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KOH YAO YAI

 

Because Barry and Christiane often sailed to Phi Phi Don they became friendly with Angelo, the owner of Mama’s restaurant in the main street. It was Angelo they looked for on Monday 27th December when they reached Phi Phi on their way back from Malaysia in their yacht “Coco de Mer”.



 Angelo worked non stop helping the survivors and families and he introduced Barry & Christiane to Prunai and Aokapor School when he was donating sacks of rice to the families who had returned home from working on Phi Phi Don only 12 miles away. A French TV crew went with him to film his relief work.
This is Aokapor School in Prunai, Koh Yao Yai with 420 pupils, some of whom are tsunami "orphans". We use the term for children who have lost the "breadwinning parent". Koh Yao has virtually no tourism so the best chance for the children is to be well educated and learn a useful skill. English and Computer knowledge will help them to get employment in Phuket or the mainland when they leave school as there is hardly any local employment.



The school has 20 computers installed, but without air-conditioning they would be at risk in the wet season with high humidity. The Fund has supplied the finance to install proper windows & doors and two 32,000 BTU air-conditioning units. This will greatly enhance the life of the equipment and make computer studies very popular with students! 21 new mice have since supplied
The teaching staff are very enthusiastic about learning better English so the Fund has provided a Learning Program called English-Time to enable the American English teacher to leave them "homework" to do between his three visits a month from Phuket. The standards of teaching English to the pupils should improve considerably as the teachers become more proficient.


The English classroom had no desks or chairs and the electricity did not work so the students sat on the floor. All this has now been rectified. This photo shows Christiane & Barry, George & Eve Fasenfeld who kick-started the Fund with a large donation. Khun Ajan Beedin & Khun Brapad, Headmaster & Assistant Head together with one of the English teachers & the Computer Science teacher who is also the Head Guide.

Although the school is in Prunai on Koh Yao Yai in a relatively poor area the students still wear uniforms and are smartly turned out. This photo shows some of the senior pupils between classes.

Because many of the families pre-tsunami worked on Phi Phi Don which is only 10 miles away there are a lot of people with no livelihood quite apart from the ones who lost their lives.


The Managers of the Yacht Haven Marina, Nick & Zara arranged for yachtsmen to attend a lunch party at Aeg's father's restaurant in Prunai to give the locals some income. On the first occasion 70 people turned up although only 40 were expected! The catering coped admirably and the food kept on coming. Senior girls from Aokapor School gave an exhibition of Thai traditional dancing much to everyone's delight.

The boys gave an exhibition of Thai boxing It was a very successful day and everyone agreed it should be repeated soon.



A local limousine was laid on especially so that the yatties would not have to walk up the hill in the midday sun.
A second Rally was held in April and there were 12 yachts anchored in the Bay-probably the most there have ever been in Prunai. This time a more energetic program had been arranged.



Classical Thai dancing after lunch is almost mandatory and this time the male dancer was a professional. The consensus of opinion was however that in future the girls from Aokapor School were more in keeping with the spirit of the occasion. They also gave a shorter performance.
The Kayak races from the beach were fiercely contested followed by Tug of War. The village boys all joined in, but there was a lack of local female participation which hopefully will gradually be encouraged in future. The kayak runners-up Peter & Chie are Australian & Japanese respectively.

The next sports day will be planned more carefully.