Chairwoman's letter:
Dear Members,
September is here. If you were away, welcome back to Thailand and your routine, or welcome to your new home in Bangkok and its special routine. I am so happy to be done with this summer. I thought it would never end. It was the summer of many ‘Goodbyes’ and BAMBI and as Eleni I experienced many goodbyes; all were equally sad and tough. I found myself caught between happy for all my friends moving to a new life or feeling excited about going back home and, at the same time, resentful that I wouldn’t see them ever again and that we’d have to rely on Facebook-type communication.
I caught myself pretending not to cry, giving only big hugs and words of encouragement. I suffered many a sad moment, looking out of my Bangkok window and saying to myself, “I can’t do this anymore. It hurts.” At the same time, with every ‘Goodbye’ comes a ‘Hello’. With every BAMBI Committee member stepping down, there was a new person stepping up. Sometimes, it even happened on the same day or in the same week. I have to admit that, as much as I was really happy to see these new faces and give them a tiny orientation to BAMBI, it was a bit difficult to shake the sadness off and just be in the moment of, “Hi, welcome to our committee!”
BAMBI recently said goodbye to two wonderful playgroups leaders: Antoinette Lazova-Roelands and Nicole Slaunwhite-Memon. I would like to give an extra special thank you to Nicole for helping BAMBI to recruit many of the new positions. Antoinette and I came to Bangkok in the same week; we stayed at the same hotel for the first month. We joined BAMBI on the same day and eventually we were neighbors in the same building. So many playdates, so many moments to leave behind. Thank you, Antoinette for your ever pure friendship. And now, BAMBI welcomes a new playgroup leader – Karen Bénat. Thank you, Karen, for volunteering. Another goodbye goes to Sarah Allen, WOMBLES Coordinator; and a warm welcome to the new coordinator, Kerstin May. Thank you, Sarah, for organizing wonderful evenings for us, and thank you, Kerstin, for helping to continue this fun tradition. We said goodbye to Akanshka Shukla, Charities Coordinator. Thank you, Akanshka, for your passionate and caring spirit. Mirka Gautron Filova, Website Coordinator, is changing her hat to take over the Charities Coordinator role. This is great news for the Charities team, as Mirka is a pioneering and generous spirit. Filling Mirka’s shoes as the Website Coordinator is Ruchi Kumar. Let’s give her, and Monica Tanu, who will join her on our website team, a warm welcome. Our ever-friendly Raphaele Borie is stepping down from the role of New Members Coordinator and will pass it to Michaela Barker. Michaela, thank you for volunteering. Kim Dang, thank you for helping with our baby cot and car seat rental service. And, thank you, Sofie Boddez, for taking over! One final goodbye was said to Melissa Aziz, our
wonderful Website Marketing Assistant. Let us know if you would like to fill this position.
So, as you can see, our committee and community are constantly changing. All of you are equally important and it’s always hard to say ‘goodbye’. I am blessed to have all 823 of you as my friends!
Be well,
Eleni Petraki
Editor's Corner:
Dear Readers,
The kids are already back at school and this is kind of a relief. It is not that easy to entertain them all day long during the summer break; after a while, you run out of ideas and energy. Although Bangkok is much less costly than my home country, it seems that the accessibility of attractions and other things here makes you spend more money on outings, especially in the rainy season when you prefer to visit ‘dry’ places, and you usually end up in… a shopping mall.
So now you can finally rest from the summer with your favorite magazine. I hope it is BAMBI News.
Not long ago, BAMBI held a survey to understand members’ expectations better, and, although not many people completed the survey (which, in my view, was a bit disappointing), we still learnt a few things from the results. In this issue, the BAMBI Chairwoman shares the results of the survey and replies to some of your comments and suggestions. Go to pages 14-16 to read the full article.
And what else do we have for you this month?
Dr. Lillian Fawcett continues her series of articles on baby and toddler development; this time she discusses the topic of reading to babies and toddlers, and includes useful suggestions as to how to make the most of this activity, and enhance your child’s skills. You can find her article on pages 20-22. The Special Baby Shower Gifts project is an idea that I’ve had running in my head for a long time, but only now have we gathered enough contributions to enable it to mature into something fun to read. We have tried to bring you a few special ideas for gifts, besides the usual items you can purchase at the children’s sections in shopping malls or at baby fairs/stores. Go to pages 30-33 to be inspired.
And, to finish with something sweet, we present you with a Thomas Cake Tutorial, by Kerstin May – a homemade birthday cake for beginners.
Enjoy your reading, and if you have kids in school – enjoy this time of the year as well, because next month the midterm break will be upon us already (time flies…). Of course, if you have ideas for entertaining the kids over the school break, you are welcome to share them with us. We could all benefit!
Ravit El-Bachar Daniel
editor@bambiweb.org