on January 25, the American Women's Club's Scholarship Committee put on it's annual English camp. The location was a town called Suphan Buri which is about 2 hours north of Bangkok. Steve and I and about 50 other volunteers including about 10 Peace Corps volunteers and 2 people from the American Embassy gave up our weekend for this camp.
About 7 schools sent 10th through 12th grade girls to the camp who have been receiving these scholarships that help them stay in school. The Thai government pays for schooling but doesn't cover every cost that a child has. Most students report an annual family income of around 15,000 Bahts (or $500 a year!) Many live with grandparents or other relatives while parents work in Bangkok. It's a very hard life, but you wouldn't know it by looking at these girls. They never stop smiling! They were so sweet and very willing to play the games and try to use their English. Of course some were shy about it, but they all impressed me very much.
Each scholarship that we raise for them is only $200. That covers their lunches and transportation to school for a year. It makes the difference for a lot of these girls between staying in school and having to drop out and then who knows what would happen to them.
If anyone out there would like to support a girl, just let me know. I will get the information to you about how to apply. All of this is run by volunteers so every dollar or Baht goes directly to the school which gives it to the girls as she needs it, and then the school has to give an accounting to the American Women's Club of every penny, so nothing is wasted. We also take corporate sponsors. Steve's company is going to sponsor some girls.
That's my spiel - now enjoy our pictures . . .
Steve with some of the girls after the closing ceremony. You can tell they liked him!
Here is the class that Steve and I did. It was called "Shopping". The kids had to buy and sell things using English words. They loved it, especially when they could say "no, too much!"
On Saturday night, each school did a dance from their region for us. It was amazing what great dancers they were at such young ages. At the end, they tried to get us foreigners to dance like a Thai. They laughed and laughed! It looks so easy, but it is SO HARD to make it beautiful and graceful at the same time!!!
Here are just a few of the Peace Corps volunteers. They are wonderful people that give up 2 years of their lives to live in tiny villages with no running water, electricity or any of the comforts that we demand. But they are having the time of their lives!
These girls were having dinner Saturday night just before the performance. I had just told them in Thai that they looked beautiful. If you don't put they accent on the word just right it can mean "unlucky", so I hope they knew what I meant!!!!
This is on the last day. These two girls wanted their picture taken with us. Such sweet girls. I asked them to continue practicing their English. They promised they would!
So these are just a few of our pictures. We have many more on dropbox. Just ask and I will show you more!
That's it for now.
Sawadee Ka !
Linda
