Recent guests at Gecko Villa visited the local village primary school during their stay. Back home, they  very kindly sent a large parcel of colourful children's books to Gecko Villa for donation to the school. Having collected the parcel from the inquisitive provincial post office, Ten, on behalf of the guests, is seen here presenting the parcel to the head teacher and children: they were delighted to find easy-to-read multicoloured story books inside, and immediately set about trying to understand the English texts.

The schoolchildren join us in thanking the guests for this generous donation: Sleeping Beauty and a variety of squiggly characters are now wandering the rice paddies of Isaan at playtime!

A British family based in Bahrain recently stayed at Gecko Villa, and during their trip visited the local primary school, where they made generous donations to the school and children in attendance. During their trip they also kindly gave gifts to villagers in their homes or in their fields -- surprising the locals who were just going about their daily village life.

The guest later thanked the family that runs Gecko Villa noting that "they were really delightful people & the food was fantastic & healthy. Wish I could cook like that!"  At Gecko Villa, Ten said "The guests were very generous and really went the extra mile to ensure that their donations went to those who were most in need. I think their son was very surprised by the difference between his own school and the one in our village. The least I could do to thank them in return was to try to feed them well!"

Many thanks for your kindness - from all at Gecko Villa and from the villagers.

A party of Swiss guests who stayed at Gecko Villa in August kindly offered to employ their teaching skills for a day at the local primary school.

As the school was celebrating a special occasion at the time, and is proud of recording and documenting traditional Isan (Northeast Thai) farming methods over the years, the guests had the opportunity of encouraging good English conversation amongst a delighted and surprised group of schoolchildren in the rice paddies, who then promptly decided that, as part of this cultural interchange, the guests should learn to plough the waterlogged rice paddies with the time-honoured water buffalo.

The guests kindly wrote: "We've been home for a week now and I really wanted to take a few minutes to tell you that we had a great time at Gecko villa. Ten and his family have been wonderful hosts. We 've spent 4 days in paradise, enjoying the house, having fun in the pool, and walking around in the different villages. Ten, his wife and his sister in law have been wonderful cooks and we couldn't wait to see what amazing dishes that had prepared for us. Ten took us to see the local pupils who were working in the rice fields. It was so much fun, we felt like part of them. Please tell Ten and his family how much pleasure we had staying at Gecko villa. We'll come back one day."

It is still unclear who gained the most knowledge: the guests, the students or the  water buffalo...

Photographers Karen and Brian Bayliss shot many photos around the local villages and visited the local primary school during their stay at Gecko Villa, where they mingled with staff and pupils. Some of these photos of the local schoolchildren  near Gecko Villa may be seen here.

They shot numerous photos during their stay, and upon their return to the UK very kindly organized an exhibition of a selection of their photographs, with the funds raised being remitted to Ten & Euang at Gecko Villa, whom they had asked to donate the funds to the local Um Chaan primary school.

In line with local traditions, a ceremony was arranged at the school and attended  by pupils, the head teacher and even  the head of the local municipality. The photograph below shows Ten from Gecko Villa presenting the funds to the school and receiving a plaque of thanks on behalf of Karen and Brian.  

Many of the photographs taken by Brian and Karen were later incorporated by them into a colourful book entitled Isaan Smiles, copies of which were kindly sent to the villa. The children and villagers  photographed were delighted to see themselves featured - never imagining that they could become the subject of such a tome.

Many thanks to Karen and Brian for their generosity and time in launching the exhibition and book, and for their kind donation to the school.