last day with my girlies!!

So to update on the last couple of days...
Wednesday afternoon/evening there was a really big storm. We'd planned to go to our friend Nicola's for pancakes so we donned ponchos and made our way there! Pancakes were great!!

Yesterday was a ward day, this is always by far the most difficult day of the week  for me, but such a great opportunity to shine some light into the wards.

We started the morning with some of the older ladies, me and Jules went into a ward which we've not been on for a while. We did lots of singing and dancing around. The ladies particularly liked our rendition of black eyed peas "where is the love?" which we know all the words to!! After this we went on to the cp ward  and helped with feeding. At lunch time we took 5 girls for lunch. This is always a good chance to give the girls some extra nutrition as we can mix some fortisip in with their lunch.  After lunch we went on to pink ward. As usual there are no words to describe this place, but its great to see the smiles on their faces and comfort those that are feeling sad.

After work me and Jules did lots of organising stuff for the girls home, it was all very productive! It's so tiring doing the work we do and especially in this heat, so it was great to get lots of bits sorted out. In the evening we had a volunteer sharing, reflecting, prayer time.

Today was a day centre day. We did some singing, which was all very funny! Especially old macdonald with the thai staff doing the animal sounds, funnily enough thai horses, ducks and dogs make a totally different noise to English ones!! After lunch we had some of the girls from pink ward, we started with oh the hocky cokey! After this a surprise farewell had been organised for me! I was presented with a fresh flower crown and necklace, a certificate and a handmade card - given to me by Matoom, Bow and Wanna. But then it was all very sad as a lot of the girls were really upset that i was going; we all had a bit of a cry together. It's really hard that i've come into their lives and now i'm leaving them again. It has been such a joy spending time with them and seeing their smiles light up their faces.

After work we took out 5 girls, the thai staff and their children for ice-cream. Everyone had fun, though it was quite a complicated order of ice-creams!

We had a "using up the condiments in our fridge on pancakes" night tonight, which was very successful!

Tomorrow I've got one final trip with the beautiful Matoom, can't wait!!!

tuesday's fun!

Hello! So a few days have passed since i last updated. We had the weekend off which was lovely. I went out for dinner with Nicola on saturday. Sunday after church we went swimming, I swam quite far, but got a bit sunburnt!

Monday we had a huge trip to Siam Park, which is a big water park. This was from fundraising from a school in Birmingham, who came out to visit for a week. Lots of children were able to go, which was great. It was all very tiring, but fun!!

Tuesday was a public holiday, so we weren't at work, but Lizzy, Jules and I took out 2 girls swimming and then for dinner and ice-cream afterwards. As we weren't at work we could take them out for longer than normal. They had lots of fun, they both really enjoyed swimming and stayed in the water for quite a while.

After housegroup at Nichada we came back to find 2 elephants wondering around!! It was all very random!!

Today we were back to our normal work day, with today being a daycentre day. In the morning we took girls from yellow ward. First we went on a nature walk,then we fed some of the girls and then made some cards using lots of stickers!

After lunch we continued making cards, this time with pink girls, followed by going on to yellow ward to help with feeding.

After work Lizzy, Rosie and I took 3 girls for dinner and ice-cream. They had a lovely time and we managed to get them back before a massive thunderstorm!

Friday's fun!

Friday was a day centre day so we took some girls from yellow ward in the morning. We sang some songs and then read a story. Quite apt as it was about suzy goose who looks like everyone else but wants to be different. We then explained to the girls that even though they all wear the same clothes and have the same hair style, they are all individual. Then we did some one-to-one activities and also gave some of the very thin girls some fortisip (build up drink). After lunch we had the lovely girls from pink ward outside playing games.

After work Jules, Lizzy and I took 2 girls for dinner and ice-cream, which was really fun! It can sometimes be quite difficult to get the girls back to the home as they've had so much fun, they don't want to go back but thankfully it was fine. We managed to distract one of the girls by singing the match of the day theme tune! We're not quite sure where it came from but it totally worked!

Making their choices

Yummy!

Group shot!

In the evening I met one of my friends Sarah in Bangkok for dinner, which was lovely. We went to a Himalayan restaurant and had a Prince Harry curry! On the minibus home I met a thai girl and her mum and helped the girl practice her English. It was good to tell them about the work we do through CCD.

After enjoying our Prince Harry curry

thursday at work

Hello!
Today was a ward day. We spent the first part of the morning working with some of the older ladies, doing sensory stuff. Then we continued on to the CP wards.
At lunch we took 3 girls to the blind school for lunch, which was really nice. We got to use the new parasols i'd bought over from England, which was great as today was really hot. The girls really enjoyed their time out and were laughing most of the way!

The afternoon was spent on pink ward, there are no words to describe this place, but i'm really grateful we get the opportunity to go on there and shine a bit of light.

After work me and Jules popped on to sick ward to visit some of the girls.

getting down the ramp after lunch!

 backward shot!

 ready to go back

Wednesday in Thailand

Hello!

Delay on Wednesday’s blog, as our internet wasn’t working.

Wednesday at the girl’s home it was a day centre day so in the morning we took some girls from the CP ward. We sang some songs, including “the wheels on the bus” apparently Jules and Rosie hadn’t heard of some of my add-on parts!! We attempted a few thai songs but that didn’t go too well, so the final song (still in thai) was something to do with who we love, which went round the whole room. Although one girl loved herself!! After this we did some individual activities and “physio”.

After lunch we had some girls from pink ward; some of them made pictures with sticky bits (using an outlines of animals made by me). We got the girls to name the animals before they started, which was difficult as my outlines weren’t brilliant! The giraffe caused a bit of confusion!

After work I’d planned to take 2 girls for ice-cream and dinner, however one of them was on a visit to an international school so she wasn’t back in time for when we were leaving. So I just took Bea  and then Lizzie met me later on with Mai. They both had so much fun! They were giggling away, such a joy to hear!

A later than planned Jules, Lizzie and I went for dinner with a family we know at the ex-pat community. Good to have a little respite away from the sweating and bugs and to have some western food!

Tuesday!

hello!
Today was a ward day so this is when we go on to the wards and see the girls. It's good as you can see many more than on day centre days, but you are spread a lot more thinly. First thing we spent time with some of the older ladies which was lovely, doing a bit a dancing and singing. Then Jules and I took 3 girls to Diane's house (which is something which they started whilst i was here last). It was lovely to see how much they had all progressed with their swimming and confidence in the water. Then they got a chance to relax and eat lunch whilst watching Happy Feet 2. This is so good for the girls to have a bit of time out, away from the chaos of their ward. They were all sprawled out on the sofas!

After swimming we were brought back to reality as we went on the wards. On the first ward we were either sitting with the girls or dancing around. The second ward we helped with feeding the girls. During this there was a huge thunderstorms which went on for ages!

Next it was trip time, Lizzie and i took 2 girls for ice-cream and dinner. It was still raining a bit so we had to be quick getting them in the taxi! Please pray it doesn't rain tomorrow as we've 2 girls who both need wheelchairs to take on a trip. Today we only had 1 wheelchair and we struggled to fit it in the taxi!

Just before swimming

After enjoying the ice-cream

Monday!

hello!
Today was my first day back at the girl's home. It was great to be back!
It was a day centre day today, so we made medals and crowns using lots of stickers and glue! Quite a lot went in hair! In the morning we worked with a few girls with cerebral palsy. When we took them back at lunch time it was good to see all the other girls i'd not seen yet, so made sure i spoke to each girl on upstairs and downstairs wards. Bit sad as there were a few faces missing.

In the afternoon we had girls from pink ward. After they made their medals and crowns we played games. There was lots of laughter!

After work me and Lizzie took 2 girls swimming and jules came and met us with cow pat guy. I'm really pleased we took these 2 girls in particular as they hadn't been out for the activities in the day. They only stayed in the pool about 10 mins, spending more time getting out to eat their crisps, but they both said they had fun!

After we took them back i had tea with James, Rachel, Lily and Tom and Ruth and Neung. Now I've just sorted out clothes for trips tomorrow, we're going swimming with 3 girls at the ex-pat community and then after i'm taking 2 girls for ice-cream.

Back with the girlies!

hello everyone, welcome back to the blog!

I arrived back in Bangkok on friday night after an 11 hour flight. Flight was good and i managed to get quite a bit of sleep, after some red wine.

I got a taxi to the volunteer's house, seeing one of my friends Nicola on route, so she came back to the house too. I unpacked almost my entire rucksack downstairs as it mainly contained stuff for the kids and chocolate for the volunteers! Then we all went down to major to get pad thai, from pad thai man. Jules only came back last week after her summer at home; he seemed excited to see us!

After sleeping for 13 hours it was time to do my first trip with 3 girls from the girl's home, with Jules and Lizzie. I was so excited cycling to the home and the girls obviously were too, as i nearly got knocked off my bike with them running up to me shouting "Pi-Gemma!!!" It was so so lovely.  Then we took the girls back to our house to change them out of their ward clothes. Next we cycled to major where the hysterical laughter continued, the girls were so excited about the trip! We took a bus to the soft play and met up with Ruth and Neung. Soft play was a bit busy so we went for ice-cream first. Then we hit the soft play!! The girls loved it!! They must have gone down the slides about 50 times!! After this it was time to go back so we went back to change at our house. The girls became quite subdued as they realised it they had to go back to the home. It's really hard taking them back.

On returning to the girl's home some of the girls from the other wards were waiting for their dinner so it meant we could see them too which was lovely. So after quite a few more minutes of cuddles we went home.

Saturday evening I went for dinner with Ruth, Neung and Nicola and then Jules met us later on. Today me and Lizzie cycled to church at the ex-pat community and then me and Jules went swimming afterwards in the lovely outdoor pool. After a cuppa at Ruth's on route home, I went for a very sweaty run followed by dinner from satay lady.

Tomorrow is my first day at the girl's home, so i'm very excited! It doesn't really feel like i've been away!! It's all back to normal here, i'm sweating and today i've had 3 showers!

After work tomorrow we're taking 3 girls swimming and then for dinner afterwards, so I'll update as i'm able!

Home sweet home!

Hello everyone!
So i'm home! I've been back for almost 2 weeks now and tomorrow is my first day back at work.

It's been a little bit of a culture shock coming back to the UK after 6 months in Thailand, but i'm getting there, slowly. I've also found it absolutely freezing, yet i've seen a lot of people walking round in vest tops and shorts, whilst i've been in my winter coat and uggs all week!

I've managed to sort out my 4000+ pictures into different sections, though haven't sat down and looked through them all yet!

I was really excited about coming home and its been great to catch up with those of you that i have so far, and it's just so so lovely to be able to pop to my mum and dad's house whenever i want. My mum has been absolutely amazing, I'm so lucky.

Despite being back, i'm still in regular contact with CCD and the volunteers in Thailand who are doing amazing work. I will be sending out stuff to CCD still, so if anyone has anything that they wanted to donate, or if you wanted to make a donation, please let me know (gemanne83@hotmail.com). It is always appreciated. The website for CCD is www.ccdthailand.org

Also, if anyone was interested in volunteering...please let me know!! You are totally needed!! You don't need any particular skills, just a really big heart ready for all the beautiful children who need you.

last day with my beautiful girls

hi all,
so today marked my last day at the girl's home. I lead the fruit smoothie activity, which went really well. A lot of fruit was consumed!! the girls picked what fruit they wanted, put it in the blender, picked yogurt, milk (or both!), blended it up and enjoyed!

All the ingredients went (1 and a half water melons, 6 yellow mangoes, 4 papayas, about 40 bananas, 16 cartons of milk and 20 yogurts).

After work we took 4 (still hungry) girls and the thai staff for ice-cream at Swensons. A lovely day to finish on. Although i will be popping in tomorrow to say bye to the girls on sick ward as i wasn't able to today.

So that's it for my 6 months away. I can't believe how quick it's gone, yet it seems ages ago even since i was in Chiang mai, almost like a separate trip. It has been an amazing trip, but my time here with CCD has been absolutely life changing. There's just not the words to describe it.

Thank you everyone who's supported me through this time away, I really appreciate it.

looking forward to seeing some of you really soon!! lots of love xxxx

ready for the morning smoothie making session:

Bow doing a great job with her smoothie:

Gail enjoying her smoothie above
green girls waiting patiently for their smoothies

Mai, Mameow and Keam making picking their fruit:

Jessie finishing off the yogurt

ice-cream at swensons!

with P-wee and P-Ae.

Fun at the Funarium!

This week there's been lots of fun things going on...
Activities wise we went on a bear hunt, which was really exciting!
Thursday we went to the funarium with spending some money raised by the coventry physio teams, the girls absolutely loved it and as you'll see by the pictures, so did we!
Friday me, Nathan and Ellie had our leaving ceremony. We weren't sure what to expect, but it was just so lovely. Firstly some of the children we knew really well were there as a surprise which was completely unexpected. We were presented with flower crowns, certificates, present, cards and a giant poster picture each with us with our favourite children and also a dvd with loads of pictures. We felt very special.
Friday night we went for dinner with some friends from nichada church who are also leaving soon.
Today we've had our last swim at the lovely nichada pool before ellie and nathan fly later today.
For me i'm working with the girls tomorrow we're making fruit smoothies, potentially quite messy! tuesday i'll be packing ready to head to the airport that evening!

Me and Bea on our bear hunt...

the bear's on the loose!

the volunteers at the Funarium (the girls enjoyed it too!)

our leaving ceremony!

hello makka bakka day!

Hi all,
today we're off work as we're celebrating makka bakka day (of course none of us know what this is!).

this week we had messy play on monday, which involved putting lots of different things in bowls such as noodles, flour, strawberry compote, cornflower and water, porridge, rice - and letting the girls make lots of mess! It was really fun. Although all the stuff was edible we tried to discourage them eating the stuff and gave out muffins which we were given from the weekend instead.

At the weekend we went away with the nichada church to cbr 3 which is one of our community projects, to re-paint after the floods last year. It was fun, though quite tiring. A huge highlight was that we had air-con in our rooms - amazing!!

We did a big swimming trip on monday with 13 of us all together. Fun and chaotic as usual! It was great to discover that Orati could swim really well and that the others could have a good attempt. Also another chance to use the swimming stuff we've been sent.

Yesterday me and Jules took Malaa, Powadee and Bow to Nichada to go swimming at Diane's. When we got there though there was a problem with the pool so instead we took the girls to the big lake at nichada to feed the huge fish. We all enjoyed it, especially watching Malaa sneakily eat the bread! after this we went back to Diane's and watched a film. It was really nice for the girls (and me and Jules) just to be able to sit and relax. then diane treated us all to lunch at a local restaurant, before we headed back to the orphanage.

Malaa playing connect 4 before lunch:

malaa, bow and me (note malaa still playing connect 4)

Tiff, Catherine, me and Emily - team pink after our painting efforts:

me and ellie at the swim trip - unfortuately there wasn't enough swimming caps to go round!

Mai, me and bea during messy play

me and sommo

so that's all for this week. ive got less than 2 weeks to go now, we've hopefully got a big trip to the funarium planned for next week. we're still waiting for permission though, please pray! xxx

Pancake day in Thailand

Hi all,
Today we had a full day of pancake making with the girls. It was really fun, we set up 3 stations - mixing, cooking and toppings. The girls all got a go at cracking an egg, pouring the milk or quite a lot of stirring. Then they watched them being cooked and got to pick which topping they wanted. There were some interesting combos, my favourite being one girl who wanted sugar, chocolate sauce, banana...and cheese!
So...first we measured the flour...

then we added the egg...

Then we poured milk...

and stirred...

flipped the pancakes...

added the topping...

and enjoyed!!

it was a really fun day and the girls loved it!

Trips wise we had a big trip to Bangkok zoo last saturday with 7 children, which they really enjoyed, though it was really tiring and most of them slept all the way back.

We've done another few trips out for ice-cream after work with some of the girls.

Next week we'll be swimming with 5 girls - so we all wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who's sent out costumes, arm bands and goggles. We're well kitted out now!!

Weather wise it's really hot now, a few people have said its as hot as april now which is Thailand's hottest month. In our fan aired house it sometimes feels like a hair dryer on you instead of a fan!

Today after work me and Ben cycled over to Nichada for a run, a swim (though i looked like i'd already had a swim after the run!) and then for dinner with a family we know there. Tomorrow its the weekend so some of us are heading to chatachak for some tourist shopping, not sure how long we'll last in the heat.

Sunday we're taking 4 of the cerebral palsy girls to church. Then we'll probably head for a swim in the lovely pool at nichada afterwards.

Then its on to the next week!! xxx