By Thomas Corwin
Published: January 18, 2016
I went to the island Ko Kut for vacation and stayed in a fisherman village in Ao Phrao. It was a beautiful place there in the mangroves, but unfortunately there was also a lot of garbage thrown into nature. Talking about the waste problem with locals, the idea came up to direcly talk to school children at Ao Phrao village school, so that they hear it from someone different, from far away. The very friendly school teachers immediately liked the idea and the next day, after a short online search for presentation material, I found myself standing in front of 30 highly curious school children smiling at me. They leared about plastic pollution and what they can do against it – with the help of the translating English teacher and an easy-to-understand, short online video. While Migan Magarian was teaching the girls about painting, I showed the boys (which almost all have a passion for football) the importance of warming up, streching, etc in sports. We were laughing a lot during the football training. The kids were so happy – especially when they scored a goal against the German farang.
It really was a really great afternoon and a fun thing to do! I recommend and would do it again! If you think about going there and have some space in your bag: the around 40 children would highly appreciate gifts in form of toys, stationery, books, and all things a school needs which is hard to get on the island.
Many thanks to Migan, Gumm, Jen, Aor and all other teachers, and of course all the funny children to make this day unforgettable.