Tickety Boo!

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.