

Mary and Pho Cho sharing the blogs and news article.

Pho Cho has been writing an Environmental/Social Studies textbook for five years which has now been published and a copy is in every refugee school in Mae Sot. Dr Thein Lwin has written his praise and support for Pho Cho in the introduction. We are all very proud of Pho Cho who is a forward thinking professional who is passionate about education and the rights of every child. He would like to address the UN and I think he could achieve that one day.

Pho Cho's book

There was a lovely relaxed atmosphere as we ate another great lunch of Thai fish, hot chilli sauce and an intriguing prawn dish which became a talking point. Claire's face was a picture as we encouraged her to try it!

There were two main teaching tasks in the afternoon , one discussing Aung San Suu Kyi and the other a chalk art lesson about hands linking our two communities and this will be replicated in classes in Pirniehall next session. Pho Cho enjoyed seeing how involved the children were in their discussions. The children were happy to receive the photographs that they took last year. The day ended with an upper school singalong and everyone joined in as Claire lead us with her usual enthusiasm. Charly Cho was demonstrating the actions for all to see!

Showing off their work and enjoying seeing their photographs.

After waving the children off, Scottish and Burmese teachers sat and drank coffee together and munched on shortbread biscuits. We chatted and laughed together as good friends would and just savoured the moment.

A quieter Monday

2009-07-13T09:37:00.009+01:00

What a hectic weekend we had! But we loved it! On Sunday evening we enjoyed meeting up with our Forthview friends Sheila and her husband Geoff , Fiona and Irvine who are teaching at Hlee Bee school. They had just arrived after spending time in Chiang Mai with Dr Thein Lwin at his migrant learning centre. It was raining heavily and we wore our less than attractive raincoats for the first time. We enjoyed a laugh together as we shared stories about our experiences so far. Sheila , Geoff and Fiona have been here before but Irvine was just getting used to life in Mae Sot and looking forward to meeting the Hlee Bee pupils. Fiona who is an old (but young really!)hand at teaching at Hlee Bee will make sure he is making himself comfortable!

Looking good!

Natasha and Claire went straight to school after breakfast and I cruised the streets looking for the mini Tesco`s (yes there is one here!) and a place to buy bus tickets for Chiang Mai.

When I arrived at Say Ta Nar there was already evidence of good Pirniehall practice. The girls were teaching the kindergarten children, rotating three different groups and had introduced alphabet cards and games. The kindergarten teachers were able to observe different activities.

Interactive learning in the kindergarten

Meanwhile upstairs Pho Cho was teaching a science lesson and we met the Canadian volunteer Emily, in the adjoining room, and she told us she is with the Mae Sot Education Project and will be at Say Ta Nar until December. She is enjoying her pupils and her time in Mae Sot. While the children ate lunch we then all sat round and chatted as we were fed by Neesha and were joined by the Burmese teachers.

Pho Cho teaches science and Emily with her students

Another delicious lunch!

In the afternoon Pho Cho was able to see Claire and Natasha involve the children in simple mind mapping to organise their thoughts prior to writing. He commented to me as he was watching that he could have used the whiteboards in the morning when he was teaching his science lesson. He understood the value and we think he will soon be making good use of these boards in future teaching tasks. The children loved their afternoon of language games and drawing charcoal portraits of each other.

Developing active-learning skills

A special visit to a Karen refugee camp

2009-07-12T10:06:00.008+01:00

We felt privileged to be invited to visit a Karen refugee camp today with our Burmese friends.It was a 7.00am start which is not our best time of day but we made it in time. We needed to show passports at a checkpoint and our friends showed their work permits. The two hour journey passed quickly and we were soon approaching the first section of the camp which was zone A. There were two further zones and we were stunned at the size of the camp which holds 30,000 refugees. Each zone holds 10,000 people!

Entering Camp

We entered the gates and were immediately met by our friend's father who has an important role here and wound our way through the camp, passing fresh food stalls, bamboo houses, a wide variety of interesting stalls-in fact everything you might see in a town or village. Smiling faces greeted us everywhere.

Stalls

We felt relaxed and welcomed. The amazing Burmese refugees have built up a warm and caring community where everyone knows and supports each other.There is a hospital in camp as well as many schools and additional facilities like barbers and dressmakers. Resourceful families have thought of every need as some of them they have lived in camp for 20 years!

School Life

We were invited on a tour of the camp and visited a number of schools where teachers and a nursery headteacher graciously showed us where their pupils learn and pointed out a shared football and play area.

Open Space for Sports

We received outstanding hospitality and are truly overwhelmed by this experience. We are so thankful to our friends for taking time to share this day with us.

These photographs will give you a snapshot of our unforgettable day . However, we must not forget that these refugee families have been forced to leave their own country and are displaced people who have lost their freedom and many of their human rights. As we left the camp we knew that they had not lost their dignity or hope for their childrens future.

Community Spirit

Arriving home on the back of a motorbike-taxi!

Across the Freedom Bridge to Burma

2009-07-11T11:14:00.009+01:00

It's the weekend already and we have planned to visit Dr Cynthias clinic as we have heard so many inspiring stories about the dedicated help and treatment that all Burmese people receive here. Patients come from all over, including Mae Sot and many risk coming across from Burma to benefit from the free medical care and much needed medicine. We were humbled to see this great work in action and as it was vaccination day we saw lots of mums and new born babies waiting for innoculations.

World renowned Dr Cynthias clinic

We witnessed a number of disturbing sights from the bus as we headed to the Freedom Bridge and we have spent time talking about this and trying to make sense of it all. Clutching our passports we passed through the Tak immigration checkpoint and walked over into Burma or the union of Myanmar as it is now called.

Passing through immigration into Myanmar

We moved on to the next checkpoint and paid for a days visa and the officials took our passports to ensure our return. To say that we were a little disconcerted to hand over our passports is an understatement. However as we had no choice we forced ourselves out of the office still not convinced! We then had our temperatures taken to detect if we had swine flu! As I had a Thai phone with me I then quickly phoned an American resident I had made a connection with last year and was reassured to hear this was normal practice. Feeling relieved we walked for miles in the scorching heat to absorb this new experience...we were actually in Burma!

We spotted a Bhuddist temple and went in to enjoy some peace and calm from the bustling streets. We were soon surrounded by lots of lovely children in smart uniforms obviously on a lunch break from the local school.

Relaxing at lunchtime in the temple.

We followed the trail of children back to The Basic Education High School in the hope of meeting some teachers and introducing ourselves and talking about Say Ta Nar. The children were mesmerised by us and we caused real excitement on the campus. Children were waving to us and giggling around us and pointing fingers as we tried to find their teachers. We did eventually find three teachers but they were unable to speak English and had no idea what we were trying to say and looked bemused. Disappointed at this we realised we should leave and with a smile and our best 'Mingla Ba' we continued on our journey.

The Basic Education High School

We moved further into town hoping to get a better sense of the every day communities and we were not disappointed. We saw lots of the market stalls and streets where families were living and again we were a source of amazement for many people who smiled and shouted to us on our travels.

Some sights from our travels

We heard the lovely singing voices of children and we were soon standing outside a Bhuddist school. We were so pleased to have discovered two schools in the three hours we stayed across the border.

The local Buddist school

After collecting our precious passports we had our temperatures taken again and we were informed by the clerk that we were 'normal'. Little did he know! We wondered if we would have been sent back if we had had a temperature.

Under the bridge

We struggled across the bridge flagging in the heat and saw a family in a tyre making their way towards the Thai border. This is a sight I witnessed last year as families try to find a better life for their children. There are so many harrowing sights around the area of the Friendship Bridge and we found ourselves feeling quite emotional and reflective about everything we had experienced. A Saturday we will not forget.

A good Friday for us all

2009-07-10T11:10:00.016+01:00

We took every resource we had to school today which included loads of additional card and stationary bought locally last night. We have mastered the art of cycling with full back packs and baskets overflowing. And yes Natasha has a new bike! I am sure we must be a talking point as we plough through the traffic every day.Claire sings songs from Mamma Mia , Natasha always looks calm and dignified and I talk for Scotland to every poor cyclist who draws up beside me at traffic lights.
We arrived at the gates of Say Ta Nar to the heart warming welcome of the whole school and immediately went underneath the house to spend some time and share gifts with the kindergarten.

Thank you Primary 1 for your card and presents

We talked to the children about Pirniehall nursery and infant classes and handed over their pictures and gifts of pencils and an interesting incense mobile! Claire and Natasha had fun showing the little ones how to use their chunky calculators and there were lots of smiling faces and an excited air in the kindergarten as we returned upstairs to teach.

We love our calculators!!

The upper school were on alert waiting for us and within minutes they were engaged in pairs talking and planning their writing on the whiteboards that we had introduced earlier.

Children fully engaged in their writing on whiteboards.

They produced great Say Ta Nar booklets and drawings that we will be sharing with Pirniehall in the new session. Claire has now taught three great songs and it is amazing to hear how well they are singing them already. Pho Cho arrived at this point with Neesha and the baby.The good news was that all was well and everyone clapped and hugged at the relief of seeing this lovely family looking happy and together again.

Claire in full flow!

Claire's new toys go down a storm!

We were encouraged to continue with our planned day and after eating a tasty lunch made for us by the tireless and resilient Neesha , we started the afternoon session. Natasha demonstrated a lesson based on the work of Matisse using pastels and charcoal and the children created lovely art work which is now proudly displayed in school.They then enjoyed participating in active langauge games to develop their word skills.

Loving the different Art and Language games

While this was happening I chatted to the older pupils and discussed the stunning photographs they took last year of their homes and local community. They all received a Nothing Special booklet with some of their published photographs and were excited to see themselves in print. Pho Cho helped explain about our Eco project and that we wanted to find out more about SayTa Nar and their Global footprint. We handed out cameras so that they could start capturing images that represented how they take care of their environment to compare with our ongoing work at Pirniehall.

An interesting Eco discussion.

At the end of the day Pho Cho played guitar as the children sang enthusiastically to their Scottish teachers before leaving for the weekend. See you Monday teachers!

The baby enjoys the music too.

Teachers were heading for the laundry and to update the blog. We have an exciting weekend planned with lots of early starts and although we are exhausted we will enjoy every experience.

Singing a Pirnie favourite - We like!

Working with the children is a highlight

2009-07-09T01:37:00.009+01:00

We hopped on to our trusty bikes and arrived at Say Ta Nar weighed down by calculators and books we planned to use. We were met by a distressed looking Pho Cho who told us that his baby son had been taken to hospital after a clinic visit. Neesha was already staying with him and Pho Cho was anxious to join his family. He apologised profusely about leaving us but we fully understood and urged him to go. We were now in charge of grades 4,5,6,7 and 8 for the day! Claire and Nastasha were well planned for the morning as we knew this was an allocated teaching slot. All day teaching on day one was more of a challenge than we had expected as we had only brought some of our resources. However Pirniehall teachers think on their feet and the whole day was soon organised. Claire and Natasha were keen to engage children in active learning and working in pairs and groups rather than whole class teaching.

The children loved the calculators

As the day progressed the children received their calculators and enjoyed some challenging activities and of course they were delighted to take the calculators home. They played with them excitedly at lunch break.They learned two great songs that are Pirniehall favourites and were soon singing with gusto lead by Claire.

Trying something new - group discussions.

They went on to a listening and talking task in pairs, modelled by the teachers and in groups discussed and asked questions about Pirniehall booklets prepared by Natasha and Claire with their own classes . They wrote letters based on these discussions and produced lovely related art work. Phew! A lot of teaching for one day. Thank goodness we had our interpreter who was invaluable and a great grade 8 pupil who translated well for us. The children were marvellous and were so interested and creative. They showed their love of learning and were clearly loving the novelty of having their Scottish teachers all day!

Children are fascinated reading and discussing life at Pirniehall.

Lunch was interesting without Pho Cho and Neesha but I decided to help out serving the rice for 120 children and took the job seriously as I was worried about my big portions and running out but all was well. Not such a quiet lunch room today!

Head Teacher serves lunch! A special moment with his Scottish teacher

The children left at 3.00pm with their usual 'see you tomorrow teacher' and I decided to go on the bus taking the children home. It was wonderful to see where the children lived and get a sense of their community.The children and parents were at all times so happy and smiling and the children clearly looking forward to school tomorrow.

Children returning home

Mum collects child from the bus 'See you tomorrow teacher!'

Claire and Natasha and I jumped on to our bikes feeling exhausted but with a real sense of achievement. We think we will be in charge of these grades again tomorrow so are off to our favourite internet cafe to debrief and plan. We will not talk about Natasha's pedal falling off her bike...twice!

Tickety Boo!

2009-07-08T07:24:00.010+01:00

Everything has gone so well on our long journey to Mae Sot with no delays and baggage retrieved safely in Chiang Mai. Or as Natasha would say `everything has gone tickety boo` which has become our new catchphrase. We travelled Edinburgh to Paris to Bangkok to Chiang Mai and then the final six hour bus journey to Mae Sot. We had no time to make a visit Dr Thein Lwein school in Chiang Mai as we had to catch the one bus leaving for Mae Sot , but hope to fit it in on our return.

Pirniehall meets Say Ta Nar

Pho Cho, Neesha and their children along with our interpreter met us at the bus station and we were all excited to see each other. We all headed for our newly found accomodation as our original hotel had ,out of the blue , decided to paint their rooms during July! Luckily our artist friend had contacted our interpreter to save the day and she organised alternative rooms and bikes. We appreciated this thoughtfulness! I kept this little surprise from the girls until we were sitting calm and relaxed with a caffe latte in Paris airport. C`est tres bien! Wait till they see the rooms!

Is this it?!

Say Ta Nar school had an unexpected holiday as it is a religious festival and is opening again just as we arrive. Perfect timing and another tickety boo moment! We then went on an evening walk to orientate ourselves and found a favourite restaurant from last year fondly referred to as `Canadian Daves`, run by Dave and his lovely family. He told us he knew we were coming because he had read the blog. We were very impressed and felt like we had arrived.
Next morning we were awakened by the happy builders and were soon met by Neesha and some of our students who brought us our bikes! My family will be waiting with bated breath to see how their mum manages without them , as Lewis always kept a protective rear guard to keep an eye open for potential hazards, shouting encouraging words like `watch out for the truck` or `you`re too close to the motorbike`. Alan kept us right with directions and Calum just enjoyed a kamikaze journey through the traffic every day. I think I`ll surprise them but watch this space as I have not been on a bike since last year. Claire and Natasha seem quite confident as we head out into the traffic to have breakfast with Pho Cho`s family at Say Ta Nar.

Breakfast at Say Ta Nar
How exciting to arrive at Say Ta Nar! Successful first bike journey and a delicious breakfast with our Burmese friends. We talked animatedly about the children and the school to catch up on news and talk about our own teaching projects. Pho Cho has 120 pupils now and an additional teacher increasing their staff to five. He has added new resources including a new computer, whiteboards , with Pirniehall support. He looks forward to our teaching input and has allocated us plenty of teaching slots. We then handed out some of our presents to the family who are always so gracious and happy to be remembered.

Pho Cho likes his Scotland T-shirt

It is good to be able to share our 'Nothing Special' photographic booklets that reflect the communtiy in both Pirniehall and Say Ta Nar.

Team Pirnie are returning to Say Ta Nar July `09

2009-07-04T22:24:00.010+01:00

Welcome back to our Pirniehall blog as the next intrepid team prepare to visit our partner school Say Ta Nar! Team Pirnie take over from the Gillespies who had the privilege of working with our Burmese children last year.

We have been awarded a British Council grant to allow us to continue with our successful Global partnership projects. Claire and Natasha who teach at Pirniehall , look forward to travelling to Mae Sot and sharing in this exciting work. I`m happy to say they will soon be blogging so watch this space! We travel to Thailand tomorrow!

Team Pirnie - Claire Mitchell , Mary Gillespie and Natasha Millar

Visit to British Council Bangkok

2008-08-09T16:12:00.006+01:00

With my cousin outside BC Bangkok

At the end of our stay in Thailand we had the opportunity to have a meeting with representatives of the British Council Bangkok, organised by the Director John Whitehead. He had set up a generous morning meeting with Pred Evans, Director of Education, Matumon Katerenchuk, Education Partnerships Manager and Kewalin Lomwong Education Partnerships Officer. They were an impressive team who showed interest and enthusiasm for the schools partnership and were keen to hear all the details about the time we had spent in Say Ta Nar in Mae Sot. Team Gillespie talked enthusiastically about the children, Headteacher and teachers and the great learning experiences we all shared. As well as talking about the positive curricular developments we were also able to share concerns about the future of the Burmese children who were stateless and had no rights. We were able to talk about issues like future funding for the Burmese migrant schools and highlighted Hlee Bee school whose funding ends in October.

During the morning discussions the team asked lots of questions about all aspects of the visit, took notes and were keen to be involved and explore different ways they could assist our global partnerships.

The British Council team were so positive and interested that we all left feeling very good about the meeting and believing that there would be ongoing communication. Lewis has been asked to write about his Mae Sot experiences for the Asian Dialogues programme.
Since arriving home we have exchanged emails with the team and they are keen to keep in touch.

Remembering 8.8.88
To mark the 20th anniversary of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma in 1988 we joined many other supporters, including politicians, in an amnesty internatinal campaign on August 8th at the City Chambers. We all joined together to form a large saffron ribbon and had a minute silence to remember the political prisoners and the continuing struggle of the Burmese people under a brutal and oppressive dictatorship . This was happening in different locations across the country. We then went into the City Chambers and watched a special performance of a powerful and memorable play called The Burma Play: A comedy of terror , performed by the northern international theatre company. It is on as part of the Edinburgh Festival at St John`s church on Princes Street and it is a must to see. Here is an Amnesty International link showing photographs of the saffron ribbon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amnestyscotland

Auld Lang Syne from Say Ta Nar

2008-07-23T11:01:00.049+01:00

Just listen to Say Ta Nar singing Auld Lang Syne! We couldn`t believe it but just loved the sentiment. Our final day at school had arrived and we were all feeling quite emotional. This had been such an intense week full of great learning experiences but had been mainly about building friendships and linking two great schools.

Two artists will be working with the children , one here in Mae Sot and the other in Edinburgh on a joint project involving etchings and printing. These will be made up into a book that will be available for all to share . The Burmese artist came along this morning to work with the children at Say Ta Nar telling them an imaginative story about a chair in Edinburgh made of Burmese wood and then each child chose from a selection of Burmese photographs to etch and write about . Some of their stories are poignant as well as inspiring and the childen concentrated hard on the etching which is not an easy task. Watch out Pirniehall it will be our turn in September! Hle Bee children had been working with the talented artist the day before and Sheila, Fiona and Murray came along with the printing materials and to share in the experience. Their school was closed for the Bhudda holiday but Say Ta Nar is mainly Muslim so the school was open. We got to see some of the celebrations as they passed the school

Hard at work on the etchings

Pho Cho and I sat down at his computer and drew up our mutual agreement on our next steps for joint curricular work which we both signed and each have a copy of. Pho Cho agreed to speaking to Pirniehall staff on video and I look forward to sharing his message with everyone in the new session.

Headteachers sign their agreements

A glimpse of Bhudda Day celebrations

The children handed the cameras back in and I will develop them in Scotland and send them their copy of the finished posters to match ours. Both schools can then display them. We had a lovely afternoon singing, playing games and had a chance to watch Pho Cho`s message to Pirniehall on television. Everyone sat watching mesmerised and bemused.

The children were engrossed playing the dominoes we brought.

Alan had scoured the shops for 110 types of different treats for the children. He had to wait for over an hour in one shop as the staff ran round other stores finding the right amount. But the children really enjoyed the end result.

Goodbye teacher, see you tomorrow

Kindergarten waiting patiently for the bus home...our final view as children head home.

Farewell notes particularly for Lewis and Calum

Final cycle ride...where did they all disappear to?

Come on mum...where are you? We handed our bikes back ages ago

A fond farewell to Say Ta Nar for this year. The children and staff made our visit memorable. I`m glad this has been a shared family experience as we will all be able to look back with great memories and talk together about these special children. Huge thanks to Alan for videoing and being the organiser/events manager/guide around Mae Sot and Lewis and Calum for taking all the photographs/videoing/being in school every day/sharing with and learning from the children. They both have a school full of friends (some wanted to come home with them!)

We now head off to Krabi island and Bangkok to complete our time in Thailand. We will leave Mae Sot at 7.00am and arrive at Krabi for 10.00pm...I`m sure Alan gets special rates with `Marathon Holidays`. We will have travelled by Tuk Tuk, long haul bus, taxi , plane, minibus and longtail boat (only access to Railey from mainland) in one day before we arrive at our hotel.

Nothing will compare to the special time we have just shared with our Burmese friends and we look forward to our ongoing friendship.

Here is a sobering link to You Tube which gives valuable background information about Aung San Suu Kyi , leader of theNational League For Demcracy, who is under permanent house arrest in Burma and helps us keep focused on the terrible loss of human rights that exist for the Burmese people.

Her simple message to us all is `Please use your liberty to promote ours`

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=n4xdlxYs5r0

Teaching most of Tuesday

2008-07-18T16:32:00.013+01:00

Teaching mind mapping

This was to be one of the busiest days as the English teacher was absent and I took over. It is quite a challenge to be faced with so many eager children who are learning to speak English when the only Burmese you recognise is `hello and thank you ` as well as the problem of limited resources. I decided to introduce mind maps as a way of planning and organising their work and had my boys working hard modelling their own maps and drawing examples on the whiteboard. We all three worked hard explaining and supporting the childen and I was pleased with the end result although quite drained with the sign language and slow deliberate pronunciation. We went on and learned the Fischy song `I`m the only I` which they learned amazingly well and they laughed so much at the actions for dancing and romancing , often breaking into loud clapping. But they were soon singing the song with gusto and I have it recorded to show all at a Pirniehall Gettogether. We tried circle time discussions to encourage them to acknowledge their many talents and strengths , as well as short word bingo which they loved.....we gave out postcards of Edinburgh as prizes ! Just before lunch we were trying out new fun games like hangman and all in all we had a very busy but productive time.

Kindergarten learn the alphabet

The children moved effortlessly from English to Thai and then Burmese language.The kindergarten were practising their alphabet and the boys lead them in the ABC song. You might have noticed the markings on the children`s faces (see smiley face above)) and this is Burmese make-up which also cools down the face. It is popular with children and adults and I was treated to a facial too!

Learning Thai Language and Music

In the afternoon we played back the video to the children of them singing and doing the Fischy actions which they absolutely loved. They had never seen themselves on television.

Watching themselves on television

Children who had been absent for their identification cards had their photographhs taken below by a volunteer from the Help Without Frontiers organisation.

Identification photographs

Pho Cho`s wife surprised us with gifts wrapped up beautifully and inside were Burmese wrap arounds for Alan and the boys and a lovely handbag for yours truly. We were so touched because we did not expect this.

The boys try on their presents

Maybe we could bring this little treasure home?

We left before the end of the day and headed towards Hle Bee school (Forthview`s partner school) and as we cycled in we were met with the familiar sounds of Fischy music being sung enthusiastically by hundreds of children. They were raising the roof, led by Sheila and the Hle Bee Headteacher with Fiona and Murray singing their hearts out. We joined in immediately and Stephen Fischbacher would have had an emotional moment at the wonderful sound that resonated around the school. The children loved meeting Scottish boys as Calum and Lewis introduced themselves. They all shook our hands as they left school and close by parents were preparing traditional Burmese soup for the special celebration next day, Bhudda Day. Another lovely Burmese migrant community working together and sharing a special friendship with a Scottish school. I have a good picture of us all singing together but there are Burmese teachers in it and I dont want to compromise them so will not post it.

On journey home washing hanging out over bushes indicate someone`s home

When not cycling we took a Tuk Tuk

Rainy Monday at Say Ta Nar

2008-07-18T14:52:00.018+01:00

Rainy Monday

You guessed it! The rain poured down again on Monday but we were well accustomed to heavy downfalls by now and we had our breakfast at `Canadian Daves` . It was lovely to see Murray, who joined us from Chiang Mai and Fiona who teaches at Forthview with Louise joining her parents Sheila and Geoff .They had arrived after a very long journey involving missed connections and delays but managed to look remarkably fresh ! Calum had a tummy bug which is a common occurence over here and Alan stayed at the hotel to look after him . Lewis and I enjoyed another day at school. We helped grades 6 and 7 who were beginning to write letters responding to their friends at Pirniehall and they put such a lot of work into them. I have the completed letters to hand out. Pho Cho taught an impressive lesson on the rights of the child making good use of the United Nation book `For Every Child A better World` Children were engaged in animated discussion , art work and writing and came up with most of the key areas that are each child`s human entitlement - food, water, home, education, peace. This felt such an important area for these children to be learning about.

Pho Cho teaching about Children`s Rights

As usual we were treated to a lovely home cooked lunch along with the children. Just enjoy the lunch time video clip. The hospitality is so generous. Lewis and Calum bought all of the children an ice-cream from the local vendor which Calum captured on video and includes the industrious washing up process which you can see for yourself , just click on at bottom of page.The children took the cameras we brought for them home today , to replicate our community art project and take photographs of their life in Mae Sot. We had just finished doing this at the end of June with children and parents at Pirniehall. Lewis reminded everyone how to work the cameras and I was able to show them our completed work in poster form and on a CD and leave copies with them. They know we will produce the same posters using their photographs and send them back for them to display in Say Ta Nar. They were very excited about the cameras and were snapping away to their hearts content before they left school. I`ll be interested to see the developed work.

Camera happy!

Pho Cho is so interested in learning about ways to improve the curriculum for his children and hearing all the details about how we do things in Scotland. We talked at length about so many important areas which included involving parents, assessment and a differentiated curiculum. He has good but limited English and so I was constantly reviewing how to answer. I know we were communicating but I`m not sure how much of the detail he understood. I saw a glazed eye look at one point which was my cue to stop talking. I have learnt so much from him about the life of Burmese families, the crucial role of the school and dedication to children and education way beyond anything I have ever experienced.

Lunch at school- different to Pirniehall- so quiet!

Some of the parents had kindly handed in sweet cakes and delicacies for us to enjoy with coffee at the end of the day. A parent who lived in the refugee camp arrived with her son who had heart problems and who needed to be operated on. He had previously spent time at school but they obviously felt welcome and stayed to chat and drink tea. As usual we waved children off in their minibus to the loud cries of `see you tomorrow teacher` which is what they always shout to us at the end of the day. It will ring in my ears for a lifetime!

We went home through the day market in Mae Sot where many of our children and their families work as sellers and it is an amazing sight. It is hectic and vibrant and everything imaginable is on sale.The smells and noises, the variety of people, the animals, the cyclists (including us!), the garbage carts are all part of an amazing tapestry. Not to be missed!

Lovely fresh fruit and vegetables

A fellow Celtic supporer in Mae Sot and Lewis found him

Babies travel in the basket on bike!

The refuse collectors recycle everything out of necessity

Exotic fruits - the boys are still enjoying some of them

Colourful stalls everywhere you look

Bhuddist monks and temples are to be seen everywhere

Back at hotel-survived cycle through market and the rain is off

Click here to see how quietly the children eat lunch

A Busy Weekend

2008-07-15T07:15:00.008+01:00

Families fishing

Although it was the weekend for us , Pho Cho and his wife take no holidays and would be happily caring for some children at school , as their parents have to work . They really have an extended family of 109 children. We decided that the boys had worked hard since they arrived and we would take them swimming for an afternoon. We tracked down a local Tuk Tuk and headed for the Mae Sot Hill Resort where we used the swimming pool but it seemed such a decadent thing to be doing , considering the struggles of our families at Say Ta Nar . On the return journey we decided to meander through the local Mae Sot countryside.We passed the local fire station, then a group of men chopping down trees by the roadside and further along came across what looked like a large cattle barn ,but as we passed we heard the sound of machines and what seemed like hundreds of voices all talking at the same time. The door was slightly ajar and when we moved forward to investigate , a small child standing by the door was instructed to shut it. As we turned we could see two men on motorbikes quietly ensuring we moved on , following us to the river a few hundred yards away. We assumed we had come across an illegal factory and we couldn`t help worrying about the age group of the workers inside.

The factory

We had our best meal so far in a traditional Burmese restaurant , where we were all adventurous and had a selection of quite spicy curries, noodles and stir fry meals. We met a lady called Diane who has lived here for five years and has opened a small orphanage , is also supporting a Burmese migrant school (there are now fifty schools in total) as well as finding ways to rescue children from child prostitution. It is remarkable and humbling to come across so many selfless people like this who are committed to improving the lives of others. She has just opened an internet cafe to try and fund her work.

On Sunday heavy rain came down from early morning throughout the day and we were forced to buy big raincoats with a difference. We decided to make our way to the Friendship Bridge where you can cross over to Myawaddy in Burma but the only transport that we could find was a small , slow Tuk Tuk which laboured with our great weight on board.People were almost passing us on foot!

No need for suntan lotion, just big raincoats

We went to the market there and bought the school a CD player to play some of the Fischy music we had brought over to teach the children.

Friendship Bridge to Burma

The sights that met us at the Border were harrowing to say the least and words could not describe the abject poverty and misery we saw in what some refer to as `no mans land`. Families with small babies living in squalor surrounded by filthy rubbish , people trying to sell us anything they could get their hands on, shouting up to us and in the distance many more people who looked like they were struggling to survive. This is just a snapshot of the plight of Burmese families and helps us understand why they want to flee to Thailand by any means possible to make a better life for their children. Even although in Thailand they have no status and are always going to be illegal unless there is much more world wide political pressure which brings much needed change .They have to take some of the worst and poorest paid jobs here to help them exist. This is part of the Burmese story that has to be told and shouted from the rooftops because millions of Burmese families who have escaped a ruthless regime are now stateless and their amazing children have a future full of uncertainty.This visit has been about building a strong friendship with Say Ta Nar, one of the migrant schools that provide them with dignity, education, and a reason to stay strong and hopeful.

Here are some pictures that hopefully tell their own story:

Next day at Say Ta Nar

2008-07-12T16:16:00.012+01:00

We needed to find transport to travel to school each day so the boys hunted for bikes to rent for our week here. This was an easy option for three of the Gillespies who love cycling , but I have never been much of a cyclist. However I had to jump in at the deep end or be left walking miles and miles every day. We have already been in the hectic Mae Sot traffic negotiating cars, pick up trucks , motorbikes and tuk-tuk`s during the day and at night. Trying to remember all the little roads and streets off the beaten track was another challenge , but Alan has a great sense of direction and we arrived safely at school to the loud cheers of the children.

They were already hard at work, chanting their lessons in the kindergarten classes and there were Maths and English lessons going on upstairs. During English they burst into song again and clearly love making music. In the Maths class, children were encouraged to look at different strategies to help understand number within 100, not unlike our own approaches and were taught by Pho Cho`s wife, often while holding her baby. She is an amazing woman who gets up at 5.00am each morning to prepare food for all the children for lunch, sets up the school, teaches classes and looks after her own young children. She cooked us a wonderful Burmese lunch of fish, chicken , beef, vegetable and rice dishes.

Kindergarten enjoying lunchtime

The heat is at times intense in the school and the fan is rarely on but the children hardly seem to notice. Equally, torrential rain came down hitting noisily off the tin roof and at times it was difficult to hear but they continued oblivious to everything.

Children enjoy stickers for working hard

We went around sharing in their tasks and giving out well done stickers which we brought with us , to praise their accurate work and effort. They loved them! Just like our own children. We plan to give them out daily now. Alan has done a power of filming over the last two days so we will have lots of memories to look back on.

Everyone helps with the clearing up after lunch

The children`s lunchtime was an experience as all the children helped clear the rooms, set up the benches and then sat crossed legged in complete silence for about 15 minutes until food was served. An older teacher was delivering some words of wisdom and the children sat motionless. We were in another small room at the time but had to look in and check that the children hadn`t left the school ! They ate with gusto when the egg noodle dish arrived, eating with only their right hand. They were able to go back for extras and did. After eating , different groups helped wash the dishes and pots in the well outside, handing them to another group who dried and polished them. A local vendor turned up selling ice cream and those lucky enough to have 5 Baht (1.25 pence Lewis tells me) lined up and bought their treat.

Children line up to buy ice cream

After lunch the middle grades were taught Thai language by a visiting teacher and the older children stood up and individually told their own personal story of why they were in Mae Sot. There were some harrowing stories but mainly their desperate families had to leave because there had no jobs and no money to feed or educate their children. Because they are illegal and have no papers or rights in Thailand some of their parents can and have been rounded up by the police and deported back to Burma and they have been left on their own. The school steps in to support these children.They are all so incredibly upbeat and resilient considering the uncertainty they live with and each child has ambitions to achieve good jobs in the future including being teachers, doctors, football players. Sharing a powerpoint presentation of Pirniehall and the surrounding community seemed a surreal thing to be doing after this but they were interested to hear about the school and Scotland and they asked interesting questions. They were obviously amazed by the amount of classrooms, teachers, playground space and the older children who are High School age , listened wide eyed to Lewis talk about the size of his school, the amount of subjects he studied and the number of teachers he had. Quite a humbling experience to realise the quality of educaton and resources our Scottish children can take for granted in a country where they can generally feel safe.

The presentation

As the children were leaving at the end of another day , we were introduced to two visitors who had arrived from the organisation `Help Without Frontiers` and they had produced identity cards for each child stating they were supporting all children in the school. This felt important because it showed that a well known organisation is involved with these children and Say Ta Nar school . Although they are still illegal they have some visibility in the world. We waved the children off and went into the weekend feeling we had been involved in the school for longer than two days. We had a lot to reflect on.

Click below and listen to the children singing during their English lesson

Some extra photos to share

2008-07-12T16:11:00.005+01:00

Here are some additional photographs of our first day in school:

Children hand over their art work as a gift

Posing as Calum takes their photograph

Showing Calum & Lewis the peace sign

Playing games at the end of the day.

Lewis taught them to play heads down, thumbs up.

This is the maximum head room underneath the school

Children leave at the end of a long day...still smiling!

Our first day at Say Ta Nar

2008-07-11T02:37:00.015+01:00

Children are dropped off safely for 9:00 start

Shoes are always left outside the school

This was a very special day! We met the 109 children and 3 teachers who make up the Say Ta Nar community with Pho Cho and his wife Neisha who also live in the school with their two children. The school is a house on stilts with Kindergarten 1 and 2 taught underneath the house and grades 1 to 7 on top. It is a very busy school with little space to manouevre but it is an impressive learning environment. Children are taught many subjects and we saw the children learning English, Maths, Social studies, Thai, Music and Art. There are volunteers who come in to teach a lot of these subjects. The children were incredibly well behaved and industrious showing an eagerness to learn. They made an impression on all four of us and we couldn`t stop commenting in awe that ,with so little , they were achieving so much.

Kindergarten taught underneath house

Children are happy to be at school

We went on to share some information about Pirniehall handing out the letters and photographs from our children from P1 to P7 and they are keen to write back . The volunteer English teacher will help support this. We handed out the Pirniehall pens to greatly excited children and then put Pho Cho`s tartan tie on for him, to the hilarity of the school and staff.We have great video footage of all of this to share with Pirniehall. The children had prepared a selection of English songs for us and it was simply a joy to be there and hear their enthusiastic singing. We have again captured it all on video...they ended with Auld Lang Syne! Almost as good as Pirniehall children at a Friday Get -together.

The children are bemused by their new Scottish teacher

Live from Mae Sot

2008-07-10T10:19:00.011+01:00

Its all been worth it as we have finally arrived safely , if totally exhausted , at Mae Sot. Our early 6.ooam start from Edinburgh to London was straightforward and then we negotiated our way round terminal 5 to reach our Thai airways connection to Bangkok. After a 13 hour flight we touched down at Bangkok at 6.00am Wednesday morning and then had to find our way to the central bus station located downtown. It took us an hour and we booked tickets for the first bus which left at 9.00am. In the waiting room everyone got to their feet at 8.00am as we sat bleary eyed and watchful until we realised we should stand too as it was the national anthem...a daily ritual! When we asked how long we would be on the bus , the driver held up his hand to say 5. We interpreted this as 5 hours and felt quite relieved but in reality he meant 5 pm arrival which meant 8 hours on the bus. I give you this level of detail to illustrate our incredibly long journey. The TV blared throughout and I felt we might disembark speaking fluent Thai...I was so tired that I believed I could understand the conversations! On our way to Mae Sot there were 3 different police checks and one of them involved taking pictures inside and outside of the bus. Mr Pho Cho and his family met us at the bus station at 5 pm and had a big tuk-tuk ready and waiting, he must have heard that the Gillespies don't travel light!

This is the bus we travelled in for 8 hours

Calum hands over the kilted teddy bear

We arrived at our hotel and handed over a Scottish teddy bear to a delighted Nisha-le Cho, Pho Cho's daughter and were greeted by Sheila and Geoff , here visiting Hlee Bee with their friend and interpreter. We enjoyed our first meal at a local restaurant and took in some of the sights and smells, arriving home just in time before the skies opened up and we watched the rain pour down in sheets from the comfort of our balcony. A first reminder that it was the rainy season in Thailand, but at least it was really warm outside.We tried to post this blog but there was no connection in our room so we collapsed into bed ready for the next day when we are looking forward to meeting the children and staff at Say Ta Nar school.

Final preparations

2008-07-05T10:10:00.010+01:00

School holidays have finally arrived and our children have excitedly handed over letters , drawings and photographs to be given out to their friends in Mae Sot. Some of our parents and their families have been working together with an experienced photographer on a great school/community art project and we have samples of their lovely photography to share , as well as powerpoints put together to give a snapshot of the life of Pirniehall and of our local area. The impressive photographic banners from the project will be on permanent display in Pirniehall in the new session.

Friendship banner

The Gillespies will be armed with cameras and video recorder to capture all those great experiences we hope to share and we have plans to involve our friends in Say Ta Nar. We will have to wait and see what is possible , taking account of language barriers and resources in the area. We have small presents for everyone (Pirniehall engraved pens for each child and a great tartan tie for the Headteacher) but we are now having to keep an eye on the weight of our luggage (all eyes are on my case!).

The British Council belatedly agreed to support Pirniehall and Say Ta Nar in a reciprocal exchange and we are now officially part of the DFID Global School Partnerships. This will allow a Burmese teacher to visit Pirniehall and both schools can work together developing curriculum projects to link our communities.

As school ends we have had our vaccinations, applied for work permits and insurance, organised our four flights and different hotel accomodations not to mention trying to figure out how best to travel from Bangkok to Mae Sot...looks like the six hour bus journey is the best option as there are no longer any flights there ! So we will be travelling from 6.00am on Tuesday arriving 1.00pm on Wednesday at Mae Sot. Quite a marathon ! Lewis has just returned last night from Switzerland where he spent a week at international camp with the scouts and in total , the whole journey was 60 hours on the coach...so he is a veteran at this.

The taxi is booked to pick us up early tomorrow morning and all cases are firmly closed. With family and friends wishing us well we are ready to travel and with any luck the next time we blog we will be in Thailand. Watch this space!

The beginning of a journey...Pirniehall to Say Ta Nar

2008-06-22T12:39:00.017+01:00

Never been involved in writing a blog before so here begins an interesting challenge...if it works and we can communicate our experiences, then there is hope for all similarly ICT challenged friends across the globe!

`We` are the Gillespie family consisting of Mary (Headteacher at Pirniehall) Alan (tolerant husband in charge of planning) Lewis 13, turning 14 over in Thailand (oldest son/our ICT advisor and critic) Calum 11 (keeps us all right! And loves sports)

Just realised that as someone is always taking the photographs there are only ever 3 of us in them... so Calum is on the right!

Our first entry should record our mounting excitement as we prepare for our journey to Mae Sot to visit and work with the pupils and teachers at Say Ta Nar, a school run for and by Burmese refugees. For those who read this and don`t know about Pirniehall Primary, we are situated in the North of Edinburgh in Scotland. Although we face our own challenges , we are an optimistic school with a fantastic community of children, staff and parents. Click on the link below to access the Edinburgh Grid for Learning website to read something about our achievements and successes in our recently published school review: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/Attachments/Internet/Learning/Schools/School_reviews/School_report_reviews/Pirniehall-Primary-School.pdf

How did Pirniehall become involved?

As we had recently achieved our Eco Green Flag we were looking at our next steps and started exploring the idea of a Global partnership link . A neighbouring school , Forthview Primary, had already established a very successful partnership with Hle Bee school in Mae Sot in 2007 . Murray Forgie, a friend of both schools had returned from a visit to the Thai/Burmese border and had identified another Burmese school in the same area who were happy to become involved in a global partnership. And as if it was meant to be , Say Ta Nar and Pirniehall became friends and partners. This means two schools in the Pilton community and two schools in the Mae Sot community are reaching out to each other and are on an important learning journey.

We then had an unexpected and welcome visit from Nan Lung , a teacher who was training in the UK and returning to teach in Say Ta Nar in February. She spent the day at Pirniehall with the pupils and staff and shared a power point she had brought with her of the school , children and teachers . It was great to meet Nan Lung and hear some of her interesting stories. We felt more connected with Say Ta Nar and were able to give her a book of photographs and a Scottish flag (of course!) to take back with her.

Our first photograph of pupils at Say Ta Nar