Next day at Say Ta Nar

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