SAPA O'Chau

SAPA O'Chau is the name of the residential school, created (mainly) for the Black Hmong ethnic tribes people to have the opportunity to come and learn English, with the hope to get a better job. Most of them are expected to help their family on the land (especially the girls), or sell crafts in the market for a small price so that they can get a bit of meat on the table.

Everybody at SAPA O'Chau

Mr Tee

There are 30-40 children ( I say children because they are all half my height and look about 12! The youngest is 11 and she is the same height as Jenna's 4 year old :) They range between 11-24 years of age and their ability is just as varied - some struggle with even using the alphabet, and others have English good enough to translate between Hmong, or Vietnamese.  They are all wonderful - bright, sparky, incredibly caring and tactile towards each other.  Most are eager to learn and respond well to games, creativity and variety in the teaching. They especially like it when the teachers make fools of them, so Jenna and I aim to do this as often as possible.

Miss May

Banoffee Pie @ SAPA  O'Chau
We tailored a cookery lesson so that they could apply the new words and terms from the theme of cooking. 30 of them learned how to make Banoffee pie, all helping with whipping cream and splattering it all over themselves. I think this was a first. We piled into the cafe and they each had a small taste of something very sweet and moreish. I have never seen so much patience from children making pudding - not one of them licked a spoon or a finger or a bowl! I would have eaten most of the mixture and felt so sick that even the word banoffee pie would make me retch...

Earth Hour 
We raised awareness of saving electricity and helping our planet with the kids last Saturday - spent an hour in the dark with only candles, body warmth and spooky stories  to keep us entertained! Everybody loved it (apart from Jenna's 4 year old who was terrified and buried her head into her mum's tummy to hide from the monsters) and  I especially enjoyed learning about the Hmong spirits that disturb their lives and have to be dealt with using a Shaman or holy water.