Where there's a will - update!

Yesterday we finally signed the MOU with the local Ministry of Interior on the pilot project for increasing the capacity of the two child-care and development centres to enrol more migrant children over the next few years. We had been getting a bit anxious as they seemed to be stalling on the final signing, despite having started to press ahead with the recruitment of the teachers and language assistants, and we weren't quite sure what was going on.

Eventually it transpired that, in keeping with usual practice in Thai officialdom, they were wanting to make a huge ceremony out of it and were having difficulty finding a suitable date and getting it all arranged. We pointed out gently that, as we were about to interview the candidates we couldn't really hold off any longer on the signing, so they agreed to forego the pomp and ceremony and just get the documents signed!

The Administrative Chief was not available when we first got there, so all the other parties signed and then we went on to conduct the interviews. That was a fascinating process. The poor candidates must have been completely overwhelmed as we were such a large interview panel, with representatives from the education department, ME, VSO and the two centre directors. I did suggest at the beginning that someone should introduce us all and explain who we all were, but no-one bothered with that - they just launched straight in with the questions!

There was no planning of questions in advance and it all seemed a bit random. I was really only observing, with Zaw Zaw whispering in my ear to let me know what was going on, though I did throw in a couple of questions to try and get a better idea of their ECD experience and understanding. The only bit that was planned was a role play scenario that I had suggested to assess the level of Burmese and Thai language and the translation skills of the candidates for the language assistant role. Zaw Zaw took the role of a Burmese-speaking parent trying to communicate with one of the centre directors, and the candidates had to translate both ways between them. It worked really well and was invaluable in the final decision-making process, when I kept having to remind people that the one skill that the language assistants had to have was the ability to translate between the two languages!

After the interviews we trooped into the office of the Administrative Chief for the final, ceremonial signing of the document. This involved a lot of sitting around and smiling and laughing politely as he regaled us with anecdotes and witticisms. Eventually the deed was done!

Now that our main project activities with the centres are completed, we will concentrate mostly on getting this off the ground by supporting the teachers and assistants in their new roles and monitoring how it is going. So little time left!!

Just when you thought rainy season was over...

Climate change is clearly having an effect on weather patterns here in Thailand just as much as anywhere else. Rainy season is supposed to run from around May to September. Both last year and this it was very late starting, and this year it never really seemed to get going properly at all. It had been predicted as a very dry season, with drought and associated problems for agriculture.
By the last week of September we were back to hot and sunny weather and it seemed that we had seen the last of the rain - until about a week ago, when it suddenly returned with a ferocity that had hardly been seen for the entire season.

Last weekend, I was speaking on the phone with Jennel and the rain was drumming down so hard I could hardly hear her. At a certain point there was a thunder clap so loud that she exclaimed "What on earth was that?!"

On Monday, I went to aerobics with Alice for the first time in about six weeks. As we were walking there we could see from the threatening colour of the sky that we were in for another massive storm. We just got there before the heavens opened. The class started as normal, but the rain on the roof was so loud that we could hardly hear the music, and as the instructor for some reason did not have her usual headset microphone she had no hope of making herself heard.

About 15 minutes in there was a tremendous thunder clap and the power went out. With no lights and no music it was impossible to continue, but the rain was so heavy that there was also no possibility of going home. We all huddled in the middle of the shelter, but the wind was so strong that it was driving the rain right in through the open sides and we were getting pretty soggy. All the Thai women squealed in terror every time there was a flash of lightning, which I found rather odd - surely they must be used to storms?!

Eventually it eased off enough for us to attempt the walk home, but by this time the roads were several inches deep in water as the drains are not able to cope with such a quantity of rain in a short space of time. When we got to my street it was in total darkness as the power was still off. I was just mentally preparing myself for an evening of darkness, with no chance of a shower (as the pump would not be working) and no chance to cook my dinner, when the power came back on again just as I entered the house. It has to be said that they are pretty good here at getting the electricity supply going again promptly after a storm.

The rest of the week settled into a pattern of thunderous showers at lunchtime and again in the early evening. On Thursday I was caught out on my motorbike in a horrendous downpour. (Thankfully I did have my poncho!) The rain was so heavy it was painful on my arms and I could hardly see where I was going. Despite my poncho I was more than a little damp by the time I arrived at my destination.
For the last few days we have been back to hot and sunny weather again - is it safe to dare to believe that the season really is over now, or does it have some more nasty surprises up its sleeve?!

UPDATE: a couple of hours later - the wind is howling, the rain is lashing, the thunder is rumbling, the lights are flickering, the roof is leaking, the curtains are blowing wildly and the dogs have all taken shelter... It's not over yet - clearly the fat lady has not sung!

The return of Zen Dog

September has been a crazy month as we have been trying to complete project activities and tie up loose ends before the closure of the centres for mid-term break in October. In our regular visits to the centres we have been working with the teachers to reflect on the changes that have taken place as a result of the project, in preparation for the evaluation workshop.
On top of that, here are some of the other things we have been doing since my last catch-up post:

Tuesday 9th September: mini-workshop with the teachers at one of the centres to encourage more effective team-working

Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th September: meetings with local area education chiefs to discuss evaluation workshop and final partnership review meeting

Monday 15th September: meeting with local ministry officials to discuss final details of capacity building project in local child care and development centres

Tuesday 16th September a.m: meeting with directors of two centres to work on developing an information leaflet for parents about Early Childhood developmental stages and appropriate teaching and support

Tuesday 16th September p.m: attended community meeting at local ministry office to discuss plans for a youth event for Thai and migrant children and young people later in the year

Wednesday 17th September: Part 2 of working with centre directors on the information leaflet for parents

Tuesday 23rd September: visits to the three additional centres that we have not been working with on a regular basis, but have attended our workshops and received books and resources

Wednesday 24th September: training session for World Education Master Trainers in basic Early Childhood Development principles and practice

Thursday 25th September: teacher observation visit for migrant learning centre teachers in collaboration with fellow VSO volunteer Alice

Saturday 27th September: Project evaluation workshop with teachers and directors

The end of the workshop turned into a photo-call reminiscent of a wedding, with photos of every conceivable combination of people. I'll just share  the final group photo!

In the middle of all that, I took it into my head to apply for a job I had seen advertised back in the UK, and I ended up having two interviews by Skype. I didn't get it in the end, and I am rather relieved - I think I have been saved from my own madness! It would have been crazy to leave here in such a hurry and try to launch myself straight into a new job without any breathing space in between. I'm coming to the conclusion that VSO probably have it right when they suggest volunteers should take time to adjust back to life at home before serious job hunting. Time to re-acquaint myself with Zen Dog:

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

I have decided to share with my loyal readers some of the wonderful musical sounds that I am entertained by, night after night. I mean, it seems selfish of me to keep such delights to myself when I can share them with a much wider audience.
Unfortunately the performers cannot actually be seen in the videos, but the view from my bedroom window proves that all these recordings were indeed made at dead of night.
Backing vocals throughout courtesy of The Cicadas.

The Lone Barker

with additional percussion by Rain on a Tin Roof

The Midnight Choir

performing their Top 10 hit:

"Howling at the Moon"

 

 

The Almighty Scrap

with appearances by

The Big Bad Bully and The Irritating Yapper

(Not sure why this one got inserted sideways)

 

 

Duet featuring The Cicadas and The Washing Machine

with the well-known classic "Wash your socks at five o'clock!"

 

 

Medicines, meetings and mountains of sticky-back plastic

The last few weeks seem to have been crazily busy (and the next few look just as packed), and I haven't managed to add anything to the blog for a while. So here is a quick round-up of some of what has happened:

Tuesday 19th August: Tried yoga for the first time. I am not doing aerobics at the moment. Alice is away and I will not walk to the class without her and her large stick with which she fends of the dogs! I have been meaning to try yoga for a long time but never got around to it. I am not quite convinced that I have the patience for it, but maybe it would do me some good to do something that really forces me to stop my mind for a bit occasionally!

Wednesday 20th August: Up to now we have not worked much with the teachers of the very youngest children, as they do not technically come under the remit of the project. However, having discovered the teacher of the under-twos at one of the centres attempting to teach them the alphabet, we held a special mini-workshop for the teachers of the youngest students, looking at developmentally appropriate teaching and learning for children of this age. Part of the problem is inappropriate parental expectations, so we are also going to work together with the directors and the local education department to create an information leaflet for parents about development in the early years and appropriate teaching and learning.

Friday 22nd August : The throat infection I had at the end of July triggered a major flare-up of my psoriasis, sufficiently bad to warrant making the 8 hour bus trip to Bangkok to see a skin specialist. I decided to make the most of it and make a couple of other appointments at the same time.

Saturday 23rd August: I spent most of the day at the luxurious BNH in Bangkok. First stop, the dermatology department, where the pre-appointment vital signs check revealed my weight as 48.8kg and my blood pressure at an all time low of 85/54 - I wondered how I was still vertical! The dermatologist was excellent, and I came away with a whole selection of lotions and potions to treat my skin. It just means starting my getting up and going to bed routines about half an hour earlier!

I also had appointments with the ENT department to have my ears cleaned out with their state-of-the-art suction machine - a surreal experience as you get to watch the whole procedure vastly magnified on a large flat screen TV above the bed - and in the breast health centre for a routine check up.

Sunday 24th August: I spent the day with fellow VSO-volunteer Jennel, who had made the 9-hour journey from Ranong to Bangkok, also for medical visits. Being a total of 17 hours apart, we have seen very little of each other during our placements, apart from the occasional VSO meeting in Bangkok and the study visits to each other's placements, so it was lovely to have the chance to catch up and spend a bit of time together.
We went to the famous Chatuchak market in the morning where, browsing through a bookstall that appeared to sell absolutely everything, I discovered my A Level chemistry text book (not my copy, obviously!) Later I also found the molecular cell biology textbook I used at university. No doubt all terribly out of date by now.

Monday 25th August: Travelled back to Mae Sot.

Tuesday 26th August: 2nd yoga class - some progress...

Friday 29th August: We held a meeting in Burmese for migrant parents at one of the centres, giving information about early childhood development and how they can support their children's development at home.

We also received the news that the centre that took part in the contest organised by the Ministry of Public Health won the final provincial level round! The teachers and school committee will all be heading down to Bangkok at some stage to receive the prize from the wife of the prince. Maybe our singing did impress after all!

Saturday 30th August: We held a 1-day resource-making session for the teachers. Attendance was voluntary, but most of them came, apart from a few who had been struck down by conjunctivitis, which seems to be rampaging through the centres. They worked incredibly hard making a range of visual resources and games, which I hope they will use! I spent most of the day covering things with sticky-backed plastic, which is surprisingly tiring; I was exhausted by the time I got home!

Friday 5th September: Repeated the parent meeting at another of the centres.

In the afternoon we delivered some toys we had ordered for the centres. It has taken the company such a long time to process and deliver the order that the teachers had forgotten we had ever ordered them, so it was an exciting surprise!

In between all this we have been continuing our usual rounds of visits to the centres. This month we are doing reflections with all the teachers on the changes since the start of the project, in preparation for the evaluation workshop we have scheduled for 27th September. We are also in the final stages of developing an ECD handbook for teachers, based on the key learning points from the training we have done with them, plus a few other activities we want to fit in before the mid-term October break. After that the project will be essentially finished, with only the final partnership review and report-writing left to do. I can hardly believe it is all coming to an end.

Success story

The centre that we visited last week for the health inspection is one where we have seen some of the most significant and genuine change as a result of the project. The centre was originally set up by the local community and is situated in a beautiful and peaceful setting in the grounds of a temple. More recently, the centre was brought under the control of the local MOI Sub-District Administrative Office who planned to merge it with the other Child Care and Development Centre in the area. However, the local community resisted this merger, and the centre remains very much an active and integral part of the local community and a popular choice for parents.

 

 

The Welcome Committee - my daily arrival on my motorbike used to be a source of great fascination and amusement for the children. Maybe something to do with the outsize motorbike helmet I wear. The novelty has worn off somewhat by now!

One of the key factors in the success of the centre, and of our work there, is the support of the Director. She does not teach a class herself, and she is very proactive in offering support to her staff. She has consistently expressed her appreciation of the practical training we have given, and her positive attitude and the support she has given her teachers has been instrumental in helping them implement changes in practice.

When we first started working with the centre, the children never played outside as the play equipment was broken and dangerous. As part of the project VSO have provided funding to carry out the necessary maintenance work on the outdoor play area. Since the repair works, all the children are given the opportunity to play outside as part of the daily routine – weather permitting! Outdoor play is such a crucial part of childhood physical development and this is a significant change that had been brought about as a result of the project.

In working with the teachers at this centre, we focused our work mainly on the teacher of the oldest children, as these children are within the original target age range of the project. She is a fully trained and highly experienced early childhood teacher. From the start I was very aware of the need to recognise her experience and be very sensitive in my approach when suggesting possible alternative ways of teaching.

In the first year of the project she had a class of 35 children, aged between 3 and 4, with no help. We discussed with the Education Chief the possibility of her having an assistant. This had been previously proposed, but in the end the hiring of an extra teacher to cater for an influx of younger students took priority and she remained on her own with this large class of lively and energetic children.

 

I decided that I could not make any suggestions to her that I would not be prepared to put into practice myself in the same working conditions. I worked closely with her to plan activities that were more developmentally appropriate for the children but still manageable in the teaching context. She was always very polite, but she did not hesitate to tell me when she thought my approaches were mistaken or unrealistic, and I always had the impression that she was very sceptical about my suggestions and quite reluctant to change.

Butterfly Party - as part of the topic on butterflies we set up a creative activity where the children made butterfly hats. We then held a butterfly party, where the children drank "nectar" (orange juice) from "flowers" (paper cups with a flower lid) using their "proboscis" (a plastic drinking straw). A much more effective way of learning how butterflies feed than simply telling the children or showing pictures.

One change that I encouraged her to make was to move away from doing all activities with the whole class to setting up a variety of group activities for the children, including free play. She was initially resistant to this idea, saying that it would not be possible to control the children in such a setting. However, she later attended a workshop in Bangkok (totally separate from our project) where they had clearly been advocating the same idea, and this provided the trigger for her to try the new approach.

She has now modified the structure of the daily routine, and is providing more opportunities for the children to be involved in practical activities and free play, which is one of the key changes we have been trying to support. In a recent conversation she talked enthusiastically about the impact of the changes. Contrary to her original fears, the behaviour of the children has actually improved, as they always have something stimulating and appropriate to do, and she is able to give more focused attention to individual children by working with smaller groups.

The Book Corner

Role play - a budding medic!

 

The Home Corner

She also said that she no longer feels so exhausted, and she thanked me very sincerely for helping her bring about these changes. After so many months of feeling I was getting nowhere, this was a real breakthrough moment and it left me feeling quite emotional! It provides an excellent illustration of the importance and the effectiveness of the long-term approach of VSO placements in bringing about meaningful and lasting change. It took over a year of working closely together and suggesting tiny, gradual changes for this change to occur. But now that it has, I believe it will last, because the teacher has come to an understanding for herself that this is a successful approach to supporting young children's learning and development.

Singing along

Last week we were asked if we could help out at one of the centres today. Our first understanding was that they were taking part in some sort of singing competition and wanted us to do some of our songs with them with the ukulele. When we got there today, it transpired that they were in fact in some sort of contest organised by the Ministry of Public Health. They had already got through the first stages and were now competing at the provincial level.

It seemed a bit like a mini, health-focused OFSTED, with various inspectors present, meeting with the teachers and members of the parents' committee, and observing what was going on at the school. Children were selected at random from the different classes and taken off to the bathroom to demonstrate that they knew how to wash their hands and brush their teeth! I noticed that the children were given copious quantities of fruit for mid-morning snack, with no sign of the ubiquitous crisps and snacks that the children usually bring to school and munch away on at will.

Our contribution was to sing the "Washing Hands Song" that we have taught them. We stayed the entire morning, waiting for our moment, which finally came just before lunch. The children were not quite as lively as normal when we sing, which is possibly just as well, but they sang along and did the actions beautifully. The inspectors listened for a while, and then got up and wandered away - typical school inspector behaviour! We don't know the outcome yet, but I doubt our singing is likely to have swung it either way!

We don't have any footage of today's efforts, but last week we did video the children at another centre singing along with the ukulele. They are possibly our most enthusiastic singers, and can be viewed here.
In case you are having difficulty identifying Old McDonald's animals, on this occasion they were:

• dog
• buffalo
• pig
• elephant
• kangaroo
• tiger

We have also known him to have a monkey; snake; frog; snail; turtle; rabbit; butterfly; dinosaur - as well as the more usual chicken, cow, horse, cat and duck.
Whatever else we may have achieved, we have certainly brought a great deal of fun and enjoyment to the children with the singing!