The Mae Sot exhibition

Here is a photo of the Hle Bee dancers performing at the exhibition. I hope they will do this dance for us when we visit. It's funny because our P6/7s also asked to dance at the Ocean Terminal opening. Mind you they did want to dance the 'Time Warp Again'... not entirely relevant!! Oh, ok here is a photo of it!
And another photo of Burmese teachers and students looking at the etchings in Mae Sot.

What you think of the Scottish exhibition....

Here is some lovely feedback on the Scottish exhibition from Carolyn Martin, Forthview's Early Years' Manager, " The exhibition was absolutely fab! We both saw the exhibition. It is very moving and we both were so impressed by what the children were saying, their etchings and what the exhibition means in terms of how much we all have in common across the world as far as the human condition is concerned. It was just great." Thank you Carolyn.

On Sunday Geoff and Sheila leave for London, ready to fly to Thailand early on Monday morning. We are very happy and excited and looking forward to seeing our Burmese friends again.

Mae Sot OUR LIVES exhibition opens

Here are the Burmese and Scottish children's etchings hanging in Borderline Gallery, Mae Sot.

Pictures from the opening of the Scottish OUR LIVES Exhibition

It's tricky to try and match words to many pictures on blogger but I will try!

Photo 1 Emma Dougan, Forthview Teacher, Tom from the Maitre Trust, Alisdair Greig and Heather, a parent

Photo 2 Chris and Dang Robinson, our artist and adviser and friends

Photo 3 Sharon and Elric Honore, our old Breakfast Club leader

Photo 4 The Whalen and Sharpe/Japp family

Photo 5 John Loughton, Chair Scottish Youth Parliament and Graeme Thomson, Forthview's learning adviser

Photo 6 Mary Gillespie, HT Pirniehall who is travelling to Say Ta Nar School, Mae Sot this July chats to Frances Brock, Forthview DHT

Photo 7 Ewen Hardie (www.barefeetforburma.blogspot.com) talks to Mark Lazarowicz about his barefoot walk to London this summer.

Photo 8 Rowena Arshad and family.

Thanks to all these good friends of Forthview and Burma for joining us at the opening.

Borderline OUR LIVES exhibition opens in Mae Sot on Dau Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday

Today OUR LIVES exhibition opened in Mae Sot, Thailand. Borderline Gallery sent Sheila this lovely email.

Hello! Dear Sheila Laing, how are you there? We hope you are fine. All of us are well.Today, we are joyfully preparing for "Looking East, Looking West" special show reception. We hope that will be lucky for the night with too many people. B. also prepare to rent a car for the children.We wanna to share to you . So we will sent some images after opening night. Please go to attach file. Thank you for everything.With regards, Flock of Borderline.

Today Hle Bee teachers and students attended the Mae Sot opening of OUR LIVES exhibition with many parents and friends. It was at 7pm. Forthview were having an Assembly to celebrate Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday at exactly the same time in Scotland - 1.30pm. So we had an AMAZING phone link to each other using speakerphones. It was very exciting and very very special - a magical moment! Many Forthview teachers said they found it a moving experience and 220 Forthview children were as quiet as mice listening to Tha Zin greet them. 'Minghla Ba, Tha Zin', they shouted to her. To enrich the experience even more, Philip Campbell, a Scottish VSO volunteer friend joined us at Forthview for the first time for this assembly. Read his blog on http://pipcocampbell.vso-stories.net/.

What a treasure our Burmese- Scottish friendship is.

OUR LIVES goes live in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland!

Mark Lazarowicz, MP for Leith and North Edinburgh, opens the exhibition with praise for the connection between the Scottish and Burmese children. Mark has always supported our link with Hle Bee School very actively so it was very fitting that he opened the exhibition.

John Loughton, Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament & winner of Celebrity Big Brother 2008 encouraged the children to be proud and to keep connecting with their Burmese penpals and with children all over the world.

Can you spot John's wee brother Christopher near the back row? He's the one with red hair like John listening really carefully because he is so proud of his brother and today it was Christopher' who was the star with his work on display.

Here is the Anglo-Burmese artist Chris Robinson and his wife Dang enjoying the exhibition which Chris has worked so very hard to produce with Simone and Ross.

The opening was a lovely event with many friends of Burma joining us, many of the children's families and many friends of Forthview.
Marjorie from Kindness Scotland was there. Mrs Ryan Gillespie, Headteacher of Pirniehall Primary joined us. Pirniehall is our next door school in Pilton and they are linking with Say Ta Nar School in Mae Sot. Mrs Ryan Gillespie and her family are going to Mae Sot at the same time as Ms Laing next month. (You can read all about the Pirniehall journey on http://www.pirniehall.blogspot.com/ in the months to come.) Alastair Greig and his mum, Aunty Maureen are Burmese Scots and always support Forthview. Tom came from the Maitre Trust, who support Prospect Burma and Dr Thein Lwin's work. Rowena Arshad and her family joined in. Our old friend, Elric Honore came along and it's always great to see Elric.

Now did you spot a guy with bare feet there? His name is Ewen Hardie. Ewen has been going out and about in bare feet since the Burmese monks started to protest against the way the military leaders were treating their people last September. Check out his blog on http://www.barefeetforburma.blogspot.com/. He is about to walk from Edinburgh to London barefoot to show his support for the Burmese people. He is asking for sponsorship on www.justgiving.com/barefeetforburma and the money all goes to Burma Educational Scholarship Trust to support Burmese students in education around the world.

SO MAKE SURE YOU GET DOWN TO OCEAN TERMINAL TO SEE THE EXHIBITION BEFORE THE END OF JUNE 08.
The exhibition also opens in Mae Sot on 19 June 2008, which is Dau Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday and our Hle Bee friends are now very busy getting the exhibition ready. Over the next few weeks, we will post some of the children's etchings and writings for you to see on this blog.

A message to Hle Bee and Forthview children - We are so EXCITED!!!!

Tonight 8 Forthview staff hit Ocean Terminal for 2 hrs to put up OUR LIVES exhibition. Ever seen 8 teachers organising each other? Irvine Wright has the right idea - move to the back until the strong women have sorted it all out!

What an amazing team Forthview has - everyone giving their time freely after school because they are so committed to the Pilton and Burmese children. I had a wee magic moment watching everyone work together for the children. And the same thing is going on in Mae Sot. Tha Zin and Guardian Angel working so hard to prepare everything for the exhibition there which opens on Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday.

And what awesome results!

Hle Bee and Forthview children, your work looks beautiful, your stories are superb. We are all very proud of you.

OUR LIVES EXHIBITION in Mae Sot and Leith

Etchings and writings from the Burmese and Scottish children will be exhibited in Ocean Terminal shopping centre, Leith, Edinburgh from 10 - 30 June 2008 and in Borderline Gallery, Mae Sot, Thailand from 19 - 30 June 2008. Please visit and learn about the children's lives; how similar and how different are they? Post your comments here once you have seen the exhibitions.