Packing

Well, here is the first blog entry for the summer! I've decided to re-start the blog that I had last time I was in Thailand to try and keep you up to date with what I am up to and to give out specific prauer requests too.
So I have been trying to pack for a few days now, and I am almost there I think. Most things are packed and the rest will somehow been squeezed in tomorrow morning. My flight leaves tomorrow evening and I will arrive in Bangkok at 3.30pm local time on Friday (9.30am here). One of my Thai friends will be picking me up from the airport which is very kind of her.
So I've checked-in online and have printed out my boarding passes now. This'll be the first long haul flight I've done on my own and even before when I went to Thailand the charity organised our boarding passes, so this is the first time. Thankfully it's obviously been made even for people who can't use computers, so that's a relief!
I heard just the other night that I will actually be the only volunteer in the house when I arrive, which I'm not too keen about being as I'll only just have arrived. So prayer for a solution to that would be good. Whether it be staying with friends or something else that would be great! And also prayer for pain-free ears on the flight as I have just finished antibiotics for an ear infection. Thanks for all your support and prayers.

x

Last few days of work

On my last day at work the Thai staff and I cooked a delicious meal for my going away. Here we are making Somtam which is a spicy papaya salad.

Tammy giggling.

Tui in the sensory room

The ball pit!

Gob in the standing frame, practising some good standing.

Our last outing with the children. The same old - Major for food and ice cream, but they always enjoy it!

On one of my last days the physios took some of the children to the hydrotherapy pool and I was allowed to go in with them. The children absolutely loved the pool!!

Ploy, finding it hysterically funny sitting is a laundry basket.

Well I am back in the UK now, and missing Thailand so so much. I would love to just hop on the next flight back. I guess it will take a while to settle back into British life again. BUT, I will be going back, that is for sure! I thought I would put up a few of my last photos of work. And then I guess this is the end of my blog until I go back to Thailand.

Goodbye Thailand - love you so so much

Hello everyone,

I guess this is my last blog from Thailand, today has been our last day as we fly out tonight at midnight! I’m sorry I haven’t blogged for so long, but my last few weeks were so crazily busy and emotional so I didn’t get a chance to write anything. I had my last couple of days at work a couple of weeks ago. The Thursday was my last day with all the children because on the Friday we took only a couple of children on a boat trip around Koh Kret. The Thursday was a very very emotional day, I don’t think I have had to try and stop myself from crying so much in one day, it was horrible (but a really really lovely day). It was just a normal day at work but a very special one for me. The Thai staff made me a very special meal for lunch. I helped make Somtam which is spicy papaya salad, and we also had lots of other yummy foods, I think I have eaten most of my most delicious Thai food at work with all the staff. I really enjoy the time spent with them, sitting on the floor and sharing all the plates of food. The goodbye to all the children was so difficult, I started crying a lot, and gave all the children a lovely hug and a kiss. It was a really lovely goodbye to them all, one of the little girls was really confused by the fact that I was crying, she gave me a look as if to say “why are you crying, it’s meant to be me who cries”, so that made me laugh in the middle of all the crying. Then after that, I headed to Rainbow house for our leaving party. CCD have a party for all the volunteers who leave and it was our turn. It was a very strange feeling knowing that it was us that were leaving!! Very surreal. But I managed to hold it together for that and we were given lots of souvenir pictures and stuff from CCD.

It has been really great having the support from the other girls, we are all feeling the same, all very upset to be leaving and it is fantastic how much we are able to support each other and be a comfort to each other. If I didn’t have them I think I could well be in a worse state than I am :)

Then on the Friday I was preparing myself for another emotional day of saying bye to a few more of the children and all the staff. The boat trip was good and I think all the children really enjoyed themselves, but I felt in quite a surreal state knowing that I was ACTUALLY leaving. So it was another tearful goodbye to the children we had taken out at lunch time. Then I headed back to the CCD centre with all the staff and spent the afternoon with them, helping them make stuff and generally just chatting to them. It was funny, every time one of them came over to me and said “Oh I don’t want you to leave” it set me off with the tears again, they kept telling me to stop or they would start. So eventually I had to do the inevitable, say goodbye to them all. It was the hardest thing I have had to do. The staff have really been like a family to me whilst I have been here, making me feel at home and looking after me. I found it harder leaving them than I ever thought I would, harder than I found leaving Scotland when I came out here. They had made me a beautiful poster of all the photos they have of me at work, really thoughtful of them! I am going to miss them all so so much, I already am, and I’m still in Thailand.

I have made a vow to myself though that I WILL be back, I don’t think I could leave here without the knowledge that one day I will be back! It breaks my heart to leave all these fantastic children here but I just have to keep remembering that there are all the staff and volunteers when they come that these children will have.

Thank you so much to all of you who have supported me, through prayer, thoughts and everything else. You have been amazing and this experience has really just been such a blessing so thank you so so much.

Well I guess that is it, I will try and upload some more of my photos when I get home, I have hundreds so they won’t all go on. But I hope you don’t mind hearing all about all they children and looking through endless photos, I certainly have so many stories to tell you all.

Khopkhun mat mat kha lak sawasdee kha. Mai ow bai baan, chop Thailand mat mat!Kid tung kha.

Rachel xxx

Nong Tim

Hello,

I’m really sorry I have had to put these photos of Nong Tim on my blog because I couldn’t get them to attach to the email. I hope you like them!

Older photos of work

This little boy is called Pee Tee, he is a lovely, very energetic young boy. He is always running around and getting into everything that he shouldn't. He is very much there, understanding everything he gets told. Sadly, the past month or so, he has been very ill. He was in hospital for almost a month. He had been admitted with having lots of very long seizures I think. I went to visit him in hospital and he wasn't a happy chappy. He was twitching all the time. Having lots of small seizures all the time, and as a result he is unable to eat himself so has been being fed by a tube. When I went to see him, at first I wasn't sure if he was really seeing me which was hard, as he is normally so good at concentrating on you. I stayed with him for a bit. At the beginning of last week he was discharged from hospital and is now in sick ward at the orphange. I was able to go and see him that day with a couple of the Thai staff. He was much the same, still very twitchy and being fed through a tube. He has lost a lot of weight in the last few weeks, which is never good for the children. Just pray that he can be healed of whatever it is that is causing him to have fits all the time and that he can be given the right medication. It would be fantastic to see him back at CCD fit and healthy again, because he loves it, getting to run around and whatever.

Music therapy which is always great fun with the children laughing at our dancing

The physios often bring the children back to the day care centre where they work with them, often I am able to help out, which is great practice for next year.

Drama therapy, this is Lizzy doing her monkey impression, don't know that you can tell all the children are laughing at her!

In the day care centre

Very sadly we are nearing the end of our time in Thailand, we only have another three weeks of work left. This experience has literally been the best experience. The children and staff that I have met are so fantastic. I am loving every moment of my work here. Getting to know all the children and learn each of their specific needs and abilites and getting to work with these lovely children has been wonderful.

One afternoon we got out the keyboard that we have at CCD and had a great fun afternoon playig on it, dancing along to all the songs and the hammering on the keys! A very musical bunch of kids!

The keyboard really was the centre of attention that afternoon, they all got very excited about it.

Playing with a jigsaw with Fah, great fun, trying to slot all the pieces into the correct places with arms flying everywhere but we managed, and several times as well.

Lay, as always smiling for the camera. He loves getting his photo taken, and more importantly seeing the photo that you have taken of him!

It's not often you can catch Botech on camera, he is always on the move, so this is a very rare occasion that he is sitting playing with a game!!!

This is in the sensory room.

Ratchapon (right) always tries to get in here at any available time, he manages to scoot himself across the floor, he loves the sensory room, just lying on the floor staring at all the lights above him.

Music therapy is always great fun, singing as many different songs as we can. Thai and English

This is the soft play room at Rainbow house where the Rachawadee girls and boys went one afternoon. Rainbow house is a fantastic centre for all these children.

we had great fun emptying the ball pool and then the chore of throwing them all back in, the girls found it great fun.