Monday 28 May 2007

Sunday 27th May

We started the day in the Orphanage with the babies and toddlers. It was great to see all the toddlers rushing to be with the same pupils. Everyone was wonderful with them, playing games and keeping them stimulated and entertained.

After lunch there was slight change to our progamme, one group went to the Street Kids, as planned and had a fantastic time. They taught the kids to do the Hokey Kokey, which went down a storm, ring-a-ring a roses, which was far too tame for them, Duck, duck, goose, which they loved, and British Bulldog. Salas are the main living area in the Thai building, which is open at two sides, and it was not long before the Thai children saw running outside and back in again as a good way of winning the game! The girls came back absolutely exhausted but had had the time of their lives.

The second group went on a real adventure – an outing with children from the Drop-in Center! We went to Pattaya Park which had a fantastic swimming pool in a huge figure of 8, with 5 or 6 water slides. It was quite difficult for the 2 groups to mix, but the boys showed willing and everyone had a really good time.

After Mass on Saturday night, a gentleman approached Fr Larry and said that he would like us all to use his beach house one evening. Father introduced him to me, and we found that Sunday was the only possible day, so father arranged for the bus to take us there. We all met back at the Center, and then went by to the far south of the city to Tom’s beach house. It was fabulous and had a private beach with palm trees for shade and benches and tables. The sea is very warm, but unfortunately the tide was out so it was very shallow. Tom and his wife had put out an ice bucket with cold drinks for everyone, and a big bad full of large packs of crisps. We were overwhelmed by their kindness to complete strangers. We had to leave slightly earlier than planned as a tropical storm seemed to be coming our way, the wind was whipping up the sand and we felt a few drops of rain.

After supper we went to the local shopping centre, the adults managing to sit in the coffee shop for a few precious minutes having a hot drink. We all felt pretty tired when we got back and ready for our beds.

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