An Orphanage, a Mudhouse, and the NBA Playoffs

It is hard to believe, but Lizzy and I have passed our half way point here in Thailand. What an adventure it has been so far. We feel so blessed to be having these amazing experiences, and thank everyone who helped us get here from the bottom of our hearts.

Good News Church

The highlight of this post is a weekend visit to a nearby orphanage.  A few weeks ago, while taking a bus home from a neighboring city, another volunteer and I met some elementary aged girls on their way back to their orphanage. When we told them what we were doing in Thailand, they begged us to visit. As Lizzy said in the last post, we were at the orphanage(called the Good News Church) last week trying to think of projects (like a water filtering system) that we could work on. This weekend, all eighteen of the HELP volunteers were able to spend time at the orphanage.



 

And Lizzy says i'm not good at taking pictures...

On Saturday morning, we helped the kids with their weekly chores which included working in the fields, cleaning the buildings, and even slaughtering and preparing a pig. After lunch, we spent several hours with the kids at various stations which we prepared beforehand. I replaced strings on the orphanage-owned guitars with some kids and Lizzy painted faces, while other volunteers showed the kids how to play four square, played soccer, taught the kids yoga, and did arts and crafts. Some of the volunteers (including Lizzy) were also to attend a worship service Saturday night (they are all Christian) and sleep over at the orphanage. It was a blast! And very rewarding. The kids and administrators were so grateful for our service. Although their gracious hosting left us wondering who was really serving who. I am sure we will spend more time at the Good News Church in the weeks to come.

Mud House

We partnered with a local school that emphasizes teaching life skills to the students. This week, we have been working on building a house out of local material with some of the students. So far, the work has involved mixing mud and rice debris (with our bare feet!) and pouring the mixture into rectangular molds to form bricks. We are currently letting the bricks dry for seven days in the sun, after which we will continue our building of the house.

Unfortunately, the building of the other house (that burned down), is still at a standstill because the chair of the partnering NGO is recovering from appendicitis.

 Medical Clinic

I was able to spend some time this week at a medical clinic in a small Shan Village. These Shan people have been driven out of Burma for political or economic reasons, and are struggling in Thailand because they are not recognized by the state. This makes our service with them all that more meaningful. We are currently working on an aids movie and flipchart that will be used by a local NGO that focuses on aids and mental health awareness among the Shan villages. Aids is a huge problem in Thailand, and especially in these small villages, where people often haven't heard of the disease, or believe it is contracted through food. 

Looking Forward

 Help volunteers get two days off every six weeks to travel. Lizzy and I are taking advantage of this by spending the end of this week in Krabi (a city on the southern Penninsula of Thailand). We couldn't be more excited. We are taking a 14 hour bus ride to Bangkok, from which we will take a flight to Krabi. I am sure we will have some beautiful pictures to post in our next blog entry.

Below are random pictures that we hadn't posted yet.



This is one of my personal favorite pictures. By some miracle, our neighbor has access to (and LOVES watching) all of the NBA playoff games. His is probably the only household in Northern Thailand to carry the games, and we live right next door. Coincidance? I think not. It is definitely worth waking up early to watch.



A calander that Lizzy and I made to detail the schedule of our projects

On the way up to the waterfall

At the waterfall

Chilling in the water just before we went behind the waterfall. The force of the waterfall was especially satisfying because of our lack of adequate water pressure in our house.

All of the "wave 1" volunteers. People have started going home, so we wanted to get one last picture of all of us.