A quick change of plan after heavy rain
For the first time, Utahloy IS Zengcheng joined their sister school in Guangzhou on their visit to Chiang Mai. This meant we welcomed 78 people in total – a big increase on last year. The program was mostly unchanged from last year but we had to make some late adjustments one day as heavy rain meant that white water rafting would be too risky and the only way up to the Karen village was flooded.
Since the visit to Mae Kapiang village is an integral to UISG’s classwork back in China we had to rearrange that for another day but we agreed that swapping rafting for kayaking would be a reasonable compromise for the other group unable to do their planned activity for that day.
We took Utahloy to at an artificial lake usually referred to as Mae Ngad. Despite not being on the original program, more than half of the students and teachers mentioned it was one of their favourite activities of the trip! They did a great job on the kayaks, finishing the 5km round trip in an hour and a half despite many of them never having kayaked before.
When asked about the trip as a whole, one of the accompanying staff said, “VSP provided spectacularly well-organized activities for my students; everything we did was safe, fun and stretching for even the most timid of kids.”
A big thank you to the Utahloy staff and students for their understanding and enthusiasm during a week of unusual weather!