Lead climbing

This is our last week of regular class at R35 and as a result most of my classes are full of reviews. It is the perfect opportunity to bust out some of the student-centered activities and games I have been working on! All in all it is pretty mellow. Final exams will start to be administered on Saturday and all the students will return home by the end of the month for a three week break before the second term begins the end of October.

Since Mark wanted to get in some rock climbing before he leaves in a couple of weeks, he and I met James and Laura, both PiA teachers working in Phang Nga town, in Krabi to catch a boat over to Railay for the weekend. We rented gear and rope and hiked to one of the many limestone walls covered with climbing routes. It had a beautiful view.

We settled on a nice 5.5 climb to start as we were a mix of beginners and intermediates who had not done much climbing in the last year. For most of the morning and early afternoon we were the only group at the wall and tried out a 5.7 climb as well. It was a good start to our weekend and the highlight was my first lead climb on the 5.5 route!



After a snack we walked to phra nang cave beach where we found the tide out far enough to make the islands off shore accessible.



We all did a bit of exploring, then I decided to walk all around the nearest island and found some caves that surely have some treasure hidden in them somewhere, some interesting sea life, and of course some beautiful views.









Back on the beach we did some bouldering on an overhang until the sun went down. The sunset was beautiful, but I still think that sunsets back home on Bangsak beach are the most impressive I’ve seen yet. After showers, we ate some delicious Indian food and played cards for most of the evening.

The next morning, Mark, Laura, and I got a little lost on our way to Ton Sai beach and ended up on a grueling hike to the other side of Railay, but did eventually make it.

Ton Sai beach was lovely and really is a climbers paradise.



James met us there and we had to wade through waste deep water since the tide had come in, but we found an excellent traverse on the far side of the beach where we spent the rest of the morning bouldering. We scrambled back to Railay west by a short cut and then back to Railay east, where we had rooms, just in time to take showers and check out. We caught a long tail boat back to Krabi, a songteow to the bus station, and buses back to Phang Nga and Takuapa in time for dinner on Sunday.

It was a wonderfully full and active weekend and we had excellent sunny weather despite technically still being in the rainy season. It does seem like the weather is starting to change though… the air feels much less humid here than it did even a week ago. Just in time for vacation, yahoo!

And here is a little more information about Grassroots, the NGO where I have started volunteering. Grassroots is legally called The Foundation for Education and Development (FED). It was established as Grassroots Human Rights Education (GHRE) in 2000 near the Thai-Burmese border and moved here to the Takuapa district of Phang Nga province following the tsunami in 2004. In 2007, it became the first Burmese-led organization in Thailand to receive legal Thai Foundation status. The organization seeks to promote human rights and democracy for Burmese migrants living in Thailand, and to build and promote leadership and organization in the migrant community. FED provides educational opportunities to the children of migrant workers, including two day-care nurseries, implements a child protection policy, offers health education and medical care for the community, supplies legal assistance and advocacy, provides human rights education- including economic, social, and cultural rights education, maintains a women’s empowerment program, and supports migrant development activities. Needless to say it is a small but very busy NGO.

In addition to teaching science at the secondary school supported by Grassroots called Youth Outreach, I am working with the Women’s Education and Development Association (WEDA) program within FED that focuses on gender equality and works to empower and encourage women of the migrant communities in Phang Nga province. WEDA runs workshops and training sessions on women’s rights and gender issues, basic health care, vocational skills. The current education program shares information about women’s rights and domestic violence awareness with the migrant women. The health care program teaches Burmese migrant women about issues such as family planning, HIV/AIDS prevention, and basic health. Vocational skills development includes training sessions for migrant women looking to increase the income earning capacity of their family.

I am working on a WEDA project to enlarge the women’s center building and offer a more comprehensive women’s education program including more complete business skills training. It is a complex project and it seems to get more so each time I attend review meetings with WEDA staff. My current task is writing the grant to secure funding for the project, and then to submit the proposal and applications to various funding organizations, which I am still trying to find more of. If you would like to know more about Grassroots, the project, or have any suggestions about where to go for funding please send me an e-mail.
All the Best!