It has been a long time since I last wrote a newsletter, and, as always, there have been many reasons why. However, the main reason was the very long, three-month summer holidays plus a further operation on my spine after one of the titanium rods holding my back together snapped in half!
However, everything is now back to normal, the boys are back from their holiday, two new students have joined the workshop and everyone has just started an exciting new program, learning A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) ... and we have also hosted visits from two of our major sponsors, Rex Bates and Stig Dronnen … as well as completing the annual Best Film Competition. And so as you can see, the workshop has not been idle since the students returned.
June, July, and August were extremely quiet with almost all the students either back in their villages or working to earn money for their future. Most of the students are now 16+ and entering High School where they hope to qualify for University or Technical college and, even if they earn a scholarship, will still need funds to support themselves and it is good to see that they are already thinking ahead and giving up their holiday time to work.
Stig Dronnen visited Luangprabang for a week at the end of August which sadly meant he missed the return of the Workshop students by a week; however, it gave him the opportunity to spend time with 3 of my ex-students in Vientiane… Soulin, Nouchai, and Var Lee … and then bring them up to Luangprabang for a holiday. Soulin already has his bachelor’s degree in computer programming and is in full-time employment, earning good money, with a large IT company in Vientiane. Nouchai has one more year of university, studying for a Bachelor’s degree in computer technology and Var Lee still has 2 years before he completes his university course. Both of these boys are still fully sponsored by Stig as they complete their university courses.
It was wonderful to see these young men again and most gratifying to see how they have grown and matured since they left the Workshop. In Norway, Stig supported Sivasankar through University and brought him over with him to meet the students and see the workshop and Orphanage. Thank you, Stig, for taking over from me where I left off and supporting these young men as they continue to forge their new careers.
Stig, as always, donated a host of things that we needed in the Workshop including 12 wonderful Tablet computers.
These are barely larger than the average mobile telephone and not only have internet access but also boast a telephone as well. These tablets were needed so that the students can log onto the internet and set up G-mail and Google accounts that are required to access the A.I Programs that they will be using as we move into this exciting new subject.
Many thanks Stig. As always, you came up with the goods and once again put the Workshop firmly to the front with your contributions that have enabled us to keep up with the fast-changing technology in the computer field. I also want to say a special thank you for the wonderful donation you paid into the Workshop account which, having paid out a huge amount of money for the repair of computers that had frozen up … through lack of use during the long summer holiday … was bankrupt. I can not tell you how much those funds helped out and enabled every student, on his return from the holiday, to get straight back to work on a fully operational computer.
At this point, I would like to say that Stig not only supports the Workshop but also heavily donates supplies to the Orphanage school and during this trip he donated many tons of rice to the school as well as handing out gifts for every student and providing a special lunch where the kids were able to enjoy barbequed fish, accompanied by steamed rice … an absolute treat for them all.
Soulin also “Paid Back” for his days studying in the orphanage school by teaching “Computer Programming” to a number of the older students and it was simply wonderful to see my ex-students/pupils of the Orphanage school interacting and providing an incentive to the present incumbents.
It was also nice for Henry David, the owner of “On the Mekong” resort and an avid supporter of the workshop, to invite Stig and my ex-students to his resort for lunch and a swim in his new pool.
In September, everyone returned to the Orphanage and hit the ground running as they not only settled into their new classes in school but also found themselves immersed in a completely new syllabus in the Workshop. The annual Best Film Competition is the largest project of the year and is always held in October but as I was keen to start the new program of A.I, I decided to get this project out of the way and the boys were soon out in the field, making their movies.
This competition is difficult, to say the least as each student has to make the movie single-handedly from writing his script to recruiting his actors and finding the most suitable location for shooting the film. He is the Director, cameraman, sound engineer, special effects director, and editor of the final movie. If you watch the list of credits at the end of any movie, it is never-ending but for the Best Movie Competition, it is just the one name followed by his actors.
This competition has always been hard fought and this year was no exception. Having been doing this competition for many years, it is extremely difficult to come up with new ideas but I was delighted to see that everyone had managed to come up with different and new subjects. I was also impressed with the quality of cinematography and final editing which has most definitely improved.
In the end, as always, it was difficult to choose the winning movie, but for its completely new idea and the lessons the movie imparted, 16-year-old Lee Lao was the undisputed winner with his film about Drugs and Theft and the influence of Peer pressure on young kids.
On the 2nd of October, I turned 75 and celebrated with a Birthday party in the workshop. The students gave me a wonderful Birthday Cake
and we played a lot of silly games where I handed out some good prizes. It was a fun evening enjoyed by all and I have rarely seen the boys so relaxed … probably due to the bottle of Chardonnay I added to the fruit punch
Rex Bates was our 2nd visitor and he arrived just in time to watch the winning films in the best film competition and present the awards to the winning students.
Rex … a long-time supporter/sponsor of the workshop … donated a wonderful gadget to add to our arsenal of film equipment. The students had long wanted a steady cam for use when filming in the jungle and to give them the ability to film very low or high-angle shots while keeping the camera stable … and Rex delivered such a device. A wonderful camera cage with a separate, large screen monitor attached that can be used with any of the models of cameras that we have. This is a terrific asset that arrived just too late to be used in the best Film Competition but I am sure, will be in constant demand in the future.
Rex took time out from his busy schedule to fly to Luangprabang just to visit us for the one day before flying onwards to meetings in Shanghai but he was able to meet the students, see their work and join us for lunch which was very much appreciated by one and all.
Thank you, Rex, for the Steady Cam and the donation towards the Workshop Account which was also very much appreciated.
You will all know that advances in technology are moving at such a pace that keeping up with the changes and buying the latest model of telephone, is extremely expensive and the expense of running a computer workshop equipped with 12 work-stations with the ability to run the latest programs … especially A.I … is proving very difficult for me to fund without a little help.
Fortunately, I have a hard core of wonderful and incredibly generous sponsors who have been able to keep the workshops equipment reasonably up to date but if any of you have a few dollars/pounds to spare, no matter how small the amount, it would help considerably and I can assure you that every cent/penny that is donated goes directly and exclusively to the Boys who study with me either in the form of equipment or to pay for repairs. Should you wish to help, please contact me through my e-mail.
At the moment I have two groups of students: The senior group of 7 have been with me for almost 5 years and are highly motivated and extremely competent with all the equipment and programs that we use.
The junior Group of 4 students have only just signed up but are incorporated into the same class where, apart from a few lessons that I direct to them personally, they learn from the older students by watching and copying and asking for help which the senior boys willingly give. I treat them all as equals and as a result, 13-year-olds and 16-year-olds work together as one without a problem.
Although the students have only been back at school for 6 weeks, you can see that we have been extremely busy and in a short time, achieved a lot. In the next Newsletter, I hope to be able to show you some results of the new A.I. program as the students learn how to use this new technology. Learning to use A.I and the many different programs available has been an incredibly steep learning curve for me, however, although the boys pick this kind of thing up very quickly, it will prove difficult for them to master as everything revolves around “Prompts”.
The computer can only do what you ask it to do and that will force the students to learn English … which is the primary reason I am teaching this subject. The students can write their Prompts in Chat Gbt which can translate into almost any language ... including Laos ... but, like Google Translate, it is far from perfect and it will be interesting to see the results of the students' first efforts at producing photos or video from written prompts.
I finish this Newsletter with the usual thank you to all those people who have helped the workshop over the years. Without your support we are nothing but with your help, many more young Orphan Children can get a start in life that would otherwise be no more than a dream.
With my best wishes to you all,
Philip