Lego my Legos!

Trip Start Mar 01, 2009

Trip End Jul 17, 2009

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Flag of Thailand Phuket, Thailand
Saturday, May 2, 2009

Well, after a productive week in Bangkok meeting with various foundations and fun relaxing adventures in Kanchanaburi, I make my way back to Phuket via an entirely empty Bangkok Airways flight. Donning a surgical mask to protect others from my nasty sinus infection and avoid any migrating swine flu, I make it thru to the Phuket Airport in no time at all. This past year, I've found myself in transit during high-risk situations - Maoist rebels in Nepal, bus bombings in India, Olympic protests in China, the government coups in Thailand, and a frequent flyer during this newest and latest red alert, the swine flu. But, ever the opportunist and optimist ;), I must say, if there's ever a time to travel and take advantage of hotel discounts, there's nothing like visiting a city in a declared State of Emergency. Fewer tourists, wonderful hotel service, free upgrades, low airfares, shopping discounts. The works! So I would encourage anyone, if interested, to hit up Thailand while the going here is rough..cuz it's not actually that rough, it's better. This country is a wonderful place with awesome people and they could really use your business! Don't let a few burning buses and riots stop you. It's a city of 10 million, and a country of 60. There's a lot else to see. Ignore all those high alert, "most dangerous countries" list, at least in regards to Thailand. There are so many wonderful amazing places and things here that its very sad to see the chaos of a fledgling democracy and a few thousand protestors strangling the country back into poverty. I've met so many people who have recently lost their jobs and while food is plentiful here, jobs are increasingly less so. And CNN, BBC, and all the global press agencies out there, are being less than honest about the situation. And its sad to see first-hand the effect sensationalist reporting can have on destroying a country's economy.

Pardon the rant ☺. Anyways, I returned to Phuket in a jiffy and found myself sitting in customs for two hours waiting for a shipment of Legos and toys from the States, from the Sidgmores. I was sooo excited to obtain the shipment, that exorbitant customs fees, a splitting sinus infection, and two hours of dilly dallying around and signing paperwork that I can not read, could not stifle my excitement at delivering the goods to Jump Start school. When they finally brought me to my beloved shipment, I tore open to boxes to see any child's dream. Gigantic containers of legos reading for the building! I take a cab straight to the school and drop off the toys.

The next day I come to class and show the kid the books. They're fascinated by the pictures and the drawings and while they can't read, there's enough books with cool images to fascinate them for quite some time.

In the afternoon, after lunch, I take two kids aside to really work with them rigorously and hopefully improve their retention rates in this small group setting. We lounge on the bean bags in the library room and I bring out a Bob Builder serial learning book for first graders. They're around 10 years old but illiterate. So we begin reading and I start a little bit of phonetics work. Sounding out letters and understanding how to associate the letter with the sound that it makes in a word. Very difficult to do. But nonetheless we charge through two books that only have words that rhyme with sat. Cat sat. Sam sat. Sam sat on the cat. Sam sat on Pat. The kids loved the action pictures in the book and by the end they were spelling out the words, reading it, then reading the whole sentence! I was sooooo excited...and they were too. It was amazing to see the confidence and pride on their faces. I just hope that by next week, it won't all have been forgotten.

After about 40 minutes of reading, I let the two kids open up the boxes of legos. Sunawain, she immediately takes to the directions and begins building a pirate prison and is well on her way to completion! Muzza-oo, wild, rambunctious, and dressed currently in a Shadow Ninja outfit as his school uniform, finds the remnants of police boats, pirate ships, and an armada strong enough for a government coup. It was delightful working in a small group and I feel that with just a few of these new resources the kids made enormous strides in their potential and opened their eyes to new ways to read, to learn, to play, and to occupy their time. It was a wonderful few days!

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