Last Day at the Orphanage.

After another day building the toilet cubical walls, which I was one of the best brick layers, we had finished our task, ready for the next group to continue the work. 

We were spending our last night with the children that night, so we were taking them gifts and things they need for the orphanage, the thing the leaders asked for were door mats, so they now have plenty, and we all bought the children little presents, the majority of us still had our water guns from Songkran so we were going to leave these with the children, that alone they were ecstatic about, and when we presented our gifts to the main carer, who then handed them out the faces on all the children were lit up, the moment that stuck in my head was when one of the older girls got given some hair clips, straight away she started counting them to see if there were enough clips to go around all the girls, this was so hear warming and made you realise that those days of the hard work just building the walls, were completely worth it, and that I would do it over and over again just to know that those children will be getting a better place to live.

As a leaving gift from the children and the orphanage, they put on a little show for us, they all sang songs, then in groups too, it was amazing, a moment I thankfully got to catch on camera, one of the songs was about hero's and they were thanking us for being theirs, with us helping them build the new orphanage, it was an emotional few minutes. When we headed back on the truck they all jumped on with us, they would stand and let us sit down on the seats even though we told them to sit down as well but they were so polite, and kind! It was an emotional goodbye with lots of hugs, they are truly beautiful children inside and out, and I would love to one day go back and visit the Orphanage, and see the part I played in making their new building happen. 

My Time at the Orphanage.

This boy had the most beautiful smile, big heart for someone so young. Always got a hug from him. 

The youngest child at the orphanage, 9 months old baby, adorable faces.

Every great photographer carries a whistle.

Visible scars but no visible sadness, happiest little fella there was.

Took a few takes, but he did it, and was so proud.

Just before they did a little show for us on the final night we spent time with them. Precious every single one of them.

First time we met the little baba.

Shouldn't of had favorites, but I couldn't not with this one, he was the cutest, sweetest, most loving little boy I have ever come across, with the cutest smile and heart warming laugh, I got the best cuddles from this little chap. I could of brought him home with me if I would of been allowed. Beautiful.

If you click on the photos they can be enlarged, these are just a few of the beautiful children we met.

Volunteering at A Thai Orphage

We had an early start, we had some walls to build. So the Orphanage that we were helping out at were moving to a bigger site, which we were going to help build, the organisation that I went with do this every month with each group, the group before us had put toilets in and our job was to make the cubicle walls. It was hard work, in the heat with hardly any shade to cool down in but it was well worth it. Knowing that the beautiful children would have better facilities to grow up in and more room so the Orphanage can help more children was heart warming, some of the children came to the site which was the best kind of motivation we could possibly of had. After the first day of grafting, we headed back to where we were staying and freshened up before we set of to the Orphanage to spend the evening with children.

We arrived and immediately they would run up and grab you hand wanting you to play, the boys were more playful than the girls, and with the majority of the boys being younger they just wanted to run around and play football which was the most fun! Most of the Orphans are here because of the Burmese war, one little boy was saved from a fire where his parents sadly didn't survive, he has a number of scars from his past, for now they are physically but i'm sure when he gets older they will be emotional scars too, that why them being in the Orphanage surrounded by love and warmth of the people in charge and the other children his life is made that much better, they are a family, and one that I was lucky to spend time, I will never forget any of the children.

We were out playing with them until it was pitch black, we had tea, then played inside for a bit longer too, the fascination with phones and cameras is just delightful, they are items we do take for granted but they bring such joy to these children because it is something out of the ordinary for them. 

The little boy that was in the fire, he had my camera and took LOTS of photos, its incredible just how quickly they learn how to do things, I would wipe the lens then a few minutes later he would be copying me, I taught him once how to zoom in and he got it straight away, i got some beautiful photos from him, which I will treasure. 

My next post is going to be a selection of photos from the volunteering.   

More Buses and A Thai Orphanage

It was now time to set off in the overnight bus again, this time with no toilet which was a bit of a pain! This journey was no better than the first time in the overnight bus, except I actually slept for about an hour, we had more stops this time, and had to get off the bus whilst it filled up with petrol, it must have been a sight for any locals, about 3 am there’s 23 British people sat on a curb all looking half dead having just been woken up waiting for the driver to fill up the bus we weren't too impressed! Luckily there was a 7 11, so we could get some snacks but at that time in the morning you don’t feel like much at all. 

Finally we arrived after god knows how many hours in the middle of nowhere; it was like a scene out of a

Where we stayed, just need a tumble weed
and we are in a Western Film.

western film, the one road with a few shops and nothing else. We got shown where we were staying but the rooms weren't ready yet so there was a circular room with mattresses’ put out for us were we could nap until our rooms were ready, this nap was much appreciated , we were all so tired! We got into our rooms, and this time we were sharing with four people, our room turned into the gathering room for little group. It was great, we even had a toilet that had a proper flush, we were the only ones who had this! We set off to find some food, we found a little place couldn't really call it a restaurant, it was very quaint, not much about it, but the food turned out to be lovely and VERY cheap, Thailand is very cheap any way but for a portion of chicken and garlic with rice and two sprites it cost 60 Thai Baht which is about £1.24, which in England you pay that for one bottle of sprite. The communication wasn't the best as we were in a very rural area, they did not understand English very well, but they were the sweetest people and you really could not fault the food, especially for that much.

After heading back to the guest houses, we got picked up and headed to the Orphanage, now this was the part of the trip that had really sold it to me, I love kids and want to work with children so this was perfect for me, straight away they would run over to you, they couldn't speak English but you didn't need to speak the same language when you saw their smiles, that was a welcome that words would not be able to convey. We played with them, swung them round gave them piggy backs and just had the loveliest time with them, I was so glad this wasn't the only time we’d have with them, because you instantly knew it was going to be so hard to say goodbye to them. We had our tea at the orphanage then spent more time with the children afterwards too, they love phones and cameras, they would play angry birds and take as many photos of themselves as they could! They were so precious! It was time to go back to where we were staying and get some sleep before we would up early to start building.

Songkran (Thai New Year)

Well if you read my last post you would of learnt that I had no clue what Songkran was or that it was happening whilst I was out in Thailand until my flight, when i was sat next to a guy who started tell me all about it, from what he told me I was not expecting what we were faced with. So at Songkran, its basically a three day on going water festival, or a water fight seems more appropriate, because they are in the dry season they have the water fight to welcome the monsoon season, which starts normally about a week after Songkran. 

So we were in Chiang Mai for Songkran, and it was mad, people actually fly out to Thailand just to take part in Songkran, it brings a lot of visitors. We got kitted out, with waterproof pouches for phones and money, and bought water guns which came in pretty useful! ... Stages were being set up for the day, where performers would be playing through out the day and stalls and bars would set up barrels of water for people to fill up their water guns, to use the ones at bars which normally had ice in them you'd have to buy a drink, but families were sat at the side of the roads with a barrel or even just a bucket of water which if you asked they would let you fill up from it, it normally consisted of you getting wet by them whilst you were trying to top up the water gun, but it was in good humor. On the main day of Songkran we set off to head to the buzz of it all, where the stages were, with water guns in hand we were set, you could tell we were getting closer not just by the thousands of people but by the warm puddles we were trying to wade through, it was like a stream. The crowds were huge and there were normal traffic trying to get through too. It was great fun though, the smiles and joy it brought to peoples faces was amazing, and the quick connection you  get with people when you are shooting them in the face with ice cold water is hilarious, that day I never saw one unhappy face!

The water throwing was supposed to stop in the evening, so we headed out to find somewhere to eat, still had our plastic pouches but were dressed up a bit, yet we were greeted with people still out enjoying the celebrations, so by the time we got to the bar we were going to we were well and truly soaked! 

Then the most ironic event happened, on the last day of Songkran, I was having a nap, when I could hear water running, at first I just thought it was my room mate Lexi, having a shower, but when I opened my eyes the bathroom door was open and she was not there, so I opened our front door, too see a down poor of rain. I could see two of the girls of my trip were stood at their door in complete awe, it was the strangely beautiful. 

Rafting, Tuk Tuks and Chiang Mai

So we headed to what we were expecting to be white water rafting, well this was not quite an accurate description, four of us were sat on about 5 bamboo shoots tied together with rope with a 12 year old as a driver, who was using another bamboo shoot to steer us, the water was very shallow at some points and you could feel the raft scraping along the bottom, the kid was also quite cocky and it seemed that we were not his first priority, but looking in the water for things he'd be able to sell on were. he was searching so much that he let us collide into quite a few other rafts... it wasn't the most enjoyable activity, especially as it was the start of the Thai New Year i.e. a water fight, so everyone was splashing us with ALOT of water and the raft had a lot of ants on it. 

After this we headed back to the idyllic hotel to sadly pack and head into the City of Chiang Mai, this is where we would be spending 4 days until we were to carry on to the volunteer project at an orphanage.

We had a nice hotel with a very inviting pool, the weather was gorgeous, this was the first time we had to actually relax and catch a bit of sun, we so needed to the time to just sit down and do nothing, we had been so busy up until this point so we enjoyed it. We had the chance to go to a Tiger Sanctuary, where you could have photos with the tigers and stroke them and feed the baby cubs, but we found out that they actually drug the tigers so people can approach them, this sickened me so we did not end up going, I didn't want to give money which would probably pay for the drugs they use on the tigers, I was not supportive of this one bit! When some of the group had gone to it came back they weren't even that impressed they just said it was an expensive photo.

When I had booked the trip I was not aware about Songkran, I had no clue what it was and certainly didn't have a clue what we would be getting ourselves into!

A Night With No Electricity or Running Water

After the ordeal that was the awful trek we go settled into our home for the night, a bamboo hut which when you walked on felt like it was about to crumble under your feet. It was one big room to fir 9 of us in, there were thin mattresses laid out on the floor and blankets for us to use, no pillows and plenty of holes in the walls for the friendly misquotes. If the hadn't been a cooler full of beers, I really don't know what we would of done that night. Our tea was prepared over a camp fire, which the fella that had built the hut and it was part of his home had cooked all the food for us, it was tasty, but I feared I was eating dog, so i mainly stuck to the veg. Night fell and it went pitch black in a matter of minutes, so the drinks came out and so did the drinking games. Our elephant trainer had traveled up on his motorbike to spend the night with us then would travel back down in the morning and be with the other half of out group who were with the elephants. Music was playing and the games began, it was a card game and whoever lost had to either take a shot of a unknown alcohol or have the face painted from the soot of a cooking pan, lucky me lost first so had my face drawn on.