Christmas Greetings from Thailand

Wishing everyone reading this a blessed Christmas. May you all be surrounded by the love and joy of this festive day and remember to dwell on the reason that we are celebrating, the Birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Of the people staying in Sirin house at the moment there are only three of ten who are actually christians. For the others Christmas is not so much about the celebration of the birth of our saviour but more about the gifts and eating a wonderful, traditional english roast dinner. Because of this it was a bit different for me that previous Christmases as there wasn't the same focus on the birth of Christ and the real reason we are celebrating. Still, I had a great opportunity to go to church on Christmas evening and also had dinner with a family from Church. It was really great to spend time with others who also understood and believe the real reason that we celebrate on Christmas day.

We did have a really great Christmas dinner here and spent time opening the gifts that we had been given from CCD and the secret Santa gifts that we had got for each other. It wasn't the way that I would normally spend christmas but it was still a good day.

I hope that everyone else was able to reflect on the wonderful gift that we have been given in the love of our saviour Christ. 

Ayatthaya

I'm a bit delayed in writing this post but I thought I should write something about the sights of Thailand that I was able to see last Saturday. Together with some of the other volunteers staying at Sirin house, I made my way by bus and train to the historical site of Ayatthaya. Ayatthaya is the old capital city of Thailand (or Siam as it was back then). In the time of the war between Siam and Burma in 1767 the city was flattened. Now it it mainly ruins of old wats and the old grand palace that you can find there scattered between trees, markets and houses.

We hired bikes which we rode around for the afternoon and saw lots of the different sites. Here are a few pictures

We rode on bikes, but there was also the option of a tour on a chang - they were actually huge.

Just some of the many pictures I took. It was amazing

Dress ups, Sports day and a banquet.

On Friday it was yet another Christmas party. This time it was a party held for all the CCD staff and volunteers and was extended across the whole day.

In the morning all the volunteers had to leave Sirin house at the bright and early time of 7.30 so that we could be a Rainbow house by 8.00. The reason for this early start was so that we could all play dress ups. As volunteers we all had the opportunity to dress up in traditional Thai dress with the colour of our team for the sports day. This was a lot of fun. Being in the yellow team, I was given a bright yellow costume. Some of the staff members came to help us dress and also did our hair and makeup. Their plan was to put 2 nice neat braids in all the girls hair but when they saw my mat of curls they didn't really know what to do so instead my hair was in a bun with lots of flowers.

me all dressed up!

Once everyone was dress and all our makeup and hair was just right we gathered with the rest of our team and then paraded around some of the streets around Rainbow House. This was a lot of fun. We even had some 'marching' drums played by some of the boys who used to be Rainbow house residents. Sports day was a selection of different confusing games and sports. One game involved four team members being blindfolded and following the directions of another team member to find a tennis ball, another was an adapted version of flag race, we also jumped around in sacks and some people did an obstacle course/food competition. All in all it was a great morning.

We had the afternoon off before making our way back to Rainbow House for our dinner party. The whole garden was completely changed from the morning and there were lots of tables set up looking onto a stage where all the performances for the evening were held. The dinner was for all the staff of CCD as well as sponsors and others who are involved in the community. Dinner was a banquet of 9 different courses. It was all amazing food and needless to say I was rather full by the time we had finished.

At about 10ish all the sponsors and others left and just the CCD staff and volunteers were left. This was when all the presents came out. Everyone had to bring a 200B secret santa present so to start with we all collected one of the presents. Following that there was a lucky draw and everyone got a card (and the staff all got their christmas bonus). It was a great evening.

Days go by

I have been here in Thailand for one whole week! It was last week Thursday, in the very early hours of the morning that my plane arrived in Bangkok and I was embraced by the sticky warmth that is Thailand. So much has happened over that past week. I have made many new friends and met lots of different people. I have experienced different parts of CCD and the work that they do for many different children here. I have been to 2 different christmas parties and will be going to another one tomorrow.

Although I haven't really had a proper, normal day working for CCD yet, I am beginning to get a feel for what I will be doing and what my role involves. I have been given a schedule and I know where I am each day. As there is so much going on at the moment with all the christmas parties and everything I have yet to go to all the different projects and the only places that I really have spent some time with the children are at Rainbow house and also Rachawdee girls. Both of these places are so different and the role we play in them is dramatically different also.

That's all for now, tomorrow's christmas party involves sport in the morning (all different types of thai sport) and lots of people, food and entertainment in the evening. I should be well rested for that.

xx goodnight.

Christmas Parties, Bikes and Language Barriers

I think that I came at just the right time for all the Christmas parties. Yesterday we all went to a christmas party for one of the community projects. There was lots of food and by lots of food I mean LOTS. Starting at 9 in the morning we were presented with all sorts of sweet snacks and drinks, as well as some satay and noodles to get use started for the day. After that we slowly moved through the entertainment for the day which included some dances from some schools in the area, christmas carols sung by the CCD staff, a puppet show and also a dance performed by the volunteers. Fortunately I didn't have to participate yesterday BUT I will have to on Tuesday as one girl is leaving to go home for Christmas (I'm not that coordinated so we'll see how that goes).

The main way we get around here is by bike. Getting to Rainbow House is a 30min bike ride in the crazy Thai traffic. Fortunately the roads aren't all that busy on the way there but the bike ride still involves passing through and around cars, motorbikes, other bikes and whatever else may be on the road. To add to all of that I haven't ridden a bike in ages and as a result I have a sore bum. After I rode a bike for 5 mins on Thursday for lunch I have had a sore bum each time I sat on a bike again. Hopefully the pain passes and I will be able to effectively ride a bike to each of the places I must be going to.

Slowly I have also begun to learn a few words of Thai. Sa-wad-di-kup is greetings or hello and we say it when we meet some one and also when we say goodbye it is said with your hands held together . Mai-pben-rai is you're welcome or no worries, jep mai? means are you hurt, kup khoon ka is thank-you (I think) and that's about all I have learnt so far, I do hope that I learn some more words soon because it is really quite a challenge especially when the english of many of the people I will be working with is limited. On friday I took 3 children up to the sensory room with another volunteer who is also new to CCD, she came about a week before me. It was a really big challenge to get some of these kids engaged with you, not only were they difficult to engage due to the fact that they had autism there was also the problem that we don't speak that language that they understand and a spoken to most of the time. We were able to do it by playing with them and I really tried to follow their lead so that I would know what they were interested in but it was a big challenge.

Anyway, that is about all I have to say for now. Sunday was a really nice day today and I went to a Christmas service at  one of the churches that some of the other volunteers go to. It was great o be reminded once again of the true meaning of christmas.

xxx

Hello from Thailand

So, I got here. Safely. My guitar even got here safely. And I have survived my first day in Thailand!

This morning I caught up on some sleep (arriving in the very early hours of the morning isn't that conducive of a good night's sleep) and spent some time getting everything sorted. In the afternoon I was able to meet some of the beautiful children that I will be spending time with and received some orientation.

It looks like I will have the opportunity to work with the children at the actually CCD orphanage, in the Baan Fuang Fah Day Care Centre working with children ages 0-7, in the Rachawadee Girls Day care centre, and the community based rehabilitation. CCD hasn't had very much support from speech pathologists until recently (they currently have another speechie volunteering from Ireland, who sadly will be leaving next week), so they would like to utilise my skills in the best way possible. I cant wait to start properly, it is going to be a really, really great experience!

Thank-you!

Over the past few weeks my Church has collected money to support me while volunteering in Thailand. Just this morning my pastor came by and dropped off all the money that had been collected. It was a lot. I just want to say a big thank-you to everyone that has contributed in some way either big or small every little bit matters and it is really greatly appreciated.

There have also been a lot of farewells and goodbyes in the last few days. On Saturday night my family all went out for dinner and had a great time (as you might be able to see from the photos above). Sunday night I had friends over and then I went out with my best friends for dinner last night. A lot of goodbyes, but they all mean that there will be more hellos.

Visa

Today I got my visa! I just had to share that news. I kinda left my visa application a little bit late (I was waiting for some documents) and was hoping that I would get everything back on time. Anyway, it came. One more step closer to leaving.

11 days to go...

The day I leave is getting closer and closer. Only eleven days to go before my plane lifts off the tarmac and i won't be seeing Australia for another three months. Only eleven days and an infinitely long list of things to do, well it feels like that anyway.

Being busy finishing up prac and my last assignment and everything to do with that, I haven't really spent that much time thinking about Thailand and what I have to do in preparation for that. That is what this next week is going to be all about. I've done a bit of shopping but that's about all I have done so far.   Maybe I should write a list of what I have to do. I should.

I have a feeling that that list will be pretty long.

I've just added some pictures I took during my stay in Albany over the past 5 weeks for prac.... that's another beautiful place.

Tasmania

So right now, I find my self in Tasmania. I'm waiting for dinner to be made (apparently I don't need to do anything) and just relaxing.

I came to visit one of my friends here and been having such a wonderful time. Tassie is so beautiful. Today we did a lot of driving. Here are some of the photo's I took during our travels :)

I'm not saying much now but as they say, a picture says a thousand words (I hope these ones do too).

The countdown

There are 69 more days before my plane leaves! 69 whole days in which a lot is going to happen. In that time I will have to manage to:

• Go on camp for a week with the residents and others at work. That's going to be lots of fun and lots of tiring work
• Visit my friend in Tassie for a week.
• Go on prac down in Albany for 5 weeks. It's my last placement EVERRRR!!!!
• Finish off my assignments for uni. They don't seem to be too big, but then again I haven't really looked at them that much
• FINISH MY UNI DEGREE!!
• Write an article for our church's Mission News. My minister asked me to write an article for this magazine (he is the EIC) as he hopes that I "will be an example to the other youth in the church." (Which reminds me, I have to send him an email).
• Organise a fundraiser so that I can get the church to support me while I'm gone.
• Spend time with friends and family just so that they don't miss me too much while I'm gone.
• Lots of other little things like:
• breathing
• organising a birthday party and going to all the birthdays that seem to be happening in the next months
• Organise someone to look after my animals
• getting organised and buying all the necessary items for my trip
• book and pay for my tickets for Europe
• Research all the places I can go to
• keep up to date on my other blog... I haven't really done that but I really really should..
• and lots more....
• Last of all I have to continue to try and be awesome

So, where am I going?

So where am I going you might ask? Well, the first part of my travels takes me to Thailand. That's right the wonderful land of the Thai people. What am I doing there? Well, I have applied to volunteer as a Speech Pathologist at an orphanage there and the plan is to be there for 3 months. By then I will have finished my degree and I'll have the opportunity to share my knowledge and about language, speech, swallowing, voice, fluency (and anything else that I may know about but cant think of right now), with others who don't have to same knowledge or skills as me. It's exciting!!!!

The place that I am going to is called CCD Thailand. CCD stands for Christian Care for Children living  with Disabilities. The orphanage provides support for children living with disabilities who's families have given them into government care as they were unable to support them. CCD first started in 1986 and since then it has grown to support persons with disabilities in a variety of different ways. 

The organisation is involved in a number of different projects, these include Rainbow House, day care centres in the local government orphanages and also community based rehabilitation. Rainbow House is home to over 40 children who have a disability. While some of the older children attend school, the house also functions as a day care centre for the younger children and others from the government run orphanages. The day care centres provide support and education for some of the children who stay in the government run orphanages. These children and young adults are involved in rehab therapy, learning life skills and personal development. In the community based projects, CCD plays a role in providing support and education for everyone involved in the lives of children with disabilities. 

If you want some more information you can look at the website: www.ccdthailand.org

So that is just a bit of an overview of what I plan to do... It is all VERY exciting and I cant wait!!!

Planning

So.... I'm planning a trip. At the moment it's just in the initial stages. I've booked tickets (which I still have to confirm) and am still conducting LOTS of research about the places that I am going to go.

So far the plan is to volunteer in Thailand for 3 months at an orphanage for children with disabilities and then I move on to Europe. I'm getting excited. But first I do have to finish my degree.