Interesting Wrinkle

    Tomorrow, my last day teaching, the Buddhist students will go to the temple to make merit.  This disrupts my schedule of teaching the 5th and 6th grades.  The solution? I will teach the Muslim 5th and 6th graders together the first hour while the Buddhists are at the temple.  The second hour I will teach the Buddhist 5th and 6th graders.
    Who's who?   I have some idea of who are Muslim from previous experience and by some names.  Fahout, Ussama, Abedin, Fadine, Munid, Faraa, Kabem, Omasin, Nadeam, Aran, and Kabeem are Muslim.  It will be interesting to see who is and who isn't Muslim.  The girls do not wear ha-jibs and they all wear the same uniforms.  I can detect no fault lines based on religion with friendships between the groups. It all seems matter of fact with little attention paid.  I'm guessing that it will divide at about 50-50.
    There are no Christians, Hindus, Jews or other religions at school, When I engaged the teachers in conversation about other religions it's almost as if they had never thought about such a thing.  But, they assured me, that if there were others, they'd be given the same consideration as the Buddhists and Muslims.  In the all-school gatherings in the morning and at noon they all chant a Buddhist liturgy and then all chant a Muslim one.  Buddhism is the official religion of Thailand with basic religious tolerance.

Students giving me Thank You cards.

Fun with 3rd grade.

3rd grade with Anne, the teacher.

4th grade.

Twins May and Mot (Mot means ant.)

Holding Ice, she 3 feet tall,  I had the boys do push ups and asked the girls if they wanted to do it,  Ice volunteered and did five which was more than some of the boys could do.