The weeks' run down of events

I’ll give a quick run-down on the rest of this week.

On Wednesday I spent the morning at Rachawadee girls because mum and Kathryn were going. We went onto the ward for girls with cerebral palsy and made paper angels with some of them and helped them to decorate them. We then helped to feed some of the girls. I was back at Fuang Fah in the afternoon where me, Alex and Naomi took some of the children round the orphanage grounds in the big bike thing. It was good fun, but we had to take it in turns to cycle round because it is such hot work peddling kids and adults around in this heat! Especially when it’s sunny. After work I went on a trip with one of the staff who used to work at Fuang Fah with me two years ago. We took our children for food and ice cream. We were meant to take the children back at 6pm, but got a bit carried away with eating and having fun that we didn’t get back into her car til 6.45, so they were a little late back. But I think hopefully quite a nice time for them to go back. They will both have been full and then just going back to bed. It was strange going into the orphanage as it was getting dark. Knowing that all the children are still there got to me a bit. After a lovely trip and catching up with a friend it made me a bit sad knowing that I can’t just take the children out and keep them out! As much as I’d love to!

Pi Nan and Namwan

Aek and I

On Thursday morning we did the usual singing and dancing in the morning. With us volunteers being the subject of much laughter with the staff and a couple of the children. They had us dancing/singing to some random song. They showed us the actions but really we had no idea what we were doing so we just did our own wee dance. Fun fun! After snack and shower time we did some gluing and sticking, making pictures. Some of the kids were actually pretty good at it. Then we attempted colouring in which was a bit less successful. They were mean to be colouring in pictures for mothers’ day which is in August (there is a competition for the best one). Pee Tee and Wollapot definitely did the best ones (with a LITTLE help from Alex). I can’t even remember what we did yesterday afternoon, it was that long ago J

Today mum and Kathryn came to Fuang Fah. But it perhaps wasn’t the best day to come. We had too many volunteers because there were two other extra volunteers here for the day. And at Fuang Fah we have certain children that the government allow CCD to work with so we couldn’t take out any extra children. So this afternoon there were certainly more adults than children. It was really nice having mum and Kathryn getting to see the children I love so much and to meet the staff too. Although the staff didn’t really obviously show it, I could tell they were really happy to see mum and Kathryn and were really happy they were there. Just from being able to understand a bit more Thai than before. It’s very useful when you here certain words floating around the room you know you’re being talked about and can tune into what they are saying. At one point today one of the staff was surprised I had understood something she’d said to one of the other staff! This morning we played pass the parcel with a difference. There was a parcel going round, but there was also a bottle of baby powder. So if you had that when the music stopped you had to rub talc on your face. Classic me didn’t quite realise we were passing the bottle round too. So when the music stopped I was still holding the talc so got a face-full of talc within seconds. It was great fun! I certainly enjoyed it.

Alex getting talced

Kathryn helping Gow unwrap his present

Lay talcing Jew

Mum trying to get rid of some of the talc and Sua playing with the wrapping paper.

This afternoon we started off planting some seeds in cotton wool. They are bean sprouts so maybe the kids will get to eat them in the next week or so. So as I said there were not a lot of children so we were in the garden with the children. The dramas of today were that Biw got picked up and had a dirty nappy that had spread up his back, so I had the lovely job of cleaning up a diarrhoea nappy! (But everything we do is for the kids and working to serve, and it really wasn't so bad, armed with a pair of latex gloves and a hose!) Quite a few of the kids seem to have some sickness bug. As soon as one of them gets something it just spreads so fast because of the fact they all live so close together and share everything (including their germs) on the ward. And then Sua went flying off the swing. Sometimes he just decides to let go. But he picked himself up after a 1 minute hug and was on his way again. These kids have such a high pain threshold it’s crazy. I also discovered today that Thai dentists don’t give anaesthetic to anyone unless it is an extraction so even fillings they have to bear the pain! Makes us British seem a bit feeble! After work today we went to the blind school down the road for a massage, and it was much less painful than the last time I had it there. Tomorrow I am planning on taking mum and Kathryn into Bangkok to do some sight-seeing. Then going to a night market in the evening with a Thai friend.