HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Kids' Corner

Last chance to see Nutcracker 2004

Reading is fun

Welcome Summer Party or Dance the Night away

Gold found in the north?

Kids' Corner

Last weekend Marvin and I went outside for a picnic. We had a very nice time but it was very sunny and very hot. Marvin reminded me before we left the house that we would need to slip, slop, slap. I couldn’t remember what this meant so Marvin reminded me again that when you go out into the sun you must make sure that you slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat. Do you remember to do these things? It is very important because if you go out into the sun without these things on, then you will get burnt which will hurt and it is also very dangerous for your health. Where do you like to go for a picnic? Write to Marg and Marvin at:

Chiangmai Mail
156-158 Im-boon Housing Estate
Muangsamut Road
T. Changmoi, A. Muang,
Chiang Mai 50300
Email: kids@chiangmai-mail.com
Fax: 053 234 145
Jokes
1) What is the best day of making chips?
2) What can run across the floor but has no legs?
3) What kind of lion doesn’t eat?
4) Which kind of puzzle makes you very cross?
Answers
1) Fri-day
2) Water
3) A dandelion
4) A crossword puzzle

Bye from Marg and Marvin

Last chance to see Nutcracker 2004

Final performance Sunday, March 28 at the Kad Theatre

Two Asian Award winners, ML Preeyapun Sridhavat and Maneenuch Smerasut have combined their forces to bring the musical dance play ‘The Nutcracker 2004’ to Chiang Mai. The Government Lottery Office and the Chiangmai Ballet Academy are proud to present this old fairy story that is sure to warm your hearts.

Sunday, March 28 is your last chance to see Nutcracker 2004

The performance will feature professional dancers from the UK, Russia, Australia and Hungary and well known, Asia award winning amateur singer Maneenuch Smerasut. This dazzling spectacle of dance features Ballet, jazz, Tap, Flamenco and Latin dance styles and is sure to delight people of all ages.

The final show takes place on Sunday, March 28 at the Kad Theatre in Chiang Mai with two performances - a matinee at 2 p.m. and an evening show at 7.30 p.m. Ticket cost 200, 300 and 500 baht, with special rates for students and group bookings.

Last minute tickets can be purchased at Suriwongse Book Centre and the Kad Suan Kaew information counter (Ground Floor). For more information contact www.chiangmaiballet.com

Theatregoers should keep their tickets for the prize drawing at the end of the show. Proceeds will be given to the Northern Mentally Retarded Welfare Center, part of the Foundation for the Welfare of the Mentally Retarded of Thailand under the Royal Patronage of her Majesty the Queen and the Thai Red Cross in Chiang Mai.

Reading is fun

Lanna International School celebrates reading

Randall Jones
Curriculum Co-coordinator

Lanna International School (LIST) celebrated reading during their annual ‘Reading Is Fun Week’, March 15 to 19. The week was full of reading activities. At 8.10 a.m. each morning, the entire school dropped everything and read for 15 minutes. During the week, parents came in and read to students in English and in their first languages. Students visited other classes and read to younger students. In art class, students designed and made bookmarks. Elementary classes made class books which went into the library for everyone to read and on Friday, elementary students brought in books to swap.

Teddy (grade 8) reads to some of the KG2 students

For the ‘Reading Is Fun’ Week assembly on Friday morning, elementary students dressed as characters from their favorite books. Students in the high school Thai program dressed as characters from the famous Thai story, Koo Gum, and retold the story to the elementary students.

KG 3 students introduce their favorite characters at the Friday assembly

Naturally, reading is a most important part of education - the aim of this week’s program is to instill in our students the love for and the sheer pleasure of reading!

Welcome Summer Party or Dance the Night away

Voice Studio challenges students

Jiraphat Warasin

On Wednesday, March 18 at 7 p.m., the Voice Studio Chiang Mai organized their yearly ‘Welcome Summer Party’, a date which students had looked forward to for the last two months. Not only will it be a mark for students summer break, it is also a chance for all students and their parents to show the activities on stage together.

Bank and Au, not Bird and Heart but they performed ‘The game of love’, probably because they looked lovely!

Tianchai Sooktiang, managing director of Voice Studio and singing teacher said in his welcome address to over 120 spectators, that this party is different from their monthly ‘music of the month’, because it involves everybody, even the moms who will be on the catwalk with their daughters during a very special fashion show.

Ning and her mother, Jurairat Langafa, modeling in the fashion show

Tianchai said that he wanted this Welcome Summer Day to be like a family celebration, an interaction between school, hobby and improvement of family relationships. He said including the parents in a show like this is also a way to take stage fever away from ‘the young stars’, make them feel more confident and who knows, maybe tonight will be the night where a star of tomorrow has his or her stage debut.

Ajarn Tianchai Sooktiang, leader of the group dance

Some little students, who were not that experienced but nevertheless had the confidence and the love for music, sang by their heart. One of the student’s mothers said that her daughter sang a lot better than last time. Beside the stage, their parents hummed with the kids, following and helping this way the huge efforts to send a spirit to them. The dream of all young girls to be a model became reality with a mother - daughter fashion show, inseparable, interacting fun between mothers and children, who couldn’t have looked more professional.

But the night had a huge variety with a cymbal player, Thai Dancing, modern dancing, group dancing and the feeling of fun and happiness touched everybody who was part at the summer party of Voice Studio at the Porn Ping Hotel.

Ying in singing action - maybe a star of tomorrow

Duen, a sweet girl who couldn’t stop smiling, had her first show appearance that night

Ice sang: all my loving...

Lela and Aea - just wonderful

Gold found in the north?

Ulrich Ziehms

This year’s CDSC excursion week took 18 pupils from classes 7 to 10 of CDSC (the Christian German School) and three of their teachers to the far north of the country.

Stationed at a pleasant resort at Mae Rai in Chiang Rai province, they had six great days of impressions and activities. The week started out with a visit to the “Operation Dawn” Drug Rehabilitation Center (‘Sun Boek Arun’) at Lao Fu, not far from Mae Salong. This is a Christian institution where drug addicts are encouraged to stay for a whole year, intensely listening and opening up to the message of the Bible.

Sun Boek Arun Drug Rehabilitation Center

There are no medical replacement drugs to help them through the painful period of detoxification, but each addict is closely accompanied and encouraged by another person who has gone through the same hard process before and whose presence and support are of great help.

The CDSC pupils, who had studied drug addiction and drug rehabilitation in class, were surprised by this method, but acknowledged its effectiveness when they heard that the long-term success of the program lay at 40%.

Lahu villager heating tea leaves over an open fire

Experiencing nature in its various forms was another main theme of this week: all were impressed by the hugeness and beauty of Tham Luang cave, into which they penetrated with the help of primitive carbide lamps whose functioning became an extra theme. Why does a bright flame shine when water drops on some white pieces of rock? The chemical process behind this phenomenon was later studied in cave class.

A longtail boat cruise (race?) on the Mekong River with its dangerous rock formations between Chiang Saen and Chiang Khong brought the thrill of speed and a moment of suspense, when the screw of one of the boats hit an underground rock and had to be replaced in mid-stream.

Washing for gold in undisclosed river in the North

Another particularly exciting moment arrived when, during the visit to a waterfall near Lao Fu, first one of the teachers and then several pupils after him discovered gold in the sand of the riverbed. A gold washing installation was quickly improvised with the help of some split bamboo sticks. But unfortunately the yield in the little time the group had was too modest to make everybody rich (and the exact nature of the glittering specks in the sand has not been finally determined yet). But readers will understand that the name of the waterfall cannot be disclosed.

Entrance of Tham Luan Cave seen from interior

The visit of Phayaprai, high in the mountains, home of a group of Lahu villagers was another highlight of the excursion week. The group gathered information about the infrastructure of the village and was introduced to traditional and more modern methods of the production of tea, which is the most important agricultural product and source of income in Phayaprai.

The half-fermented tea variety that the group was offered to try is drunk without milk or sugar. It appears to be relatively “thin”, but many found it had a pleasant taste and a refreshing effect. Some of the tea plantations are situated immediately on the Burmese border, and pupils and teachers were surprised to see Myanmar border guards walk past.

Mae Sai, with its never-ending lines of stores and stalls, was the ideal place to go shopping for souvenirs and small presents to take home to friends and family. The group also had the opportunity to meet young people from the local village at the sports field and try their football skills. (Unfortunately, we were once again badly beaten.)

On the last day those interested took part in a Thanksgiving service at a church near the resort and listened to the beautiful singing of a Lahu choir; afterwards everybody could enjoy the hospitality of the church members and join in the festival meal.

The evenings were open to play and games, but of course the main interest of the pupils was to find out how much longer they could stay awake than their teachers. Both groups scored well. The general sleepiness on the first school day after the trip told its own story.

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