While hiking through the jungle, I came across a little village tucked up away from the fast flowing River Kwai. This village is home to several Mon families who live between the border of Burma and Thailand. The Mon people have their own language, their own cuisine, their own culture and of course, their own tiny village in the jungle.
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| What is that village building hiding behind the bushes? |
One of the buildings in their community is the village school. It was neat to explore how this school is the same as our schools, and how it is different.
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| The classroom where boys and girls from the Mon Village come to learn. |
The open air design, with no walls, means that the weather can really affect daily classroom routines. Wind and rain can interfere with learning, and during rainy season sometimes classes are cancelled (also because the teacher, who uses the river to get to work everyday, can't make the journey). Even though the building might not look like our school, the desks, the chalkboard, and the posters hanging are all clues that this is a classroom.
The play structures are all made of metal, but look very similar to the playgrounds we see around our neighbourhoods. If you were a student at this school what play structure would you want to use at recess?
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| I bet this see-saw is a favourite with the children of the village. |
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| These monkey bars and slide are some of the play structures the children use. |
The biggest difference are the bathrooms. There aren't separate indoor boys and girls bathrooms, instead there is one little outhouse that all the students use when they have to go to the bathroom. There is no running water at the school, so a bucket of water is brought in everyday so hands can be washed, and the toilet can be flushed.
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| In need of some repair, this is the school's outhouse. |
After looking at these pictures can you make a list of all the similarities and differences between your school and this village school.
