Mother\

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Queen Sirikit's birthday, August 12, is also celebrated as Mother's Day throughout Thailand. We had life-size pictures of Queen Sirikit up from early in August--replacing the large pictures of Crown Prince Vijarilakorn (I should know the spelling, but am not sure) whose birthday is July 27.

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Schools have holiday for the Queen's birthday and the next day, making a 4-day vacation. Our school thus celebrated Queen Sirikit's birthday on August 11, and a fine celebration it was!

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We started the day with assembly as usual, but extra long as we presented birthday greetings to the Queen in seven languages: Thai, English, Chinese (YaJing), Japanese, German (Julian), Spanish (Toto), French (me), plus a special Thai poem composed by my Thai teacher Ajahn Siribuhn and delivered in lovely poetic cadence by a student, then music provided by our own student bands--both the Western style band in white wool jackets and the traditional Thai musicians as seen here. Our student dancers were lovely, as always.

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All the students prepared for the celebration for days in advance, and at lunch (after a special feast provided for all the teachers), we three AFS teachers were invited to judge the artistic presentations to the Queen--an honor for us, but not easy to choose!

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After lunch we all gathered in the upstairs auditorium for the celebration of Mother's Day. You see the students seated as usual on the floor of the auditorium; along the wall are assembled a number of mothers. They were honored by being brought up to the stage in groups of eight; speeches were made and then students came up to greet, honor and hug their mothers.

The surprise for me came after all the mothers had been honored (I got to give certificates to one group of moms). Students cleared chairs from the stage until only one was left, and the announcement was made: Thai, Thai, Thai, Mrs. Sue Richardson, Thai, Thai...I don't really know what was said, but they motioned me up onto the stage and I was soon surrounded by six smiling students. They bowed to me, presented me with jasmine garlands, bowed again. Tears were streaming down my face even through my wide grin...completely unexpected.

I don't know whether Queen Sirikit could possibly feel more honored than I did on her birthday.