literacy & learning.

Our pastors asked us a few weeks ago about teaching in our community. A few broken conversations later, we had a community meeting, and still a few more conversations after that, we re-arranged the community space for whiteboards and…we have community adult education classes happening!

Our pastor, Ah Tee, and his wife, Pranee, are teaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They teach one hour of Burmese literacy, teaching five Burmese women how to read and write in their own language. And then they teach an hour of Thai class. And since the neighbors also requested English, Kelli teaches English for an hour on Wednesday evening.

Guys, this is a community center if I ever saw one.

We are really thankful for the opportunity for the neighbors to learn, and that it doesn’t take much from us! We are so excited to have our pastors and friends in the community with us, helping us sort things and observing and advising.

We also love that they are teaching literacy. We had been working on this for sometime, shortly after we learned that San Aye, who sews with us, can’t read or write. Pyo Pyo, our bread manager, is also limited in her literacy. Both of them are taking the class, and it’s so beautiful to see!  There is also a young teenage girl who attends Thai school–and so doesn’t get to learn Burmese–that has joined.

The two sewing ladies have been practicing their alphabet as they sew, reading letters aloud, or spelling words out letter by letter. Thida, while she waits for all the children to come in the morning, has been practicing her Thai letters. They are using new English phrases they learned and testing them out on us!

Meanwhile, Mwei Mwei is our young seamstress that we still want to ensure keeps studying. She is now taking Thai and English classes with the adults in the evening, as well as practicing Burmese reading and writing, learning typing, and learning math with me in the afternoon.

On Tuesday, I helped Mwei Mwei with her typing program until the kids came at 4pm. I then played with the kids in the main area while the literacy class was held in one of the rooms; and Stephen taught The Reinforcers how to solder in the studio. And then we swapped it all around at 6pm for the Thai class to continue.

It’s incredible to see the space used so much and see so many opportunities for our friends! And we love seeing so many opportunities for new skills and languages.