A Three-Week Whirlwind

aecordray
Jan 22, 2016
6 min read

Bear with me because this is going to be a long one.

I honestly can’t remember the last time I was this physically and emotionally exhausted. I have just spent the past three weeks or so traveling with members of Global Playground to visit our schools in Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. While I don’t think I could even begin to adequately describe what an incredible experience this was, my body is quite happy to have returned home to Mae La Noi and to be stationary for a period of more than two days. It feels like I’ve been gone from Mae La Noi for months and months, but my calendar says it was only 22 days. And if someone were to look in my purse filled with airline ticket stubs, multiple currencies, and various brochures in different languages, they might find it hard to believe that we went as many places as we did in such a short amount of time. They would also probably call me crazy if they heard exactly how many hours (make that days) worth of time we spent in transit. And it might have been crazy, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

I will do my best to summarize the highlights from each country, but if I leave you wanting more don’t hesitate to shoot me an email or check out our Flickr which has a great collection of photos taken throughout the trip!

Myanmar

Our school in Myanmar is located in the small community of Paw Myar near Inle Lake. I didn’t have any expectations before visiting the school, but upon arriving I realized that the school and community were much more in line with my original expectations for the conditions I would be working in as a Teaching Fellow. This school is the first primary school that Paw Myar has had and it currently educates a student body of 26, while it expects that number to increase to around 40 in the coming term. The school building itself is rather simple. Standing dividers section off the main room into smaller classrooms where the school’s two teachers instruct students and a smaller room has been designated as an area for teachers and other staff members.

On our arrival, we immediately saw that the entire community had come out to greet us. We were ushered around the school and given nothing short of a feast for lunch. Afterwards, we took part in a town meeting with community members of all ages. I loved this. We were able (with the help of a translator) to directly ask people what it was they thought the school needed and how we could best serve them in the future. The passion and commitment that every member of the community had towards making the school bigger and better was so apparent and so encouraging. While no one could express their gratitude in a language I could understand, I could still feel it every time they smiled or when their eyes lit up at the site of the supplies that we brought to donate to the school.

Paw Myar might be a small village, but it has a big heart. As cheesy as that sounds, it’s undeniably true.

Thailand

Our second school visit was to Mae La Noi and I had a blast showing off my new home. Of course Mae La Noi’s non-resident visitors, Doug, Scott, and Cathy, were first made to introduce themselves in front of all the students and teachers during morning announcements. We then spent the day playing games with the students and introducing the teachers here to the other members of Global Playground. It also gave Kendall a chance to say goodbye to her students, as she would be moving to Vietnam once we left.

Our short visit to Myanmar made me realize how fortunate MLND is to have access to so many resources and to have such a large and committed teaching body. I’m constantly told that students here come from poor households and have few resources, but when compared to other communities throughout Southeast Asia one might find that hard to believe. By contrasting these two schools, which geographically are not that far apart, it drove home the idea that poverty, and really everything, is all relative. If a student from Paw Myar visited MLND they would probably be in awe of all the classrooms and whiteboards and notebooks we have. And if a student from MLND visited my old elementary school in Alexandria, Virginia they would probably be in even more awe to see the sheer amount of “stuff” that many schools in America have. Reflecting on this was just another reminder of how important humility is when working with people from all different backgrounds and life experiences.

Vietnam

In Vietnam, we visited two schools in the town of Khe Sanh: Pa Nho School, just outside the center of town, and Khe Sanh Primary school, which is only a short walk from Kendall and Scott’s new home.

Pa Nho wore me out. This school also teaches primary-age students and I had forgotten how much energy primary-schoolers have. We visited towards the end of the school day, so the kids were given free time to get to know us. Since the language barrier here was pretty substantial this “get to know you” period just turned into recess. I got a workout on the seesaw with anywhere between one and ten students on the other side. I also found out that hide-and-seek is truly a universal game.

Our trip to Khe Sanh Primary school was much more brief, but also more encouraging as the students here were immediately less shy in approaching us than the students at Pa Nho had been. Our presence stirred up quite a frenzy and before you knew it students had grabbed sheets of paper and were asking each of us for our autographs. While I think the language barrier in Khe Sanh will present more difficulties for Kendall and Scott, I am a tad jealous at how much more confident and open many of the students were when compared to how shy some of my students were when I first arrived in Mae La Noi.

Philippines

And finally, our last (and potentially my favorite) stop was to Mangoso Elementary School in Sigma, Capiz, Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan had impacted the school’s infrastructure in 2013 and Global Playground is currently in the process of constructing a new school building, which we were fortunate enough to have a thorough tour of during our visit. We also had ample time in the classroom with students, dreaming of what they wanted to be when they grew up and imagining what their perfect school might look like. After spending just two days with the kids here I already felt bonded with many of them. I also felt extremely sweaty. For whatever reason some of the students thought it was fun to follow me around as I ventured through the school’s grounds and for whatever reason I thought it was fun to run, skip, and jump around the school as the students mimicked my every move. I probably lost a couple liters of water via sweat, but that was also one of my favorite moments of the trip.

This very brief summary of our experience is only a glimpse at the myriad of experiences we had over 22 days. In retrospect, I wish I had just hired a camera crew to follow me around because that really is the only way one would be able to understand everything we did and saw and taught and tasted. Although even a camera crew wouldn’t have been able to capture the feelings of warmth and welcome that overwhelmed us each time we were greeted by a new community. It’s those moments of pure human connection that make it all worth it.

Until next time.