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Thailand Zoom Session

Added Sep 20, 2022 •

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This was recorded on Monday, September 19 by Mr. Kelly & Ms. Duffala.

Show Transcript

so I missed a call and I were able to go to Mexico as a result of covid-19 hitting and Thailand trip down there were very strict with a brush coat covid regulate and we made that trip so this will be we travel together this defalla is a veteran of out of country and out of three trips at least two trips really all over the United States and I've done that is well here at Saint Mary's including doing this trip to Thailand to the Bamboo School originally in 2019 so very excited about this opportunity please people kind of filter and Christina yourself real quick yeah so Christina dufala on this is my I think 90 St Mary's this will be my fifth travel trip for a week and I'm really excited for this one I don't know much more to say about mice I think I've taught most of our upperclassmen by this point so I'm excited to get new experiences with them and if I haven't taught them cited to build new relationships great thank you how much let me see if I can get this started so the format up tonight and I appreciate everyone for coming people will begin to continue a filter and I'll try and go through this as quickly as possible way that we've got it setup is we got about 15 minutes no more than 20 minutes but I just kind of telling you a little bit about the trip and then about five minutes of questions and additional questions that you may have of me or mr. Paula you can email us will provide the email here on this PowerPoint just to say but I get my name is Greg Kelly I've been now is my 11th year hit here at St Mary's College High School teacher from AP government and US Government along with perspectives in diversity this year so so the trip this isn't what called an immersion trip is a little bit different from some of the other trip students have access to emergent rips really are service trips primarily it's a way for us to live out our mission that we have at Saint Mary's values and a go out into the world and and express that in the world share and meet new people and new situations but also do some kind of service for a there so the component of it's a little bit different at the same time we do combine the service with we're in Thailand were in the Moana motion credle places is certainly in Asia to be an opportunity for us to see a new cultural experience new food a language smells everything that you can imagine on on a foreign trip I'm so this right here to show you up on the screen are our proposal is March 2nd through the 12th that's that are tripping the trip that you'll see listed here I think the doctor. Taking are the longest trips in one of the reasons our longest just because we travel the farthest until I did idea is to maximize our time as much as possible in that country cuz we're not sure off in time we travel if we'll ever get to return to those spots again so this is kind of a one-in-a-lifetime certainly experience so you can see pictures right there last time we went in 2019 we built a chicken outside for a small in the coop we just left my house and you'll see in the upper left with a hundred chickens in it and we bought the chickens the whole idea is why is this an emerging what are we doing that where we building a chicken house there is we're serving a group student called stateless children is very unique in the sense that these group of individuals are right at the Thailand Myanmar border they do not have high citizenship and they don't have Myanmar citizenship because of Agriculture because of a moving the migrant workers they move back and forth across the border and so they're never able to establish citizenship in either country oftentimes don't have the documents that support that because their state children it means I don't have access to education and they don't have access to healthcare difficult to get jobs all those kind of things so that Christian brothers are doing is they started the school because they played negotiated with the Thai government basically says look if you complete this school and then from this school go about five miles down the road from the school to another Christian Brothers School finger school and you get your shirts forget you then get access to Thai citizenship and all the benefits that go with that so you recognized as a as a citizen of the World by a government and you get the rights that go along with that and so it's a did not have the school here that you see on the screen teaching Thai teaching English they would not have access to some of the rights the benefits of healthcare College all those kind of things imagine so he's pretty incredible gets so what we do is we go to the school will be there most of the week and we do service projects for this year they asked for a little bit different from the chicken house we may do so repair on that chicken house and of course teaching and working with the children as well so that is as follows we leave on our we take our final exam in the trimester to the last exams on Thursday March 2nd that evening we travelled to the airport around 10 p.m. and flight actually departs at 12:05 which is really March 3rd we arrive March 3rd in Bangkok will stay there in town and will visit some of the main sites there in in Bangkok and that being the reclining Buddha very famous I will go to the Palace or the most famous Buddhist temples there as well and so they'll get a sense of that it will great food and we'll travel around Tennessee that is very exciting kind of international City really is from there we'll go up to the Bamboo School will take Vans and will have local brothers who will drive us in those hands up into the location of show you that location on the map here in just a second I'll spend their week they're primarily working with students doing construction part of the time doing other things as well as that turn certainly to Bangkok stay the night one more night there and then depart the next day that's returning on Sunday students do not have school on Monday staff to but students do not so it'll be a nice little day I found in traveling to other locations than the Paul and into Vietnam and China some of the places I've traveled there in the Far East is in return seems to be a little bit more of a of a jet lag issue so I'm so where are we going specifically when we're there serving those students if you look at the map on the bottom right-hand side bottom of that drain section right near the bay or the Open Water concocting the capital city we will travel Northwest up almost right to the man-mar Border matter fact will visit to Myanmar border at the three Pagoda there which is right on the border. Famous kind of decide there is well in our Thailand side so we'll visit that we won't go over into Myanmar Myanmar has very strict rules with regarding entry but will be right there at the border on the left hand side you'll see that is the school that will be staying at actually most of the evenings that we will be staying in so there's two schools there and boost schools one will be working out of the day and in the evening we will be staying at the back with you is now call the Blue Sky School are the para para money the pyramid a school which is a larger school it's a day school there are some people that stay on that school overnight those usually are people children who have limited nut mounts of families are nuns that live certainly on that campus their brothers live on the campus will stay there and in the evenings that's on the bottom left that you see right there paperwork what do you need while you need a passport so that's one thing that you need to one of the things that I miss Melanie only talk to you about knows your pictures there of one of the places will visit in Bangkok right there another Christian Brothers School is Ava just require you to start taking a look at looking at whether or not your child's passport is still good and it's a good six months beyond our trip the reason the eye play foreign countries do that often times depending on the foreign country is they they want to make sure if something goes wrong that you are still legal to stay in their their country have all the necessary paperwork on before you return the other thing certainly you are going over the student contract in a release form within this mullah Nelly's meeting flight information it's real simple we fly from SFO China Airlines is there are lines and I'll show you the low patient that we will meet their detail with regards to the actual Airline but I'll save it it it's been good so we'll land or Intermediate A stop-off is in Taipei Taiwan right here is going to be show distance in this picture out to parents at the International Airport the actual International Terminal where will actually meet when were there at the airport flying to this real quick yes valid passport the other thing that people ask about Earth current covid rules in Thailand Thailand you either need the vaccination proof of vaccination your vaccination card are you need a PCR test within 72 hours of driving in Thailand so those are the two requirements there so you don't have to have both you have to have one or the other now that being said things change and Thailand used to have a very direct entry policy call the tile and passed a scale that back now went in the as we enter flu season I would not doubts or be surprised if they increased their requirements and that would be maybe a and the vaccine so right now it's either our maybe they increase it to both I don't think Tyler is going to shut down like they did in 2020 because they really do you are looking for Taurus and they certainly want mortars there so real quick what would they were in there with a teach English to students and so during the daytime when we're not building will be teaching that will certainly play games will repair the chicken house one of the things that Brother Joseph in my communications with him there in Thailand is they want us to build mushroom Huts so that's a source of food and so it's very complicated in building in this particular location they don't want perm walls in permanent routes they wanted to reflect I would stay in permanent until oftentimes what you'll find his will build a low structure no more than waist-high of cement cinder blocks and then everything else needs to be temporary materials like bamboo until we will build as mushroom hats as a source of food for their students the chickens produce eggs for them so they had meals when they would come sometimes they would get two meals a day and then just maybe the only two meals that they would get it was a pretty significant to be able to do this next time we're going to build some cement foundations part of that maybe they wanted to build a fish ponds so that they'll be another source of protein for students I'm not sure if that's going to be the same or we building a foundation just for another building that they would were they would construct the right there you kind of see a couple things that we will visit we didn't get a chance to visit this temple on the left because sometimes that Temple depending on flooding is underwater there's only certain time of year and where find a vet that break where oftentimes we can Bennett visit that Temple of it because of dams and construction we didn't get a chance to at least visit last year that is the on the right hand side I believe that's the longest wooden bridge in the world it's still in used in used for transportation we certainly going to visit that right across that's a really cool local Thai Village and we see a lot of kind of authentic chili culture food all that has real cool spot that we go to certainly emergency contact information those are my emails that you can contact me mister follows is well as well as up there you'll have it picture of phone numbers we'll talk a little bit about Communications last time we went we did get a Wi-Fi International Wi-Fi pack with us we took that with his pretty much every were when we had access to emergency to communication the school even when we were out and about and away from Bangkok cuz it was kind of essential to will have at least some options on that just in case something comes up reply to this real quick yeah so you will will be there be a limit this is a very different trip and this since we're limited 16 students so some of your trips that students certainly have access to there are more availability and but in this we limit to 16 part of it is it's more of an intensive its relationship building among the group it's relationship-building with is the students there and Thailand as well but we we do have space limited just because of Transportation there once we arrive in Thailand so certainly will these are some of the spots that we will visit as well when we're in Bangkok including the floating mark very famous through different floating markets but oftentimes that's how I depending on the location that people trade they trade food to trade goods all that and so we will tour very rich Market you see some pictures there right now some of the temples there in Bangkok so there you have the covid vaccine PCR test and we'll go in over certainly as the closer we begin to select Inn select the trips they have we near that down we'll go over the very details with the garage to it any kind of special needs the students might have understanding that this is a trip that means we're going to do physical labor we are so we need students who are definitely interested in doing physical labor it's not overly hard and usually we have a construction person who's kind of directing us some direct me that I direct the students it is a work that we're doing and we're doing work that's going to last years and years down the road has a real gift to those stateless kids into that school there so I'm going to stop right there because really fit 10 minutes is all I want to tell the cat to go through but I will certainly share this once we have a follow-up parent meeting once slept there so we're going to do now is I have to ask Miss the ball if I left out anything and then I answer the questions that you may have difficulty about the trip and I forgot leftovers yeah it's Belinelli Christina or Greg can you go on to the Lakers website at all can you screen share and get on there and go to the enriched we paid all the information about I saw some things about you know when how much is trypsin all of the dates and details are all on the same page now and building a generation flyer so I want to point you in that direction to read the emails that I send read all the emails did you say that the beginning please understand none of us actually send emails because we're bored we sending us because we actually have something to share so please read the emails and look at the website and try to find your answer in their first questions I did might be easier for mr. Kelly is he's sharing his screen right now my steering my screen let me stop my share real quick you go Christina I'm so here sorry everybody including a booster the right now the answer is no they're not asking for a booster at this particular point but as you know I always think this new booster that's just coming out it's supposed to be even better than any of the previous. getting it I'm sure so it certainly is between you and your family and your Physicians Define pristine nope I'm so okay and food tends to be what if your child has a nut allergy so what we do is most of our meals are cooked there at the school and so we can see what we can do I'm to make sure that that menu is modified that being said you're exactly right location sometimes people put peanuts in our they use peanut oil and they may not know that they're using peanut oil but they may be able to remove the nuts but then there's two it is one of those things that we can certainly try and do our best to manage if you're careful about and all this kind of thing is kind of a source of 2826 to 2800 cover all the costs until the answer is it does yes it called except for covers all food except for any extra snacks the student wants to have or any souvenirs that they want to bring back so we make sure it's certainly three meals a day and most cases I'm buying snacks as well but every once in awhile student wants something specific no one else wants and they kind of go off to to to get that under our supervision right here but there may be circumstances where I like you want an extra snack like that they were super double latte with mocha mocha or something like that maybe they end up getting themselves yes go ahead here I'll go to the main page for each week is here I said we there's a lot of information on here frequently asked questions like this while I was talking about important dates and then if you move into policies and procedures that will have more information and then a rich week application and everything from there sorry is also found webpage long is the luminary itineraries and fires with the question is excursions during the day while we're at the Bamboo School in the answer is yes I do visit to Myanmar border free to go do we visit the Woodbridge think every single night it was a big group jailed in a special way and they would take us to this sounds crazy but they would out in the middle of nowhere in Thailand was this one 7-Eleven store and we would miss it that 7-Eleven store and we would everybody would buy the different Titan X and then we bring them back to the school and we would have kind of a big menu that we taste everything we do that there is sometimes right there near that 7-Eleven sometimes help during the week Upon a Time market and they will have all kind of food that you can buy and so one of the things that they challenged me and a couple of cents to do is we ate Aunt cooked fried rice with lime it was delicious that was first time so it was kind of a would do that out from the school during the evening sometimes make sure I'm not missing any other questions here can share the cost yet I think somebody's sure to call 2688. I'll just tell everybody that everything's going I wish I could tell you but the transportation Airlines because one of the things just China has not opened up the mainland China and often time they drive the price of airline tickets down on China Southern flying some of their other are China's flying but in this case they have not opened up yet so getting to Thailand is a live is it more of a track and there's less wives and because they're less slice their higher demand for their supplies and the prices are higher there's no doubt any other questions are there any parents wanted here's the thing reason Workwear maximum just student is the vans that we use are certainly their school band like we were much like we have at our school but they're Limited in seat capacity the same way so they have two bands or 18 is a maximum number passengers with a driver in each van so those are the brothers who were Drive the Vans and so we I wish we can bring more people than 16 but that's what we are limited to say any other chats questions what happens if ticket purchased if covid restrictions change in Thailand that's a great question we've been here before 3:20 we were slated to go and they shut down before we did and likely mr. Kelly pivoted and we were able to redirect our trip to the to Mexico so the answer is we do the way we do the best we can and make combinations because we have to be flexible unable to adjust so with that being said we have right now we've actually already put a hold on tickets for every trip with through our group Archer company so we holding those those those trips right now or those tickets and then we'll do the best we can with the information we have but their weed with the travel insurance now to do if we've had a couple people who got covid right before a trip last year to the parents had bought insurance and it actually worked they got a full refund which was we've never had to do travel insurance before so he said we are telling students to get into a trip that you have until the end of October to get out of the trip because we will probably have theoretically speaking especially for Thailand a waitlist and so we want to make sure that we get the other group roster set alarm so they can start having their meetings and building those relationships and learning more about each other so we start now on the 19th and hopefully by mid-october we have a full for 1 rosters so again I'm sorry we can't bring any parents or chaperones additional chaperones I think it was a second question but do seniors get priority and so the answer is this group will be made up primarily of Juniors and seniors and this melon Ellie may want to last year we gave last year we did give seniors a priority and but we're going back to our regular the whole purpose of initial week is to Glen with classes as much can the majority of students who travel are Juniors and seniors and so but we will have an equal amount more than likely so make sure you put if if your application will have three opportunity you get to choose three trips that you'd be interested in traveling to so make sure you choose three trips that you would be willing to go on regardless because again you more than likely won't be with your best friends because that's just the nature of enrichment week however I can guarantee that if you go on the strip with people that you didn't know before you will develop relationships and maybe like some friendships with people that you would never have had the opportunity to to to have that experience so don't limit yourself by thinking you have to go with Your Best Friend's Girl and even your best friend singular it's not going to happen more than likely so just make sure you're okay with that I would like to second that as a graduate who went on in Richmond on some of the trips I made some of the best bonds that I ever made with people that I haven't really talked to beforehand so someone as the Junior and senior retreat just emphasized that those opportunities are rare so please take advantage of every opportunity you have to be with classmates that maybe you didn't have an opportunity to meet before the last thing I don't know if I clearly answer what happen the ticket purchase if covid restrictions change in Thailand if it's in Thailand is it Thailand shuts down again will do exactly what we did last time is that we will find another way these students to participate in an in a trip is that so I think what we did last time and that's what we do we will do it again here so it's that being said I can't worry about a thing as we were able to get I believe you on China are that you're too and was that China are that your I can't remember when we when they when they closed they reimburse so we were able to take that money and switch it over to a new destination it was complicated Saint Mary's had the front all of the money for that transition but we eventually after at the time were able to get that but we will do whatever we can to make everything work and people have an experience that again it a flexibility is the key with enrichment week for everything but especially with travel you have to be flexible last year of Puerto Rico people got stuck and took him a day and a half to get home because they're prepared their flights were cancelled so flexibility is the key there is no priority will seniors get a trip if sign up yes as long as they pick 3 yes absolutely I think that I'll just say this once again missed the following travel together we're great team that even Akumal trip when we had to switch it up for I'm just telling you those students were absolutely incredible we had a blast and we did service there that we've now come back a second you were going back to third year you work with those students in Akumal and in Mexico and so going back to Thailand you're excited about that Thailand is excited about this coming I wear only the second School Australia is one school that has visited the school but we're the only school it that's when I say this there there school in archbald only one has been able to visit the bamboo school and you work there so it's a very special place really based relationship that Miss Mullen Ellie and has I think with brother James I believed develop a good relationship and we certainly look forward to going back and they want us back so any other questions well thank you to everyone who is able to attend the melon melon Ellie you can email her you can eat me specifically at Thailand or Miss dufala and we'll do our best over the coming weeks I believe you have a deadline this to follow us the deadline application okay right it look forward to I'm so thank you so much for attending I'll hang out here if anybody wants to ask a question yeah thank you thanks for coming

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