The school holidays were only three weeks long, but the kids, staff and volunteers packed a lot into those three weeks. There was a trip to the aquarium for the toddlers where they stared into tanks looking for Nemo, and peered into turtle cages. They loved walking, well running, along the passageway under a giant fish tank. It was hard to know who was more startled, the kids or the fish. The staff did their best to answer the dozens of questions about marine life posed by the children.
The grade school children visited a nearby dinosaur park. They stood in awe at the giant reconstructions of a T Rex and a Brontosaurus and got the shock of their lives when the T Rex let out a programmed roar! They kept returning to be shocked again and again so loved the thrill. There was an interactive display on the discovery of dinosaur remains and skeletal DNA here in north-east Thailand and the smaller kids had great fun climbing the dinosaur frames and having their pictures taken in replica dinosaur eggs. There was a picnic of fried chicken, sticky rice and papaya salad, followed by ice-cream cones, so everyone went home happy.
The older children had trips to Thai BBQ restaurants and the cinema where they watched the latest in Thai horror. And there was great joy at the latest French Fries day hosted by Leon & Henriette Castermans of Stichting Vrienden von Sarnelli. Among all of this, the Movie Night club continued with three showings of movies for the kids. Finding Nemo, Ice Age and an Avengers movie were shown via a projector on a big screen and there was popcorn and snacks for the kids.