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Six-year-old girl teaches Navy recruits the art of self-defense
Patcharapol Panrak
Never insult a six-year-old Thai, for he or she could turn out to be
a martial arts instructor skilled in demonstrating 15 fighting techniques in
front of more than a thousand soldiers.
 The
two youngsters demonstrate some of the 15 Muay Tai fighting techniques.
The Royal Thai Navy Recruit Training Center organized a demonstration by the
world’s youngest trainer and a champion in the less-than-18-kilograms
category at the Thepprasit Boxing Stadium on August 22.
The stars who were passing on their martial arts skills to the assembled
matelotes were a six-year-old girl named Ankana Samphao-ngern, nicknamed
Muay, who is in her first year of primary school at the Tao Tan Kindergarten
School in Sattahip Sub-district, and who is reputed to be the world’s
youngest trainer, and a nine-year-old boy named Sahassawas Lengchamong, or
Prabnoi.
Both youngsters demonstrated 15 martial arts techniques in front of more
than 1,000 officers and recruits who attended the event.
Admiral Theera Oupanisakorn, commander of the Recruit Training Center at
Bangsarae had organized the demonstration as part of a festival dedicated to
the Chao Poh Khao Chang Spirit House.
Takraw, petanque, and an international-style boxing competition also formed
part of the celebrations.
The biggest attraction was, however, the two youngsters. Muay, who still has
her baby teeth, is champion in the under-18 kilos category at the Fairtex
Boxing Stadium. In her last fight on August 14, she was the winner after
defeating Nong Nat Poh Tanaporn, a skilled girl boxer from Suphanburi.
Regent’s Koh Phi Phi Tsunami Project
at Laem Tong Bay enters Third Stage
Paul Crouch
Stage 2 of the Baan Laem Tong Phi Phi project took place June 17
- 28, 2008. It involved about 50 staff and students from four schools,
including Regent’s, Pattaya (Thailand), The Doon School (India),
Tamagawa Academy (Japan) and GIS (Malaysia). Many thanks to The Doon
School for their donation of 25,000 baht to the project. Chulalongkorn
Architectural Faculty was also involved a couple of days before to
prepare the site and help the contractor. Baan Laem Tong School was also
present, being term time and the Thai students and community had plenty
of opportunity to interact with all those involved during the week. All
the vertical columns have now been molded and the site is ready for
stage 3.
 A
model of the finished Community Centre at Laem Tong Bay School.
Stage 3 will take place at the end of September 2008. The Armidale
School and NEGS in NSW, Australia, are sending both delegations to work
on the project before attending the RS Conference in Canada in October.
The Regent’s School, Pattaya, will also send a delegation of 20 Year 10
and 12 students to work with the Australian schools on the project. We
will also be joined by St. Andrews School, Rayong, for the first time.
The main task will be to work on the retaining walls around the site and
the water tanks that are designed to store the valuable rain water for
later use.
Funds are still very much needed for this project, even though we have
raised over 1 million baht in less than 6 months. Regent’s has another
100,000 baht for the project and we are waiting on support from ISB
School in Brunei. BlueScope Steel is also supporting the project and
working very closely with Chulalongkorn on how they can supply much
needed materials and expertise.
The American Red Cross have agreed to support the project on the funding
of the water systems, but this will only be installed when the building
is almost finished. Hopefully late next year sometime!
Sustainability concepts of the project, e.g. rain water collection and
storage, solar cells and waste management, have attracted particular
interest of two of the large tourist resorts in the bay as well. This
obviously indicates the growing problems of conservation and
sustainability on the island. They have expressed an interest in using
the same techniques if the building is a success (which it will be!).
There is even some interest in buying the excess water that the building
is capable of collecting and storing, but as this is a non-profit
project we will have to explore other avenues of support and promoting
sustainability with the resorts.
The Baan Laem Tong Bay project will continue to be modular to allow for
maximum student and volunteer involvement. Remember that this is a
project ultimately for students to help and work with other students.
After the third stage at the end of September the next stage will be
March 2009, when Regents and Bermuda High School will work on the
project. Regents will also be running a stage at the end of June 2009
during our RS Week.
Please visit the excellent blog created by the Chulalongkorn
Architectural Faculty to see the latest development of the project at:
http://phiphi-design-workshop. blogspot.com/
Any school or organization that would like to support Baan Laem Tong and
be involved in the Community Centre project either through financial or
physical participation please contact Paul Crouch at: pcrouch@regents
.ac.th at anytime.
Regents and Bermuda High
School students admire
the large foundation holes that they dug during stage 2.
Chulalongkorn students
working on the project during July.
Infants take part in their own sports day
Saksiri Uraiworn
Pattaya Kindergarten Sports Day was held on August 26 at Pattaya School
No 2, Charoenrat Utid, with Deputy Mayor Wattana Chantanawaranon
officiating and director of the Pattaya Education Department Tawatchai
Rattanyoo and Pattaya City councilor Choosak Sriwatchanapong amongst
those attending.
 Deputy
Mayor Wattana Chantanawaranon presents a trophy to the tournament
winning team, Pattaya School #2.
The event was staged for the very youngest pupils of the 10 schools
under Pattaya City jurisdiction, with teachers from every school
attending and parents clapping and cheering the young competitors.
The event featured six sports, namely the coed 30-meter run, the coed
50-meter run, a four-boy/four-girl pick-up event, a five-team coed long
throw, a small goal ball game, and a basketball game.
Winner on points for all of the sports was Pattaya School No 2, with 70
points. The total points runner up was Pattaya School No 6 with 61
points, and in third place was Pattaya School No 3 with 59 points.
 Pattaya
Councilor Choosak Sriwatchanapong distributes medals to all of the
athletes.
Wattana and Choosak handed out the prizes, and read the official address
to close the event.
Wattana said that sports teaches the very youngest the importance of
self-knowledge and competing in games, in which winning isn’t
necessarily the most important objective but that learning to both win
and lose is a vital lesson for life.
Scoring for your team.
Pattaya School #2 is
crowned champion
of the Pattaya Kindergarten Sports Day 2008.
See you at the Jesters Children’s Fair this Sunday
Lewis Underwood
The main event is so close now that we can already hear the sound of
children’s laughter and the smell of BBQ ribs, pizza and chili dogs!
Starting at dawn tomorrow (Saturday, September 13th), we are setting up
the stalls and stages, including Horseshoe Point’s extravaganza, Pop’s
Music Workshop and the GeckoTech/Clough Engineering’s Climbing Wall.
In fact, we encourage stallholders to do the same; that is to come by
late afternoon on Saturday to hang their banners and move in
particularly the big items. Reason being is on Fair Day this year
(Sunday, September 14th), no vehicles will be allowed on the fair site
next to the stalls.
This means that all things to go in stalls on Sunday will have to be
ferried from the parking lot behind the stage.
The following are some bullet points put together by Kevin and Bill that
are applicable to both Fair goers and stallholders:
* Location: Diana Garden Resort and Driving Range in North
Pattaya
* Date: Sunday, September 14, 10 am - 6 pm; stallholders can
setup as early as 6 am.
* Gate Fee: 50 baht donation. Children under 12 years old are
free.
* Access: Best from Sukhumvit Hwy, North Road and/or Pattaya 3rd
Road. Please do not try to go up Soi SS Villa from Central Pattaya Road
as it is blocked by construction.
* Parking: Will be provided directly behind the stage.
Important Note! For safety reasons, no vehicles will be allowed in
the stall area on the day of the event until after 6 pm. You may off
load in the stall area on Saturday, September 13 after 5 pm.
* Stalls:
• Approximately one 4X4 meter area
• Have one rectangular table, one round table, two chairs
• One electrical outlet (3 amps); suitable for fans but not electrical
appliances that draw a lot of power.
* Change: Please bring your own, even though a Thai Farmer mobile
bank is expected to be available next to site.
* Important Note! This year children’s coupons are pink
and are not redeemable for cash. Coupons will only be used by
school staff for kid’s games and not for food or any other stall use.
* Stall Fees: Payable to Bill on Sunday. Standard stalls: 1500
baht, Food stalls: 2500 baht.
* Please do not sell beer at your stall! We sell donated beer at
Jesters’ Beer Tents to raise more funds for charity.
* Please secure valuables at all times. We will not be responsible for
any loss or damage that may occur.
And finally, we want all of you to have a wonderful time Sunday. But
please remember that this is a family-orientated event. Our priority is
the kids and our aim is that they have the best time ever.
The time for the adults to have fun is next Saturday, September 20 at
our Jesters Party Night hosted by Jameson’s Irish Pub in Central
Pattaya. The evening of auction bidding, grand raffle drawing and loads
of entertainment begins at 7 pm and goes late. For more info, please go
to our website: www.care4kids.info.
Hope to see you there too!
Vocational students graduate
Trained in English and short vocational courses
Pattaya administrators and
graduates pose after
the certificate presentation ceremony.
Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
Some 174 students, trained in short vocational courses to improve their
work skills, are ready to add their new capability to the Pattaya work
force.
The government-sponsored courses taught English language, Thai cooking,
hairdressing and tailoring to mostly unemployed and low-income people,
designed to improve their employment prospects.
Mayor Itthipol Khunplome presented certificates to 174 graduates at
Pattaya City Hall on September 4. Deputy Mayor Wattana Jantanawaranon,
Thawatchai Rattanyu, Educational Office director and Pattaya city
councilors also attended the ceremony.
The English-language course in the program ran from May 24 to August 23,
producing 131 graduates. Nine teachers, five foreign and four Thais,
taught at Pattaya Schools 3, 4, 6 and 7 for four hours each Saturday.
The other vocational-skill courses ran from February 16 to May 10,
producing 43 graduates. These were taught by four teachers at the
Banglamung Industrial and Community Educational College, again on
Saturdays for 6 hours per day.
“The courses have increased the students’ skills which they can now
apply to improve their daily lives,” Director Thawatchai said.
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