photo by YK
e 2 Akha kids we met just beyond e arch at e school entrance:
they were so excited & started piling up bricks, competing to see who could build e tallest stack:
photos by YK
e slide in e school 'playground':
school basketball court + carpark + 'canteen' - a long sheltered row of snack stalls:
here we sat down for a while beside an old man selling some unidentifiable round green fruit in two baskets hanging from a pole, who has a wonderful voice & sang us songs =) e girl who reminded e cat of Pig-pig, & her mum who sells some sort of flaky crispy pancake dusted with sugar (below):
photos by YK
e school, built & maintained with donations from Taiwan (e Kuomintang link):
it was 4pm in e afternoon, an hour after official school hours end across Thailand, yet kids were streaming IN instead of out of e school....turns out that e kids here attend e national school (Thai curriculum) a short distance away from morning till 3pm, & then continue with e Chinese curriculum at this school from 4.30pm till 7pm (full day on Saturdays!), after which they trudge home (older, richer kids will ride their scooters) along dark unlit streets in e cold, reaching home close to 8pm! & we complain about long school hours in Singapore....=P
elementary & high school sections are housed in e same building. those who can make it to college & can find e funding will head to universities in Taiwan. every year someone from Taiwan will come over to review/update e curriculum. reading 范文 (model essays) on noticeboards along e corridor:
one of e essays on 'My Ambition' read '我要做空姐....做空姐要看得顺眼' (i want to be an air stewardess....to be one you must look 'easy on e eye') *lol*
origami paper cranes hanging from e ceiling - leftovers from Thaksin's 2004 gimmicky 'fold 60 million (one for each Thai) paper cranes to be airdropped over e Deep South' campaign as a useless peace gesture to e Southern militants:
photos by YK
e classrooms with wire netting windows remind e cat of its sec 1 days in e Jalan Kuala campus =)
we were so freaked out by these words on a pillar in e classroom:
photo by YK
明天还有新功课 lit. 'tomorrow still have new homework' - how very motivating....>_<
secondary 2 class timetable:
click here for larger version
because they are Nationalist Kuomintang, everything is in 繁体字 (older complex writing script) like in Taiwan, Malaysia & Hong Kong, & Singapore during e cat's parents' generation. from e cat's generation onwards Singapore started using 简体字 (simpler modern characters) like Communist China.
suddenly a bell rang, & e noise in e schoolgrounds ceased & everyone vanished indoors by magic:
e headmaster who has been walking around with his stick for caning students since e days when Mr Ho of Shin Sane Guest House (now middle-aged) was a student!
wonder what percentage of Mae Salong residents have been disciplined by him =P
[ filed under: chiangrai_2005 + thewanderingstraycat + thai1 ]
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