Blogs from Ao Phang-Nga Marine NP, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 4

It' s really terribly funny when you are asked to entertain 35 children by making Canadian food for the afternoon. First of all, what the heck do you define Canadian food as exactly? Second, how are you supposed to find the ingredients and cooking equipment when most things in Canada are cooked in an oven that doubles as a secondary source of heat for your cold winter house? i finally settled on egg salad sandwiches, tuna salad sandwiches and carmelized apples. My British parent will kill me for suggesting that egg salad (thoroughly British I am told) is Canadian, but without pure maple syrup and smoked salmon, I was kind of stuck for ideas. So we put together a joyous assembly line of bread cutting, apples coring, egg mashing and onion pounding fun. I'll let the ... read more

I don’t like using my writing to try to secure sponsors, so I am simply going to post these pics and if anyone out there is interested in sponsoring a child, please contact me. These children are not residents of the orphanage, however, they live in Phru Teow and Ban Rotary Sai villages and are being raised by family. They are some of the many children that would not be attending school if they were not registered in our sponsorship program. The children are: (from left to right) Nang (10 years) bo,y Mook (7 years) girl, Biaw (9 years) girl, Joy (12 years) girl, Noot (13 years) girl. If you are interested in sponsoring, please send me a message or email me at skonefall@hotmail.com s.... read more

I gave Marrin my camera today to see what she could see. I am amazed at her photo shoot of the market this afternoon, evening. She had no direction from me except to take lots of pictures. They are beautiful! The Wednesday market or “Dallard Wanput” is the largest of the three weekday market. The others being Dallard Wan Jan (Monday market) and Dallard Wan Sow (Friday market). With tons of clothes shopping and the pet vendors, D. Wanput is much more interesting that the plastic-things-market, and the all-uncooked-food-market, each with a few of the clothing, stuff, household goods stalls thrown in for good measure. Obviously the pet market is the most fun for Miles, who has, up to now, made friends with every puppy, frog, cricket, and lizard he can catch. The good news is ... read more

dictionary.com offfers this translation: PHAT **hip-hop slang, "great, excellent," 1992, originating perhaps in the late 1980s and meaning at first "sexiness in a woman." The word itself is presumably a variant of fat (q.v.) in one of its slang senses, with the kind of off-beat spelling preferred in street slang (cf. boyz). The spelling is attested as far back as 1678, as an erroneous form of fat (a classical over-correction; Phat in Thai-pronounced "Pad" means vegetable....they both apply to the excellent job we did creating a garden for the orphanage... Building a Phat Garden I donated some money to the building of the orphanage’s new vegetable garden. It’s a great idea and one initiated by Naa Bai (Auntie Bai) and Marrin. Naa Bai took Marrin with her last week to her home to help her cook ... read more

The following are some of the observations to date...these change often as more information and more details comes to me, but an initial assesment follows: Volunteer Program Dorm Space, Program, English Curriculum I spoke to Rotjana the other day by telephone. She is expected to be back in a few weeks time and it can’t happen soon enough. There is going to be a change over in the volunteers from Singapore with Kat going home and a new girl coming in her place in the next week. The new volunteer will be here for one month as well, then another changeover. The Sing volunteers are supposed to be teaching English but the staff that are here are making it all but impossible for them to do anything. They are dissuading the time set aside for the ... read more