Mothers' Day

12th August is a public holiday in Thailand for the queen's birthday, and it also doubles up as mothers' day. So at the child care centre that we were visiting this week, they had a special celebration today, to which all the mothers were invited.

Songs were sung in honour of the queen (the Thai royal family are very highly revered)

 

Some of the children performed a delightful dance

 

The children paid respect to their mums, and there were also awards given out to "good mothers"

 

All this followed hot on the heels of another action-packed day yesterday when a team of dentists came to the school to talk to the parents about dental care. For that occasion, officials from the local Ministry of Interior office came at the start of the day for the "opening ceremony". We were introduced to the chief of the local MoI office, who was very welcoming of the aims of our project. My coordinator found that encounter somewhat overwhelming, as this was such a high level official that we were meeting.

All of this is making me realise that the workshop that we have planned for mid-September is going to have to be a rather more formal and prestigious event than I originally had in mind from my experience of helping with Alice's workshop for migrant teachers. The context is very different!

I am taking advantage of the three day weekend to have a trip to Bangkok. I am planning to meet up with Chandanie, the VSO volunteer whose house I moved into. It'll be good to catch up with her. I will also probably stock up on a few items in Boots!