The final day

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!