Flying blocks and stairs to the second floor

 I came to visit today and had to watch out for flying blocks, literally. It appears that their task for the day was to unload this load of blocks for the walls. The men in the truck were throwing the blocks from one to the other, and then down to the guy on the ground. After that it seemed to get a little gentler as they were handing and stacking them. I would not want to get in the way of one of those flying bricks.
Over at the building they were getting the second flight of stairs ready to pour, with the board down, metal in place, they were marking the steps out so that they would be even from top to bottom.

look at the block in mid flight...

marking the height for each step

Pampers

Sometimes language is funny. I went to visit the workers a few days ago, and I thought they were saying that the pampers were about to arrive. They went on and on and I was quite confused as to why they were so excited for diapers to arrive. On the day they arrived I was even more confused as there wasn't a pamper(diaper) in site. After having someone speak very clearly I finally understood they were saying "pan puun" which are cement blocks for the floor that are already reinforced with metal inside. Once again I was glad that I wasn't a part of the work crew as they were lifting those heavy things with the backhoe from the ground to halfway, but then the men had to work together to lift them to the second floor and then another team to get them into place. They are being held in place by a series of boards to support the heavy pieces until it is completed properly.
I also took the chance to sneak up (with permission) the first half of the steps on the other side, and then up a ladder so I could get a picture of where they laid the cement by hand. They said that by next week the rest of the steps will be complete and I can climb to the top. I'm excited.

the view from the ladder

first selfie on the second floor (kind of)

the boards and bamboo holding up the floor that they poured

lifting the "pampers" onto the second floor

VBS Team

the choir welcoming the team

 This week a team from Singapore came and set up what would be similar to a VBS at home. For 3 days they had each grade come in for an hour for singing, a game and a bible lesson.
The first day they were greeted/welcomed by the entire school with a special presentation by the school choir.
The first days lesson was about Jesus love for us and how that love washes away our sins. They had a bottle representing our hearts that had clear water in it. Then, they added lies, anger, and other things that separate us from God in the form of red colored water. The shade of the heart was by then a dark red. However, they had another cup of liquid that represented Jesus that was clear. When that liquid was added, the water became clear, washing all of our sins away. Then, after that if they added lies, anger, etc... our heart remained pure and clean.

The second day they taught about the prodigal son, and the third day they talked about how we are princes and princesses. At the end of the lesson they had a teacher stand at the front and a girl and a boy each had to come up and thank the teacher for something. I attended the 6th grade session and was the only teacher, so I received the thanks and the crown from them. It was precious, humbling, and a good reminder as to why I'm here.
They also had students pray a prayer to accept Jesus in their hearts. Most students were accepting of it, even many of the Buddhists. Groups like this coming over time are what makes this school different from the government schools. The students not only get weekly Christian lessons, weekly chapel services, and more than half of their teachers are Christian, there are also groups like this that come from time to time and preach the gospel in a way that the students can connect with and grasp easily. What a blessing.

singing hallelu

our hearts filled with lies and anger

the color bracelet reminder of how to be forgiven and accept Jesus

they were given a black heart when they entered the room

and after praying the prayer exchanged it for a red heart

playing games

the prodigal son story

the school director with his crown

me being crowned

the sixth grade students in their crowns

Continuation of the Second Floor

you can kind of see the support poles and boards being used

as a base to hold the cement in place

 Over the last few weeks the workers have had several days off due to holidays or rain, which makes it seem like slow going for someone like myself.
However, you can see that the have got the beams cemented and the support posts are no longer in use meaning they are strong enough on their own.
They have been pouring the floor that will be the front of the classrooms on the second floor. There are boards held up from underneath by poles and the cement has to be lifted from the ground to the second floor by the bucketful, and then poured into a wheelbarrow to then be taken and put in place. This looks like a lot of tiring work to me, and I'm more than happy to be spending my days in the classroom and visiting them from time to time to snap some pictures.

the teamwork being used to lift the cement to the second floor

to be poured in place

I just love their system of using bamboo and wood boards

to hold things up

Mother's Day

singing in the meeting hall

 Mother's Day in Thailand is celebrated each year on the queen's birthday (August 12th) as she is seen as the mother of the country.
The school has their ceremony the day before as we have Mother's Day off as a national holiday. All mother's are invited, and sign in when they arrive. Things are started off with singing, a message, special music, candles lit by everyone and the singing of the queen's song, awards are given to one mother in each class, as well as students who won the writing and drawing competitions. Finally, the mothers are invited to sit on the stage and their children can come up and give them jasmine(the flower for mothers) and hug them, etc...

mothers signing in

In the afternoon we were given the task of planting trees in the community. The Church of Christ in Thailand has asked that all of the schools together plant 1 million trees before Father's Day  in December. So, our school promised to plant 1,000 to help them reach that goal. Each student was supposed to bring in their own seedling from home, and we set out with the director to plant the trees. The fruit trees were planted on the school grounds so that we can enjoy the fruit in the future. The ones that were left after that were taken and we planted some along the road, and the rest were planted at one of the Children's homes that sends their children to the school. We posed in front of the home before heading back to the school to be dismissed.

lighting candles for the queen

the choir singing for the mothers

kindergarten girls performing a dance

a  mother receives her certificate

a student receives her prize

meeting their mother's up on the stage

preparing to head out on the planting mission

planting trees along the road

and at the children's home

one last group photo of the 6/1 planting team

with the director and a papaya tree

passing the rice fields on the way back

with an interesting plant

ASEAN Day

For those that don't know, Thailand is one of the ASEAN Countries. Over the past 5 years or so, Thailand has been preparing for the opening of ASEAN, ensuring Thai people that once ASEAN opens (last year on December 31st was the official opening date) they will be able to go to any of the member countries and work in any of the countries. From what I've seen and heard, Thailand is the only country that is really preparing for ASEAN and it is more of a way to get them to put the member country flags on every school and government building, as well as encourage the teaching of English so that the students can go to the other countries to travel.

For opening worship these students read Psalms 133 in 9

different languages

This guy came and taught Jesus Loves Me in Burmese

 August 8th is the day that the treaty was first signed, and hence every school is supposed to host an ASEAN Day to teach about ASEAN. This was the first year since I've been here that we've done it. So, using the theme and information from the English Camp that the CVT Volunteers put on, we worked to have the 7th grade students teach the younger students. We had a drawing to see what group they would be in, and what they would be teaching. They each had one country to teach about, and then a set of English vocabulary to go over as well as an activity with the vocab. With 20 minute rotations they had enough time to do all of it before moving on. The 5th and 6th grade students had their own special tasks, creating a map of the member countries in groups (Thai students are notorious for not knowing where places are on the map), drawing an ASEAN flag with the meanings of each part in Thai and English, as well as a word search with the country name, animal, flower, capital, and currency for each country in the puzzle.
Overall, the students had a great time. The 7th grade students were able to show what they could do in teaching the younger ones, the younger ones were able to learn from the older ones, just showing how this school is like one big family.

7th grade students teaching in a 1st grade class

teaching Kindergarten the flags of the countries

matching family words with pictures

playing fruit salad

even this 5th grade teacher tried out the word search

Kindergarten coloring pictures of the animals of ASEAN countries

drawing pictures of what they want to be after learning about occupations

working on their map together

trying to find those pesky words

watching a video about ASEAN at the end of the day

showing off their maps

the flags of the ASEAN countries, notice the flag stands

made out of bamboo in a local fashion