Who is that Masked Man?

I sort of got mentioned in the Bangkok Post today. There's a story about Somprasong Mang-ana, headmaster of a school in a remote rural Thailand village. (From an Alaskan perspective it isn't all that remote, since you can drive to it, but that's a lot of other stories.) Here's the reference:

Somprasong himself knows first-hand of the perils of being poor and lacking in opportunities. While growing up in the northern province of Kamphaeng Phet in the 1960s, he studied English thanks to a Peace Corps volunteer.

I'm the English teacher. I posted about Somprasong when we visited Umphang in 2007. He's done incredible things with this school and is the Northern Thailand teacher of the year. This is the sort of thing that makes teaching so worthwhile.

The story begins this way:

Rare dedication

English in the hills of Tak at the Umphang Wittayakom School

Story by NIKI THONGBORISUTE

It is the daily roll call in one of Thailand's most remote schools. Khaiwan stands in front of her fellow students and announces:

"There are 15 in our dorm, but today there are 14 because Lata has gone home. Thank you. Please sit down."

This is not a translation. The shy 16-year-old has just stood in front of 325 of her classmates and spoken in English.

Yes, that's right. Daily roll call in the remote school is in English, which is not bad considering these are students whose first language isn't even Thai. In fact, 11 dialects are represented at the school, and the students come from all 26 hill tribe communities in the region.

Niki contacted me because she saw my posts on Somprasong - blogging has its rewards too. For the full story go to the Bangkok Post.

Thailand Teacher of the Year - Somprasong Mang-ana

Old Peace Corps buddy Jim Lehman sent me to Wednesday's Bangkok Post to this story on four Thai teachers who were honored on Teachers' Day as the Thai Teachers of the Year. One of them, Somprasong Mang-ana, was my student when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand in the late 1960s. We got to visit his school for a few days last March. I certainly was impressed and I'm delighted to see that more important people than me were also impressed. Here's a link to the five posts I have labeled Umphang. There are pictures of the school in the last three posts. From the Bangkok Post article:

Awards given to mark Teachers Day today

SIRIKUL BUNNAG

The Education Ministry has honoured four teachers for their teaching spirit and devotion to their work to mark Teachers Day today. The four are Somprasong Mang-ana, director of Umphang Witthayakhom school in Tak; Pol Sgt-Maj Sophon Ritthisarn, a teacher at Wat Chonglarp school in Ratchaburi; Banchong Sombat, a teacher at Nong Rua Witthaya school in Khon Kaen; and Suleela Chanthanu, director of Ban Samnak in Ranong.

Mr Somprasong has been praised for his campaign to provide education opportunities for marginalised children in Tak while Pol Sgt Maj Sophon developed a remote school into a quality one. . .

Mr Somprasong said he chose to work at Umphang Witthaya school in the remote district of Umphang on the Thai-Burmese border because he was determined to help tribal and marginalised children get access to basic education.

''When I first took up my job at the school, there were 398 students and only seven were tribal or stateless pupils,'' said Mr Somprasong.

''I thought those children deserved an education, so I decided to travel to remote villages to persuade parents to send their children to study at my school, which offers free education.

''Now, our school has a total of 845 students, of whom 284 are stateless hilltribe children.''

He donates his 5,600-baht monthly academic entitlement allowance to cover the expenses of poor students. . . .

Kasama Voravan na Ayudhaya, secretary-general of the Basic Education Commission, said the four teachers would each be granted a certificate of honour, a golden plaque, a golden pin and a 300,000 baht cash from Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on Teachers Day today.

Umphang Entertainment

After dinner last night some of the students sang and danced. I tried out using the audio memo on a picture and I'm not sure it works as a video at Youtube. But the music was incredible.

Just checked. It didn't work. I'll have to figure this out. I did have a short video I can put up.

Umphang Day 2

Somprasong took us rafting, then to the highest waterfall in Thailand Thee Loh Su. Here are some pictures.

Happy Birthday Mom

[I tried posting this last night and something was wrong. Then the electricity went out. After it came back on the internet didn't work anymore. But I saved it all in word and it seems to work. And my mom did email that the card and email arrived on time. But the time zones are just too far apart. She wasn't home when I called, then we went rafting and had no satellite connection.]

Today's my Mom's birthday. She's 85 years old today and I'm thousands of miles away in Thailand. But she still is working in the same doctor's office (well, the original doctor is long departed, but his partner is still practicing) she's been working in since 1948! We visited before we left for Thailand and we'll stop by again on our way home. Happy Birthday Mom. Here are some pictures of our ride to Umphang.


Mook, who drove us to Maesod, gets a cold latte drink at a stand at the gas station.









Somprasong's wife trying on a Meo skirt in a shop on the way.
















Some international volunteers. A Dutch woman, Somprasong, a man from London, and a Canadian we met while stopping for lunch.










Refugee camp, UN I believe. I was told there are 25,000 people here, refugess from Burma










This is the house of the Karen twins in the Umphang Dinner Post.










Somprasong's pickup on the road to Umphang.

Umphang Dinner

We came over to the dining hall as the sun was setting. All the students were there waiting for us.



We met Mark, an Irishman and his partner Noy. He was on vacation in Thailand when he fell into a teaching job in the south of Thailand. He is on vacation now visiting the student he is sponsoring here in Umphang.
Joan and I were also called on to come up and talk to the students. Because Joan had said there were Hmong students in Alaska, he asked the Hmong students to stay and meet us afterward.







This is a brother and sister. Next are twin Karen students (on the right) with their sister.

Umphang

I'm at a school in Umphang, a small community on the Burmese border. The headmaster, Somprasong, was one of my Peace Corps students about 38 years ago. The picture is his office and above the office is a room with mats on the floor where we will sleep and downstairs is modern bathroom. The school has students that are mostly from Karen hill tribe families, but also Hmong. About 200 of the students live in dorms because their homes are too far away. I was in Umphang about 18 years ago, back when it the road wasn't all paved (it's about 150 km south of Maesod, in the mountains). Back then it was a very sleepy little village with no electricity. So I was very surprised by how beautiful the school grounds are. Probably the nicest public school I've seen in Thailand. When Somprasong took the exam to be a headmastger, he scored the highest and had his pick of school to work at. He picked this one to the surprise of most - including his boss who was at the dinner last night in Kamphaengphet. But this is a special school - and he seems to have a mission to help these hill tribe kids. I'll put up some more pics and then do a few more posts to catch up while I have good computer access here.

Here's Joan inside with some of the kids she was talking to in English.





Playing basketball, football in the background. And next they are playing takraw - like volley ball, but with a small rattan ball, and you can use your feet and head only. If you look close you can see the takraw in the air. Well, maybe not.