Day 324 - Volunteering at Big Sister Mouse School in the Countryside
Monday, May 27th, 2019
Let’s try again, today is Monday so we got up early to go volunteer at Big Sister Mouse. This is a school outside the city of Luang Prabang. It was founded by an American who saw the need for children to learn and to read. It is actually a private school where parents pay $15 a month, but the students get a much better education than if they were to go to public school and it gives the teachers a paying job. [Gregory's note: a lot of people get a teaching credential and end up teaching for free in Laos, so a paid position is not a foregone conclusion.]
We arrived at Big Brother Mouse a little before 9:00 am. We told the lady at the front desk that we were there to go to Big Sister Mouse. They asked for a donation of 100,000 kip per person for gas and lunch but we gave half because we also have expenses. The owner was happy to have four volunteers. He explained that it was the low season and they were lucky if they got even one volunteer. I was disappointed to hear that the children’s last day was last Friday and that we were going to be working with young adults. I wanted to see the school in action! Maybe it was for the best because the heat was suffocating.
We arrived half an hour later and we were greeted by a nice lady who spoke good English and told us what we had to do. They were very well organized and they had a program and lessons for us to follow. We were divided into four groups and each of us talked with two or three students at a time. We did different activities all throughout the morning. I started out very energized but it was hard to keep it up in the heat. The lady who greeted us was in charge of telling us what to do and when to stop. We stopped for lunch around noon.
We walked to the eating area. The roof was made of tin so we could feel the heat. No one seemed to mind but me. All the students sat on mats they had laid down on the concrete floor. They had low, round tables. Many of these students sleep and live at the school because they come from far away villages. Our table was rectangular, a little taller than the others, and they brought us small plastic chairs, like the ones from preschools. We ate a small lunch of local dishes like roast ribs, bamboo soup, and river weed and sat with Sasha, the owner of the school. He told us more about his school and other projects. What an amazing and humble person he is. He sold his business in the US and came and started the Big Brother Mouse reading and language learning center and then Big Sister Mouse, which is an elementary school.
He shared how poorly prepared the teachers are, how some of them didn’t even know how to do multiplication but they still had their teaching certificate. He also shared how children came to the school and could only read one word by second grade. He explained how poor their education system was and that children had no interest in reading at all mostly because there were no fun books, only textbooks. He created, along with two other students, new fun books for the children. The story is very interesting. I encourage you to find out more on their website and help if you want.
http://www.bigbrothermouse.com/
[Gregory's note: donations are needed for tuition, school lunches, book publishing, and building construction. I am proposing a project through Rotary International to help fund their new middle school, which is being built across the street, and for printing books to distribute nationwide. They also need rainwater catchment.]
After lunch, we walked up the hill to see the classrooms. Very simple but nice. We noticed that the classroom didn’t have windows, just wooden bars to let the air and light in. It was also interesting to see that they had small boxes with toothbrushes. Sasha explained that Laotians were very good about brushing their teeth. They have about 30 students per classroom and two teachers, so not bad! Sasha said that even if there was a public school nearby, parents preferred to send their kids to his school because the children learn more English and get a better education overall.
After our break we went back to work. Now is when I wanted to nap, a full tummy and the heat was just too much for me. I have no idea how am I going to go back to work full time, gulp! Well, it was mostly the heat and the lack of AC. They had some fans on the ceiling but the air was just too hot. I should stop repeating how hot it was, Gregory kept telling me that that was all I talked about. We played different games that include Math, Geography and Reading. Sunshine and Daniel were very tired as well. When Sunshine asked me the time and I saw that we had two more hours to go, we wanted to die! But I’m happy that they got to see how much work it is to be a teacher!
We finish at 4:00pm and Nili, the lady in charge, told us that it was time to stop. We said good bye to everyone and walked downstairs to wait for our ride. Apparently, the driver took the keys to his house and we had to wait (not long) for him to return. We drove back to town on a bumpy road at first, but it wasn’t long before we reached the paved street. Sasha explained that it was paved because they were building fancy resorts here just outside of the town. I can see why, the area is amazing, but why would you want to stay outside such a quiet town?
We finally got dropped off near our hotel, we thanked Sasha and promised to stay in touch. We walked to our hotel, ran to the shower, cooled down and napped! Gregory and Sunshine went to watch a movie at L’Etranger (Sunshine's note: we watched Green Book. it was really good. Also I had a great avocado sandwich). Daniel and I walked to the restaurant near the river and ordered green curry chicken and fried rice with chicken basil. Delicious! As much as I love movies, I hate to rush. I like to enjoy a peaceful dinner in a pretty place. Danny and I had quality time and I loved it! After dinner, he still wanted his banana Oreo smoothie so we walked to a stand in the night market where we go almost everyday. The girls already know us and they welcomed us with big smiles. I told her that was the reason we kept coming back to her stand. Oh, you need to know that several other stands in the market sells smoothies and sandwiches. As a matter of fact, there were two smoothie stands right next to hers!
We walked back to our hotel. I stayed with Daniel and he tested me on Asian flags. Lately, he has been testing me on capital cities and flags of places that we have visited but he keeps adding flags and I keep forgetting them and he keeps patiently reminding me! I’m amazed to see how smart he is. He has learned so much geography on his own. When we played the map game at the school he felt bad that he won because he knew all the answers. With tears in his eyes he told me that he felt like he was showing off and didn’t want to make the other students feel bad! I told him that he was just answering the questions and that he knew the places because we had visited many of them. He still felt bad. That’s my boy!
Gregory and Sunshine came back home after 10:00pm. They stopped in a bar so Gregory could try some Lao Lao which is a local alcohol made from fermented rice. He said it is similar to cheap Japanese sake. They loved the movie. I told them that we also had a good time. It was a long but satisfactory day. I wonder what the kids got from today’s teaching experience!
Let’s try again, today is Monday so we got up early to go volunteer at Big Sister Mouse. This is a school outside the city of Luang Prabang. It was founded by an American who saw the need for children to learn and to read. It is actually a private school where parents pay $15 a month, but the students get a much better education than if they were to go to public school and it gives the teachers a paying job. [Gregory's note: a lot of people get a teaching credential and end up teaching for free in Laos, so a paid position is not a foregone conclusion.]
We arrived at Big Brother Mouse a little before 9:00 am. We told the lady at the front desk that we were there to go to Big Sister Mouse. They asked for a donation of 100,000 kip per person for gas and lunch but we gave half because we also have expenses. The owner was happy to have four volunteers. He explained that it was the low season and they were lucky if they got even one volunteer. I was disappointed to hear that the children’s last day was last Friday and that we were going to be working with young adults. I wanted to see the school in action! Maybe it was for the best because the heat was suffocating.
We arrived half an hour later and we were greeted by a nice lady who spoke good English and told us what we had to do. They were very well organized and they had a program and lessons for us to follow. We were divided into four groups and each of us talked with two or three students at a time. We did different activities all throughout the morning. I started out very energized but it was hard to keep it up in the heat. The lady who greeted us was in charge of telling us what to do and when to stop. We stopped for lunch around noon.
We walked to the eating area. The roof was made of tin so we could feel the heat. No one seemed to mind but me. All the students sat on mats they had laid down on the concrete floor. They had low, round tables. Many of these students sleep and live at the school because they come from far away villages. Our table was rectangular, a little taller than the others, and they brought us small plastic chairs, like the ones from preschools. We ate a small lunch of local dishes like roast ribs, bamboo soup, and river weed and sat with Sasha, the owner of the school. He told us more about his school and other projects. What an amazing and humble person he is. He sold his business in the US and came and started the Big Brother Mouse reading and language learning center and then Big Sister Mouse, which is an elementary school.
He shared how poorly prepared the teachers are, how some of them didn’t even know how to do multiplication but they still had their teaching certificate. He also shared how children came to the school and could only read one word by second grade. He explained how poor their education system was and that children had no interest in reading at all mostly because there were no fun books, only textbooks. He created, along with two other students, new fun books for the children. The story is very interesting. I encourage you to find out more on their website and help if you want.
http://www.bigbrothermouse.com/
[Gregory's note: donations are needed for tuition, school lunches, book publishing, and building construction. I am proposing a project through Rotary International to help fund their new middle school, which is being built across the street, and for printing books to distribute nationwide. They also need rainwater catchment.]
After lunch, we walked up the hill to see the classrooms. Very simple but nice. We noticed that the classroom didn’t have windows, just wooden bars to let the air and light in. It was also interesting to see that they had small boxes with toothbrushes. Sasha explained that Laotians were very good about brushing their teeth. They have about 30 students per classroom and two teachers, so not bad! Sasha said that even if there was a public school nearby, parents preferred to send their kids to his school because the children learn more English and get a better education overall.
After our break we went back to work. Now is when I wanted to nap, a full tummy and the heat was just too much for me. I have no idea how am I going to go back to work full time, gulp! Well, it was mostly the heat and the lack of AC. They had some fans on the ceiling but the air was just too hot. I should stop repeating how hot it was, Gregory kept telling me that that was all I talked about. We played different games that include Math, Geography and Reading. Sunshine and Daniel were very tired as well. When Sunshine asked me the time and I saw that we had two more hours to go, we wanted to die! But I’m happy that they got to see how much work it is to be a teacher!
We finish at 4:00pm and Nili, the lady in charge, told us that it was time to stop. We said good bye to everyone and walked downstairs to wait for our ride. Apparently, the driver took the keys to his house and we had to wait (not long) for him to return. We drove back to town on a bumpy road at first, but it wasn’t long before we reached the paved street. Sasha explained that it was paved because they were building fancy resorts here just outside of the town. I can see why, the area is amazing, but why would you want to stay outside such a quiet town?
We finally got dropped off near our hotel, we thanked Sasha and promised to stay in touch. We walked to our hotel, ran to the shower, cooled down and napped! Gregory and Sunshine went to watch a movie at L’Etranger (Sunshine's note: we watched Green Book. it was really good. Also I had a great avocado sandwich). Daniel and I walked to the restaurant near the river and ordered green curry chicken and fried rice with chicken basil. Delicious! As much as I love movies, I hate to rush. I like to enjoy a peaceful dinner in a pretty place. Danny and I had quality time and I loved it! After dinner, he still wanted his banana Oreo smoothie so we walked to a stand in the night market where we go almost everyday. The girls already know us and they welcomed us with big smiles. I told her that was the reason we kept coming back to her stand. Oh, you need to know that several other stands in the market sells smoothies and sandwiches. As a matter of fact, there were two smoothie stands right next to hers!
We walked back to our hotel. I stayed with Daniel and he tested me on Asian flags. Lately, he has been testing me on capital cities and flags of places that we have visited but he keeps adding flags and I keep forgetting them and he keeps patiently reminding me! I’m amazed to see how smart he is. He has learned so much geography on his own. When we played the map game at the school he felt bad that he won because he knew all the answers. With tears in his eyes he told me that he felt like he was showing off and didn’t want to make the other students feel bad! I told him that he was just answering the questions and that he knew the places because we had visited many of them. He still felt bad. That’s my boy!
Gregory and Sunshine came back home after 10:00pm. They stopped in a bar so Gregory could try some Lao Lao which is a local alcohol made from fermented rice. He said it is similar to cheap Japanese sake. They loved the movie. I told them that we also had a good time. It was a long but satisfactory day. I wonder what the kids got from today’s teaching experience!
For pictures please click here
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HbMHzXgkYVyML2jTA
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