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

Some extra photos to share

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

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

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

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

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