Mother's Day was celebrated as a public holiday on the 12h August throughout Thailand this month. For the Sarnelli House children who attend Rosario School there was a big celebration on Friday 10th August. The whole school was involved, from pre schoolers to teenagers in M3 or Grade 9. All the grades put on dances and music celebrating the Queens’ Birthday and their own mothers’ lives. Many of the children from all of the six houses of Sarnelli House were involved in the spectacle that went on for all of Friday afternoon at the school.
On Sunday 12th August after early morning rosary in the village church of Don Wai, mass was celebrated at Pi Si Tong, and the church was full as the choir lifted the roof. After mass sweets and drinks were made available to everyone and all the village mingled and enjoyed the festive atmosphere. The kids then made their way to the Jan and Oscar House where Fr Bird and Br Keng put on a celebration for all the mothers that work at Sarnelli House. They were all lined up and were seated in front of the children, who were given string to tie around their wrists or paper carnations to pin on the mothers’ shirts or paper hearts that the child could write a message on and give to the mother. It was a very emotional time as many of the children gave thanks to these women who had become mothers to them and who had encouraged and cared for them since they first came to live at Sarnelli House. There were tears and laughter and Mrs Wan, house mother of St Patrick’s and matriarch of many of the staff was acknowledged by all for her steadfast love, dedication and care over the years. Lunch was served under the trees and the kids broke up into small groups and sat on the ground eating and discussing the day. A common thread that could be heard from some of the groups of girls was the complaint that the following day which was a public holiday, was to be spent pulling out weeds in the rice paddies. Some of the boys who heard them told them to get over it, and soon there was a lot of good humoured teasing and laughter, and the girls resigned themselves to the inevitable