Wan Dek (Children's Day)

Ton and I handing out prizes to kids after they played darts or basketball

Benz taking down names

I'm a little behind on blogging about this, but the Saturday before last, Step Ahead and Co. (as I'll now refer to the lovely group of people who spend lots of time here- mainly including Mae, Chaiyot, Ton, and then sometimes Sai, Pia, and Chompoo) got up early in the morning and loaded up the Step Ahead-mobile with games and prizes to take to Khuek Khak school for Children's Day. Children's Day is apparently a national holiday in Thailand (like Mother's or Father's Day). We set up darts and a mini basketball hoop, and the kids came to the prize booth where Ton and I were working after they had played the games. Each kid would tap me on the shoulder and tell me the number of points he/she had achieved. Then Ton would assemble the prize and I'd distribute them to eager kids, who had to "wai" and say thank you. (If you're not sure what a "wai" is, ask anyone who's been to Thailand. Or check out this photo: http://picasaweb.google.com/briswann/JohnSVisit/photo#5125593616038410562

I'm not too sure about the point system, though. The prizes seemed not to vary much, regardless of the number of points, for example:

Kid: 15 points

Ton: 15, wow!

(Prize given= comic book and some sweets)

Kid: 27 points

Ton: 27, great!

(Prize given= comic book, some sweets, a drink)

Kid: no points

Ton: Aw, no points! No problem.

(Prize given= comic book and some sweets)

The kids were so cute, and we had a really fun time. The only spoiler was some large red fire ants. I had to have Paul go back to Step Ahead to bring me my tennis shoes b/c I was getting eaten.