Greetings from Ranong

Hey all,

Yesterday Veerle, Sander, Femke, Karin and I hitchiked from Paksong to Ranong for some shopping and relaxing. A friendly guy from the market gave us a lift bringing his grill station home from Paksong. Before a van full of boxes had passed us but didn't stop. Guess what: after 20 minutes we saw exactly this when having had a bad accident on the road to Ranong. We don't know what happened and if the driver is okay, but somehow it was good luck for us that he decided not to pick us up.

I am sitting in Ranong now, have bought some creme against infections (moscito bites can become severe health risks in this area), enjoyed grilled bananas and am thinking about what to do next. The last week was pretty exhausting but very succesful as well. Unfortunately, Sarah has left us. She decided to stay with her boyfriend instead. I hope she's happy now, however, the whole situation for her is quite difficult and we would have loved her to remain a part of the team at Thoor Taang School.

The kids are still pretty cool and a lot of them are learning English quite well. The Thai system focuses on repetition without a lot of creative learning methods and individual care. A lot of teachers are doing a good job anyway, but it feels as if the children had more fun learning with us, playing games, linking proper studies and more relaxed parts.

Next week I will probably be going to Langsuan with Pee Yoon, the English teacher, and the principle to buy new books and shelves etc. from the money donated for the library. We will also have something like a grand opening day with all the children and people from the village - I might even have to give a speech in Thai :).

I am really happy to see how everybody appreciates what we are doing here, both children, teachers and parents who also provide us with delicious fruit from their gardens. All of us are having a good time and are putting a lot of effort in what we do. Can"t believe that I am here for only one month longer, but I am already planning to come back next summer for another two months or so.

The next week will focus on how the children live, their houses and environment. So far we have already done family and things they like: volleyball, Thai boxing, pizza, mangos ... A lot of things are so different to what we do in Europe, but at the same time the kids are just children, they like to wind each other up, are proud of their motorcycles, the older boys try to act very '"cool" and are more into sports than English ;), kid around a lot, love to draw ... There are much more similarities than one might think.

As the Thai say: same same but different :).

I added some new pics as well.

Take care.

Julia :)