Rest in peace, Foxy.

I’m sad to say that we’ve experienced another death at the temple. Foxy is the first adult dog (since we started our program) to pass away. After returning from a sterilization, her immune system was very much weakened. Because she had not been vaccinated, she was extremely susceptible to the airborne virus, and she was not eating. Before we realized that she had distemper, it was too late. When Karin came to pick up Foxy along with some others, she was already long gone.

There’s a high possiblity that the distemper virus could be circulating around the temple, but thankfully, we have vaccinated close to all the adult dogs. However, some puppies were too young to be vaccinated, and they are vulnerable to the virus.

Let’s hope for the best…

Unbelievably, the puppy (in the previous post) is alive and well. He’s happy, running around, healthy as a dog, and we vaccinated him. In the words of Ms. Elissa: “Yo! That is really hot!” (I love that woman.)

Update/Stats since last entry:

- 5,000 baht donation from Roots and Shoots club to Temple Aid Program (haha)

- 1,300 baht in donations

Led to:

- Six vaccinations for dogs

- Four vaccinations for puppies

- Deworming of puppies

- Three successful sterilizations

- And two more dogs at the vet now

.. and lots of food and TLC for all the dogs in between. The Care for Dogs team came today with some volunteer vets to check out the dogs’ conditions and take out the stiches of the sterilized dogs. They seem so much thinner though. Up next is a longgg photo post.

I love Fleaty! You rock Fleats.

Fluffy is being sponsored by the 3rd grade class. I can see why!

Yo! Check out that puppy. You know who he is! Doesn’t he look so much better?

Khun is the proud mommy of many.

Please check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsnis for more pictures.

“Nakorn Payap Making a Difference”

– This is a special post for Ally, Karin, and Amandine to let you all know how things are going!

NIS’ Temple Aid Program has officially begun! Last week on Wednesday, we had our first meeting with a shocking attendance of 26 students! Ms. Elissa’s room (which served as our meeting area) was so full that there were no seats left over, and some students had to sit on the floor, much like during our first assembly where Ally and Amandine came to give us a presentation.

During the first half hour of our meeting, Ms. Elissa and I handed out sheets to the students and informed them of the program, reminding the kids that they were making a commitment to the dogs and the temple. Afterwards, we all headed out to Wat Nong Ba Klang — two buses full of kids! — to see the dogs and start cataloging them. The dogs, almost thirty in number, were happy to see us and we took pictures and named some of the newborn puppies. The kids seemed really fond of the dogs, and we were received very warmly by the monks at the temple. Unfortunately, I think that some of the puppies are not going to live very long lives. Three puppies have died since my first visit to the temple, including this one:

And I also noticed that this puppy (to the left) could not walk very well. In fact, he couldn’t walk at all. When he saw us, he tried so hard to clamber towards us, but there was no strength in his feet, so he ended up walking on his ankles, stumbling with every step. In addition, he could barely open his eyes with the amount of ’spooge’ that was around it, and I really don’t think he’ll be there when we go to the temple again tomorrow.. sigh. The first time I saw him, I didn’t expect this to happen.

In situations like thse, one must proceed with the end in mind. Though we may lose several puppies or dogs along the way, eventually, we will save so many more. I really think that we’ll be able to succeed with this program. There is so much enthusiasm from the students, so much commitment from Ms. Elissa and Ms. Navinder, and so much support from the school community that I can’t see how this program will fail. We have to keep pictures like these in mind, and remember our responsibilities to the dogs at this temple. We must feed them, vaccinate them, care for them, and sterilize them. And of course, how can one not forget — also give them some Tender Loving Care!

Some recent updates: Today we organized a bake sale to raise funds. Various students and teachers helped bake some delicious desserts for us to sell, ranging from jello, brownies, chocolate chip cookies and pop corn. I think we made around 3,000+ baht, and coupled with a 500 baht donation, and a donation from Roots and Shoots, we have enough money to fund several vaccinations and perhaps a sterilization!

Tomorrow we will be having another Temple Aid Program (TAP..?) meeting! Half the club will head to the temple, whilst the other half stays at school and discusses some important issues, and what the goal of our club should be. Let’s hope all goes well!

Hi everyone, it’s Yu here.

Apologies for the lack of posts! R&S has been on vacation from June – August, but the title reveals it all –> Starting from August 14th, students will be returning to NIS (our school) and we’ll be back in the game! I’ve really been brainstorming this summer, and hopefully we’ll have some ambitious new projects to undertake. Here are some ideas we have in mind:

1) Continuation and Improvement of our Recycling Program — with our new funds, we will be, in essence, ‘upgrading’ our recycling program. We need to make our paper and plastic bottle recycling program bigger and better to fully accomodate the needs of our school. The current recycled paper bins we have are never big enough to hold all the paper we collect each week, so we will be buying new ones. In addition, our plastic bottle recycling bins, despite having no problems with volume, are in quite a state of disrepair. I suppose it happens, when bins are forced to withstand not only the elements, but loads and loads of plastic bottles, day after day.

2) Canvas, not Plastic! – R&S has quite a lot of canvas bags in supply. At NIS’s first PTG meeting, R&S set up a booth to sell our canvas bags, and were able to sell quite a lot! We also had posters showcasing our previous projects to let parents know how awesome our members are.

3) Temple Aid Program — In collaboration with Care for Dogs will be starting a temple aid program, in which R&S members will be responsible for the care of all the dogs at one temple. I’m going to be meeting up with Ally sometime before school begins, hoepfully, to find out further details about this exciting new project. I’m determined to make this program succeed!

4) Completion of this Weblog! – It’s been long overdue! It’s quite unfortunate that this blog has sporadic updates at best, when in fact, NIS R&S is a very active organization. We do a lot of things, but we just never have time to write about them! Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch up on some updates!

 For now, this is adios! Once I’m back in Chiang Mai, I’ll upload some pictures and write up a post on all the things we’ve done last year.

Hi everyone!

It’s Anna here, coming back to post my second post, which, I think, is long overdue. Well. Lots of things are going on at the moment, all concerning the Social coming up tomorrow (the 19th of May) We’ve been decorating and organizing and cajoling and forcing people to go. I really do think that this year’s social (which is the first we’ve ever organized) will be a blast. I just feel a little dissapointed at the fact that our school isn’t exactly jumping at going, but we’ll manage. 80 people is quite a big number, huh? I think that at least some people will have fun, and that though it’s a difficult thing to get a party started, once it’s on, then it stays on. 

Our theme is Summer Splash, by the way. I guess I forgot to mention that.. Ha! It’s going to be from 7-11, and there will be food, games, a dj and disco lights, prizes and a beautiful view! I’m really happy that some people from other schools are coming as well. I think we need them to come, or else things might get a little too tight. Grace couldn’t come though, which is a shame. I tried, and I do know some people who wanted to come, but the school was having another event on Saturday already and so couldn’t provide a chaperone or tell any of their students about it. I still think it’s because our school name spells SIN->>( NIS-Nakornpayap International School) Lol

Lanna, Prem, CMIS and APIS are coming, though in varying numbers. Some graduates are also coming, which’ll be pretty funny, don’t you think? Mr. Mic, our resident French teacher and drummer extraodinaire is going to be Dj.

Yesterday we spent around 4 hours painting the surfboards plus the other decorations at my house. I think they turned out really well! I think we’ll post some pictures of them once we have them, because they really bring you into the spirit of summer celebration baby~!

I think I’ll sign off now, but I’ll be back to describe the success (or failure.. *crosses fingers*) 

Love,

Anna

It’s nine pm, I’m sleep-deprived, my body aches, and I’m just a bit hungry. But as long as there’s music and this blog, I can get through another day! Hah! This is Yu again, finally posting the pictures of our shelter visit at the Care for Dogs shelter exactly one week ago (I apologize), and just some pictures of some things Anna and I did today.

This morning Anna and I helped out with an organization (I’m afraid I do not know the name) that focused on stopping the child sex trade. It was their first event, and geared towards raising awareness among foreigners, we had people get on rickshaws (otherwise known as ’sam-lors’, which translates to “three-wheeled”) with the organization’s banner on the back, and each passenger would wave a poster. It was really quite an interesting event — lots of foreigners and lots of rickshaws.

It was, however, extremely hot and we were wearing black shirts! We stood in the merciless sun for two hours giving out bottles of cold water, posters, and t-shirts. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get a picture of the rickshaws, but I did get pictures of Chiang Mai Coffee Cafe, the small cafe we got our water from. I love the decor.

Care for Dogs Shelter Visit

Finally, we come up to the good parts. Just a bit of a review before we get to the shelter. A week before our shelter visit, we organized a ‘Drive for Dogs’ week, in which we asked students, teachers, parents — anyone, if they could! — to bring something for the needy dogs at the shelter. We made announcements every morning, and set up our collecting area in the canteen. By Saturday morning, we had quite a load to bring with us! I was rather afraid we wouldn’t have enough space in the bus, actually.

Before we were able to reach the shelter, we actually got a little lost! Fortunately our driver noticed the tiny sign pointing to the shelter and we got there. It was a fun, activity-filled day; we washed the dogs, walked them, took care of their medical wounds, vaccinated them, and just had a wonderful time.

Here are some pictures! Watch this space as it is continually updated:

Mbote everyone! (Now you know how to say ‘hi’ in Lingala!) I’m sorry the updates have been erratic at best, but we did take a blissful two-week holiday, and well, life is, at best, pleasantly busy. Hardly a dull moment in our lives, one could say. Anywho, I (Yu) am here to write up a bit of an update on our going-ons. All of our projects are still.. running, and we’re doing our best to keep things going. R&S members are still dutifully collecting paper and plastic bottles to recycle in our school and are in the process of getting our canvas bags ready to be sold. We are also still in contact with Care for Dogs and will be heading to help with their adoption fair this Saturday, May 5th. However, in this entry I’d like to stress..

NIS Summer Splash Social — 19th May at the Royal Lanna Hotel

Today a few Roots and Shoots members and I (Monika, Fun, Toey were the members, others were there for comments) set off after our meeting in search of suitable hotels to host our social/dance at. We visited two hotels — the Duangthawan and the Royal Lanna — the owners/customers of which were good friends of Monika and Toey’s parents. Both are in the Night Bazaar area and both had very accommodating rooms, however, it was the Royal Lanna with their ballroom on the topmost (22nd) floor that had a great view and a perfect reception area for us. Another zing! factor was that people could access the room directly via a glass elevator; now is that just snazzy or what?

We hope that by arranging this social, we can raise funds for various charities and organizations (Care for Dogs being our main one) and just have fun in general. I think today we got a lot of work done and that the social event will come along just fine — especially with the enthusiasm of Monika, Fun and Toey and the other girls.

Oy, I am worn out. It’s Sunday night, and I’m tireeed. It’s been a hectic week, and I’ve finally been able to get back on WordPress, and back writing again. This has happened in no part due to my cyber-expertise, but the sudden change of mood on my internet’s part. Damn its temperament. Anyway, this week has been full of activities — we visited the Care for Dogs shelter! — and I’m here just to lightly touch upon them in this update. The Care for Dogs shelter visit deserves its very own post, and will be described in much detail and more pictures later — by tomorrow, I’m sure.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, our canvas bags are finished! Wheee! Me, Toey and Monika currently have one of our own — not quite sure if we’re supposed to buy them yet — and we are, in a way, ‘testing it out’. People have mentioned that the bags seem very thin, but today, it managed to hold almost my entire stationery collection. I’m a pen freak. I had my large pencil case, my case of fiber-tipped markers, my other case of ink pens, pastels, a camera, a phone, notebooks — well, without subjecting you to the entire contents of my bag, I guess it’ll suffice to say that this baby can hold a lot more than you think!

Currently we just have to decide the price we want to sell these, and write up the tags we wanted to put on the bags. If anyone was wondering why we made these bags, we want to encourage people to use less plastic bags, and when at the grocery store, use these canvas bags instead. They are not harmful to the environment, they can be reused, and hey, they’re a lot more fashionable.

More details about the Canvas Bag project will be found in its individual page — when I get the time to write it.

Other updates: 

The U.N World Watershed Day,  which is March 22nd, has passed us by. Unfortunately, we were not able to organize any events concerning it; I’m afraid we were too busy with Care for Dogs. Recycling has also been going along well, with very little problems!

Until next update my friends! Adios!

Hey Everyone, it’s Anna here!

This is the first time I’ve actually written anything on the blog, so I’m pretty excited. As a member of Roots and Shoots I should have, of course, but we all have so much to do every day that it’s easy to forget to. Anyhow, here I am. In the Roots and Shoots current events this is what’s making the rounds: The Care for Dogs Drive!

We wanted to help the organization Care for Dogs as much as possible, so we decided to ask everyone to bring in something for the dogs, such as dog shampoo, chew toys, food, towels and leashes- anything you could think of, really. So we made posters and put up flyers around the school, as well as having Announcements about it every day, so people wouldn’t forget. So far though, it seems people aren’t as enthusiastic about this drive as they could be, but I’m sure that will change! We still have three days, after all, and if everyone tries to talk to people about it, surely more people will donate.

Another big thing that’s happening with the Care for Dogs crowd is that this Saturday the 24th of March, we’re going to visit their shelter! What this entails is that we will help them with their usual tasks, such as washing and grooming the dogs, walking the dogs, vaccinating the dogs, and even cleaning the dogs’ ears! Is that funny or what? We’re all really excited, and this lunch time we had a meeting about it, deciding who wanted to do what first. Other people in our school are interested as well, so they can come too, though we don’t want TOO many people there, or else we might get in each other’s way, right?

Hopefully that will be a wonderful learning experience for all of us, as well as being fun! I’ll sign off for now, but watch out because I’ll be back!

Once again, it’s Yu. Not a lot of updates lately on the Roots and Shoots front, unfortunately. Everyone has been so busy that Roots and Shoots meetings have had to be postponed. I just came here to comment on the condition of the air of Chiang Mai lately. First, here are some pictures:

There used to be mountains behind those trees.

Taken out a window of Mr. Troy’s classroom. I think this was one of the worst days of dust.

For over a week, radios and the government have reported that the level of pollutants in the air in Chiang Mai had gone over safe levels, and advised senior citizens and the young to stay inside (Chiang Mai Mail, The Nation). This warning has recently only come to full force when in the past few days, the polluted haze of the city has become so apparent that throughout the day, the light of the sun can hardly be seen! Even in the afternoon, when the sun usually beats down relentlessly, the light is still reminiscent of the early morning, yet holding nothing akin to the pleasures of a sunrise.

I remember sitting in the front seat of the car this morning with my mother, and as it came up the rise of the bridge leading to school, my mom told me to look at the sun, which looked like a bright red egg in a mist of tan sky. “Even the sun is being choked by this haze,” she tells me and how can I not agree — the haze is proof to anyone that air conditions have gone past any level of pollution we have experienced before. I’ve seen several ninth graders — also Roots and Shoots members — walking with their shirt sleeves covering their mouths and noses, one even donning an air pollution mask. Though at first glance, this may appear comical, one can soon understand why and how these girls are utterly serious. Looking out the classroom window, how can one not be alarmed to find that the sky is no longer blue, but an almost orange haze?

Air pollution in Chiang Mai and neighboring provinces is an issue already past concern — it is an issue that must be addressed, and tackled as soon as possible. I’ve heard that the government has been planning to create artificial rain to help ‘chase away’ the haze, but in my opinion, this is not a real fix to the problem of air pollution in Chiang Mai. In no way is creating artificial rain going to, in the long run, solve our problem. What we need is raised environmental awareness in the citizens and in our government, and a stronger environmental policy.

Chiang Mai is a known tourist destination in Thailand, and our tourist industry is — to put bluntly — an important means of bringing in money to the Thai people. Yet why are we doing so little to care for Chiang Mai? What tourist would want to come and see the exciting pollution of Chiang Mai? We are no longer known for our beauty, but for how much dust we have. And dust is better viewed on text than in person. Point? I can see dust anywhere, I don’t have to go to Chiang Mai to see it. If I can’t persuade you to care for the environment, I’ll persuade you in the only other way to make you care — if you don’t care about the environment now, it’s simple, you’re going to lose your money in the future.

The killer of this whole situation is this: a lot of people just do not understand what is going on. People just need to be educated on what is going on in front of them — and I’m not trying to be patronizing in any way. Even a close friend of mine admitted she didn’t know why this was happening.

Here’s the shorthand version — Chiang Mai sits in a valley, surrounded by mountains. When air pollution caused by vehicle emissions, construction, and forest fires rises up from the ground, it is entrapped by the surrounding mountains, stopping it from being pushed away from the province. And to make it even worse, air pressue from above the mountains pushes down on the air, very much like putting the lid on a boiling pot, keeping all the polluted air inside.

It’s not hard to understand — yet this is what most people do not know. Bangkok is known for its congestion, traffic jams, and polluted air, yet people in Chiang Mai are more prone to get lung cancer and other respiratory problems than in Bangkok! This is what we need to tell people — and this is what the government needs to emphasize and act on!

So if I may be so blunt, here are my proposed solutions for air pollution problems (and let’s hope that this haze is enough to be motivation for people to do this):

• Raised environmental awareness of our current situation in both the government and the citizens.
• Government needs to educate people in ways to contribute to keeping the air clean.
• Government must provide a means for people to do so in a convenient and efficient way. This can be done by:

1. Completing, as soon as possible, all major road constructions, i.e at Khuang Singh intersection. More time and more gas is lost due to the congestion and the diverting cars have to do because of the construction. These sites also release large amounts of dust into the air.
2. Providing an efficient mass transport system — buses. Having once had to rely on the largely experimental bus system myself, I can only say for real businessmen and adults, this is by no means a reliable way to get at a certain place at a certain time. These buses may be running on biodiesel, but having no set of time for arrival or departure, are clearly not providing citizens with what they need, which is why very little commute to work, and use private vehicles, which increase in carbon emissions and air pollution. Get your buses in order, and people will go on them.
3. Imposing regulations on the emissions of Chiang Mai’s taxis, commonly known as, the songtaews and the tuk-tuks. The jet of black smoke spewing out of their exhaust pipes are notorious and poison to motorcyclists, and obvious to everyone else, so why hasn’t the government done anything about it? There must be hundreds of songtaews running all throughout Chiang Mai, vomiting up black and disgusting toxins into the environment.
4. Encourage the use of alternative fuel sources, such as electricity. Electric cars are one of the coolest things on earth, and they are only inconvenient — they are not inefficient — due to the lack of ‘electric pumps’ throughout the city. I doubt there is even one. What we need for electric cars to be used are places for electric cars to recharge, and this could be put in any regular gas station, no? This way there would be less carbon and toxic emissions from cars.
5. Make apparent that burning is against the law. Burning of garbage and forest is one of the biggest reasons there is so much air pollution in Chiang Mai. Yet has any one of the culprits been punished for burning? Almost every year I see the same forest being completely burned, the char of the trees apparent for anyone drivig along the canal road to see. Yet I’ve seen it happen for four years. And it has never been stopped. Is it corruption, or what? Why are these people not being stopped? How come I have never heard of any law against burning in the paper, especially when concerns for global warming are reaching a major high these past few years?
6. Encourage Thais to stop their neighbors from burning, and spread the knowlede.

This won’t stop the haze of now, but may prevent future occurences. And this is just my (Yu’s) opinion — this does not reflect any of the other R&S members’ opinions whatsoever.