A cooking lesson

On Tuesday it is my day to go to one of the community based rehabilitation centres run by CCD, CBR2. Yesterday was my first day there. I left Sirin House earlier than usual and waited to be picked up for the half hour drive to work.

Each Tuesday there is a day care set up for children in the community. Once we get there, one of the staff members goes round to all the houses in the area and picks up the kids before we start our day. It's really cool to be out there in the middle of the country side. Driving in the area you can see all the rice patties and the rows of coconut trees. It is so different from back home here and is really beautiful in such a contrasting way.

The days there are quite relaxed and laid back. Sometimes there are some sort of activities planned by the staff but other times there aren't. Yesterday there was a few activities planned but it was a bit more of a special day because it was the last day there for Nick, one of the other volunteers. In the morning we played a few games, one of them being "pass the powder" which is a bit like "pass the parcel" but instead of passing around a parcel you pass around a bottle of baby powder and when the music stops you are lucky enough to get a face full of powder. Exciting!

After the morning of games we got a cooking lesson. A few other times the CCD staff  had cooked lunch together  with the volunteers and they knew that Nick liked cooking so they did it specially for him on his last day. There is a shop just around the corner so most of the ingredients were bought fresh (the basil was even picked right off the plant) and then we cooked it. All Thai people seem to be really good cooks and they all know a lot about food. For lunch we were instructed in making kpraow moo, chilli-basil-pork with rice which was really yummy, omelette and a chilli chicken dish. The staff also made a soup but they didn't really let us make that. The food was really amazing and I can proudly say that I know how to make kpraow moo. 

The afternoon was quite relaxing, in fact the whole day was. After we dropped all the kids off home we made our way back to Pakkred. The best part of the day was that I got a cooking lesson. I should probably write it down so I don't forget it though. AND I should also write down some more language therapy ideas, otherwise my brain will burst trying to hold all the information it is at the moment.

xxx