Class Trip: Day 5

We spent Day 5 with Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures. They got the kids going and organized with some goofy games and hand shakes. Once we were split up they got us geared up and we walked to the rocks. My group was 8 kids and they were paired into groups with each group having a guide. One student would climb, the other would belay and the guide would spot the belay just in case. It was fun to see which kids were naturally talented and how easy they made it look. There was one girl in our group who was the first to make it up 3 of the 4 walls. I asked here if she liked climbing and she told me, "Not really." It was crazy to see someone that was just naturally so good be so ambivalent to climbing. The kids were great and really pushed themselves.

After lunch we were taught how to repel. We hiked up the mountain to our first repel which was about 10-15ft tall. I could not help myself and sang "Secret agent man" to them as the descended. Some of them found it funny... Next we hiked up even higher into a natural cavern that was in the shape of a cylinder. It was 15ft across and 100 ft deep. Our guides had ropes stretched across the cavern that we zip lined over and then, hanging in mid air, we switched to a repelling line and repelled down 100 ft to the bottom. Some kids must have really been sweating it. I was oddly at ease. Ziplining so much the day before made this feel normal. I actually had the ease of mind to be able to look around and enjoy this activity that should have terrified me... Amazing.

Learning to repel

In the cavern 100ft up zipping over to repel down.

 

Repelling down.

I felt like I was in good hands and they really knew what they were doing. There was a high level of redundant safety equipment just in case. It is that which gives the students and I confidence enough to do all the activities of the day. All the students accepted all the challenges today; it was great to see every one try. While we were waiting at the bottom a group of young tourist hiked into the cavern. They started asking questions about where we were from and I got to brag about my job. They were really surprised to hear about AISD and asked how I got the job. Yeah, its pretty sweet!

Class Trip: Day 4

This was a great day! We all woke up early, ate and then took vans up into the mountains. Cool drive (unless you get car sick) with some amazing views. We were on our way to the Flight of the Gibbon which is a huge network of ziplines through the trees. They claim 7 km of ziplines which is hard to conceptualize. I went into it expecting 4-5 ziplines... I was way off! We were outfitted with the latest in gear and then bused to the start. We were split into groups of 7 with two guides to a group. We were tethered in at all times and really felt safe. The guides were methodical in their approach to safety for the kids and even for themselves. They gave us the basic safety instructions and then hooked in a kid and sent them on their first ride. The first one was short and then there were two more before we had to hike for a quarter mile up a switch backing trail. The next one was the longest at 800 meters and then it was zipline after zipline. Nonstop for the next two hours! It was an incredible network of bridges platforms, stairs and ziplines (a total of 39 stations). I never felt like I was in danger or doing anything dangerous. Lots of good fun and now I totally believe the 7 km number, here are some pictures.

I was also very impressed with their construction methods. The trees were protected from the cables and there were no direct attachment to the trees. There is evidence that they loosen and move the attachment points as the trees grow. This is, of course, in their best interest because the longer the trees stay alive the less work they need to do but I was not really expecting it. Great experience!

Class Trip: Day 3

Day 3 was spent doing team building exercises on the grounds of the hotel. The company that we contracted to organize our trip and facilitate the team building was called Into The Wild. They were a group of about 4-5 guys that were with us for the entire trip. The owner met us at the airport and I knew right away we were in good hands. He introduced us to our guide team which had a huge amount of experience working with kids and corporate tours too. They started day 3 with stories to set the stage for the transformation they were nurturing.

Next they had the kids do some warm up exercises really emphasizing the connection between the partners. Small trust falls, activities that required them to work as a team and greetings.

Next we moved on to bigger challenges. The trust fall was the hard one for me and some of the more introverted students. So we all hold onto this net made of webbing, and one student stands on the top of a 5 foot tall platform. The student on top then calls out their name and asks if the catchers are ready, to which we all yell ready and then the student on the platform falls backward; arms crossed in front of them. I can't imagine going without seeing some one be caught first. Falling backward went against my every instinct. Some kids found this really difficult but it resulted in the best part of the team building. All the students that were holding the net started giving words of encouragement to the jumper and talked them into it. Everyone that got up on the platform and decided to fall which is a good indication of how much they trusted their fellow students. I went last and I was nervous. I was almost twice what some of these kids weigh and they were getting tired from catching people. It really was hard to give in and let your brain override its instinct to not fall backward. So they caught me... kind of! I ended up on the ground pulling one student into the net with me! They had broken my fall enough so I just tapped the ground and we all got a good laugh. Here is a picture of the setting.

Another good one was what the guides called "Seabiscuit" in reference to the persistence of Seabiscuit and his trainer. The idea is to go from hanging from all fours from a log to be on top of the log. They had a bunch of kids try and no one could get it done. Had all the students spot from underneath and give words of encouragement until someone got it. It was an exercise in method, if you used the right method most students were able to do it. So the first student to persist until they figured out how to do it made it easy for the others.

The kids had a different attitude after the day's activities. It was easy to see the change in them. They had a confidence and a comradery that was not there before. I have been part of team building activities before and never really bought in. Maybe it was me and my attitude that made this experience different but I think it was the guides. Sometimes these team building things seem so cheesy; I mean really, how is falling of a platform supposed to change your view or attitude? The Into the Wild guides were great at pre-loading and explaining how the activities were going to affect you. Our kids also made a huge contribution. If they had not bought in and really cared for their fellow students and their teacher then the activities would not have been quite as meaningful. Good day!

Class Trip: Day 1 and 2

Day one was traveling and we took over the plane from Dhaka to Bangkok. Then we only had about 50 minutes to get through immigration and get to the gate for our next flight! Here we are on the move; class of 2017.

We got in late that night, quickly ate and put the kiddies to bed. Some stayed up late but for the most part they were all tired. The next day I was with this group that went to the School for Life orphanage.

We were going there to do some service activities. They had three activities for us to do; painting the dormitory rooms, painting a mural, and making a fish cage. Me being the guy I am, ended up with the group building the fish cage with about 8 students. Here they are working:

The finished fish cage. The idea is to grow fish in the cages so that they are easier to catch come dinner time.

Many hands make light work! Moving the fish cage to water.

After we finished we went to check on the mural which was coming along nicely:

Some of the orphan kids watching the mural take shape.

I walked up to check on the group painting the dormitory and was not surprised to see that the kids had started painting each other as well as the walls. Darn Kids! Then we had lunch which turned out to be one of the best meals we had. After lunch we planted three papaya trees and then said goodbye.

The orphanage seems like a great operation. They have a large chunk of land and they teach classes and the 7 Critical Skills (I don't know what they are but they gave us the example of farming so I would assume that they are skills to keep them fed and employed). They have livestock, fish farming and gardens that the kids maintain. After spending the day at the orphanage I was impressed at how much our kids really wanted to help out. I was disappointed though for two reasons. First there was no real interaction between the kids and the orphans. Second, a lot of the jobs were things that could have easily have been done by the orphan kids themselves. Building the fish cage only required one or two people. The orphanage could have got a lot more work out of us and could have really got a lot done if all of the kids were working side by side. This collaboration would have been more valuable from an emotional level and given the kids a cool perspective too. It was odd to see our kids working for the orphanage while the orphan kids sat around doing nothing... maybe it was their day of rest or something? Even though it felt a bit odd our kids really got into their projects and enjoyed giving back.

Class Trip!

I just returned from six days in Thailand and before you all roll your eyes and think that Nick is super lucky, realize that I went as the caretaker of 50!!!! 7th graders. While I will not whine and complain and say it was horrible, I will say that it was no vacation. 50 kids and five teachers: basically means we were always on so it was a tiring trip. On the plus side, we had some cool activities and the kids had some free time to run wild so for the most part it was... well, it was fun. Not exactly a vacation but it was fun. I got to see new parts of Thailand and do some things that I never would have signed up to do. Enough chatter, here is the basic trip.

• Day 1: this was all travel. We left the school at 10:30 am, flew out of Dhaka to Bangkok, then Bangkok to Chiang Mai, and finally to our hotel and dinner at 10:00pm that night. 
• Day 2: the 50 were split into two groups of 25 and half went to the School for Life orphanage to do some service and half stayed at the hotel to do some team building by a company called Into the Wild. Day 3: the groups traded places from day 2. 
• Day 4: half went zip-lining on the Flight of the Gibbon and half went climbing with the Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures. 
• Day 5: The groups traded places again. 
• Day 6: another full day of travel home.

After 6 days with the 7th grade I feel like I witnessed some kids mature before my eyes. I got to see students break out of their shells and trust other students. I got to see how giving some students can be. I got to see how well behaved our kids are even though we are sometimes hard on them to be even better. I got to see just how sensitive and innocent the kids are. It was really amazing to see that this trip really does make a difference in students lives; they really do grow from the experiences and it is too bad that the schools in the US no longer have the funding to be able to do trips like this. I am glad that it is over though; 6 days was the perfect amount of time! Over the next couple of days I will be uploading pictures of each day and a brief review of each of the groups we worked with so enjoy.

Night Construction? Anyone?

There are 4 construction sites around our apartment building. I have been documenting the progress since our arrival. They are pretty much working 24 hours a day. At night seems to be when they really get swinging. I have been told this is because it is easier to get the concrete trucks in when there is no traffic. Last night I woke up at about 1:30 and there was an excavator going crazy on the foundations at one site. I think they have failed to grease any of the joints ever. Every scoop is like some crazy lurching screech... excellent. The impressive thing is how quickly some of these projects get put up. I guess when there are no real codes, LOTS of cheap labor and the fact that they work 24 hours a say is great for finishing projects in a timely manner. Here are some pics...

This is the first one I took in September. The far building is only 2 stories and the closer one (bottom right corner) is only 3 stories.

This is the closer on and they are getting ready to pour some concrete for the 4th floor

This is about 9:30 at night... working hard. They have the 4th floor poured and the walls are getting formed up.This was a tough shot to get. I had my mini-pod velcroed to the railing. Long (1.6 seconds) exposure for the ambient glow and x-mas lights. You can see a dark area on the right which is my arm: I had to cover and uncover the two large spotlights so that they would not blow out the picture. Took me 3-4 tries but it was worth it.

Love this shot. The guy in yellow must be some sort of foreman as he is just checking it out like he owns the place. 5th or 6th story of the far building.

Up to 8 stories and no end in site!

Keep in mind this guy is 9 stories up. Work shoe of choice? Leather sandal. Safety harness? We don't need no stinking safety harness!

Close building: working on the 9th floor

Lucky Lucky Lucky!

Garment Factory

One of the 7th grade field trips at AISDhaka is to one of the garment factories in Dhaka. This was all about expectations and I was expecting the worst. After seeing how a lot of Bangladeshis live and that the majority live on about a dollar a day and all the news about sweat shops the picture in my head was not pretty. While I am sure that something close to what I was thinking is out there in Dhaka, what we actually saw was not so bad. The factory we went to made only bottoms and they make clothes for JC Penny, Walmart and Diesel among others. They employ about 2,000 workers that earn 4,000 taka a month. To put this into perspective that is about 47 US dollars a month for 6 - ten hour days a week. The environment was clean, well lit and cool. Here are some pictures:

One of the hundreds of pallets of fabric

This is one of those lucky shots where I just happened to be taking a picture at the right time. She is smiling at all the students walking by.

This is the cutting station. Fabric is layered on top of itself many times and then all cut at once. The cutter is a pretty tool machine. You can see it on the left hand side of the picture.

Here is a close up of the fabric being cut. You can see how precise the cutter is. The guy running it wears a steel mesh glove on his left hand and pushes the cutter with his right.

Ironing station:

There was an entire floor dedicated to seem checking. Each table is dedicated to a certain area of the garment.

This was one of the coolest parts to see. This machine sews the buttons on. The worker slides a button into the machine, lines up the shorts and then turns on the machine. It takes about one second for the  machine to sew the button on. The needle moves around precisely through each hole.