... minging being a Scottish word for smelling richly but not sweetly. And that's how we felt at 6pm today after cycling back from school.Today we were awakened, not by monks but by pelting rain! The skies were so black we thought the rain would never stop. We cycled to school, collecting the £200 Forthview children raised on Walk A Mile for Sports Relief day from the bank. Here you can see Fiona Vacher with her class. Fiona is Forthview's P1 teacher who is coming here next Sunday.
We gave the 12000 thai bhat to Tha Zin at noon. It is to buy wash hand basins for the school as they have none and we are going to be doing a joint handwashing project. You may remember with the floor, Tha Zin does not hang about. 
As I (Sheila) was singing with Grades Kindergarten and Grade 1 & Grade 2, Tha Zin, Geoff and my translator abandoned me and went to get wash hand basins. I was panicking - 100 small children, me, Burmese teachers with no English, one Fischy music CD(http://www.fischy.com/) and 2 hrs to fill!!
At 2.15pm a van drives up and delivers 4 double wash hand basins! Now Tha Zin's poor brother is trying to work out how to install them. Didn't I say yesterday, bet these are installed before we leave? Now I bet they are installed by tomorrow!
After school, we went to Say Ta Nar school to let the Headteacher know that Mary Gillespie, Pirniehall Headteacher and her family will be arriving on Wednesday afternoon. What a delightful school led by a lovely and reflective headteacher and his teacher wife. They have been trained in Critical Thinking for Reading and Writing by Dr Thein Lwin, our friend from TTBT (www.educationburma.net). Mary will love her time here.
4 comments:
Hi
I am not sure this is so simple but I am going to try to leave a message.
Hello from back at the ranch! I am really enjoying reading your blog. What a wonderful thing to do. I really hope the wash basins all go well.
Hatty Chick
Hi Hatty, what a lovely surprise to hear from you. Thank you for posting. And I am glad somebody is back at the ranch because I see a very important document on the future of Support for Children and Families was posted during the holidays and feedback is due in early August. Mary and I will have to do some talking about this over Burmese tea. Imagine a cluster meeting on the Burmese border!! I just spoke to Mary and they leave tomorrow morning so she will be here Wednesday. So exciting. Enjoy the ranch.... Sheila
I am wondering if you had the Forthview children check the number of washbasins there too for comparison? I was just telling someone about the shared handwashing campaign last week and they were blown away to think that it is possible to share something so simple but so meaningful across so many miles!
Thanks for linking me to the blogspot again. I will follow this trip with interest. To think this time last year I was yet to start my Forthview adventure.
Love the picture of Fiona and the P1s....if the littlest people can do something to make a difference what does that tell the rest of us?
Take care all of you
Love Jackie
Hi Jackie, many people have said the same about the exhibition where the Burmese and Scottish children each wrote about an aspect of their lives - such a simple idea that says so much. What I love about the handwashing campaign is that it's a Scottish Government initiative that made me groan when I saw it (you know , yet another initiative) but doing it with Hle Bee brings it alive for us. The needs for hygiene are the same all over the world. Great to hear from you. I'm still a visitor to your blog. (www.consultcameron.com) Sheila
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