We have had a great week. After arriving at the school at the end of last week we spent time settling in, getting to know the kids and people working at the school again and getting into some lesson planning.
We were able to attend a beautiful church service on the weekend and we were quite happy to find some of the songs had English written below the Thai words for us to follow along. Marvin was also able to translate the message for us which was wonderful to be able to be part of the service.
Our week has brought back memories of our time here in January and we are constantly stuck by just how much God is the centre and founder of this school. It was founded over 20 years ago by a Christian missionary from Hong Kong. Over time the school has grown in size and reputation and now has kindergarten to grade 12 and over 500 students. Many students will travel quite a distance to get to this school as it is known for its good education. It is also well recognised by the government who have even just recently contributed towards the construction of a new building for the school.
We were introduced to the other teachers at the start of the week with a very special introduction and we were very humbled as they glorified God that their prayers for English teachers for this time were answered. There are currently 3 other English teachers Jane is from Thailand and just started this term and will teach grades k to 3. Jennie is from New Zealand and will teach grades 4-6 for 2 months. Marvin teaches grade 10-12 and we will teach grade 7-9 for three months. We are very happy to teach grades 7-9 as we taught some of these kids in January when we were here for 3 weeks. It is quite a good fit as they are at the level that they can understand very basic English but need a lot of help with their grammar and speaking. The school has also increased the number of English classes that the students take compared to when we were here in January which gives us more time to teach the students which is great. The classes are very big which is a challenge but the kids are very respectful and well behaved so that helps a lot. At lunch time the students all sit together and so do the teaches to share a freshly cooked Thai meal. It is delicious food and just amazing how the cooks are able to prepare an abundance of food for around 500 people every day.