A nice, quiet Sunday

... but it didn't start that way at 6.30am when we were woken by singing. 'Who on earth is singing at this time of the morning?' It was the monks doing their morning walk for alms. When a house has given them alms, they recite a blessing. On the one level, this is lovely, on the other, this is much too early in the day!

At 10am the tuk tuk came and took us to Borderline Gallery because today is the last day of OUR LIVES exhibition in Mae Sot. When we got there, some children fand teachers from Hle Bee had already come in the tuk tuk and some had come on bikes. We sat in the garden, eating together. Then it was wonderful to see Forthview children's work exhibited in Mae Sot alongside their Hle Bee friends. Many visitors to the exhibition had written in the Visitors' Book with comments like, 'It's wonderful to see children from such different parts of the world sharing experiences with each other and sharing friendship.' or 'Your idea is so simple but so full of impact and insight. Thank you for this idea.' We will write some more of these comments when the Visitors' Book comes to Hle Bee School.

Back to school where we showed some of our photos on the TV, thanks to Geoff's technical wizardry with the cables he hunted down in Chiang Mai last week. Tha Zin and Sheila chatted about the Handwashing Programme we will run in both our schools using some Scottish government resources. Forthview children walked a mile round the school some months ago and raised 12 000 thai bhat, which will enable Hle Bee to buy and install 8 sinks. We will give Tha Zin the money tomorrow and knowing her, she will have them installed before we leave. When Fiona Vacher arrives next week, we will be working with the little ones in Hle Bee on a Hands project. I have brought 200 hands from Forthview children for Hle Bee children. Fiona Vacher is Forthview's P1 teacher and she is coming to Mae Sot on 13th July with Louise Laing, Sheila's daughter and Murray Forgie, Chair of Burma Educational Scholarship Trust.

While we chatted, one of the teacher's daughters chilled and watched TV, just like any other Scottish child, remote in hand!

Finally back to the hotel for an afternoon sleep before we meet friends and go out for a meal. A lovely day!

Lots of images from Hle Bee school

Here you can see the 3 toilets that were put in as a result of our visit last year. They are lovely but very very overused. 3 toilets for 300 children. You can also see they are quite close to a classroom and when the sun comes out they do hum a bit. When the rain comes, as it does quite a lot just now, moats of water appear. Someone's shoe is in one! Oh dear!

Today we began our next project which is a book on Burma

Mae Sot and drookit!

... which is a good Scottish word for saying, 'drowned by rain'. Towards the end of a lovely and comfortable bus journey, we hit the Mae Sot Hills and the rain poured down. At one point, we thought we might aqua plane into Mae Sot. As we drew up at the bus station, we saw a wee crowd of Burmese friends - about a dozen adults and children had crowded into a pick up truck to welcome us. "Sheila! Geoff! My Scotland!" What a joy to meet our friends again. So, so lovely.

Then all of us in the truck down to the DK hotel, alarming the receptionist who kept saying, "How many? How many in one room?" until we reassured her there were only 2. Upstairs to Room 304 (that's a message for Anne Stokle in another room...), with all our bags being carried by all our friends. As the door opened into the basic room, they all exclaimed, "WOW!" although the children thought it was freezing because of the air conditioning - felt still warm to us.

Then straight off to school at 7pm on a Saturday night... Hle Bee School has grown since last year in size and numbers. Tomorrow we will show you the amazing thing that has happened to the floor we laid last year....

We gave the children and teachers our Lego gift for the kindergarten and spent the happiest hour playing Lego - all of us aged 5 - 60! It was really a magic moment....

Into the school tuk tuk and back to hotel then off to Canadian Dave's for a lovely warm welcome, "That'll be the Scots in town then... hello Sheila and Geoff." 'How did he remember our names?', we wondered. He's been reading the blog. What an amazing world we live in...

Lazy day

We enjoyed a lazy day after some shopping for Hle Bee. - oh yes and some sandals! Nobody does sandals like Thai women. So we swam and got ready for leaving Chiang Mai tomorrow. We get the bus at 1.45pm and arrive in Mae Sot at 6.40pm.

It will be sad to say goodbye to the lovely Yaang Come Hotel (http://www.yaangcome.com/) especially to the most kind Anan, the restaurant manager, who treats guests so well. We'll be back (we hope!)

Noodles, rice, noodles, rice and 2 tuk tuks too.

Thursday 3rd July was a brilliant day which started with some noodles as part of the lovely breakfast we always enjoy at Yaang Come hotel. Then we set off to Dr Thein Lwin's where we saw his migrant learning centre, 2 new schools and teacher training centre. What great work he does, serving the Burmese people in Mae Sot. Check out his website on http://www.educationburma.net/. We made many plans for working together in the future between Scottish and Burmese schools. Thein Lwin is looking very slim and well, unlike ourselves! It suits him to be back in Chiang Mai, I think. Sheila was particularly adventurous in eating the lovely Burmese lunch (more rice and noodles). At night we went with Murray and one of the teachers to a Thai restaurant for chicken fried rice for Sheila and more scary food for the rest. Then home in a tuk tuk...

Murray and Sheila discuss future educational initiatives!

and we can swim at the same time! Murray Forgie, Chair of Burma Educational Scholarship Trust, aka the guy who got us into all this, came round to swim with us today and to chat over our plans for our month in Thailand. Murray was until very recently International Officer with City of Edinburgh Council but moved to Thailand to live and work in June. Tomorrow the 3 of us are going to Dr Thein Lwin's Teacher Training Centre for Burmese Teachers (http://www.educationburma.net/). We will meet adult students, visit the new schools and have discussions with Dr Thein Lwin.

Today we have lazed around, slept, swam and ate... feeling like I am on holiday at last. Geoff got very excited about finding some IT cables that link our video camera to the TV. I sorted my Thai mobile and phoned Hle Bee School and talked to some teachers and children. We are all very excited about meeting again on Saturday.

Are you wondering how Sheila's wonderful 3 children are managing without her? Well here is a quote from Louise's email that says it all, apart from she also told me she had a BBQ with her friends - in the living room!!! Cream carpet.....!!!

"Dear mum, ....I had to ask Caro's mum how to cook a baked potato & it went wrong so I called Uncle David, Caro & your Alison but they none of them were in. So I called Cat's mum & she said I should start again hahaha. No juice left, but I don't wanna buy any more cause the boy's will just drink it & it's my moneyyy. "

So sharing and caring for each other beautifully as you can see!

1 July Safely arrived in Chiang Mai

Sheila and Geoff arrived in Chiang Mai safely on Tuesday 1 July at 1pm, having lost a night's sleep, taken 4 aeroplanes and feeling a bit confused! The London - Bangkok journeys were great but waiting to come to Chiang Mai was less great - be warned Fiona and Louise, who will be doing this on Friday 11th July. We have returned to the fabulous Yaang Come Village hotel (http://www.yaangcome.com/) and were welcomed back like old friends by the lovely staff here, which was heavenly really. Straight in for a swim ... then a nap, which went on far too long and when we woke, it was 2.30pm on Sheila's watch. Sudden realisation that meant it was really 8.30pm and the hotel restaurant would soon shut. Those of you who know Geoff, know that he wakes very slowly but we made it in time for tea. Now Sheila's raring to go... but it's bedtime! Hence no photos on the blog today.
It is feeling very weird being here because it is so soon after finishing school. I was sitting by the pool, feeling like I should be at work. I don't suppose that feeling will last long...
Our plans for this week are to chill in 90+ degrees!, swim, wander round Chiang Mai, swim.... but on Thursday we are very excited that we will return to Thein Lwin's Teacher Training Centre for Burmese Teachers and we will get to see his new school for Burmese children here in Chiang Mai. Thein Lwin and I have much to discuss about future teacher professional development so that will be a good day. On Saturday, we leave Chiang Mai to go to Mae Sot. It's going to be a joyous reunion!