The morning we went to the school for the admission process there were several other new applicants there as well. We had no idea how long and organized the process would be. Every child was evaluated in their ability to dress themselves, eat unassisted, as well as their learning abilities and academics. Jii Nou was having a bad day before the testing started. We knew before it was his turn that it was;t going to go well, he just was not cooperating at anything.
The physical therapists saw him and fell in love, they thought he was the cutest little boy. He was asked to put on his shirt, he refused. He wanted to touch everything but refused to do anything. We were told that if he did not cooperate he would not be accepted. He just failed miserably, not so much because he couldn’t do it, he just didn’t want to. They were very impressed that he could speak four languages; Thai, English, Hmong and Lao, that in itself means he is teachable. They brought a paper we had to read and sign, it was verification that he was uncooperative and he failed the test. We begged for them to give him a chance, he is smart, he needs direction, he needs an education so he can be an even better person. I felt defeated, I felt bad for Jii Nou. We had an afternoon of other activities at the school in front of us. They decided to give Jii Nou a chance, they will give him conditional admittance for 1 1/2 month. If the house mother feels like he is too much then that would end his enrollment. We immediately went to the Parent’s Orientation which lasted another 2 1/2 hours. We immediately had to sign several papers, we even had to purchase life insurance for him.
Jii Nou was hungry because he refused to eat his lunch. They had snacks in the orientation but even after a few of those he was complaining he was still hungry. Luckily dinner was served at 5:30 pm and he was taken to the cafeteria to eat with the other students. He ate the rice and soup quicker than most of the other children, he asked for seconds. He demonstrated his eating skills perfectly! We visited the dorm, there are 40 boys there. We weren’t as prepared as we thought and would need to go shopping to get him some other needed items. He cried (and so did we) as we left him there with the house mother.
When we returned in the morning he seemed in good spirits and hanging out with the older boys. They have a kind of buddy system at the school. The older kids help the younger ones. The house mother had a good report about Jii Nou’s first night at school, he went right to sleep. He said the house mother is beautiful and he loves her, Jii Nou knows how to charm the ladies!
Since Jii Nou is on a tourist visa we will have to go back before 30 days and take him back to Laos so he will be able to enter Thailand for another 30 days. We have high hopes for the 1 1/2 month probation period.