ISB’s 3rd Annual Friendship Weekend
Pammy Thavornvanit
January 27, 2009
The Friendship Weekend is a great way to give back to our community and make new friends. During the 23rd – 26th of January, 11 high school students, 8 middle school students, 4 elementary school students and 8 ISB teachers flew down to Khao Lak with heavy bags packed full of toys and games for the kids at R-35 school. Waking up at 6.30 am on a Saturday morning wasn’t easy for the students, but everyone was looking forward to an action-packed day.
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Alex Hill, grade 7, and |
Senior Kaushi Koghar and friends
celebrate finishing their friendship bracelets. |
Getting off the bus that Saturday, some of us already recognized a few familiar faces of the kids who came here for the Tsunami Exchange Sleepover in October. All the ISB kids and the R-35 school kids met in their gym for an introduction and a run-down of the day’s schedule, then everyone split up into 4 different stations to do different morning activities. The kids rotated to each station every 30 minutes so eventually everyone got to play Bingo, make friendship bracelets, play musical chairs and play floor games. After lunch, there was another 4 stations for afternoon activities; this included dancing, making a different kind of friendship bracelet, playing tug-of-war and making the infamous messy but delicious homemade ice-cream. Then we all gathered in the gym once again to say goodbye. In a circle, the teachers, students and their new friends went around to Wai and shake each others’ hand. With arms slung around their buddies, everyone learned to sing the song, “One Light, One Sun” and the ISB students gave out gifts for the kids as a final farewell.
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Grade 7 students Regina Durst and
Prairie Yooprasert give their all in the tug of war. |
Junior Kyrena Krekel
says good-bye to her friends. |
Though exhausted, no one wanted to leave. Getting on the bus home was the hardest part, because everyone wanted to stay with their buddies longer. Through the words of Ann Parnitudom (grade 11), ISB’s Friendship Weekend 2009 “was a really rewarding experience”. It was something that neither the R-35 kids nor the ISB kids will ever forget.
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