Boarding and Phuket Update

This blog is a Jack/Boarding School update.  Jack has now been boarding for nearly 4 months and it’s been a tough transition for all of us  - that is for sure!!  We all struggled with the changed it made to the family and we have all coped in our different ways.

One of the hardest issues for Jack at boarding has been something that I actually didn’t consider or think about before he went. I had thought of the family separation, the loneliness, bad food, noisy boarding house, strict study regime but not the cultural differences he would face in an international boarding school.  I hadn’t considered that Jack would be the only non-Indian boarder.  Most of the boys there have lived overseas at some point but are all of Indian heritage and all speak Hindi as their first language. Jack has found that cultural situation quite difficult to break in to. ‘The only little white boy on the block’ so to speak.

To make things even harder the first term was disrupted with petrol protests, midweek public holidays, his room mate having some unplanned time away, just to name a few issues.  Jack has worked incredibly hard on fitting and settling in.

I am happy to say that Jack is much more settled now and we are having a lot less tears. We made a few strategic decisions along the way to help us all with the separation. One of this was to actually see Jack more often! He has found the weekends the hardest and flights to/from Bangalore/Hyderabad are so reasonably priced that we found that helped him get through the week easier. (And me)

Boarding school is so very very different from when I went back in the late 80’s! Technology actually makes it very difficult for a child to ‘switch off’ and not be part of the family - you can always be online with someone somewhere. You can always be in touch. Sometimes, that makes it harder to just focus on making new friends and not the family you are missing.

I quickly learned that my boarding experience and other people’s boarding experiences are not ‘Jack’s’, and we needed to help with his specific issues. Every boarding experience, reason for boarding and family situation is different.

So, as the end of semester one looms, we are all in a better place and Jack is much happier.  He still isn’t enjoying the abundance of chicken curry for dinner !! But does like that his travel time to school is non-existent 😬

One draw card for Jack returning to Stonehill this year was the opportunity to tryout, and hopefully get selected in the U13 football team to play in Phuket at the BISP Soccer Sevens. He got selected and trained hard throughout the semester and last weekend Jack traveled to Thailand for the tournament.

The team played hard and did themselves proud in their 5 group games, but they missed the Cup round by one point and were then put into the Plate grouping. Despite a very close game where both teams had chances to win, it finished 0-0 and went to a penalty shootout! Sadly things didn’t go their way and they were put out ☹️. Very proud of how Jack played and how he handed himself. Mike got to go this year - maybe I will be there next year 😊