Living at Club Med

It is like a Club Med here at the Starfish School with two pools, a garden full of vegetables, two fishponds, an individual room to myself (the biggest room I have ever had) and enough food to feed an army. The school was formerly a resort called Riverine Point Resort; I know this because we drink from the glassware that was left behind by the resort owners. My only question to the former owner would be, why here? The locals have also been wondering this about the furans, a French word that describes the white people in Thailand. After you walk down by the river, which is muddy, smells badly, and is only twenty feet wide, what would you do next? The local village is not a tourist attraction, so I would assume that you would eat, drink, sleep and swim all day long; it is no wonder the resort went bankrupt. Haugland bought it and has turned it into one of the nicest schools I have seen. There are hot water heaters, cold water to drink near every building, fans in the rooms, refrigerators, flush toilets and a computer room that doubles as a classroom, and washing machines to do laundry. The school hopes to be able to harvest their food from the quarter acre garden, and the two fish ponds will also be a food source as well as a place for afternoon fishing for the children. The school is located about 45km (28 miles) north of Chiang mai off highway 107 past Maetang on the River Ping, so it is not too far to get cheap supplies that the nearby but smaller village, Mae Tang does not have. The school will be a wonderful and safe place for these children and staff for many years to come. There is hope that the river will not cause more flood damage as it did this past rainy season in August when there was local flooding for the first time in 40 years.