Rachel sends greetings from Thailand

Hello everyone,

It’s hard to believe how fast my time out here is going. I have been here in Pakkred Thailand for 8 weeks now. Thankfully the political situation in Bangkok seems to have calmed down for the time being. I am about half an hour outside Bangkok and were at one stage affected by the unrest. I thought I would send a short update of what I am up to and how things are going.

I am working alongside three other British volunteers which is great because we can be great support for one another when things are particularly tough or we see situations that affect us or find difficult. There are also volunteers from other countries and it is really nice to work with them and get to know them.

I cannot express how much I am enjoying working for CCD. I am working in the CCD day care centre at Baan Fung Fah.  Baan Fung Fah is the home for disabled children under the age of seven, but actually in reality the majority of these children are actually older than this. The CCD day care centre is a building next to the  orphanages that the government have allowed CCD to use to take a few children out each day.

There are 4 government orphanages – babies, children, girls and boys. Within these orphanages there are many many wards which split the children up into their abilities and needs.

As volunteers we work with CCD, who really are a fantastic organisation. We are allowed to take some children out of the wards for the day into the day care centre where we work with the. The hope is that some of these children may thrive because of the extra love and attention they can be given and may be adopted. We start work by picking up the children from the wards. They are always waiting for us and are really pleased to see us, which is lovely because we feel we are doing some good for these children. We take them back to CCD and do some music with them, which is usually singing lots of Thai songs, some of them I recognise in English. Then the children have snack. Then we help to shower and change the children (Thai’s like to shower a lot, I guess it has something to do with the heat!). We then have an hour or so before lunch. In this time we are free to play with the children, take them to the sensory room, do some physiotherapy with them and just spending time with them. Then we give the children lunch. Many of the children are not able to feed themselves or have to have special chopped up food so we help feed the children. Some of the kids then go back to the wards, they are usually the ones who require extra care. The others stay behind and have a sleep. In the afternoon we are free to play with the children again. Often some different children come for the afternoon. We sometimes go to the little playground outside the day care centre.  Then later on we take the children back to the wards. Often some of them get a bit upset about going back. This is often really hard to see, we just want to be able to do something more for them.

I am gradually improving my Thai and learning to eat strange foods and cope with the amazing heat. The wonderful rain and dramatic thunderstorms are never more welcome.

I trust all is well at St. James and I would really appreciate prayer support for me and the team as we continue our work here. Anyone who wants to view my blog do so, though it is perhaps not a true representation of all that is going on here. The blog address is
www.ccdthailand2010.blogspot.com