Packing for a visit

It's going to be a busy week as I rush to clear my desk to allow time for a quick visit to Laos.

I had hoped to stay in both Vientiane and Luang Prabang to have a chance to meet all our students.
Sadly time is short. I really want to catch up on building progress and have time to meet so many people.

I leave Heathrow on Friday night for the long flight to Bangkok and after a quick stop over and a two hour flight on to Luang Prabang.
With the time difference the journey takes nearly two days.



Chair Alan will be in town together with Touy who is managing the school project. Hopefully our Homeland Director will have time to spend a day with us.

Meeting our students is always a highlight and many will be able to join us for a meeting at Joys.
Without the help of personal sponsors and general funding from LEOT many would not afford their courses. Even with our help many students also have at least two part time jobs to fund their living costs.

Many thanks yet again to the ladies of Heath and Reach WI. I've got a complete case of jumpers to give out to poor children in local villages. Thanks also to Barclays Bank who have provided boxes of pencils and pens for local schools.



Alan is hopeful we should also find time to visit a small village about an hour outside Luang Prabang which was the home of Kheak a LEOT student. They have a brand new school built by world vision. Sadly it is short of a water supply as the underground pipe has been damaged. We hope to meet the village head man and assist with the repair project.

Look out for more posts on my visit

See you soon


Peter

My friend likes swimming

Three Peaks Challenge

We thank Trustee Claire and her friends for accepting the challenge to make The Three Peaks Challenge.

To achieve their target they must scale the three tallest mountains of England, Scotland and Wales in just 24 hours.

The task is made more difficult in that one peak has to be climbed at night and the peaks are geographically a total of 500 miles part

Our team has kindly accepted a second challenge to raise the sum of £10,000 to contribute to the running costs of The LEOT School.

Our team met for their first training day this weekend.

The initial task was at Pegsden and to walk a distance of about 15km.

Many LEOT students have no access to transport and undertake a similar walk to attend school each day.

Clearly navigation is a major issue.

The team spent much time discussing old style maps as their Tom Tom navigation systems said they had left the national road system

The walk finished with a debrief at the local pub to discuss the future training plans and to massage injured feet.

Many thanks to the team. We will follow you over the next few months as you build up to your Challenge. 

Taking Shape

Its the end of February and we have passed another milestone with 40% of the fabric of the building complete

The pictures tell the story. The walls of the building have reached roof height. The top ring that will support the roof trusses is taking place.

Our special thanks go out to our team of builders and LEOT staff Teng & Touy.

We still have a fantastic amount of work to complete for the building to be completed in about three months.

The Trustees are meeting to discuss progress to date and the important task of finding a School Director and team to support him.

Trustee Claire is planning a massive fund raising event. Her team of walkers is having an organised training walk preparing for the daunting task of climbing The Three Peaks in only 24 hours. They have set the massive task of raising £10000 from their event

We are always delighted to show visitors around our project. The picture shows Touy with the first of a number of visitors who came to site in February

Not all visitors have been tourists. We would like to introduce you to a small friend who called round the other day