Jason arrived to join the MMR team in February. Hailing originally from Canada, Jason spent two years teaching at St Patricks College in Wellington alongside another former MMR volunteer Mike Savali – so on his way home to Canada this year he decided to drop in to Ranong to visit Mike and to offer us his fantastic teaching skills for a couple of months. As is so often the case with visitors to Ranong, that couple of months was extended a little… and then a little more…and we are blessed to have had Jason with us until now.
While here, Jason contributed to the development of an English curriculum, spent some time teaching in learning centres, and also taught an after-school tuition course for students wanting to sit this year’s MTP admission exam. His latest role has been tutoring our ACU online students in an intensive English course every afternoon, while they had a two month break from their lectures.
Other commitments at home mean Jason will finally have to bid us farewell by the middle of this month. Andrew, Nuala and his other neighbours at Casa Theresa will miss the soft guitar melodies which can be heard drifting from Jason’s apartment during most of his non-working hours. Baby Felicity will miss her visits to Uncle Jason’s kitchen and his funny faces that make her laugh. The online students will miss his inventive and challenging English lessons, and his encouragement to them to think critically and analytically. We will all miss his smiles, his willingness to pitch in wherever needed and his thoughtful conversations. Jason, we wish you all the best and hope to see you back in Ranong one day!