THAILAND – Cultural Kaleidoscope – July 9 – July 29, 2016

Time Capsule Letter – October 2016

Hello to Session 2 of Thailand: Cultural Kaleidoscope at the Tianna Home Base!!! We hope you are all doing well! Time has flown by and it has somehow been over two months since we last said our goodbyes at the Chiang Mai airport. While we all eventually made it back to our homes and returned to our normal lives, we will always have the memories from an incredible three weeks together in Chiang Mai. This ‘Time Capsule Letter’ is a great way to look back on the people we met, the places we saw, and the experiences we shared during our time together. Hopefully all of you are able to think back to your time walking through one of the many temples we visited, or one of the classes you taught at either Wat Kha Jao School or Baan Don Kaew School, or the relationships you built with the kids from the Nimit Foundation, the Wildflower shelter, the local community, the Thai school children, and each other, and you are able to smile, laugh, and appreciate our experiences in Thailand this past summer.

Your group will always hold a special place in our collective hearts since we were able to spend a full three weeks together. Being thrown into a situation where you spend so much time with a group of people that were mostly strangers before coming together as a group means you learn a lot about the other people on your trip in a very short time. It happens on 10-day trips and 14-day trips, but spending a whopping 21 days together in Thailand in the middle of July is a whole different level. We were incredibly fortunate to have such an interesting group of people that supported each other and got along so well. You guys were all awesome and it made the experience so much more rewarding to have been able to share it with so many other great people. That’s not to say everything was wonderful sunshine and rainbows all day, every day. There were mosquitos (lots of them); there were classes where students didn’t listen; there were upset stomachs and other illnesses; there was a whole lot of rice; there were literally rainy days; there were schedule changes and long van rides and nightly curfew checks. But that’s all part of what makes traveling to new countries and experiencing new cultures such a rewarding experience: you never know exactly what you will get. It’s all about making the most of those experiences while you are there, and you guys all made that happen.

GLA programs can be exciting, a little overwhelming, and a whole lot of fun, but one thing GLA hopes to stress is how the experiences you have while in Thailand, Peru, Tanzania, or wherever else you may travel with GLA can be an opportunity to learn about a new culture, become more informed about how interconnected the world has become, and reflect on ways you can make a positive impact on the world around you. In addition to being an opportunity to travel and learn about what life is like in a different place and culture, a GLA trip can also be a valuable opportunity to grow and learn more about yourself, about your strengths and values, and about what motivates you to be the best person you can be. So as you make your way through your high school classes, or as you settle in to your new surroundings on a college campus, or wherever life takes you this fall, winter, and beyond, remember to think back to your experiences and the relationships you built last summer in Chiang Mai, to cherish them, and to use them as a part of what makes each of you unique. And then go out there and keep being awesome!

Before we wrap this up, here are a few of our favorite memories from Session 2:

• Bergen’s Shiny shoes
• Chasing little frogs in the rain at Wat Chedi Luang
• Everyone getting braids by Lauren each morning
• Ryan getting a shout out during the Thai dance class for being very feminine
• Peter, Adele, and Sydney N. pounding gravel at Wildflower
• The little boy at Wildflower home who helped spread countless loads of stone with Adele… adorable!
• Chelsea’s van playing Justin Bieber in every van ride
• Stella and her love for ice cream
• Adele’s laugh
• Aidan and Lena’s Dance moves at Nimit
• The leaf snail crawling across Tianna Home base
• Dancing while working at the orphanage and teaching Ryan and Keith
• Xinyi being surprised every time she saw a bug in Thailand
• Peter’s excellent pouncing abilities during birdie on a perch and while swimming — there goes ‘Cannonball Peter’!
• Ryan and Keith’s epic pool party swag and jumping hand clap
• Battening down the hatches at dinner time on the Ping River during the rain storm
• Harper and Aidan being just a little late!
• The never ending toque giggles – uh-ehhhh. Thanks, Giovanna!
• All of the school children pouring into the GLA students ‘resting room’ jumping on top of everything like little monkeys
• Claire sacrificing her leg to win balloon stomp
• Harper dancing around elephants
• Keith’s Muay Thai match with a praying mantis. Keith running away because he lost.
• “Hello my name is Pennsylvania and I’m from Thomas”
• Katie’s accent on cultural exchange day
• Nailing the ‘We’re all in this Together’ High School Musical dance routine.
• Eating hot Thai peppers in the middle of a pepper field while mountain biking.
• Wearing lifejackets like diapers for a more comfortable floating experience on kayak day
• The ‘We Love Chiang Mai!’ Football match
• Holding hands, swaying and singing (and crying), while closing our English camp at Don Kaew School…

Finally, from all of us that had the pleasure of meeting you this past summer – P’ Aey, Orn, Prae, Ton, Kaye, Ryan, Chelsea, Kaitlyn, and Keith – Thank you again for being such a great group and we wish you all the best in wherever your future takes you! Like we said on the last day, keep in touch, we love hearing what you guys are up to now and keep doing amazing things!!!

-Keith

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Summer Blog Posts

July 9 – Arrival Day!

Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand! After making their way around world, through airports, layovers, and many long flights, all 29 of our students for Session 2 (July 9-July 29) have arrived safely! It has been a long day of making trips to and from the airport, but after taking some time to settle in to Tianna Garden Village (our GLA Home Base and our home away from home for the next three weeks) students were given their first taste of local Thai food, including fried rice and some exotic Thai fruit before heading to their rooms for some much needed rest.

The GLA staff team at Tianna Home Base has been working hard preparing for the students’ arrival and trying to fine tune our schedule for the next couple weeks, and we are all very excited to have everyone here with us now. We will be going through an Orientation tomorrow morning after breakfast that will include an introduction to Thai culture, safety and security protocols, highlights of our service learning activities and adventure excursions, and a few other minor details (like staying hydrated in sunny Thailand!). After our orientation, we will be heading to the Chiang Mai Grand View Hotel for a lunch buffet full of more delicious Thai food, which should be a fantastic introduction to the culinary delights Thailand has to offer.

We’ll be getting an early start tomorrow morning so we’ll wrap up this first blog post here. Future blog posts will be authored by our student leaders and will include pictures from our busy days as well so be sure to check back often for updates on all the amazing adventures we are having together in the Land of Smiles! As they say here in Thailand, Khob Khun Krap!

Author: Keith Wingeard (International Director)

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Title: Getting started

We have had a great first day! We started off with orientation. We learned about some Thai culture, language, and history from the local Thai staff. After that we began our fun day by visiting the beautiful Buddhist temples. While we were there, we were taught how to act when entering a temple. The first temple we visited was Chiang Mun. We all thought it was breath taking. After that, we went to the second temple called Chedi Luang where the weather wasn’t on our side. It was down pouring, but we found coverage in the temple, the largest in Chiang Mai. While we were there, a Buddhist monk blessed all of us. It was a great experience for the entire group.

After exploring the temples, we made our way to the food markets in order to learn about the ingredients we would be using during our cooking class. We all got to get a look at different ingredients such as fish sauce, Thai basil, and Kaffir lime. We were then brought to the cooking school and started to prepare our main 3 meals. They were delicious and consisted of stir fry, curry, and another type of soup. It was a very cool experience for all of us to cook our own Thai food and get a taste of what it has to offer. At the end the local Thai cooks gave us our very own cook book. It included multiple recipes that we can make at home. After a long day we finally made our way back to the home base. We gathered together in our mentor groups to share and discuss our thoughts from the long day. Everyone here so far is having a great time growing bonds and making memories. We love it here!!!!

Author: Aidan Purdy & Giovanna de Moura

July 11, 2016

Title: Dancing and Crafting and a Whole Lot of Packing

We started off the day learning about Thai dance and crafts. We bared the heat and saw a martial arts inspired dance, a northern Thailand finger dance, and a central Thailand circle dance. Our skills were tested when we weaved bamboo to create horses. We had lunch in a mall, and went off to service. The groups split in half as one group went to the orphanage and the other to a woman’s shelter.
At the orphanage, the supplies weren’t ready for us to begin working with just yet. We took the time as an opportunity to bond and played various games together. At the women’s shelter, we learned about Wildflower house and its purpose in Thailand. Their mission is to provide for women so that one day they can provide for themselves. They needed help building a usable walkway/driveway so the group got their hands dirty and shoveled a ton of gravel to cover the muddy ground. They shoveled and packed and made a whole lot of progress. Afterwards, they played with the mothers’ kids and had a lot of fun chasing and laughing with them.

Overall, the day was a lot of fun. It was eye opening to learn the dance and craft of a different country. Although it was difficult, we persevered and had a great time. The Thai staff thought we did an amazing job at the end! Service at the shelter was definitely hard and stressful but we pushed through and completed a large portion of the yard. All our sweat and tiredness paid off in the end when we saw how much the paved roads will help the women.

Author: Xinyi Yuan and Victoria Guevara

July 12, 2016

Umbrella Factory and Service

Today we had a very exciting and challenging day. We explored the umbrella factory as well as challenging service work. When we arrived at the umbrella factory we could already see that the umbrellas were hand made. There were different stations with diligent Thai workers using hand tools to make their biodegradable umbrellas. The whole amazing process was narrated by Robert the owner of the facility. He was crazy nice and help described the whole process to us. Once we finished the tour of the umbrella process we walked to the hall of painters. There were 12 painters on both sides who painted magnificent designs of various objects and scenes on to anything you put in front of them! Everyone got different spiritually important objects of theirs painted, including water bottles, phone cases as well as journal notebooks. As we were having our paintings dried we did some painting of our own. We received mini umbrellas and were able to design them however our hearts desired. We concluded the fun with smoothies and our fantastic paintings.
After lunch we split up into two groups and went to our service sites, one is Wild Flower which is a women’s center and the other is an orphanage, Nimit 2. At Nimit 2 we worked on constructing a cement pathway. In order to construct the cement pathway we had to mix cement which included having an assembly line which made it easier for everyone. We had some people shoveling the dirt and gravel into buckets while the rest of us passed the buckets along to where the cement was being mixed. We made a lot of progress today which made all of us happy.
The second group when to the Wild Flower where we helped lay gravel to pave a road. This was probably the sweatiest any of us every gotten. You could tell we were working as hard as we could. There were three jobs, the first was to load the gravel into our buckets and wheelbarrows, the second was to transport the wheelbarrows and buckets to where they were to be dumped and then bring the containers back and the third was to even out the gravel. The work was all worth while because it would have taken them weeks for what we did in hours. We all were very satisfied and happy to have been there.

Author: Jami Tuch and Thomas Carpenito

 

July 13

Wat U-Mong Temple and Service

Today we started the day off as we do everyday day, with chow circle and a delicious breakfast. Followed by visiting an extremely historic and significant temple by the name of Wat U-Mong. It was composed of underground tunnels, active vegetation, skylights, and a breathtaking and large pagoda. We then went further past the temple to visit the mediation center with a large amount of birds and catfish in the pond. We then went to a pair of nearby coffee shops and gained access to the Wi-Fi and connected with friends and family. With a quick trip across the street we were provided a delicious lunch at a restaurant called the boat. Then the group split up into their mentor groups and traveled to their respective service sites both at Nimit 2 and Wildflower.

At Nimit 2 we enjoyed a very productive and fun day laying down cement for the children living there. We spent our time dancing and listening to music all day long. At that point we were happy to enjoy our time as we worked together and made a great amount of progress from the last few days’ minor setbacks. Unfortunately though we spent less time than usual and had to leave early and were unable to play with the kids before they got back from school. Great progress was made at the Wildflower Women’s Shelter, not only is the hard work liberating, but beyond rewarding to see the size of the smiles on these women’s faces. Not to mention that it is so important to them that they are right up there shoveling, carrying, and flattening with the rest of us; of course I have no doubt that they enjoy our company as much as we enjoy theirs. In addition, their children are as fun to play with as they are adorable. The process as a whole is enjoyable, and well worth the while; it is an honor to play my part in it. Despite what site an individual was present at, I believe I can speak for everyone when I say that it is well worth our time and effort to participate in.

Author: Aidan Rupert and Sidney Neuman

July 14, 2016

Todd Talk, School and Service tours, and Khao Soi

We started off a very eventful day with chow circle and breakfast. After breakfast, we met in the conference room where Todd gave us teaching tips to use while teaching English to the children. Following the seminar, the group was split into two smaller groups and were sent off to two separate elementary schools. When we arrived, we were surprised to see how polite and social the children were. We had a small tour of the schools and were given a chance to introduce ourselves to the administration and various students. After our visitation, we had a very special lunch at the family restaurant of P.A., one of our local staff members. Most of us had their restaurant famous Thai dish, Khao Soi, which was a curry soup with chicken and noodles. After a delicious lunch, we all visited the Wild Flower Women’s Shelter, which gave the Nimit group a chance to see the progress of their peers. After a tour, the Nimit group left and went to Nimit where they continued their service as did the group at Wildflower. At the end of the day, the Wildflower group was given a chance to tour the Nimit orphanage and talk to the children and staff as well as see the progress that the other group made. Once all of that was done, we all returned to our home base, where we showered, had mentor groups, and a delicious dinner that consisted of egg rolls, fried rice, veggies, fruit, and pork. After a nutritious dinner, the group began to learn a dance that we will perform in front of a local Thai high school for a cultural exchange program. Once we finished for the night, we all went back to our separate rooms where we fell quickly asleep.

Author: Juliette Chandler and Camryn Simon

New Photos:

July 15, 2016

Title: Pottery and Summing up a motivating experience

Today we started off our morning by visiting the Muang Kung Pottery Village in which we took a tour of the many families in the village who have been creating various types of pottery there for generations. After the tour we created our own hand-spun pottery and were given a beautiful handmade pot as a parting gift from the village. Following that, we went to Big C shopping center, and were each given 100 baht to buy our own lunch and explore. After lunch we went to our last day of service at either the Wildflower Women’s Shelter or the Nimit 2 Orphanage. The group at Wildflower worked with the women to make keffir lime shampoo that they sell in the market, which was really fun to see how they had been taught to make supplies that they can sell. The Nimit group finished up their concrete pathway and with all their gravel material gone they felt very accomplished and spent the rest of the day playing with the kids. After a long day we went back to home base and had mentor groups to discuss how our last day summed up the work we did at Wildflower and Nimit 2. Then we all watched inspiring videos to see how leadership and kindness can have an effect on anyone even in the smallest of ways.

Author: Hannah Schilling, Harper Branch

July 16, 2016

Title: Our Day at Art in Paradise and a Walk in the Park

All through the week we had been working at our service sites, but today was finally our day to have fun with our new friends. We met up as a group at a perspective art museum called “Art in Paradise.” With our friends from Wildflower and Nimit we posed with the art to take creative photos. After our art adventure we split up to a lunch treat at Pizza Hut and KFC. We conversed over the food and learned so many new things about the children at the orphanage and the women’s shelter. We then traveled to the local city park to play and interact more. There were many things to do at the park, whether it was grabbing ice cream, or feeding pigeons.
At the end of a really fun afternoon, there were many hugs and a couple tears saying goodbye. For the Nimit troop we had to sadly part ways at the park. For the Wildflower group we returned to the site and purchased soaps and goods we had made with the mothers to fund and support their future endeavors.
For our evening we went to the Saturday market at the Saturday Walking Street., where for some you could say they “shopped till they dropped.” There were many sites and new sounds and smells that were amazing. We could smell strong durian fruit, see so many intricate trinkets, and so many wonderful street performers. It was the best market for our first evening expedition.

Authors: Olivia Mann-Dial, and Sidney Ammons

July 17, 2016

Title: Biking, Kayaking and Games

This morning we woke up bright and early for a 7am breakfast. After chow circle and a nutritious meal we got in the vans and left at 8:30. After an hour bus ride we arrived at the starting spot for our biking tour. We biked 12 miles with a beautiful view of rice fields. We then headed to the lake where we kayaked to a floating restaurant. There we had time to eat, swim, and jump on the water trampoline. After a couple hours enjoying the area, we got in the kayaks and raced back to the buses. When we got back to the home base we had some down time followed by chow circle wrapping up the day and dinner. After the usual mentor groups we began our evening activity consisting of 2 games. The first was a traditional Thai game called the wedding game where a lot of screaming and running was involved. The second was a game called birdie on a perch which involved jumping and screaming. We personally came in second place but we should’ve been 1^st J. That concludes our action packed day.  With love, yours truly, Lena and Stella.

Author: Lena Wencker & Stella Garland

July 18, 2016

Title: Doi Suthep Temple and the Hmong Hill Tribe Village

After a busy day of biking and Kayaking on Sunday, we got to enjoy and chill all morning at Huay Tuang Tao. We played group bonding games, relaxed, and had a picnic lunch. Some of us participated in a Thai snack tasting contest where we had to identify various snacks while blindfolded. We were also offered silkworms, but only a few were up to the challenge.

After a long and winding van ride, we arrived at Doi Suthep, the most famous temple of the city. We climbed up 308 steps, and the view was definitely worth the effort. There was a large golden pagoda in the main part of the temple. Many Thai people were visiting because it was a national holiday, but we heard many other languages such as Chinese and Russian.

Once we were finished at Doi Suthep we made our way to Hmong Village where we got to see how a hill tribe lived. We visited a coffee shop there where there was a beautiful view. All in all, it was a relaxing and fulfilling day.

Authors: Bergen Hart and Claire Jutabha

July 19, 2016
Title: Niti Day and Muay Thai Boxing

We started our day with an early 7 am breakfast overlooking the Ping River and the beautiful Chiang Mai mountain range. Then we got a brief introduction from Niti (GLA’s local Thai friend) about the Akha hill tribe before we set out. Once at the village, Niti introduced us to her grandmother and gave us a tour of her village and explained the history of the Akha tribe and their traditional dress (see Aidan pictured with Niti’s grandma… awww…). Next, we stopped at a cute coffee shop overlooking rice paddy fields where we had a variety of fresh fruit smoothies before eating an all natural lunch of lettuce wraps with rice, eggplant, and tomato salsa on a bed of bamboo. We then met back up with the other group and embarked to our Muay Thai lesson where we learned how to box from world-class Thai boxers. Though the exercise was hard and we worked up a sweat, the delicious meal waiting for us at Home Base made it all worth it.

Authors: Carli Casteel and Lauren Kanter

 

Day 11

After breakfast this morning, we split up into two groups. One group went to the Akha Hill Tribe Village, and the other went to a market. At the Akha village, we were able to experience the lifestyle of a hill tribe person. An informative tour was given by a local. We were able to try on traditional head dresses for ourselves. After a refreshing drink from a lovely café, we had a home cooked meal provided by the grandmother of an Akha hill tribe grandmother. The group that went to the market was able to see, and smell, a local market. We ate some Thai snacks provided by our Thai mentors. From there everyone headed to Home Base and we had a POOL PARTY!! Everyone got a coconut to enjoy! We spent the entire afternoon in the pool, playing games, and relaxing. We had dinner prepared by Thai staff. Then we did some nighttime activities, which included practicing our High School Musical that we will be preforming at a High School Cultural exchange. At the end of the night, everyone went to bed to get some rest for the first day of teaching in the morning.

 

Day 12

Start of teaching, talking with a monk, and American food

An unfortunate early 6:30 am wake-up call turned out to be an exciting and enjoyable day. We started our first day of teaching at either Wat Kha Jao School or Ban Don Kaew School. They greeted us with smiling faces, followed by the daily morning flag ceremonies and they passed out Jasmine flower garlands to us. All of us on the trip were assigned one class from grade P. 1 to P. 6. We teach one period, observe one period, and have a break period. During our break, we work extremely hard on lesson planning for the following day. We all felt relief once we finished our first day and then received an amazing Thai lunch at the school.

Following lunch we went to another temple, Wat Suan Dok. This time we went for something special, a group chat with a monk. The monk, KK, taught us about Buddhism and the life of a monk. We then were able to ask him any questions, concluded by a blessing from him. We then toured the temple and we came across the graveyard of the Lanna Kingdom’s past Royal Families. After seeing another stunning temple we saw even more stunning food. We had dinner at Duke’s, a Chiang Mai restaurant with AMERICAN FOOD!! Everyone was extremely stuffed after the meal consisting of pizza, ribs, onion rings, salad, and brownies for dessert.

We then were able to walk off our food at a night market, the Night Bazaar. Many people chose to have a ‘fish massage’. It was a very funny reaction to see for all the first-timers. After the night market, we headed back to Home Base. Our evening activity was finishing planning for tomorrow’s day of teaching. We then all headed to bed exhausted, but ready for another fun-filled day tomorrow. With much love, Aria Laskin and Kelly Marx.

Author: Aria Laskin and Kelly Marx

Friday, July 22, 2016
Title: Day 2 of teaching and Cultural Exchange

After an amazing breakfast, we headed out to our schools for the second day of teaching. Each group of teachers had one hour of teaching, one hour of observing, and a one hour planning period. We ate lunch at the schools and were able to play with the kids a little bit before we all went to the Regina Coeli College, which is a Catholic girl’s school. There we watched their video of their school and their cultural presentation, a beautiful traditional Thai dance. We also shared our presentation of where we are all from and a dance to “We’re All in this Together” from High School Musical as a fun representation of our own culture. We also got to know the high schoolers through a fun coconut relay race and making jasmine garlands. At the end we were able to go on a tour of the school and talk a little bit more with the students about themselves. Finally we came back to Home Base for dinner, and had an optional movie night where we watched “Mrs. Doubtfire”!

Author: Sophie von Muench and Adele Hinkle

July 23, 2016
Title: Elephant Day

Today was the day we had all been looking forward to! With so many excited faces, we met for an early 7 a.m. breakfast. After a bit of a winding drive, we finally arrived to the elephant home. Plenty of friendly faces and two beautiful elephants greeted us. We fed them sugar cane, which the elephants loved! We went through a quick orientation and we were then assigned our elephants for the day.
There were 11 elephants, one of which was a male, the rest females. About half of the female elephants were pregnant. There were about two or three people assigned to each elephant. There was also a mahut for each elephant: people who train the elephants for the majority of their lives. We hiked up a beautiful mountain covered in greenery, lots of bugs, and plenty of bamboo and plants for the elephants to snack on on the way up. At the top of the hill, we had a sticky rice snack while the elephants rested and scratched their backs on the trees.
After we made it back down the hill, we had Pad Thai for lunch. We found our elephants again and walked through a rural area surrounded by rice patties and a beautiful view. Then we took the elephants to the river which they LOVED. Some people rode on their backs for a minute while others were lifted by the elephants’ trunks. After walking back to the camp, we said our final goodbyes to our elephants and headed home.
Finally, we ended the night by going to a Chiang Mai v Bangkok soccer game. Chiang Mai won 2 to 1 and we all celebrated. We went back to home base and went to bed early for yet again, another 7 a.m. breakfast.

Author: Katie Johansen and Peter Gray

July 23, 2016
Title: Zip-lining and Sunday Night Market

This past Sunday was such an adventure. After an early breakfast at 7am, we quickly got changed and headed to Eagle Track, which was the zip-line course we would be completing. Everyone was so incredibly excited. For some people it was their first time zip-lining and other were ready to zip-line in a new beautiful location. The course we went through was WILD (don’t worry friends and family, we were harnessed in at all times). Not only was there zip-lining, there was other obstacles too. For example, drops. The drop platforms are where we were harnessed and would literally jump off the platform. Other included stepping on suspended platforms, walking across suspended bridges, and ladders. In total there were 35 different obstacles that we all completed. After we finished the Eagle track, we stayed for lunch, which consisted of many delicious items including, egg, noodles, vegetables and soup. The last thing we did before leaving was we got to all plant a tree to help with the deforestation that is currently happening here in Thailand.

After zip-lining, we went back to home base and did a quick change before going to the much anticipated Sunday Night Market. The markets are always such a blast because there is so much to explore. We got to eat dinner there too, which is fun because there is a lot to choose. After close to 2 hours we met back up at our meeting place with bags filled with our purchases. Then we rode in our vans to the home base and called it a night.

Author: August Feinstein-Hillsman

July 25, 2016
Title: Monday: Massages, Math, and Mentor Groups

After an extremely jam-packed weekend of elephants and ziplines, we were tired but ready to teach our beautiful pupils. In our third lesson, we went over various topics such as numbers, animals, and clothing. We ate lunch at our schools prepared by the school’s staff. Then, we hopped in our vans and headed to massages and an internet cafe. Groups 3 and 4 had their massages first, and as a general consensus, it felt good. Everyone was relaxed and enjoyed hot tea afterwards. At the internet café, people contacted home. We came back to Home Base and ate a delicious dinner by the Ping River. That evening, we did the True Colors Personality Test. It was interesting to gain a new insight into ourselves. Then we refueled with a GOOD night’s sleep. ;)))

Author: Claire Jutabha and Juliette Chandler

July 27, 2016
Title: English Camp
Today was the final day of service at the schools. We woke up, ate breakfast and headed over to the schools. Each school group planned out a full day of English activities for the children at the schools. Some of these activities included sports, relays, arts and crafts, “at the market”, and other fun games. The kids loved it and everyone had a great time! There were welcoming ceremonies at each of the schools. Each GLA student received a certificate of completion. From the schools, everyone headed back to home base to enjoy root beer floats and a delicious dinner!

Author: Camryn Simon and Emma Mellon