Orphanage

---

Hi all

Well, have had a great week although pretty knackered by the end of it. On Tuesday we started English Camp! We had 80 children between the ages of 13 & 16 there were us 4 volunteers and then Mewl, Lym, Sing and Gap (their names translate weirdly into English) who were our Thai co ordinators. We were petrified at first as we were picturing this age children in our schools back home and wishing we had the younger children however the Thai kids were lovely and a lot better behaved. They are still children at this age over here and enjoy playing games and singing and are very interested the whole time, there is no obsession with appearance and trying to pretend they are 18, it is quite refreshing. Anyway we started off by introducing ourselves and giving them all a handbook which basically explained the English Camp and had songs and vocab in. The day was mainly spent teaching them songs and dances and playing games which was exhausting work. It was very embarressing to start with being in front of all those children and us adults and having to basically act the fool. However as the day progressed I found my calling in life! I have decided that my talents are wasted being an Estate Agent and my new career should be as a Red Coat at Butlins! (I know it is worrying). This was basically what we spent most of the day being, it was mainly me being handed the microphone as the only true English person there and leading all the singing with actions and all. There was no time to be embarressed for long we just had to get up and do it. As most of you know I hardly have the voice of an angel and I was expecting 80 children to be sitting there with their fingers in their ears and a look of pain on their faces begging me to stop singing, however for some strange reason they were loving it and we soon had them learning the words and singing along. The worst and our most hated game we played was "Where is the Monkey" It involved the drums beating and Lym saying "Where is the Monkey" and then she would point at someone and they had to pretend to be a Monkey for about 30 seconds by leaping aorund and acting like one while everyone else sung (shouted) "Ah ah oh oh, ah ah oh oh" and then they would point at someone else who then became the Monkey. The children went mad for this getting completely excited even though when they had to be the Monkey they got very embarressed and just passed it straight back to one of us. After about the 1st hour we realised that this week was not going to be a good week for being shy or retiring and we would all see each other at our very worst and most stupid which was good for bonding. (what happened in Thailand stays in Thailand). In the afternoon the kids were split into 4 groups of 20 with each of us having a group, they then had to make name tags and make up a group song which was quite amusing. We had to help them translate their names into English and got some very interesting results with names such as Supaporn, Tibet and Poo!

Tuesday night we had the worst thunder storm I have ever experienced in my life and I thought this could be the end (I love a bit of drama). Judith and I were a right couple of girls and actually screamed at one point. We were both just sitting quietly in our room when there was the biggest bang and clap of thunder, I sat up and smacked my head on the bunk bed and Judith dived to the floor we really thought the building had been hit. We ran to the communal seating area where Saunder and Ami were and sat watching the storm with our fingers in our ears it was deafening. When we went back to our room we had to wade back due to the amount of rain we had had and then on reaching our room we found out we had a big leaking problem. We have now been relocated to a new room which does not resemble a pond with toads every time it rains. On the Wednesday at the Orphanage we had 4 different stations for the English Camp and the groups spent an hour at each. My group (the Bananas) had Role Play first and this basically involved me teaching them Zoo animals and then teaching them a conversation. The second station was Song which was fun (this is sarcasm), there were 4 songs and we got Take Me Home, Country Roads. The kids had the song written down in their handbooks with some words missing and they had to listen to the song and fill in the missing words and then Oh yes I had to teach them the damn song. If I ever hear this song ever again I may murder someone. Over the course of 2 days I must of sung this song at least 50 times, I would sing a line and then the kids would repeat and so on. It took them along time to learn the song as their English is very limited and their reading of English almost non existant. Trying to teach them words such as Shenandoah River when I can hardly say it myself is not easy. The third station was Art, where they did a series of pictures and then had to learn the words they had drawn and make up a story with our help. It was then onto cooking where they learnt how to make Thai Coconut Pancakes (I know not very English) and the ingredients and recipe where taught in English and they tasted very nice. We finished the end of the day with more bloody songs where yet again I was handed the microphone and had to leap around like a nutter, the other volunteers using the excuse that they did not know the songs well enough (liars), however they were very good at the actions. My voice was almost gone by the end of the day which I am sure was a relief for everyone. Thursday was presentation day and they had the morning to prepare and in the afternoon each group got up and did a role play, sung their song and showed their art whilst telling the story. It was a fantastic 3 days and the feedback from the kids was brilliant as they had loved it. On the Friday we returned to finish off the room which we had started the previous week. We put their pictures up on the wall and spray painted stars and moons on the pillars which was a bit lethal as the fumes lead Judith and I to a mad giggling fit until we were lead out of the room for fresh air. On the Saturday we asked to go back again to put the games in the room (dart board, dominoes, cards, yo yos, bubbles, toy cars etc) and it was wonderful to see the children in their playing as they have so little to do at weekends and were so excited with the room. We felt really proud and touched about how happy they were it brought tears to our eyes. They got so much peasure from little things like just pushing a toy car around. The kids here are really are amazing, during their school day the only break they have is lunch, they work solidly for 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon and are still just as attentive by the end, it must be the food! (rice and veg). On Saturday night we went to the bar at the Lemon House with all the co ordinators which was good and there is a lovely lady there who runs the bar and fusses after us and puts flowers in our hair and is very sweet. Whilst enjoying our beers another torrential downpour started and we found out that our cosy little bar is not so waterproof and we were soon sitting there very wet. Running back to the bus we got even more soaked especially as the water on the ground was coming up to our ankles. The rainy season really has come to Thailand and it is lovely as in it cools the air down alot however it is very hard to stay dry as most things are outdoors. Luckily the rain is mainly in the evenings and it is still very hot and sticky during the day. Sunday was spent by the swimming pool topping up our tans as we felt they were starting to fade after a couple of weeks in the school and it was lovely even though the water was more like a very warm bath so not as refreshing as we would like!

Today (Monday) we started at a different Orphanage, again with kids from a Hill Tribe. This Orphanage is alot smaller with about 200 kids and they seem much younger about 6 -12 years. We have said goodbye to Ami as she has now gone to work in an Orchard for the remaining 2 weeks and we have 2 new volunteers Lauren and Ricky (both English - Yippee!) who have joined us. This Orphanage is alot worse than the other in terms of hygiene and the state of the children, whilst the sleeping areas look better the cleaning area and cooking area are disgusting. They have a massive cement bath which gets filled with water and the children gather round and pour the water from this over them. As the water never fully drains away the bath fills with Algae and god knows what and as a result alot of the children have got a nasty skin condition which looks nasty and is itchy. The cooking area is a disgrace and there are no shelves or hooks with all the pots and utensils lying around on the floor attracting ants and maggots. We are hoping in our time here we can improve both these areas however it will be a hard job in 2 weeks. We are going to work all hours in between teaching (2 hours a day) to try and get some sort of shower system in place to replace the bath and get shelving and organise the kitchen area. The time is flying and only 2 weeks until Australia now, so remember my phone will stop working then and I will send you all the new number once in Australia. Hope all is well back home and look forward to hearing from you all soon. I will updated agin soon.

---