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....