Laomei Elementary School 老梅國小 is in Shimen Township on Taiwan’s northern tip, and on a sunny day in spring and summer it’s beautiful.  The rest of the time, sadly it is not. The rain lashes down in buckets, the wind blows in great big gusts, and the children are well-used to spending endless days indoors.   But surprise, surprise, after a very wet weekend, suddenly yesterday was beautiful, the sun was out and it was warm!

Laomei Beach is famous for its Algal Reef 老梅綠色石槽, formed from wave-cut volcanic lava and every year covered in bright green algae, especially in April – May, and best seen at low tide.

Yesterday morning was not low tide, but the algal reef was really starting to look very green! Great!

The village was also looking quite cheerful with the sun out.  Many of the residents are elderly, but the people are tough, and very committed to their village. It’s in the danger zone for the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant, so there are notices all over. The centre of village life is the old people’s activity centre, located on the ground floor of the temple….

It so happened I was spending the morning at Laomei School…

The children were enjoying the weather….

In honour of Children’s Day, celebrated in Taiwan on April 4, we were learning a little about children around the world.  We used an excellent You Tube Video, Scenes From Schools Around the World and we learned the song, Hello to all the Children in the World – a great way to introduce the subject.  At the end we made some cut-out children with the greetings in different languages written on them, and got each class together for a group photo….

See how the declining birth rate is affecting Laomei School?  A few years ago, the top classes had 30+ children, now down to less than 20, and the younger classes have less than 10…. they are all so lovely, of course!

Happy Children’s Day to all the children of Laomei ~ and to all the children of the world!