Camp!!!!

The week leading up to camp was fun! As it was Gems last day on Monday we did a special activity - smoothie making!!! The kids loved picking their fruit...

then using the blender...

watching us try and mend the blender...

and then of course drinking the delicious smoothie...

as well as eating the remaining fruit!!

After work we took a few of the girls on a trip to Svensons for ice cream. Most of them had eyes much bigger than their bellies but thankfully Wanah powered on through to help finish the other girls' ice cream!!

Tuesday and Wednesday went in a bit of blur with lots of running around at Fueng Fah and Rainbow House respectively in the soft play rooms. I tried really hard to wear out Botey (again!) at RH but was rather unsuccessful and by the end of the day he was still as hyperactive as ever and I had a bad back...
Thursday and Friday were equally unsuccessful, unfortunately a painful back rendered me a little useless on the wards so I was sent to rest at home and recover before the weekends camp.

6.30am Saturday morning, dosed up on painkillers we reported to Fueng Fah for our coach to Sattahip Camp. The camp is organised yearly for kids in orphanages throughout Thailand by the Marines although this was the first year at this particular camp site. Each of us had been assigned a kid for the weekend, mine was called Kik, a lovely little girl obsessed with colouring and snacks (kahnom!). She was not impressed when she realised that we had to fit 'Ong' (one of the RH kids) on the seat with us on the coach too but thankfully they both fell asleep on me pretty quickly and all was well!! We arrived on base by 10am and settled into our room where, expecting to sleep on the concrete, we happily found rows of mattresses!

The next task was getting ready for the days activities - a welcome talk then lunch followed by swimming in the sea! Now getting changed is really quite an art in this situation as to be respectful we have to keep covered so we had sarong type coverings with elasticated tops to get changed under...getting into a swimming costume under this was a real skill which we'd only just about mastered by monday! Thankfully the kids (and adults) found it pretty amusing watching me and Jules race each other!!

After a random welcoming ceremony we were ushered to lunch which was lots of stalls serving all kinds of hot meals/snacks/drinks and from which the kids could have whatever they wished! There was such a huge amount of food with each of the stall holders wanting to give all the kids their food. Needless to say the kids loved it - Kik was in her heaven with all the kahnom she was given, in fact I had a hard time getting her to trust that it wouldn't be stolen from our room when we went swimming or anywhere for that matter! On the wards they keep any kahnom they get down their shirts or trousers to keep it safe. Making her realise she didn't need to do that here was a struggle.. in fact there were a lot of tantrums over the issue!!

Swimming was great fun, a huge number of marines were out in the water forming a human barricade to stop the kids going out further than they should - it was quite a sight! Our group stayed pretty closely together and after coaxing a few of the kids into the water they had a great time spashing around, trying to escape from their rubber rings etc! Next stop was communal showers, once again using our sarong things and a bowl to scoop water from our alloted basin which under no circumstance were we to get soap in..another new skill i've developed with Kik's help, she even washed my hair for me!

All changed and ready for action it was already time for more food, I tell you this place was all about feeding the children up! We went down to the field where more stalls had set up and we wandered around and got given lots. Kik was so happy with her bag full to the brim of kahnom she wouldn't even look up from it...

The evening was the official opening ceremony for the camp and went on for ages. It started with a dog ''obedience'' show, although I'm not sure they could be classed as obedient, the dogs kept wandering off or flatly refusing to do what they were told, gave us a laugh anyway!

Next was some performances, some speeches (I think from people giving big cheques for the running of the event), some Marine band music followed by the national anthem, the raising of the flag and lots and lots of marines parachuting down, was quite an impressive sight!

After about 4hrs I was really thankful when Kik said she wanted to go to bed so off we trotted, turned out she wanted to do some more colouring in and despite lights going out at 9 she persevered...by this point I was really praying we'd find a sharpener soon otherwise the coach home may be an issue..Kik without colouring is not a happy Kik!!

After an eventful night being woken up hourly with Kik's feet in my face we all started getting up in time for breakfast at half 6. There was a lot of waiting around after this, before being ushered onto a coach and again some more waiting around before being driven to the Navy ships. Here we were loaded in groups onto the huge navy ships and taken on a 2hr trip out to sea and back. The marines were really good with the kids lifting them all over onto the ship and then carrying the wheelchairs down the steep stair cases. After a quick glance out to sea, Kik returned to her colouring book and that was our morning on the ship!! We spent the afternoon in the sea and playing some games (Kik won a pencil sharpener!!) and then in the evening watched performances by some of the groups. A group from Rainbow house did a song and dance which was very cute!!

Well that was last night, this morning we were up at half 5 ready to leave at 7. Kik slept all the way back and thankfully we got back to Sirin house in time to have a chilled afternoon and get ready for work again tomorrow :D   We've had an exhausting but wonderful weekend, really enjoying being able to give our kids some 1:1 attention and whilst there were some tears pulling back into the government homes they all had a fun weekend!!

xx

my time so far...

So after my last blog my week got more overwhelming as Gem and I met up with a physio who works in the slums of Bangkok. We spent the day going and seeing some of the projects which are going on in amongst the slums. It was an eye opening experience. We weren't prepared for the fact that some of the children who've come from the slums probably are better off in the government homes, a scary fact! Some of the workers in these projects have felt called to live amongst the people they work with so they live in the slums and their experience of this is both scary and inspiring. A week won't go by without one of their neighbours being stabbed/attacked and every night they are surrounded by sounds of abuse going on in families and other relationships, even having people run along their roof to escape. A large number of children are left to fend for themselves due to a high incidence of drug abuse and scarily they see children drawing knifes to defend themselves for small childish argument...its a sad world. The projects are really varied, from providing day care/schooling/dental and medical care for the children to running football coaching in the evenings for them. For the adults, they run a hospice for AIDS/HIV sufferers and have a charity shop/jewellery making shop which some of the parent/grandparents run and are paid for. It was a very overwhelming day, I guess nothing quite prepared me for seeing so much suffering. I know it exists, you can't fail to see it on our tvs at home but seeing it infront of me made it so much more real. I've never had to worry whether i'd have a roof over my head that night or where my next meal will come from, somehow any worries I have seem so insignificant now.

That week was more chilled than our previous one. We went over to Ko Kret, a little island near us which has a nice market on it. We are the local celebrities being white and often get stared at, pointed at or shouted at with 'phlang phlang' (foreigner!!) We caused quite a stir at the ferry running off the docking point as it was swinging a bit too much for our liking. Oh well, we like to amuse!! We headed into Bangkok on the sunday for some birthday celebrations after church going for a roast - i realise i'm veggie but the veggies were soooooo good and we even got it cheaper being vegetarian, which i think is how it should be at home, after all the vegetables are the best bit!!!

The past week has been much more positive, don't get me wrong the wards are still awful but in true Tiff style i'm going to concentrate on the positives. On Monday we had a great day with the girls acting out ''We're going on a bear hunt'' - it involved getting very messy but i got to be the bear and scare the kids which was very fun!! I may have made a few of them cry, apparently an apologising bear is still scary too!!

That day we also successfully did a bit of physio getting 2 of the girls, Salanyah and Bee, into good seating for their lunch. Was so nice seeing them sitting up for lunch rather than feeding them lying on their backs as is the norm.

That afternoon we took Rasa swimming. Apparently she is a LOT better than she has been. For the last few months she has been given to high a dose of anti-psychotics (which virtually all the kids are given) making her really drowsy, but more manageable for the wards mums (She's highly autistic). She loved singing songs in the pool and then having lots of snacks and we tried to keep her occupied while, Ellen (a nurse) dressed her infected wounds, a result of being tied up and beaten/hit by the wards mums/other children.

Wednesday was a fun day at Rainbow house doing messy play with the kids. It took all my control not to want to clear up as paper made its way into the water, creating a nice amount of sludge. The highlight was definately Krit covering Banya in corn flour and then attacking us...

The next of the weeks highlights was taking some of the girls from Rachawadee to the Funarium in Bangkok which is as fun as it sounds! Basically, a huge indoor soft play with slides/ball pits/cycling track. I think we loved it just as much as the girls!!

Suddenly it was Friday again and at Rainbow house we were cooking with the children. I think we were meant to be cooking bananas however Bot-tey (one of the autistic boys) /kept running and stealing and eating the bananas so we ended up doing corn fritters while we attempted to restrain Bot-tey and keep him away from the hot oil or help him cook in a controlled manner!!

Krit and Don

That afternoon was Nathan, Ellie and Gemmas leaving do and Fuang Fah. It was really lovely as they got kids from all the projects to come and celebrate and say thankyou to them!

So now i'm at the end of my 3rd week, my thai is (very) slowly improving, I'm feeling a bit more helpful and i'm finding it very hard to choose which kids i'm going to smuggle in my backpack home....

And then there was one...

Hi everyone! So I thought it was time for an update, to let you all know I'm still alive and well and settling nicely into life in Pakkred.
Pakkred is about 40 mins from Bangkok and from what I can gather taxis don't particular like coming out of their Bangkok zone to bring people here. Thankfully the hotel found me one willing to take me and armed with my map in thai the taxi man delivered me safely to the charity last Monday. It was an eventful first day, my ear infections making it difficult to hear what anyone was saying, a real issue when it's difficult enough to understand the thai/english accent! Anyway, after work they took me to the doctor (I'm not convinced of his qualifications) who diagnosed that i had a perferated ear drum and needed to go to hospital. So, back to Bangkok we went to visit the ENT clinic who thankfully diagnosed it was just infections, they even poked cameras in so i could see - not pleasant i can tell you! Sparing you all the disgusting information, an hour later, after a hearing test in thai (the audiologist found it hilarious getting me to speak thai) I walked out being able to hear again with a bag of medications to clear it all up which have been succesful you'll be glad to know!

I'm living in Sirin House with 8 other volunteers and a few geckos - it's a busy house spread out on 4 floors but actually much nicer than i expected. We each have a mattress on the floor and a fan, which i'm so grateful for at night - its really hot and sticky! During the day we go off to 3 different projects which I'll try and give you a run down of as i work at all of them, there are others but I feel this blog's going to be long enough anyway!

Firstly, I'll just say a bit about the charity I'm working for, for those who don't know.  I'm volunteering for CCD (Christian care foundation for Children with Disabilities). It was set up by a Thai couple who, when international aid stopped coming to Thailand, they saw the ongoing desperate need of orphaned/abandoned disabled children.  Disabled children are abandoned for 2 main reasons, lack of social care funds and cultural issues. Lack of social care funds is the most common issue as the parents need to work to live and cannot leave these children safely at home. There aren't the day care/school facilities available to meet their needs and there isn't the education and support to help the parents care for the children at home. Secondly, as a Buddhist country a disabled child brings bad luck and great shame on a family as they believe that they must have been bad in previous life and deserve this 'affliction'. Both of these issues lead to children being abandoned and they end up in the government orphanages. Some of these children are loved, left by families who want them but just can't provide for them, can't afford to keep them and I honestly don't know which is sadder, being loved and left or being left becuase you're not wanted.

So, the 3 main projects we work in are Rainbow house (the main CCD project), Rachawadee girls (the government home for girls aged 8+ pronounced Ra-chow-dee) and Fuang Fah (Girls and boys aged, theoretically, up to 8 yrs). There is Rachawadee Boys too but, unfortunately, the new leader of the orphanage won't permit CCD to go in.

This explains the projects much better than I'd be able to....http://www.ccdthailand.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=26 .. but i will give a quick run down of the things it doesn't say...

Rainbow House is a 20 minute hair raising cycle away from Sirin house, and is the best thing that can happen to the kids in the government homes, it gives them the possiblity and hope of escaping a life which nobody deserves and enter a loving environment they can flourish in. A lot of the older kids who are resident there go to school so we don't see them but the younger ones come to the day centre.  We also have kids come in from Fuang Fah by bus and others come from the community to give the parents respite during the day and allowing them still to work.
The days are chaotic, we start by getting the children to line up outside and they raise the Thai flag and sing the national anthem and pray for the day.  We have a morning activity and then lunch followed by showers (conveyor belt- esque) and then its nap time!!! Afterwards its time for afternoon snack and music then its time for those who aren't residents to go home and those left, to play as they will - it's mayhem!!! I don't doubt these kids get a significant amount more stimulation than they would at the gov. homes but there's still so much more potential for this centre.  From a physio point of view it's frustrating that they have a hydrotherapy pool, which would be great for some of the kids, and a well kitted out physio room but these facilites aren't used to their full potential. There isn't the staff to allow regular use of the hydro pool or for children to be taken off regularly for one-to-ones, its done on a 'as and when' basis.

I actually spent my whole first week at Rainbow house, thinking all of the above and then have had 2 days in the government homes (1 day at Rachawadee and 1 at Fuang Fah) when I've realised just how great Rainbow house actually is. I don't think I can adequately describe to any of you the government homes but I'm going to try and be as objective as possible.

The government homes are really close to Sirin house and they are each named as to what 'type' of children they house - from those who are able-bodied, those who are disabled but mentally intact, deaf, blind, babies...the lists go on - i don't even know how many homes there are, they are just everywhere down long roads and side streets. 

Rachawadee girls has lots of buildings within it housing the girls on wards (previously these were named according to the most prevalent condition on the ward, now they are named by colours). I've only been on 2 so far, the sick ward and yellow ward (mainly children with Cerebral palsy) which I'm told aren't the worse. Yellow ward has probably 15 beds, each bed has 3-4 children in it. There will be 2 ward mums to look after all these children, it's no wonder the state a lot of them are in. Without movement a lot of these kids are left with heavily contracted limbs which are stuck and will not improve with physio. They can't necessarily move much for themselves so they have sores on the back of their heads from lying on their backs all day. We take a few of them to the day care centre at the home in wheelchairs which wouldn't pass any kinds of English health and safety tests, let alone be suited for the child. At the centre we help them to move a little, get them into different positions, help them with an activity (this week was messy play) and most of all just give them the love and attention they need and deserve.  The afternoon I was there we took 5 of the older girls in taxis down to Pakkred swimming pool - it's so lovely to hear them giggle!

The wards at Fuang Fah aren't divided up by the childrens condition, as far as i can tell. I was so overwhelmed at how many children there are here! We only really go to the wards to collect the children selected to come to the homes day centre and to drop them off after...here there's less beds and more just thin mattresses to go on the floor, I doubt every child gets a piece of mat to sleep on. Again we do an activity in the morning, some singing, have lunch and then another activity in the afternoon - they have a fantastic soft play room which was exhausting with very energetic kids!!

From now on I'm going to be going to Rachawadee 2 times a week, Rainbow House 2 times and Fuang Fah for 1 day, but yeh, that's a relatively brief run down of what i'm doing...I could probably talk for a lot longer as I'm sure many of you don't doubt but I won't! Overall, so far, I'm having a challenging and frustrating time, every day is heart wrenching...but the kids are awesome, they put everything they have into every activity we do and they deserve so much more than we could ever possibly give them - any of you who fancy doing a sponsored activity or who can spare a few months to come and volunteer please think of CCD!!

Ooo quickly, just to finish, we went away this weekend with the church everyone goes to. We're really blessed that there's what can only be described as a compound near us where a lot of americans who work for big organisations in the city, or who teach live. They have an olympic size swimming pool we can use on sundays after church and they're really supportive off CCDs work, letting us take some of the kids to their swimming pools and for food etc.  Anyway, so we went 2 hours away, on an air con coach (luxury!) to one of CCD's community projects which was damanged by the flooding in October last year. We spent the Saturday painting and decorating and transforming it back into a nice centre to be used to support families with disabled children living in the surrounding villages. It was a really fun weekend meeting and getting to know people outside of CCD.

Right enough rambling from me...if you've made it to the end, well done!!! 

Love and hugs to you all

xxxx