January sweat

Time has flown by again this week! Last sunday we took 4 girls from the cerebral palsy (CP) ward to church and then lunch afterwards. It was really nice to take the girls out, though we were all tired afterwards, as trips like this take quite a lot of organising. Especially for 4 girls in wheelchairs, transport isn't as straight forward, so we were really grateful as 2 families from church offered us their drivers. The girls really enjoyed their day out.

This week's "physio" highlight came with a little girl with CP. My mum's friend sent me some pedro boots and with them on too, her walking was so much better. She lives at the girls home and was brought there last year, as her family were struggling to look after her. So our hope is that if we can get her walking better, she may be able one step closer to going home.

Last monday we took 4 girls from the girl's home swimming to a local pool (know amongst some of us as "slim-pool"). We don't think any of them had been swimming before, confirmed as when we got to the pool 2 girls stripped - twice!! Then once we got them in the children's pool one of them made a run for it to the big pool, jumping straight in - followed at high speed by Julia! We're taking more girls this week so we'll see how that goes! Thursday we took another 4 girls from the CP ward for lunch at the blind school and then Friday i took a little girl from the same ward for ice-cream after work.

A new volunteer Ben joined us last week, so there's 6 of us now, with we think another girl on her way this week. We were treated to 2 meals out last week: 1 in Bangkok with Gill who works for CCD in Australia and the second one locally, as we'd been sent money from some previous volunteers. For this we went to a lovely riverside restaurant.

So all's good here. I'm half-way through my time with CCD now and I still feel like i'm settling in! Very much enjoying it here, it's such a delight spending time with the beautiful children. I really feel like i'm making a difference to their lives.

Thank you for the huge response i have with the swimming costumes and dressings, we really appreciate it. It's really exciting waiting to see what arrives! And also a big thank you to those of you who have donated money for the trips, we're actually now planning a trip to Bangkok zoo in a couple of weeks. As always, let me know at gemanne83@hotmail.com if you think you might be able to donate or have anything to send out. Hot chocolate always goes down well!!

Lots of love to you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx