Yes, folks, word is spreading!
It’s been 2 weeks since my last post and I must say, news from here is uplifting and positive.
14 new students at various levels and ages have joined our different classes. We have 3 more additional village chiefs in our free class offered to those particular officials. We have 2 new beginning level adults, sisters who want to learn English as one will be going to America to marry a Hmong-American Hmong, by the way, is an ethnic minority in Asia, being one of the more prevalent in Laos. The young man has been looking for a wife. (From what I understand, the families of the couple involved knew one other so set up a meet-and-greet of sorts from afar. The girl is waiting for visa and documentation approval, which takes up to a year or longer.) I gained 2 children in my elementary school class.
Furthermore, I have just started a junior high school class of 5 which hopefully will grow. While the little kids are endearing, they can be a handful so teaching at a higher level than elementary education has become a refreshing experience.
This news is exciting but as the director, it also is a bit worrying. We only have 3 continuously active English teachers: Afiju (Sierre Leone, our Global Mission Fellow who will leave in June), Amos (Philippines, former director’s son) and myself. Modester (Malawi, also a GMF) teaches 1 1/2 hours every morning at a local kindergarten but is mostly engaging in the LMI (Laos Mission Initiative) youth and young adults programs. She will be taking on no new teaching assignments and also is leaving in June.
With limited educators, private classes of one or two students is not something we can do on a regular basis for the future. I am working on advertising for larger classroom settings, which means better time management for us teachers, more money for Center repairs (so many in this OLD complex we are renting) and supplies.
Why Word is Spreading
My guess is the free “Let’s Sing in English!” event which has been going on now for 3 weeks, every Friday afternoon from 4-5 p.m. Originally, this was to be a 6-7 p.m. event but let me explain what happened to that evening time slot.
I mentioned that there were several elements involved in the start of this idea I had, which began 7 weeks ago. First was creating fliers in both Laos and English. My great administrative officer, Khamxay, did an excellent job of putting those together for me and copying.
Next was the appointed visits to our village chief, with me carrying a gift basket put together by the staff. To save money, we bought goodies separately at the grocery, hauled out used baskets gifted to me and Angie for Christmas and then the staff packed the baskets to make them look nice.
What goes in a gift basket? Ours included: cookies, Ovaltine (very popular in Laos), fruit juice container, Nescafe instant coffee , tea bags and a few other interesting items.
Angie, former director who has moved into the Laos women’s leadership training role, brought me both to visit our village chief for a personal meet-and-greet as well as including a nearby elementary school principal.
Both were very receptive of our presence. The staff translated. We shared our concerns for education among the Laos people. The village chief and principal both responded positively to our hoped-for attendance of the event. Our fliers were left with both and I had a feeling of great confidence that the 6-7 p.m. timeslot would go over well.
Principal Calls with Suggestion
It was the elementary school principal who called with a request: Can we separately do the Let’s Sing in English from 4-5 for 3 of her grades? Every week for 3 weeks, the teachers could walk the students over after their class ended at 4. We’d do Grade 5 first, then Grade 4 and Grade 3.
What a wonderful idea! I absolutely agreed and felt this would be a good opportunity for me to practice first with the kids and then adjust for the 6-7 p.m. timeslot.
Lots of Careful Prep Work means Lots of Success
Our first Friday event had me and the staff scrambling to get 51 chairs in place. We have only 49 stackable chairs in the entire Center. I raced around, grabbing every chair out of the classrooms and moving them into the main hall with the help of the staff. We cleaned the hall floors, turned on the air-con for comfort, and set up the PPT projector which had to be brought from the classroom. Then we had the sound system as well to check. We got the hall bathrooms into working order, swept the outside courtyard and prepared cookie snacks for the children after their visit with us.
We threw open the sliding gate at 3:40 after we were informed the students were on their way and we waited anxiously. Here they are below.
In they came, shy at first but eager to learn and with so many smiles. After our warm-up exercises, our English chant practice, movement song time, group work and eventual volunteer performances, they were energized and ready to learn more.
Their teachers, including the principal who joined as well, grandly participated along with the little ones. In other words, fun was had by all.
Our elementary school 4- 5 p.m. session continued onward for the next 2 Fridays with Grades 4 and 3. I made some adjustments as the English levels required which worked out extremely well.
What a great connection for my very first Center outreach program! Here are some visuals of the 3 visits we had.
Don’t think that was all me, however. All the Center staff were involved, including former director Angie, to help usher students in and out, help with the PPT, set up the chairs, lead students to and from the bathroom, monitor group work, give verbal translations and make sure children received their cookie snacks we provided after they ended their time with us.
6-7 p.m. Public Invitation: A bust
I had had great hopes of that 6 – 7 p.m. public invite. I was ready to go after the elementary kids left that first Friday. The staff graciously hung in there after hours to help. We repositioned chairs, swept the floor again, checked the bathrooms, kept the air-con running, waited by the gate for the next wave to come and . . . .
No one.
Only my private class of 6 elementary school kids came since their parents were told no class but we’d have singing night.
Due to this, I ended up teaching them a regular evening class with the hopes that maybe next week would be different.
It wasn’t. Nor was the 3rd week any more successful. I quickly learned that Friday night, people are tired and want to begin their weekend, not come to an English language event at a small, unknown, hard-to-find language center.
I ended up sending the staff home at 5 p.m., much to their happiness, and we decided to nix the Friday evening Let’s Sing in English event.
The elementary school I hope will continue, repeating again Grades 5, 4 and 3 with new songs and activities. This will be done as long as the principal wants us to continue. I am waiting to hear of her decision at present.
In Closing: Check out the Center’s Facebook Page!
I have more ideas stirring about in my head for large invite gatherings. As a newbie to Laos, it will be a matter of listening to staff suggestions, asking locals what they are interested in, figuring out what’s doable and experimenting.
In the meantime, please check out the Facebook page of the Center.
https://www.facebook.com/suntisouklvc
These amazing posts are currently being done by Khamxay, my stalwart administrative officer whose many duties keep him incredibly busy. He’s also taking business classes in the evenings at a college very near the Center. How he continues daily with such a kind, joyful, enthusiastic and willing spirit is beyond me. I’m guessing a large part of that is that he’s a Christian, not to mention an unpaid pastor along with his dad at a countryside church outside of the city.
Every day I’m here, I learn more and more about the strong commitment of my Center staff to education and serving others. They are so inspiring! With such an uplifting group, and with so many overseas supporters such as yourselves who follow this site, how can we possibly fail?
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