Revisiting Muong Khong Anuban Kindergarten

When we first arrived in Muong Khong we visited Muong Khong Anuban to see how many of the changes we had made were still in place. We were very impressed to see that Nyom had remained true to her word and had continued to improve conditions by building stairs and creating gardens. She also created her own children’s books from the notebooks we gave them last year! Very impressive. And pop-up books at that.

Meeting in Muong Khong

We are here in Muong Khong. Today we had our meeting with all the school principals for kindergartens in the Khong District—12 out of 15 attended, which was a good turnout. Government education officials also attended.

What Happened

We asked each principal to share basic info such as number of teachers and students as well as their biggest challenges and immediate needs. Interestingly, the biggest challenge is attendance. Out of 6,500 kindergarten-age children in Khong District, only 300 attend school. The reason is because parents don’t see the value of kindergarten, even though it is where the child is first introduced to the alphabet and basic numbers—necessary for grade 1. However because the kindergarten schools are so poorly equipped—some don’t even have a building, just operate outside in the shade—parents don’t want to send their children.

Possible solutions include educating the community about the importance of kindergarten and also improving the basic facilities of the kindergarten schools, to make them seem more attractive to parents—a safe and useful place to leave their children.

Many schools need help with the most basic of needs. For example, about half of the schools need toilets, and a few have no access to water. A couple don’t even have a building—they are held outside in the shade. They all need teaching supplies, such as chalkboards, crayons, paper, and educational toys. Most don’t have desks or chairs. Quite a few are sharing space with elementary schools, and classes are disrupted by older children.

To find out who our possible leaders were (principals with initiative) we asked what kinds of things they were doing to try to solve their own challenges. This actually was a very difficult question for them—it had to be asked many times in many ways. It is not in the culture here for people to show initiative because it is has a communist-style gov’t. Initiative is not encouraged. But eventually we were able to get enough answers to find a couple people in the group who are showing initiative—such as making their own educational toys for children and visiting parents to ask why they don’t send their children to school.

Next we will visit a few possible schools to decide which one we can help—where we will have the most impact.

Heading for Laos

Happy New Year! This year, 2008, Shawn and I are feeling so grateful for all of the incredible people and experiences who have passed through and been part of our lives. More and more we feel that service to others is the key to enjoying life to the fullest, because we are all connected when we help each other, we help ourselves. So we are grateful for Jai Dee as a venue for helping others--in this case the small children of Muong Khong, who live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and of course the children in the slums of Howrah near Calcutta, which is our 2nd project run by the amazing and goodhearted Mamoon.

For now, we’re in Bangkok and it’s hot, hot, hot! Tonight we’re taking an overnight train to the Laos border. Then we will take a bus to Pakse and another (mini) bus to Kong Island (where our kindergarten project is located).

On January 9th, we will meet the principals of the 16 kindergarten schools in the district. This meeting will allow us to understand their needs and build relationships. It's very important to us to understand the reality for the children so we can help in a sustainable way. We will follow up this meeting by visiting and documenting some of most needy schools, and doing what we can to help with the funds we raised this year.

We would like to thank our volunteers, the musicians, the donors and sponsors for everything. We’re full of gratitude to you all. You should be very proud of yourselves--helping to change the lives of these children who, otherwise, would be left behind. It's an honour to work with you all in the service of others.

Best,
Thanou and Shawn

New Year

New Year's Eve

We spent New Year's Eve in Hua Hin (3 hours from Bangkok)--a small city where most of the tourists are Scandinavians and wealthy Thais (and thankfully mostly families--no "party culture"). I'm happy to announce that even though it's hot and sunny I'm healthier than ever. For those of you who don't know, I suffered from a debilitating sun allergy/autoimmune disorder for the past 8 years, which I have turned around with diet and lifestyle changes. I learned a lot of valuable lessons from it--it taught me to value every minute of life, with an understanding that there are no guarantees of tomorrow.

"Letting Go" Lantern Ritual

We brought in the New Year on the beach with a Swedish family who had already made friends with all the locals. We watched as the Thais released sky lanterns (like mini hot air balloons--the flame from the candle heats the air inside the rice paper lantern, causing it to rise). It's a beautiful ritual--they are sending up all the challenges and troubles of the past year. They let them go so they can start over, free of trouble, free of worry. This is so much better than what we tend to do in the West--holding onto all our troubles and worries as though they are part of who we are, when they only hold us back.

I am trying to learn from the Thais--to just let go of the old and welcome in the new! The Thais also know how to have fun. They were shooting fireworks everywhere-the big fancy loud ones. It was a bit crazy trying to dodge them.

Our Projects in Laos
Tomorrow we leave for Bangkok, where we'll shop for some of the items needed at the schools in Laos. Then we'll catch a train to the Laos border, a bus to Pakse and a ferry or longboat to the island of Muong Khong, where we will check on the kindergarten school we helped last year, and begin this year's project.

Getting 17 District Kindergarten School Leaders Together

This year we are doing something exciting. We're having a meeting with the heads of all 17 of the district's kindergarten schools to get to the bottom of what they really need, the real challenges the children face and the best ways to help. We find a lot of charities have good intentions but end up helping in ways that don't have a long-term impact. Our focus in on making sure everything we do helps the children over the long term. After the meeting, we'll be working to help one kindergarten school, in the same way we did last year. We have already earmarked a couple but we are going to tour them and make sure the one we choose has strong leadership and a good long-term outlook. We will keep you updated!

Happy New Year to you all. May you fill this year with joyful experiences and adventures, learning and growing and soaking up LIFE!

All the best,

Shawn and Thanou

The Festival was Grand!

Thanks to all who made the Toronto Songwriters' Festival a huge success! CityTV came out for the second year in a row and gave us a spot on the news again, which was awesome. We raised almost $5,000 over 2 days, which is enough to complete our children's education projects overseas in Laos and India. Yay! We're so grateful other people believe in this little dream of ours, to help children on a grassroots level.

As I write this, an old cement-block school is being fixed up in the slums near Calcutta using some of the money we raised at the festival. I shall post the pictures when I have them. The rest of the money will be used on our next project in Laos, where we are helping very poor kindergarten schools in the Khong District. Last year we completely overhauled a kindergarten, and built them washroom facilities with access to clean water (info and pics here).

It has been a mad year, as soon after the festival Thanou and I got married--two major events one month apart! I don't recommend doing it that way, but it was a great party and now we're legit, ha.

We'll be leaving for Asia on December 26, but first on the list is our honeymoon--one week at a small beach town near Bangkok. Then we'll be heading to Laos to oversee our work there. Come back every now and then to read our updates!

Best,
Shawn & Thanou

The Festival's Almost Here!

We are in the final countdown for our Oct 13/14 Toronto Songwriters' Festival! And it is definitely bigger and better than last year. We've expanded to two days, we have phenomenal artists and on Sunday we have an all-ages event featuring talented young performers!

Web-Radio
Last night Thanou and I did a web-radio interview with Joe Chisholm at IndieCan that also featured one of our artists for the event--Joshua Bartholomew. It was a real gift to be able to listen to Joshua in the studio. At only 22, he has the range of Jeff Buckley, and a heart the size of Canada. After listening to him last night I'm quite certain he's destined for stardom.

Our Amazing Musicians (Saturday's Event)
But Joshua's not the only one headed for stardom. All of our artists have uncommon talent. There's Kat Goldman (whose unforgettable voice will break your heart), Andy Carey (whose Brit pop tunes will linger with you for days), Tucker Finn (who is guaranteed to make you laugh and cry at the same time), MEAStars (whose singer-cello revolution will get into your bones), and Peter Verity (whose soulful folk will make you feel right at home). And that's just Saturday!

Talented Young Musicians (Sunday's Event)
On Sunday we have partnered with the School Alliance of Student Songwriters (SASS), run by Dale Russell (former lead guitarist for The Guess Who) and Artemis Chartier (musician and teacher). SASS nurtures talented young songwriters--teaching them how to write and compose their own music through mentorships with working musicians. We have five of their best young musicians playing on Sunday: Lindsay Broughton, Joey and Cierra MacDonald, Lindsay Regan, Justin Bridgemohan and Tafar-I Davis. A guest appearance will be made by Dale Russell and Artemis Chartier. The event will close with a performance by The Bungalows.

Behind the Scenes--A Big Thank You
It has been a bit crazy this year with the expanded format, and we wouldn't be here at all without all the incredible help and support we received from others. First, we are grateful to our dedicated volunteers, who have helped us put this all together. We are also extremely grateful to Intelliware Dev. for sponsoring our event for the second year in a row. Finally, we are grateful to Songwriters' Unite! and SASS, who help provide artists for this event, and to our promotional partners IndieCan and MegaMusic. Thanks to you all!

Look forward to seeing you all at the festival!

Best,
Shawn and Thanou

The Busiest Summer Ever

I looked at the calendar today, and couldn't believe it when it said August 31st! This has been the busiest summer ever--though all good!

June: was spent finalizing our lineup of songwriters for this year's Toronto Songwriters Festival, October 13/14 at Hugh's Room. It is going to be our best festival ever! For all the latest on that, and bios of all musicians, drop by our new dedicated festival website (created by Thanou!) at http://www.torontosongwritersfestival.com/.

July: We sent the teachers in Laos for 2 weeks of teacher training in the big city of Vientiane (the teachers only have a grade 7 education). Everything went extremely well, and they will soon be teaching what they learned to other schools in the district.

Also in July, I took two intensive leadership programs in order to better oversee the work for Jai Dee. But more importantly, we partnered with School Alliance of Student Songwriters (SASS), to help run the Sunday (young artist) segment of our music festival this October. It was founded by two incredibly big-hearted people: Artemis Chartier (singer-songwriter and high school teacher) and Dale Russell (songwriter and lead guitarist of The Guess Who, l983-2000).

In August, an angel named Sharon Barfoot (a.k.a. Zappha) along with fellow organizers Peter J. Slack and Kiera Merriam held a music festival fundraiser for Jai Dee at Sauble Beach as part of their Brewster's Coffeehouse Tour and http://www.myonesquaremile.com/ project. It was an amazing, magical night that ended with musicians playing drums on the beach until 3 am, and we were so grateful to be a part of it.

Thanou finished the new website for the festival: http://www.torontosongwritersfestival.com/. Let us know what you think!

And we have held a number of meetings with our volunteer Events Advisory Board, where lots of great ideas have been introduced and built upon, posters, cards and videos have been designed, over 100 pink heart necklaces have been made (for the auction!) and lots of good food has been shared (our meetings are potlucks!). We are so grateful for our volunteers--nothing we have done would exist without them.

And all the things we have done for the children would not have happened without you! So...we look forward to seeing you all at the festival on October 13/14!

Best,
Shawn xo

Our Incredible Photos!

I'm very excited to share with you all our brand new photo hosting site! To see all the photos from our projects in both Laos and India please go to:

www.jaidee.smugmug.com

This is part of the reason why I'm behind on updates...uploading all those photos!

I returned from India still reeling from food poisoning (I got it a second time the day before I got on the plane, if you can believe that!), but I'm fully recovered now and excited to be working on Jai Dee's projects for 2007!

Lots of great stuff is happening. Thanou is building a new website that will be easier to navigate (and easier to update). We're already out listening to musicians, searching for the "best of the best" to perform at this year's festival. And, based on your suggestions last year, we're thinking about expanding the festival into a two-day event (the second day will be an all-ages event, so whole families can attend)! Currently we're looking at late September/early October.

We'll be holding our first volunteers meeting for 2007 very soon, which will surely lead to many more inspirations and ideas on how we will help the children at our projects in Laos and India this year.

Best,
Shawn & Thanou