Skyping Novices to a school near you!

On Thursday 15^th September the Intermediate class at Wat Pasviet had the opportunity to skype call to New York.  ‘Mr Bob’, a teacher and former volunteer on the program had asked his high school students to devise questions to ask novice monks.  In the week leading up to the Skype call the novice monks had been brainstorming and researching New York in order to ask American students relevant and stimulating questions.  After a week of anticipation and some technical issues we established a connection to New York around 7:15pm local time, which was during school hours in the US.  The novice monks at Wat Pasaviet were very excited to see their former volunteer teacher Mr Bob.  The exchange of questions between the students were at times insightful and funny.  Seeing the reaction to questions like “Can you ski in Laos?” raised entertaining reactions from both groups.  After 40minutes or so the conversation came to a close as both classes were finishing.  Both groups across the world in both distance and realities seemed to enjoy the exchange.

Note from Bob:  Due to this exchange several students in New York have approached Bob to arrange a fundraiser for Wat Pasaviet’s new library (soon to be included in GVI”s Charitable Trust projects) to install computers and wifi at the temple school.  Thanks Bob, and to your school! 

Skyping Novices to a school near you!