Huay Luwang - Pikun and Yohn

Most kids were finished with their task but this boy just kept going with a new page!

















You can see that the girl in the middle is quite some years older than the rest. It's wonderfull she comes to school and studies among all younger kids because this is her only chance to learn to read and write. She needs to start in Kindergarden with the 5 and 6 years old because that is her level. As I wrote before, we need to get all children at the age when they supposed to go to school (5 years old) and not later because than they missed too much to catch up. Hopefully this girl will keep on coming to school!




Teacher Yohn with over 90 children! This week we will get Yohn and Pikun another teacher because there are just two many students! One boy was really sick when we arrived but they simply have not enough hands. So now Yohns sister will come and help out.

Visitors from Canada

Sue, the president of FSWL, and Brennan from Canada have been here in Fang to discus the future of the project. All went well and the plans we made the last few months are accepted! Brennan is a professional photographer and made amazing photo's from the schools and the life from some students and teachers in the villages. He even slept in Nong Tao for one night to cover all aspects of their day and night.





Pui and Som Diau, our great supporters of the project.












This shy girl Moon is born with a severe form of excema. The poor girl has skin like leather which often cracks open and starts bleeding. She hardly can use her hands because they are so dry and leathery which makes it hard to move her fingers. Next week we will take her up to a skin doctor to see if she can use anything else than the cream she has now. Hopefully there is some solution...

A morning in Huay Pu

I spend a morning at the Free School Class at the government school Huay Pu. There are just over 20 children. Jantana has 3 children who are not ready to join in the main group activities because of late development. One boy is not talking and is scared of everyone and just comes and goes to the classroom. Another boy, a bit younger, is just not 'school ripe' and plays when the others are doing writing lessons. Than there is a girl with down syndrome who plays with the second mentioned boy. The boy (Set) and the girl (Naan) are good friends but unfortunate they are very loud and naughty. Teacher Jantana has her hands full with those two! Amazing how she divides her attention between the class and those two. I had a great time playing with them. We did some painting until they thought the wall was a better choice to paint on than the paper! The game with the clay was their favorite. They made balls and blew them through a clay gate. I have lots of respect for Jantana how she runs the class! A great morning!


Wednesday is the day that students and teachers are wearing Northern Thai style costumes to school.










Naan and Set doing a clay activity with me while the rest of the class is practising writing and learning the Thai names for the colours. These children have a lot to catch up with so it is very important to get the kids into school as soon as the reach the school age. They simply can't fall behind any more. At home they speak their tribal language so school is the only place to learn Thai.

Just live in Fang

Frogs are a delicatesse here as well as rats but the need to be caught in the fields and not in a town.









This is An from Bird's bar, a place were they do some western food. Very nice people!


















The bridge to go from Thaton to Huay Luwang is gone! Bad rain and storm have distroyed it and now we have to travel over Fang (40 km extra) to get to the school. Maybe someone will fix it, maybe not.









Anyone getting hungry?

Monthly report - May

FSWL Monthly report – May


This month we have written several reports about the schools and the changing system. Now we will update what is happening in the schools and their teachers after the holidays.

The government schools are up and running again.

Huay Pu – Pratoom found herself another job and will no longer work for FS. Jantana has 20 children in her class. There are more children who would like to come to school from the nearby Lahu village but they can’t pay for their uniforms, school books and contribution to the lunch at school. Another reason for not attending is that some children have to work with their parents.

Huay Nam Yen – Nui left for Bangkok and Sawannee is her replacement. She has 30 children in her class.

Huay Luwang – Pikun has this school year 110 students. She gets help from a lady but she will soon go on pregnancy leave. Yohn from Huay Wy will start as a second teacher here in June. All this children are Palong, Lahu, Lisu and Shan.

Son Char – Kung started also the 14th of May again and has this year 40 students in her class.

The evening schools continued during the holiday but there are a few changes:


Huay Wy – Yohn finished this month her evening school classes and will start this coming month in Huay Luwang. This is a natural change since more and more children are attending the government school Huay Luwang. Now they will have two teachers for 110 students and Yohn gets to teach them the whole day instead of 2 hours.

Pachu Lahu – Boom is continuing as before with over 25 children on the books. After a good meeting with her and the chief of the village we got to know her better which is great.

Me Pa Py – Suri has just over 20 children attending her evening school.

Huay Ma Yom – We had a meeting with the chief and all the mothers and children a few weeks ago which went well. Dee is working hard on getting the neediest children in her class and especially the young ones so they can get help to get to the right level to attend the government school.

Mueng Choum – Ban has 33 children in her class. The location has changed but only a few hundred meters away. The owner from the old place changed his mind about FS using an open shed/ carport. Luckily other people from across the road stepped right up to find a new place for the school.

Huay Chonu – Poy worked the whole holiday because the children were eager to continue their schooling. All is well here.

Chor de Lern – Mam’s school has stopped as of the 31st of May. Mam is expecting a child so she wanted to stop teaching because she also works during the day at the orange farm. Most children are now attending the government school so everybody is ok.

Nong Tao – There are 25 children attending the school of Aer. We just had a meeting with Aer, Pui, the chief and the parents of the children about the importance of education. In the village there are both Black Lahu and Red Lahu which sometimes causes problems. The teacher Aer is Red Lahu and because of that the Black Lahu students don’t want to come. We hope that the chief can get the parents and children to work together for their own future.


We are looking forward to having Sue and Brennan the photographer here in June. Another good month ahead!


Kind regards,

Jildou and Ben

Meeting with Chief in Nong Tao

Last week our helpfull friend from the education department Pui arranged a meeting with the chief and the parents of Aer's village Nong Tao. We hope to get more children in the school and especially the ones who are not able to attend the government school. Pui spoke to the chief and the result is great! More kids are coming now!






Here you see Aer, our teacher, and the Chief.

The parents were a bit hesitant to really join the meeting but Pui litterly took them by the arm and set them on one of the school banks! She is great!

The village has two different Lahu tribes, Red en Black. This gives some problems unfortunatly. Because Aer is Red Lahu the children from the Black Tribe do not come to the school. We see if this meeting has helped to change the minds of some of the parents.

Chiang Mai

We went to Chiang Mai last weekend for a short holiday. It was wonderfull to be in such a buzzing city again. We ate all western foods like pasta, lasagna and Mexican (best ever!) and Indian. Yeh we sure pigged out! Now we're back on our healthy rice diet for a while.

I did some clothes shopping in a enormous mall, (bigger than Chadstone in Melbourne) wich was great fun. Nice airco and there is a cinema where we saw Shrek and The Pirates of the Caribian. Shopping for clothes was rather diffulcult there L and XL in Thai sizes are like S in western sizes. This made it really hard for me to fit into anything! Especially after eating too much Mexican..... But I got some new pants so I'm happy.

Ben enjoyed himself a lot with the game room where he played many games of soccer.

The night market is a good place to stroll around and there are good bargains to be made. Lots of 'thingies'. I can't wait to show Rikkie, my sister, all this. She will love it!



















One thing we enjoy so much is the fruit here in Thailand. In our garden we have mango's which are slowly getting ripe. Also this is the month when the lycee's are ripe which makes Ben very happy! He just loves them! On our way to the schools we come pass lycee farms and he can't help himself getting some from the tree.